(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you prayer you you you that's you you you you you you happy birthday god bless you happy birthday to you all right very very good and then on the back we've got the upcoming event so there's that next gen youth relatives in literally in a week at Verity Baptist Church so I don't know if anyone here was planning on going to that or not but there's a poster up in the back you can see details on that if you want to make a last minute decision to get out there next week the homeschool field trip for this month is next week going to the zoo we've already have everything in place for that did you get all the license plates that you needed for that too? think so all right very good sorry I know you have to buy them on the day I understand that I was just wondering if you think you got everything for that homeschool field trip in April there is going to be on the 7th with the next day being a soul winning marathon the 8th Saturday and then the camping trip of course is May 1st through the 6th so if you did not sign up for the camping trip please do I am making a priority this week to get the details of that with the campsites and cottages and things like that all worked out so I'll keep you up to date on those things and then let's see that is that's about it we are I've got a lot more plans for the church building I literally been trying to get now I'm trying to get the construction crew back out here to finish up the work that just has not finished yet so I don't know when that's going to be done and the reason why I've been hesitating and holding off on finishing all the rest of the work is because I need to get the carpets clean because we have brand new carpets we also have this carpet they did a lot of work in here there is a lot of dust and it all needs to be sucked up it needs to be clean I want to have a nice clean start with everything the way it's been done and I don't want to be really doing too much else until we get our approval on the certificate of occupancy and stuff just in case we have to do more work so if they fail us I want to be able to fix whatever needs to be done I don't think they will but I mean if things stand where they are they will fail because they need to finish up the work but in case there's anything else if they find something else that's not right and we need to do some other work that's why I'm waiting for that to be done and then we'll bring in after the carpets are clean all the furniture and start decking out the mother baby rooms with more stuff and making everything more usable and we'll really get this place where it needs to be so I apologize it's taking so long but that is the holdup and the backup to getting everything done and unfortunately these people have continued to tell me that people would be working here and then they don't so I don't know what else to do other than just continue to complain or bring things up the ladder and that's my next step is just to start complaining to the company and finding as many phone numbers as I can and you know just yell about it and it's not like I have the most time in the world to deal with this but that's where we're at right now so I apologize that it is taking so long especially for those of you that are anxious to start getting more use out of those rooms in the back but feel free to use everything that's open right now you can still you can move some chairs around and do some things and use the rooms as they are I still need to purchase the speakers and the audio equipment and everything so that you can hear better when you're in those rooms but it's all under way it's all just a project so appreciate your patience that's it for announcements brother Jesse please come up I've also called you brother Peter out of habit but brother Jesse come out and lead us please I'm song number 263 barely song number 263 again that's song number 263 very barely Oh what a Savior that will die for me God the nation he hath made me free He that believeth on the sunset he hath everlasting life Verily, verily I say unto you Verily, verily message ever new He that believeth on the sunset's truth hath everlasting life All my All my All my All my All my All my All my Verily, verily I say unto you Verily, verily message ever new He that believeth on the sunset's truth hath everlasting life Though for me I can trust my Lord Though weak and simple I believe his word Oh that message every child of God hath everlasting life Verily, verily I say unto you Verily, verily message ever new He that believeth on the sunset's truth hath everlasting life Though all are worthy and I will not doubt For him that cometh he will not cast out He that believeth from the good news hath everlasting life Verily, verily I say unto you Verily, verily message ever new He that believeth on the sunset's truth hath everlasting life Amen And at this time we'll pass around our offering plates and support visitors And while the offering plates can be passed around please turn from your Bibles to Malachi chapter 2 Again that's Malachi chapter 2 we will be reading the entire chapter Malachi chapter 2 you can follow along sadly while brother Austin reads That's Malachi chapter 2 And now O ye priests this commandment is for you if you will not hear 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 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 psalm psalm feasts and one shall take you away with it and ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you that my covenant may be with Levi the Lord of hosts my covenant was with him of life and peace I gave them excuse me I gave them to him for the fear wherewith 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 should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth 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 wherefore have I also made you contemptible and based 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 doth we deal treacherously every 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 offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts and this have ye done again covering the altar of the Lord with tears weeping with crying out and so much 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 has 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 wherefore one that he might seek a godly seed wherefore take he 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 covet for one covet covet excuse me for one covet violence with his garments saith the Lord of hosts wherefore take he to your spirit that ye deal not treacherously ye have wearied the Lord with your words yet ye say where and have we wearied him when ye say everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or where is the God of judgment Brother Mike if you could pray for us Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Alright Malachi chapter 2 We kind of get the theme of this chapter from the very first verse. The Bible says And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. And pretty much the rest of this chapter is going on about this commandment for the priests and basically God's disgust with the priests and their total failure and you know even going into chapter 3 it's directed at kind of all of Israel and Judah but it's still specific on a lot of the spiritual leadership in the priests You know the priests at the time priests weren't just while they were absolutely responsible for performing sacrifices and a lot of the things that are laid out in the law. They were also supposed to be spiritual leadership as well and teachers of the law and looked up to for showing the right ways of God and just knowing the law really well and being able to teach and instruct and guide so that is not what because of that position it's a big deal when they fall, when they fail, when they start corrupting the word of God and we're going to see here it's kind of this is big rebuke to the priests especially in this chapter. Look at verse number 2 the Bible says 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 you know when it comes to just the position of obviously we don't have priests today. We don't have the Levitical priesthood. The Bible we believe in the priesthood of the believer so every believer in God's eyes has a special standing with God but if we kind of look at the New Testament offices for a local church and compare that to the Old Testament you look at pastors teachers you know people are in this position within the church are very similar to the priests and I think if we're going to look at some application today we need to be looking at the spiritual leadership in today's churches and I think people need to be looking at this clearly and you know for anyone who ever has a desire that was as if you know he that desireth to be a bishop he desireth a good work you know if you want to be a pastor you want to be a bishop you want to be an elder that is a good thing that's a good desire but people need to take the job seriously and have enough integrity and care for the word of God when you get into these things and it's really mind boggling because there's some people who get into jobs like this into spiritual leadership jobs thinking that they're going to like it's just this easy job and they're going to make this money and it's just they don't have to do much and some people I like that there's some wicked people out there that want to get into running a church and they just kind of think like man it'll be so easy I only have to work one day a week and I could you know do whatever I want to do and it's extremely wicked but the huge problem with this is you know it's one thing if you go off into the secular world and want to have that type of attitude and try to find the easiest job you can and it pays really well but like you're literally working for God I mean you are that under shepherd who's working for the great shepherd I mean you are in that position that's supposed to be someone who's helping to expound the word of God expound on the law of God help people understand and preach righteousness and truth and if you come out with that attitude you have no answer to but God himself and that ought to be a scary enough concept for anybody ever wanting to even take on some type of title role of being in that position and too many people don't have the proper fear of God you know and everyone anyone even thinking this don't forget that and remember that and you need to remember that all the way through and people who like to curse you know the new IFB because of their stand on homosexuality and stuff it's like who do you work for? Where is that even coming from? And be careful before you just start the judgment on the word of God careful how much you're going to judge the people who are literally just trying to say hey look I have integrity I care about God's word I care about what it says so I'm going to preach all of it because that is what's being done regardless of people trying to say oh you just hate people who are different from you or you just are so full of hate and everything it's like you're repeating and too many good people and when I say good I mean saved even you know saved pastors who are falling into this boat of like bringing condemnation down upon people and they just repeat things that they hear and aren't doing their own investigation on their own you know it's shame on them spend some time at our church before you just say oh yeah it's just a hateful group of people spend some time here you know but they just they just hear the sound bites they hear the the few minutes of preaching or whatever that oh man I can't believe you said that it's terrible you're so hateful look we are balanced we are a well balanced church I think it's a well balanced group of people overall collectively that believe very similarly if you go and go in and visit any of these churches or talk to any of the pastors you're going to find it's very well balanced and you're going to find a lot of love a lot of love but you're also going to find preaching the whole council of God but to the person who's going to step into the position look at I mean God's saying here to these priests at this time and we're going to see a little bit more about them a little bit more about their care a little bit more about the thing that they're doing wrong but he says look I'm going to send a curse upon you he said I've already cursed you but I'm going to send this curse around you upon you and look at verse number three because this is very graphic language but don't forget this is the word of God and this is scripture verse three says behold I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces I mean how mad would a person have to get at someone else to just do something like that you have to do something pretty bad I think to make someone angry enough to spread dung on your face and that's a human being in the flesh this is God speaking this is God talking about spreading dung on the priest's face God who is long suffering and merciful whose mercy endureth forever deciding you know what I'm sick of this I'm sick of you I'm sick of you people not doing what you're supposed to be doing you're claiming my name you're supposed to be in this position you have this office and you make me so sick I just want to spread dung on your face and what's the dung it says even the dung of your solemn feasts see they're performing these religious exercises they're going through the motions and saying oh yeah we have these solemn feasts but their heart isn't in it and they're not doing anything right but they still continue to have this stuff and he's like to me this stinks the offerings and sacrifices of the Lord are supposed to be for a sweet smelling savor unto the Lord it's supposed to be well pleasing unto God when the priest would offer up these sacrifices and when the people would bring them in and it is a sweet smelling savor when everything's being done right when everything's being done according to the word of the Lord that's great God loves that but when they do everything wrong and they start going after false gods but then they're still claiming the name of the Lord and they're still having these solemn feasts he says you know what it smells like to me it smells like dung and I'm going to rub your face in it and one shall take you away with it verse number 4 and ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you that my covenant might be with Levi said the Lord of hosts my covenant was with him to Levi of life and peace and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name so the reason why I even picked Levi and why this is going you know my covenant has gone to the tribe of Levi is because he he feared my face this is where and I also think there's a kind of a dual prophecy here with the Lord Jesus Christ as well receiving a covenant but I don't really want to get too far into that tonight there's a lot of other content I actually want to get to and there's other correlative scriptures I want to read from as well but he says this in verse number 5 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 that fear of God and this is the fear of God he's like this is why you're giving it to you but now what's he making the point about? they've lost that fear they don't have that fear of God anymore they have their solemn feast but they don't have the fear of God because they're not doing anything right they're not actually looking to the law for their guidance they're kind of just making things up as they go verse number 6 says the law of truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in his lips he walked with me in peace and iniquity and did turn many away from iniquity and that is the job of the priests of the Levites of the people who are serving God of the people who are supposed to be speaking the law of truth the law I love that verse or that phrase the law of truth it's the word of God the law of God is the law of truth and this is what they're supposed to be teaching people what they're supposed to be preaching what they're supposed to be instructing people about and if you do that if you preach the law of truth if you're diligent to preach the commandments of God then you know what that's going to do it's going to turn many away from iniquity as it had in the past he said this is why I gave it to him because he cared about me he feared me and he preached my name and he preached my law this is the truth this is the right way and it turns people away from iniquity but when you neglect the law of God when you want to start just preaching things out of your own heart when you start just adding your own traditions and making them like the commandments of the Lord now you've abased the word of God you abandon the word of God and that's when your iniquity starts to abound and instead of people turning from iniquity they're turning they're not turning from iniquity and continuing to sin and we'll get into this a little bit more I want to keep reading here verse number 7 the Bible says the priest's lips should keep knowledge and they and they should seek the law at his mouth this is the job for the priest you're supposed to keep knowledge you're supposed to seek the law at his mouth and if you want to have a position of being a pastor or a teacher being a religious or spiritual leader in the church of God you need to be seeking the law at his mouth you need to be keeping knowledge you need to be interested in the things that come from God and sticking to that sticking to the truth don't venture outside of that and get so far removed that you've just kind of left the Bible alone over there and you start doing your own thing with the crowd and for human beings they have a lot of people have a tendency to do it it's a sinful human nature especially as churches grow and become more popular right for some people that level of being in a position that's looked up to that's regarded starts going to people's heads and especially over time that tradition can get passed down or people can get too influenced into having the influence into being that guy into wearing the long robes into getting the nice greetings at the marketplace and the culture starts to looking to them like oh yeah I want to be that guy it's a similar position to where people in the ghettos look to the drug dealers going oh I want to be like that guy who's got all the money and women and cars and fancy goods and stuff that's what the that's what the priests were turning into I want to be that guy who's well respected and everybody likes them and gets all the best things and he walks into the market and he gets all the greetings and people are buying stuff for him and everything else look that's all well and fine and people love you but your job oh priest is to have the integrity with the word of God and preach the law of truth whether or not people commend you doesn't matter whether you abound or whether you're based this is where your priority needs to be and unfortunately for some people they shift and even if they started off being right they can shift to a point to where now they care more about all the other things and they start to get away from the word of God because that's their new focus but the focus needs to remain on keeping knowledge and seeking the law of his mouth seeking the law of his mouth doesn't ever stop by the way I don't care how long you've been reading the bible I don't care how long you've been saved I don't care how long you've been pastoring I don't care about any of that you always seek the law at his mouth always and the moment you stop doing that it's about time to hang it up and let someone else step in who is going to be seeking the law at his mouth don't forget that either it's been a while since we had a preaching class where I instruct a guy saying being able to prepare sermons makes it easier with the more experience and knowledge that you have and that's a fact ok preparing sermons for me when I was younger or newer especially at pastoring took longer more time hey my knowledge base wasn't as much as it is today and hopefully in 20 years it'll be that much higher because you all should be growing and learning and developing more and more and getting better and just gaining more wisdom and knowledge but don't ever think that you could get to a point where you'd be like well I don't even have to read the bible anymore that's a foolish thing to think I don't have to say I know all this stuff but here's the thing you could get to a certain point to where writing sermons is easy you could ok it's possible if you stop caring caring about the quality you stop caring about being able to know as much and convey as much and do the best job that you can ok now look I'm speaking of things that maybe many of you don't it's harder to connect with because you're not doing this job on a regular basis ok but the temptations out there I've spoken to one pastor who's no longer a pastor anymore and they would confess to me that even in the midst of their sin how they were able to just write all these sermons and everything else and do all this stuff and it was so easy for them and that just blew me away I couldn't believe my ears when I heard that I was just like I didn't even have a response I couldn't say anything it was shocking because I know even to this day I'm looking to and pouring over these sermons to make sure you gotta make sure everything's right you gotta make sure what you're gonna say is the truth you gotta have that desire to preach truth to seek the law of truth and if you are someone that's out there that's interested in having that type of position you wanna be a pastor one day you need that you need that desire and even if you don't we all ought to have that desire anyways to know to be consistent with God's word to know it to get the wisdom and to love it and to just wanna know more of the truth and never abandon that for any reason but the children of Israel and even the tribe of Judah which is being discussed here has just fallen away they've apostatized okay and this is of course the last book of the Old Testament before the New Testament before Jesus Christ comes in and you can see the spiritual condition of the nation when Jesus comes on the scene cause all we're reading about is these Pharisees and Sadducees and they're just a bunch of false prophets and a bunch of unsaved people and a bunch of people that just have made up essentially their own religion completely separate from the law of Moses from the Bible from the Lord even though they claim all of those things they have created a separate religion which continues to this day it's known as Judaism Judaism isn't the original religion it is spawned off of the original religion it's an offshoot of a not a child of but God it's just like every false religion has gotten its influence from the true religion from the true God that's why you seek how many people like to think because you're stealing from this way look the only people who are stealing are the people who are stealing from the truth it's Satan who's trying to make a false religion look like the truth in every instance let's keep reading here verse 7 again 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 hey priest it's not your job to preach out of your own heart you're the messenger of the Lord of hosts you have to say what God says you are just the messenger and when you start making up your own message that's when you got a problem the message needs to be the message of the Lord you are the messenger and honestly I don't know why you'd want it any other way except for maybe your pride people's own pride likes to think my message is giving me all this following and all this money and all this people and all this respect and everything else that's pride but when you when you are the messenger of the Lord it doesn't matter what happens after that it's actually if you think about it I want to say it's an easy job but it's not a complicated job at all but it is easy in this sense no matter what happens you could just say all I'm doing is just being a messenger that's it so it's great it's one it's going to keep you humble when things abound when everything is going really well and there's all this this great blessing and people are getting on board and things are growing and the ministry is growing hey I'm just being a messenger I mean nothing that's happening in this church is like oh because I'm such a great person no I'm just being a messenger to the Lord and if I'm going to be a faithful messenger God could bless and we could bring more people together and we could do great things but then when things go bad and a bunch of people hate us I could still say hey look I'm just a messenger of the Lord I didn't write the Bible but I'm going to preach it but it makes it easier to preach the things that a bunch of other people don't like because your job is just to be the messenger and often times there are hard pills to swallow they are controversial they are offensive they are things that are going to cause people to be really angry and full of wrath because you've said them but at the end of the day you say look I am the messenger of the Lord and that's what every man of God ought to be able to say I am a messenger of the Lord and not like these forties I like to say I have a message from the Lord and then they say things that are contrary to scripture no you didn't get that from the Lord my friend you got that out of your own heart and be careful not to use that language yourself and be careful when you're listening to other people that want to use this oh I got a word from the Lord the other day it's out there in abundance oh yeah God told me this God told me that I had one of my friends recently outside of church saved guy tell me that oh yeah God told me this and that I'm not going to go into details you know he's a good guy he's saved but but he told me something I'm just like God didn't tell you that but when you're listening to certain preaching for a while that mindset and that thought gets in your head and then you start to think oh yeah God just told me this one day I'm like God didn't tell you that amen did you hear a voice well no but you know well look man you had a feeling you had a feeling but you can't attribute that feeling that God made you feel that way about something and there's something that's like real close and personal to him and it's kind of sad because something that would be a blessing from God in his life but I'm saying you know whether that happens or not God didn't tell you that because what we see in the Bible is what God said it's it's damaging it leads people astray these priests today you know pastors spiritual leadership that's going to get up and say these things and say them flippantly your words matter they have meaning what you say you need to measure it and make sure you're continuing to be the messenger of the Lord of hosts and the only way you can be the messenger of the Lord of hosts is by saying what he said otherwise you're your own messenger verse 8 but ye are departed out of the way these priests that's who he's speaking to the priests you're departed out of the way ye have caused many to stumble at the law you priests you're supposed to be explaining the law you're supposed to be explaining it and giving wisdom and knowledge and understanding of the law and instead you're making people stumble at the law it's really the exact opposite so people want to get involved in this and what I say it's so important because you're supposed to be doing good and if you're doing bad then you're going to be doing that much more evil as opposed to if you just didn't do anything it would be a lot better for you not to do anything than cause people to stumble at the law you have corrupted the covenant of Levi said 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 and this is how a lot of false prophets are they're partial in the law they only like to speak those things that are in season they only like to say the things that everyone can agree on and everyone likes and everyone enjoys and omit the other parts that nobody wants to hear the part that's going to be divisive or offensive oh yeah we'll leave that alone they're partial they become judges of the word of God of the law of God instead of just being the messenger and God said well as a result of that look I've made you contemptible and base and low in the eyes of the people you love the greetings you love the accolades well guess what now I brought you low because you brought my name low because you're causing people to stumble at the law now you're brought low more believers should take heed to the law and not being partial I saw something recently from a pastor who was you know again arguing about the about whether or not sodomites should be put to death and saying he literally tried to say that do I be pastors which I guess include myself are not saved because we don't have the understanding of the story of the woman taken in adultery that that is the reason why we're not saved first of all really good measure of who's saved and who's not a story in which when you read it in context it says the people were trying to catch him in his words they're trying to make him go to jail they're trying to stop his ministry with a question that they think he can't answer correctly no matter what he says but my oh you're just so way off that I mean you can't even be saved because his understanding is when Jesus said he that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her the woman taking adultery and they're trying to say hey what should we do with her should we put her to death Moses said we should put her to death what should we do so by Jesus saying to throw a stone at her that means that we no longer should have the death penalty for not just women taking in adultery mind you because if you're going to take things consistently I would think that if you're going to take that away from that passage how can you apply it any broader than that but his claim was well no murderers should still be put to death but that's because murderers were put to death before the law of Moses see hmm how do you get that out of the woman taking in adultery that well no we still do do capital crimes we still do put people to death but because he mentioned adultery and because that's part of the law of Moses now we just I guess there should not be he just abolished what God's law should be all the death penalty laws except for those that were in effect before Moses gave the law and I am the unsaved one now look I don't think that this person's unsaved but it boggles the mind how can you say that it's someone who's speaking with no knowledge it's someone who's being partial also in the law and another one of those stupid critiques going well then everybody would be put to death no if you institute the law you don't go back and kill everybody before it was a law you start enforcing the law after the law is put into effect dummies I mean seriously seriously like how is that so hard to understand well then everyone would die and it's like well did everyone die back in Israel did everybody die they had the law the law was supposed to be enforced now I can't tell you how well it was enforced because we don't have a record of exactly how well they enforce God's law don't know but God gave them that law and I would think that at least for some time they enforce the law I'm putting people to death I would hope so but they definitely didn't all die and get all put to death I bet you they just all weren't a bunch of adulterers at that time I'm sure they stopped obeying the law and stopped listening to God's law and stopped enforcing God's law at some point as adultery abounded and as sin got worse sure because they don't want judgment and as they turn from the Lord of course they start making up their own rules and their own laws but that what gets them into this state to begin with where God's saying I'm going to curse you because you're not following my laws because you're not seeking the law of truth because you're not doing these things let's keep reading here verse number 10 have we not all one Father hath not one God created us why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the covenant of our fathers Judah hath dealt treacherously and an abomination is committed in Israel and Jerusalem for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved and hath married the daughter of a strange God now there's no way I'm going to get to everything I actually wanted to get to tonight I realize this now as I'm only like halfway through this chapter and I've got multiple other passages that I would like to turn to but I'm at least going to start and throw some of this out there even if I don't get to read everything else there's a lengthy passage in Isaiah and even a more lengthy passage in Jeremiah that both cover essentially similar if not the same things that are being brought up in this passage about the priests but also about the sinful condition of Judah and this concept also of divorce and putting away and how God is going to deal with them so here he is showing that Judah the nation has gone a whoring from God and they've gone after this daughter of a strange God so they're going and seeking and basically what happens when the Bible warns about if the children of Israel were to marry women of the heathen that those women would turn their hearts away from serving the Lord so by saying Judah is going after this daughter of the strange God he's saying that your heart is being turned away unto these strange gods you're being turned away from the Lord because you're going after these daughters you're being married to these daughters of a strange God and your hearts getting turned away from me and as a result the Bible says the Lord will cut off the man that doeth this the master and the scholar you know because that's who the priests were supposed to be these scholars and these masters of Israel and these you know intelligent people and well versed in the Bible he says the Lord will cut off the man that doeth this the master and the scholar out of the tabernacles of Jacob and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts because they're going after other gods they've completely destroyed the word of God verse number 13 and this have you done again covering the altar of the Lord with tears with weeping and with crying out in so much that he regardeth not the offering anymore or receiveth it with good will at your hand it doesn't matter how much weeping crying out what type of production they make when they're making these sacrifices and offering these offerings God's saying I'm not accepting it at your hand at all verse 14 yet ye say wherefore and they're so oblivious to their own spiritual condition they're just going like well why why God what's wrong they've strayed so far that they can't even comprehend why they're in error 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 when that he might seek a godly seed therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth so he's speaking about a nation and he's using terms of being you know the wife of your youth which in the physical sense people shouldn't be dealing with their wives as they get older especially in years hey don't deal poorly or treacherously by going after other women against the wife of your youth this wife that you've been married with since you were both young you've grown together and now you're going after other women don't deal with your wife that way with the wife of your youth similarly now in a much grander time frame because he's talking to a nation and he's talking about their spiritual espousal to the Lord he's saying you're going after now hey the wife of your youth is you know when you were seeking the Lord when the Lord brought you in and they were more righteous and pure in God's eyes and they were starting off right and God had delivered them and God had saved them and they had the word of God and now all these years have passed and now they're just going after and seeking these other gods and dealing treacherously with the covenant that they were given they were brought into this great covenant with the Lord and you know marriage is a covenant in itself and now they're going and seeking after these other gods and they're dealing very treacherously so that's why he's saying look 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 said the Lord of hosts therefore take heed to your spirit that ye deal not treacherously now really quickly I was going to go a little bit more in depth on this but I'm not going to go too in depth on this Malachi 2 16 when it says that God hateth putting away yes in the context he's still talking about this greater spiritual truth about them going away from God but the fact that God hates putting away it transcends any of the contexts whether it's putting away spiritually speaking with the spiritual application of them leaving God as well as the carnal physical sense within human marriage of putting away that is also consistent in scripture and people need you know it's funny how clear this is in the Bible and turn if you would to Matthew chapter 19 this is so clear in the Bible yet people want to cling and turn to these random verses and I say random but you call them obscure random whatever but they'd like to take some verses out of context to try to say oh no it's okay to get a divorce and they give you these grounds for divorce there is one circumstance where God allowed that and we're going to read about that in Matthew chapter 19 okay Jesus clearly expounds the one case in which it was acceptable under the law of Moses to get a divorce there was one circumstance and people want to say all these other reasons why you get a divorce and they'll turn to you know 1 Corinthians 7 or turn to Jeremiah literally Jeremiah chapter 3 or maybe a couple other places where it says that God divorces people where God has divorced the nation but look God divorcing a nation is not you know him using that language of saying that he's basically turning the children of Israel into bondage and everything else as a result of their punishment and using the language of putting them away is not the same as giving the green light to say yep now you can just get divorced for every reason now it's okay oh see look God's okay with that well that's funny because if you're going to turn to a place like Jeremiah 3 which we won't tonight for sake of time I think Matthew 19 happens after Jeremiah 3 in the chronology I mean I might be off a little bit but I'm pretty sure that when Jesus was speaking that he lived after Jeremiah the prophet let's see what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 19 verse number 3 the Pharisees also came unto him tempting him and saying unto him is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause and he answered and said unto them have ye not read this should be an easy answer aren't you reading your Bible aren't you seeking the law of truth don't you know this already why are you asking me these foolish questions have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female and said for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh haven't you read going all the way back to the beginning people were talking about Adam and Eve God made men and women that they should come together be one flesh and they're married and that's why they leave father and mother to go and be married and start their own family and that's it and then you're married and become one flesh when God makes you one flesh you're not it's not designed to be divided to be split apart to be divorcing that one body which is why he said in verse 6 wherefore so for this reason because they twain shall be one flesh wherefore they are no more twain hey when you get married you are no longer two when you're married you are no longer two let that sink in husbands wives and those who want to get married there is foolishness that goes on often times in marriages early especially early on in marriages when there's arguments and disagreements and fights and people who get married because look that happens almost inevitably okay when people get together and start living together you have to get used to each other and whatever so there's you know that's not abnormal to have friction but what you need to make sure is not in your mind is a me versus them attitude and what you need to be aware of is looking out for people who are going to say I'm on your side versus their side there are no sides when you're married there's one side because you're one flesh because you are one there's the married side and everyone else who's trying to pit one against the other is more interested in the divorcing side when God's saying you're one and watch out for that because humanly sinfully naturally the parents of each individual that gets married is going to want to be on their child's side when any problem happens but you can't be reinforcing this concept of division when there's a problem within a marriage and thinking of things of being a side you need to lose the concept of my side their side it's one we need to be one and come together as one and not even listen to people who are going to tell me about don't let him do that and don't let her do that and all this other stuff of like trying to divide you and I'm on your side and you're right and they're like look it doesn't and you know what else doesn't matter in a marriage who's right and wrong you still need to be one and there's still an authority structure God didn't say for the wife to obey the husband only when the husband's right that's why I say it doesn't matter who's right and wrong because there's an authority so when the authority says the way things are going to be then that's the way things are going to be and that's the way God made it we fight too much stop fighting it's hard for a person to have a one sided fight it is I'm not saying it's impossible but it's hard for a person to have a one sided fight they're going to start feeling foolish when you stop responding angrily and going railing for railing when they're just the one who starts yelling if you don't respond anyways just a little bit of something to think about there back to the putting away I'm getting too far off the subject here Jesus said that they're no more twain they're one flesh when you get married you're no longer two you're one and you need to understand that you're one what therefore God hath joined together man put asunder God joined you together in marriage so don't no man should be dividing that this was Jesus' answer to the question is is it lawful for man to put away his wife for every cause this is this is the answer they don't like that they say unto him well why did Moses then command to give her wedding and divorce from him to put her away now Moses first of all didn't command to give her a wedding and divorce her and put her away for every cause which is kind of what they're implying here he didn't there is an allowance in the law if someone were to put a person away to have a bill of divorce that is part of the law but it's not a command to divorce there's a difference there it's just like people you know the Bible endorses slavery endorses look the law deals with things that happen in life and the law allows for some things and doesn't allow for some things it doesn't mean it's a promotion it's a way of dealing with things justly and appropriately but he answers them in this verse 8 he saith unto them Moses because of the hardness of your hearts now is it is it a good thing to have a hard heart according to the scripture I mean like is that just yeah I just want to have God's teaching you to have a really hard heart no it's not but he recognizes that some people have really hard hearts especially in a situation with a marriage he says because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you which means allowed you not commanded you allowed you to put away your wives but from the beginning it was not so so you know this just literally just popped in my head so I wonder if that guy who's trying to say that Jesus changed how the Old Testament law should be your capital crime should be committed well this sounds like he's also abolishing that caveat for having a divorce because he says from the beginning it was not so so God didn't allow it before well Jesus is getting rid of this stuff it kind of sounds like he's getting rid of that here if you if you take that mindset right I'm not saying he's getting rid of that what I'm saying is hey why don't you just apply everything equally and consistently why don't you have some consistency then in your doctrine if you're going to say that then how would you not apply this the same way start telling people now yeah there is absolutely no ground for divorce because from the beginning it was not so and this is what Jesus is telling the Pharisees that came to him so obviously now there's no more ability to have any type of divorce but it is it is the desire of God that no one would get divorced because what God has joined together let not man divide asunder and I say unto you verse 9 whosoever shall put away his wife except it be for fornication that was the exception and I'm not going to go too far into detail about that but fornication is what happens prior to the union of a man and a woman when where after it becomes adultery and shall marry another comitteth adultery and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery that's Jesus speaking so here's how God feels about divorce how Jesus feels we already read that God hates putting away Jesus clarifies that a little bit more for us I think here explaining a little bit more in depth as to why God hates putting away why because God has joined together two people and made them one flesh don't divide them asunder let's keep reading though in Malachi Malachi chapter 2 like I said I'm way I know we're almost done with the verses here but I do want to get to these other references and just point out some of the similarities here with these other references even if it's quickly verse number 17 Malachi chapter 2 you have wearied the Lord with your words again still speaking to the priest the commandment for the priest yet ye say wherein have we wearied him when ye say everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or where is the God of judgment now you gotta understand when God's telling them that they're saying everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord he's not saying that they're literally saying like in front of people everyone that does evil is good in the sight of the Lord that's not what they were saying it's not what he's accusing them of what he's accusing them of is saying that people who are doing evil are good in the sight of the Lord and that God's delighting in them so people who are doing wicked things is excusing their sin and basically making the law of God of none effect by saying oh no these people are great God loves these people boy this sounds just just so applicable today for some reason some things there I can't really put my finger on it people who might be doing something like this of saying that God delights in people that do evil but what is it what is the big thing today that people are just saying there's no problem with it at all and I don't know maybe it'll come to me later let's go ahead and turn to Isaiah chapter 5 I want to bring out some of these other points I don't know but I'll tell you what this anger that God has over the priests and over His people that do this this isn't just mentioned this one time this is brought up multiple times in the Bible and God is always very angry when His people who are supposed to be teaching the truth get so far removed that they start calling the evil good and the evil people oh no they're good there's nothing wrong with those people those good happy people out there there's a whole happy group of people out there and they're good people and everyone's welcome Isaiah 5 look at verse 18 woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope that say let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the council of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it 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 they put everything on its head everything's in reverse boy I wonder who might be behind that of making everything the opposite maybe the father of lies he wants to turn everything upside down good is evil evil is good Satan is God God is Satan it's satanic God wants he wants to be seen as God and he wants God to look like the bad guy verse 21 woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight yet these aren't the messengers of God they're just wise in their own eyes woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink for reward now why would someone do that because they don't have integrity they don't care at all about what's right or what's wrong they just care about themselves and they care about getting paid so they can be bought off, they can be bribed and they can just give you whatever judgement they want because you're going to give me money and this is every corporation out there that's flying the rainbow flag during the month of June on their Facebook page and on their social media they justify the wicked for reward because they think it's going to get them more money that's the only reason why they do it either that or because they're run by wicked people themselves usually it's just because you know, they don't care about the cause they just care about money they justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him that's when you start condemning the righteous man who's trying to say, no, look, this is wickedness we shouldn't be for this no one should be endorsing this, that's wicked and then they'll start calling that guy evil oh, you're the hateful one look, I'm just a messenger of the Lord therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble so now we're going to see God's anger as a result of those that call evil good and good evil how does God feel about this? 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 therefore as the anger of the Lord kindled against his people and he had stretched forth his hand against them and had smitten them and the hills did tremble and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets for all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still God's warnings in Malachi in Isaiah 5 and in Jeremiah 23 is the last place we're going to look at tonight Jeremiah 23 all of these places it's God's people God's people look, God's people don't start falling in line with the world, with the satanic agenda of calling good evil and evil good stand up for what's right we need we need people who are going to rise up to leadership that are going to have integrity of heart and service to God and decide I'm going to be a messenger of God I am going to stand on his word and I am going to just preach all of it as it stands, as it's stated as true as I possibly can be with my understanding of what the scripture is literally saying and I'm going to say all of that and I'm just going to be the messenger for the Lord and yes that's going to include making applications to your current society, to your current culture, to your current environment but you're still teaching what the word says every last bit of it and making all the applications and connecting the dots that need to be made to help people see wow that really is just like what the Bible is saying here that's one of the reasons why I believe it's intentionally left broad those that call evil good and good evil instead of being super specific about what specifically the priests were saying exactly at that time because it could be applied to anything that's good and evil throughout time and we can all relate to this and be like yeah there's people who are doing these wicked things and these pastors or these preachers are saying yeah there's nothing wrong with that they're good oh they're good people you just gotta get to know them a little bit no thank you no I'm not going to Jeremiah 23 looking for some more we're going to read through this really quickly I'm out of time but I do want to just make sure we get through some of this so I'm going to almost speed read through this so you can follow along maybe read a little bit more in depth later woe be verse number one unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture saith the Lord woe unto them it's the same type of person same type of message same type of people therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people you have scattered my flock and driven them away just like the Bible said in Malachi you're causing them to stumble at my law because they're not teaching them what's right they're confusing them and teaching them falsehoods you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not visited them behold I will visit upon you the evil of your doings saith the Lord and I will gather the remnants of my flock out of all countries whether I have driven them and will bring them again to their folds and they shall be fruitful and increase and I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed neither shall they be lacking saith the Lord a good prophecy a prophecy about Jesus Christ coming jump down to verse number nine mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets all my bones shake I am like a drunken man and like a man whom whineth overcome because of the Lord and because of the words of his holiness for the land is full of adulterers for because of swearing the land mourneth the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up and their course is evil and their force is not right see God is cursing the people here also say hey lands full of adulterers and guess what now the wilderness is all dried up for both prophet and priest are profane yea in my house have I found their wickedness saith the Lord wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness they shall be driven on and fall therein for I will bring evil upon them even the year of their visitation saith the Lord and I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria they have prophesied in Baal and caused my people Israel to err it's been going on throughout history this was going on in Jeremiah's day in Isaiah's day before they were taken captive okay Malachi happens after that it still is going on you would think that people would get through but no these patterns repeat throughout history they're repeating today we need to gain the wisdom of all the records of this and how God feels about this and not get caught up in any of the false prophets that have their false visions and falsely say thus saith the Lord when the Lord hath not said and their message is always the one of everything's good everything's great God loves us God loves you God loves everybody God's with us no one's against us it's always been the message of the false prophet always they're never saying the negative thing ever because everyone loves to hear the good news the positive only verse 14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing they commit adultery the prophets committing adultery and walk in lies they strengthen also the hands of evil doers that none doth return from his wickedness they're all of them unto me as Sodom and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah they're doing the exact opposite of what their job is to do instead of deflating the hand of the evil doer of the wicked people and causing them to be in shame and causing them to turn from the wicked ways instead they're strengthening their hands and making them even more bold and you know we're so hateful and we're so bad over people who are living extremely wicked lifestyles and they're just emboldening them yeah go on just love everyone tell everybody that everything's just great and you're great and you're wonderful and tell them how much God loves them and see where that gets you because I think we're reading from the Bible that God hates that they're doing that that God hates that his people were doing these things and that God's telling them not to do these things and that you're not supposed to be strengthening the hand of the evil doers and that now you're just like Sodom and Gomorrah verse 15 thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets behold I will feed them with wormwood wormwood's like poison I will feed them with wormwood and make them drink the water of gall for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land thus saith the Lord of hosts hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you they make you vain they speak a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord they say still unto them that despise me the Lord hath said you shall have peace and they say unto everyone that walketh after the imagination of his own heart no evil shall come upon you yeah go ahead and do whatever you want anything that comes out of your heart and you'll be just fine no evil is going to come upon you that's what the false prophet says that's what these wicked prophets are saying and God is so angry about that's their message so when you start hearing people saying things like that run the other direction don't buy into their lies and their falsehoods for who has stood in the council of the Lord and perceived and heard his word who hath marked his word and heard it verse 19 behold a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury even a grievous whirlwind it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked the anger of the Lord shall not return until you have executed until you have performed the thoughts of his heart in the latter days you shall consider it perfectly this is the message of God this is the true message this is the thus saith the Lord it's not the everyone's okay God's angry with the wicked every day I have not sent these prophets yet they ran I have not spoken to them yet they prophesied and just because someone's claiming the name of the Lord and preaching and they're full of lies and hypocrisy it doesn't mean that God doesn't exist it doesn't mean that they're of God it doesn't mean that people should just abandon religion altogether because some people are bad and they do things that God said not to do but it's for that cause because they do so much damage that God gets so angry and that God brings the destruction that he brings verse 22 but if they had stood in my counsel and caused my people to hear my words if they had done their job if they had made the people hear my words not their imagination out of their own heart but what I told them to preach then they should have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings that is the purpose that is the intent it's the same message book after book prophet of God after prophet of God teaching this and rebuking and saying this is what needs to be done don't listen to the people who scratch the itch in your ear and tell you what you want to hear and prophesy smooth things they're always rebuked in the scripture we see this rebuke in Malachi chapter 2 the whole book is a rebuke of Malachi before Christ comes all it takes is for people believers to read the Bible themselves you cannot it's so abundant in scripture you can't overlook this even newer believers which I understand sometimes scripture is hard to understand as you're going through it maybe the first time or second time it's hard to take everything in you still cannot get past the wrath of God and all the negative preaching that exists in the Bible you can't come away thinking that that's not there of course you're going to find a lot of the positive stuff because that's all there too but if you actually read your Bible sincerely you're going to know that what I'm saying is true it's there and God wants the righteousness and He wants the obedience and He wants people respecting Him and fearing Him and looking to the law of truth and gets really angry when people go sideways and start making up their own stuff especially when they claim the name of the Lord would to God we could have another generation rise up of people who are actually going to have the care for the Word of God to one, change their life first of all to be consistent with this book and then two, after that to desire to become a teacher and a preacher of the Word of God and to continue to help other people by being the messenger of the Lord and preaching the Word of the Lord but that requires work in a whole society full of lazy people but we don't stop nevertheless even so come Lord Jesus take what you will from tonight's sermon but I'll tell you what if nothing else I hope it just inspires you to get in the Word of God and just make sure you have that integrity with what the Bible says no matter what it is and love it every word of it let's bow our heads have a word of prayer dear heavenly Father Lord we thank you so much for the Bible we thank you so much for the instruction that you give us we thank you so much for the people that you've raised up that are willing to just be your messenger and to preach your word Lord I praise you please help me to be a better messenger to not say anything that would be false or help me understand the areas where I'm an error dear Lord with your word so that I can do a better job of teaching and instructing and Lord just help all of us to continue to grow in our wisdom and knowledge and understanding and Lord I just pray that you would please bring the destruction that you talk about upon those wicked false prophets that are out there to deceive and that are out there confusing people and that are out there doing these wicked things and Lord I pray that you would please just help bring more people together that are going to love you and serve you that we can just magnify your word for what it says to the utmost Lord as much as we possibly can help us to do that in this church we love you in Jesus name we pray Amen Amen Alright we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed Brother Jesse please lead us Alright Alright We're singing a song for 314 314 more love for thee Again a song for 314 more love for thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love oh Christ to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee more love to thee less solemn do you return send grief and pain sweet are thy messengers sweet when they can sing with me more love oh Christ to thee more love to thee more love to thee then shall my angels breath whisper thy grace this be the poverty pride my heart shall raise then still his prayer shall be more love oh Christ to thee more love to thee more love to thee amen church you are dismissed you