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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Song number 419, Sound the Battle Cry Song number 419, Sound the Battle Cry Song number 419, Sound the Battle Cry Sing it out on the first. Sing it out on the first. Sing it out on the first. Sing it out on the first. Sing it out on the first. Sing it out on the first. Sing it out on the first. Sing it out on the first. Sing it out on the first. Sing it out on the first. Lord, we love you so much and we just thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church. We just ask you to bless this church and bless this service, Lord, and fill it with your spirit. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 196. Song number 196. I will sing the wondrous glory. Song number 196. I will sing the wondrous glory of the Christ of Galilee. I will sing the wondrous glory of the Christ of Galilee. I will sing the wondrous glory of the Christ of Galilee. I will sing the wondrous glory of the Christ of Galilee. I will sing the wondrous glory of the Christ of Galilee. I will sing the wondrous glory of the Christ of Galilee. I will sing the wondrous glory of the Christ of Galilee. I will sing the wondrous glory of the Christ of Galilee. I will sing the wondrous glory of the Christ of Galilee. I will sing the wondrous glory of the Christ of Galilee. I will sing the wondrous glory of the Christ of Galilee. I will sing the wondrous glory of the Christ of Galilee. I will sing the wondrous glory of the Christ of Galilee. I will sing the wondrous glory of the Christ of Galilee. I will sing the wondrous glory of the Christ of Galilee. Also, we have the Abilene, Texas, only marathon. We still need you to sign up if you are planning on going, so that way we can anticipate how to order food and everything like that. We have a baby shower on the 11th for the Gores, the Mexico missions trip, November 30th through the 2nd. We have ladies' Christmas party, the 8th. December 11th is the Christmas caroling. 16th is a music recital for the kiddos. It's all teenagers, and I think it's 5 and up, so basically 5 to 19, that range, so if they would like to participate in that. Also, cookie bake-off, and of course, something with chocolate will win that. The 31st is the New Year's Eve party, and so, and we'll have a men's preaching night. I'm always impressed by the cookie bake-off. I don't know, you guys do some really cool stuff with that, so that's a lot of fun. Great opportunity if you're here for Christmas. Also, a great event to invite your family to, the day before Christmas to celebrate. One other announcement is not in the bulletin, and I'm just kind of planning on doing this, not this Sunday, but probably next Sunday night, so just, there has been a couple lawsuits that we've been involved in in the past, and I've brought these things up, and with the Ryan, Seth, Leslie, and all that kind of stuff, that has come to a conclusion, and basically, I'm kind of planning on making a public video where I kind of talk about what happened, and it's going to be kind of brief, but basically that, not this Sunday, but the next Sunday night, I'm just going to kind of have a private church meeting about it. I'll still probably preach a sermon, but maybe it might be a little bit shorter of a sermon, just because I'm basically just going to go through that, and then if anybody wants, if any of the men in the church have any questions, then I have no problem kind of disclosing that, but I kind of just want to like, one time, you know, we'll just have a meeting about it if you're interested or not. I'll kind of give a tell-all, and you can say everything, but it's just going to be a private thing. It's not going to be recorded, and it's just for church members and everything like that, but just so if you want to anticipate that as well. So, and I'll make announcements about this Sunday again, just so, because we have, most of our, or a lot of our church only comes on Sunday morning, so we'll, you know, let them know as well, and, you know, but again, it's just kind of for church members. Like I said, I'll probably put a public thing out there, and it's positive, so it's not anything negative. You know, everything has gone our way. Everything's settled. We're in really good position. Everything's good, right? But just, I think a lot of people maybe just be interested about it, just kind of what happened, where we're headed, things like that, and so just to give people one time to just kind of ask all their questions, because usually people want to ask all these questions, and so it's just a forum to kind of like at least address those different things. So, just FYI. Also, the baby shower details are listed on the back, and then we have our prayer list. We're praying for Brother Cameron's leg. We've been praying for the Wallach's daughter, her pregnancy, Miss Haley. We've been praying for the Cooley's stepdad. We've been praying for Brother Oz, his brother. We've been praying for the Naeem's grandmother. We've been praying for Brother Nate for a job. Miss Linda for vehicle. Miss Eva's sister, Janie. Is there an update on that? Still in rehab. Okay, still in rehab. We've been praying for Brother Brad's family. We've been praying for Brother Goodwin's daughter, Miss Anna. We've been praying for Craig also for jobs. So, we have a lot of prayer requests there. We'll just say a quick word of prayer this evening as a church family. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this evening. Thank you so much for our church. Thank you for all these ladies that are expecting. I pray that you would just help those who have recently given birth with their babies, that their postpartum would go well. I pray that you would help with our ladies who are near term, that you would just give them an easy delivery. I pray that you would help the rest of the developing children for their pregnancies to go well. I pray that you would also help those that are wanting to be pregnant, that you would bless them. I pray that you would also help our church family that has health issues. Please give them a speedy and quick recovery, if possible, a miracle, and no matter what, I pray that you would give them uplifted spirits and a positive attitude. Give them peace during their tribulation and difficulty. I pray that you would also give favor to our church members who need a blessing, need a job, need favor, need money, need whatever. I pray that you would just help them. They give them wisdom. They give them a blessing, and you would help open a door for them. I pray that you would also just allow our church to do great works for you and that you would bless our upcoming events for this fall and this winter. And I pray that we would just continue to have a unified spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. That's really all I have as far as announcements. Go ahead and sing our third song. It's Psalm 67. So it's our Psalm of the Week. If you can get your special handouts, Psalm 67. All right, that was Psalm 67. Psalm chapter 67. Everybody sing it out together on the first. Happy first of all to us, and bless us, And cause this place to shine upon us, Like our way, big and open up our earth, By saving the health of all our nations, Let your people praise thee, O God, Let all the people praise thee, O let the nations be glad, And sing for joy, For the last word of love before, Rises me in the earth, The nations upon earth, The nations of our earth sing of, Let the people praise thee, O God, Let all the people praise thee, O let the nations be glad, And sing for joy, Let our earth feel her great praise, And guide her, O God, to bless us, God to bless us in all the ages, Let all the earth feel her great praise, And guide her, O God, Let all the people praise thee, O let the nations be glad, And sing for joy. All right, great singing everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Malachi chapter 3. That's Malachi chapter number 3. Malachi 3, the Bible reads, Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he reappeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller soap. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years. And I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling and his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right. And fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts, for I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. Your words have been stout against me, 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 have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy, yea, they that work wickedness are set up, yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth them. Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth them not. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for Malachi chapter 3, and I pray, Lord, that you would help us to be attentive to the Bible study tonight and bless Pastor Shelley with the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit as he explains this portion of scripture to us. We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen. So we're in Malachi chapter 3, and, again, Malachi is the burden of the word of the Lord unto Israel. That's what it says in chapter 1. God is kind of bringing up a multitude of grievances that he has with Israel in chapters 1 and in chapters number 2. And, you know, he was really digging on the priests in chapter number 2. That was kind of his focus. And as we get into chapter 3, he kind of makes a transition here where he kind of gives them a little bit of hope. You know, it kind of transitions a little bit because, you know, he's been rebuking them and correcting them a lot of issues, and he still has issues with them in this chapter, but he's kind of giving them a glimmer of hope. It says in verse 1, Behold, I will send my messenger, and ye shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. So he's been rebuking the priests, and, you know, it's kind of interesting because if you look at chapter 2, the last verse, and not necessarily the whole verse but just the last phrase, where is the God of judgment? And then he's like, you know, he responds in chapter 3. You kind of sometimes miss this because of chapters, but think about this. Then he kind of responds with like, oh, the Lord's coming. Like if you kind of think about it, he's saying, they're like, oh, where is the God of judgment? And then it's like, oh, he's coming. There is a messenger first, but the Lord is coming, and he kind of makes it really abundantly clear. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. And so I think, you know, there's this, it's kind of similar even to the end times, and I think that, of course, you know, this chapter of Malachi is prophetic in the sense that at that time it's talking about the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and how he's going to come unto them, and there's this messenger. But it also, I think, has a little bit of kind of maybe dual fulfillment or a dual idea or shadow idea of like Christ coming when he's going to come again. And kind of the idea of like when you think about in some of the other epistles in the New Testament, it talks about last days there should be scoffers, and they're saying, where is the promise of his coming? And it's kind of like everybody's kind of jaded against Christianity or jaded against the word of the Lord, and they're just kind of like, oh, where's the God of judgment? Or, you know, where's the promise of his coming? And it's like, well, he's going to come. Okay, it's going to happen. And it's just, I think that this is important because we see in the Bible these long anticipation periods. Like God's kind of talking about some things that happen, but then it's just a really long anticipation period. And it helps us to realize that even though we are in a very long anticipation period, I mean, Christ ascended up into the clouds over almost full 2,000 years ago. I mean, that was a long time ago. And so, you know, a lot of people are just kind of getting skeptical or more skeptical or there's more of a kind of like, oh, is he ever going to come or this kind of an attitude. But we should anticipate that according to Scripture and the examples that we have before that sometimes it does take a while to get to the next stage or whenever God's going to accomplish his will. But what we should do is we should have the confidence that when God says something's going to happen, it's going to happen. You know, it's like I have no physical evidence, I have no scientific proof that Christ is returning. I believe it by faith. I put my faith in the Scripture in the Word of God. And of course, it's easy for me to believe what the Bible says since it's right about everything. I mean, the Bible is so true about everything. It explains the world so clearly. And so we can know with certainty that Christ will return, but at the same time, we believe it by faith, okay? I know I'm saved with certainty, but I believe that through faith. You know, and so we kind of have to realize that sometimes things aren't going to ever be understood in a scientific manner or through sight, but we don't walk by sight. We walk by faith. And so the actions that we take in our lives are not things that we'll ever carnally understand or see. They're things that we believe through the faith that we have in our spirit. And so this coming of the Lord is something that they had to long await and anticipate. But for some reason, because their hearts are so hardened, God has to send literally a messenger before to kind of prepare the way. And, you know, I think that that's similar, you know, in the end times that God is going to prepare special people to kind of be messengers, to prepare His way, to do good works, to do big things. And what's kind of cool is, like, some people fret the end times. Like, they kind of, they, like, get really worried about it, and they obsess about it, they think about it a lot. And first of all, we don't even know if it's going to happen. And wouldn't it be kind of embarrassing if you spent your whole life anticipating the come of Christ to then die and never have that happen? Like, you think, like, we're in the end times or it's going to happen, and then it just, like, doesn't happen. It was kind of a waste, wasn't it? It was a lot of waste of mental energy, stress, all these different things. And then there's the flip side that people are like, Jake's like, I really hope it doesn't happen. But at the same time, like, the coolest stuff in the Bible is always these, like, major events, right? It's like, would you want to have lived in the generation right before John the Baptist and Jesus Christ came? Like, you know, you get to live between Malachi and Christ's coming. It's like, which generation would you pick? All the generations in the middle that didn't have it? The generation right before? Or the generation that literally got to have John the Baptist and have Jesus Christ, right? And it's like, it kind of seems like a no-brainer. It's like, oh, man, I would want to be that guy. Of course, some people are like Simeon, where in their last breath, you know, they basically get to see the baby, Lord Jesus Christ. And that was pretty special to him. But, you know, I'm sure he would have wished that he could have lived even longer and got to see him raised and seen the baptism and seen the miracles and seen the crucifixion and seen the resurrection. I mean, think about all the amazing events that these people got to live through, literally. And, you know, obviously from heaven's perspective, we still get to see and experience these events, but what an experience it would be to have them in real life, right? These end-time apocalyptic-type events. And so we shouldn't... I really feel like we should just embrace our life and just say, you know what? If the Lord comes, even so come Lord Jesus. And if the Lord tarries, then you know what? Blessed be the name of the Lord. I'm just going to serve Him, however. And stop worrying about it and just worry about today, right? That's what the Bible really just teaches. Like, just worry about today. Like, did you read your Bible today? You know, did you pray today? Did you go to church today? Check on a lot of y'all's lists, all right? There you go. Good job. Did you sing with spirit, you know? Like, these are the things that are important. Did you love on your kids? Did you do something for your spouse? You know, like, these are the things that you should be worrying about and paying attention to and focusing on and not getting so wrapped up in the future. And I think that the news media and most things online want to get you just so focused on the future. And, like, it's World War III and Israel and Iran and did you know Biden and the election? And, like, there's almost... And maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's always been this way, but I just feel like there's just so much amped up energy about the immediate future. And, you know, I'm sure there's always been to some degree that, but it just seems like so much the more. Like, everybody's just on... Just so nervous about the election and they're so nervous about the economy and they're so nervous about terrorism and they're so nervous about racism and they're so nervous about what the next school board meeting's going to say and they're so nervous about the next policy they're going to have at work and they're so nervous about what Pastor Shelley's gonna say, which word? Like, he's gonna use next, you know. I'm just gonna... Like, they just get so nervous about everything, They're on a hair trigger, and they're constantly just fear and afraid. It's like, just stop, right? Obviously things are going to happen. Just like here, you know, think about this. You get this prophecy in Malachi. What if everybody's like, oh man, we better start getting ready for this messenger? It's like, sorry, it's going to be in like, you know, several hundred years. It's going to be several generations from here. This isn't about to happen in your lifetime. And you know, wouldn't it have been kind of silly if they're kind of like all worried about this thing that's not necessarily going to happen yet? And so I'm just trying to say like, I love end times Bible prophecy. I love preaching it. I love talking about it. I think we should be paying attention. The Bible commands us to pay attention to these things. But what I don't think is profitable is getting worried about it and anxious and making bad life decisions, right? We know it's going to happen. We believe it's going to happen. And there's going to be a lot of false alarms. I think. I think the Bible kind of teaches that too, right? There's going to be a lot of times where people kind of think it happens and it doesn't. And I mean, the Bible even just says like point blank, I'm not going to go to the verse for sake of time, but it basically says the Lord come in a day when you think not. So like, and again, who's the Bible written to? It's written to Christians. Okay. So I don't think he was saying like, Hey, the world won't know. The world is never going to know. The world is in darkness. That day is going to take them as a thief in the night. I think he's literally saying like, even we are going to be kind of like caught off guard or not necessarily understand, or maybe get jaded against how many false alarms there were or whatever. So I think that we should just stop getting so amped up on everything that's happening and just say, look, it's going to happen, but I'm just living my life today. You know, I'm planning for the next 50 years and I'm living today. And if Christ comes, he comes, if he doesn't, he doesn't, and there's not really any need for me to worry. You know, people always worry about doomsday scenarios and it's so funny to me because I'm just thinking like, do you not understand what a doomsday scenario is? Like they're thinking like, Oh, I've got all this food stored up in my house in case, you know, the grocery stores run out of food. And I'm like, okay, but you realize everyone on your street didn't do that. And they're going to notice that you didn't get skinny like they did, and they're going to come and take your food. You're going to literally become a victim, right? I mean, they're like, Oh, well, but you know, I'm going to go hide out on the farm. You know, you can't hide even in these scenarios. People can figure out where you are once they ransack the city, then they'll come for you. It's like, well, I'm going to buy a bunch of gold in case the dollar fails. And I'm like, okay, but let's just play that game for a second. If the dollar failed, literally no store is going to take your gold bar. Like what do you think you're going to do with that? And if you even, you really think every single person is starving to death and has nothing. And then you're like, Hey, I would like to peacefully buy something with gold. They're going to be like, this guy's got gold, get him and kill him and take his gold. Like what do you think that gold is going to do for you in this doomsday scenario? And it's just so funny to me, people are constantly trying to figure out how to prepare for these doomed day scenarios, but their efforts are like building an inflatable raft for the flood. It's like, good luck, either God is going to take care of you or your stupid doomsday scenario is not even going to happen. But planning for it is kind of a fool's errand in many ways. And look, I'm not against having minimal prep. I think we all need to have like, you know, three months savings and have extra food in the cabinets for, you know, when it snows in Dallas, you know, and Everett doesn't know what happened, right? I mean, there's reasonable planning and there's reasonable storage and there's reasonable savings and all these type of things, right? But you know what, I don't think that we should all go find some plot of land out in the middle of nowhere and get a self-sustaining farm and worry and put all this effort and energy in that. I think what God would rather you do is go out and knock some doors, some extra doors and get someone saved. I think God would rather you, you know, worry about investing more energy in your children and making sure you're going to church and serving God and following His commandments. And you know, but Christ could be around the corner. Okay, He could, but He also could not. And let's not get this, I mean, what did they really need to do in preparation? What does the Bible say? Did the Bible say make sure you have a bunch of storeable food before the Lord comes? You know what the Lord did? He literally even provided the preparation. He said, hey, the only preparation you need is the messenger and I'm going to send it. So He's saying you literally need to do nothing. Just once the messenger comes, just do whatever he says, right? And in fact, many people did. Many people, when John the Baptist came, they came out, they got baptized, they became John the Baptist's disciples. They literally were joining the church out in the wilderness. And of course, you know, he couldn't be in the city because the city drove him out. They evicted him. And so he's out in the wilderness. And think about it this way. Many of John the Baptist's disciples then became Jesus' disciples. And they even kind of got onto him in John chapter number three, they're like, hey, you know, now people are following him. And he's like, well, he must increase and I must decrease, right? So wasn't it cool that they jumped on John the Baptist's bandwagon? Yeah, it was, because then they could then lead and be spiraled into following Christ. And now Christ already has a group of people that are already saved, zealous, trying to get right with the Lord, that are ready to just get to work immediately. Because Christ needed to do a lot of work right away. Wouldn't it be nice to have some people that are already kind of pre-trained, pre-set up, ready to go, that He can use at His disposal, so He doesn't have to train everybody day one on the basics. He can already have a group of trained people, dedicated, zealous, saved, baptized, ready to go, for Him to use. And so of course that's what God is alluding to and telling us. And I think the same is with the end times, that God is going to give us the preparation, He's going to give us the people, He's going to give us the supplies and the things that we need. What we have to do is when we hear that voice out in the wilderness, go and follow that voice out in the wilderness, right? And actually submit to the things that God has given us and the tools and the people. What was the problem is the people that didn't take John the Baptist seriously. That was the real problem. Not that they hadn't prepped a bunch of info or historical food, okay? Not that they didn't have a bunker or something to go resort to. It was that they didn't really, they weren't in tune with the Word of God or the things of God. And I think the same is going to happen. There's going to be a lot of Christians that are focused on carnal preparation, not spiritual preparation. Having read the Bible and prayed and following the best men that they have available at that time. You know, I always say, go to the best church in your area. That's like, hey, John the Baptist is the best guy in the area, we've got to go out in the wilderness, we're going to go. Because you know what, he's the best preacher of the day, he's the best preacher I can find, and we'll follow him. And as soon as Jesus shows up, well, now I'm going to that church, right? Now I'm following Jesus. And then when Jesus left, it's like, all right, now Peter's church, right? And then it's like, okay, now Paul, right? And you just, you just keep adapting to the scenario, but you're basically plugged in and saying, where, you know, wherever the Spirit leads, I'll go. Okay. Look at verse two. But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appearth? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap. Very iconic phrases in here. I'm not going to forsake your time, spend a lot of time here, but keep your finger here and go to Mark chapter nine for a second, go to Mark chapter number nine. Again, I think that this kind of alludes to also the end times element here. Like who's going to abide when Christ returns? You know, the rocks are going to, they're going to be calling for the rocks to follow them. I saw Donald Trump, he had a comment and they were talking about the speaker of the house because it's been vacant for a little while. And Donald Trump said, well, the only person that could, you know, secure the speaker of the house for sure would be Jesus Christ. He came down, then he'd get the votes or whatever. And I was like, well, first of all, if Jesus Christ came down, he'd come down to be the king of Kings, not the speaker of the house. Number one. And number two, I said, all those people in the government would be screaming for the rock to fall on them and to hide them from the face of him, which sits on the throne. Okay. They wouldn't be like high fiving Jesus. Okay. I'm just considering how many Jews are in that congregation. Okay. And we know how they feel about Jesus. They're weeping and gnashing and wailing, you know, because of him coming, they're going to see him whom they pierced as the Bible describes. Okay. And now the Bible talks about him when he comes, though, I think this is kind of a dual fulfillment. It's talking about his first and second coming. The first is what's mainly in view. And he's talking about being a refiner's fire or a fuller soap. Refiner's fire in the context of you're taking a precious metal like gold, silver, and you're trying to purge out the impurities. So they talk about, uh, the quality of gold and it's basically just how pure it is and pure gold is going to be the most valuable. And to get pure gold, many times they have to take whatever, you know, if it's jewelry already or just rocks that they discovered, they have to melt it down into gold and they have to like melt it down again and then they have to melt that down again. They just have to go through this constant process of, of refining it and melting it down so that they can get all the impurities out. It's kind of like how you got a King James Bible, you know, they just kept melting it down until they got all the impurities out. And then as the translator said, Hey, we need one more exact translation out of the Holy scriptures in the English tongue. Okay. And it's like, Hey, we got one more. We don't need 50 more from a corrupted source, right? It didn't even go through this refining process at all. It's a completely different trashcan that they're getting them out of. So they didn't really go through that refiners fire. That's why the King James Bible is so much better than all these other versions. There's this new Bible that came out. It's called the legacy standard Bible. Who's heard of this one? Anybody? Okay. Came out in 2021 and I want to, I want to say something again. Legacy standard Bible came out in 2021. I want to say something again, legacy standard, what legacy you had a legacy for the last two years. I mean, this is, this is the dumbest naming convention. I mean, at least the modern other modern versions were a little bit more honest, like the new international version, the new King James, at least they were being honest with the fact of that, Hey, this is a new text. But then these liars come up, the legacy standard Bible, like what, what standard you just came out. Nobody's even read this thing. Cover to cover one time, probably not even the editor, you know, we're, we're memorizing Proverbs 31. And it's funny cause I looked up in this legacy standard Bible, James White's Bible, you know, and in the first verse, you know, where it says that the prophecy that his mother taught him and the legacy standard Bible says, it's like what she disciplined him. It's not, she didn't teach him it. She disciplined him with Proverbs 31. I mean, you mothers need to start disciplining your children with Proverbs 31. I mean, what, what kind of nonsense, you know, it's like, is that really what the Hebrew said or do you just have to make it sound different so you can get a copyright and get money on it? I mean, really you had to change the word teach to discipline. That's the weirdest, you know, verb to try and even use anyways in that context. I mean, it's, it's just, it's just so funny how they, they try to sound so smart and then they, they sound so stupid at the same time. And was that really even supposed to make it easier to understand like, this is the discipline that I'm going to give you, you know, but it's just, it's just funny how these people talk. Now of course they'll say, oh, but we got to, we got to change these hard words, right? Because the King James has all these words and you're not going to know, like fuller. And look, I'll admit, like, I don't know necessarily what the word fuller means just based on my modern, you know, everyday life. I don't hear people talking about fullers and so it's, it's not a word that I'm familiar with, but that doesn't mean that other people wouldn't be familiar with it. And I think that's an arrogance that some people have. They think just because you don't know the word, other people don't know the word or it's not common, but that could just because you're dumb or you live around dumb people. Like that could be an answer to that particular situation. But you know, if you look up full or fuller in the dictionary, it has a definition that matches the King James Bible. So why is it that it's so archaic if the dictionary can literally tell you? But I even would submit to you that the Bible itself can give you a pretty good idea without you even using a dictionary. But let me tell you the dictionary definition. Okay. This is the dictionary definition. A fuller is one who fulls, okay? Didn't that help you? Now, of course, then you look up full, okay? And so full is to clean, shrink, or felt cloth by heat, pressure, moisture. So basically someone doing laundry, right? Cleaning clothes, and not even necessarily even just cleaning, but even the manufacturing process of those clothes, okay? Now look at Mark chapter 9 verse 3. The Bible says, And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, so that no fuller on earth can white them. Now doesn't that kind of give you a lot of context here to have an idea of what this person is doing? So what is it trying to say? A fuller is someone that would take a wool's garment, and what color is a sheep? It's white, right? But if we were to be honest, it's not like white, white. Now you ladies know the difference when you go get paint at the store, that not all whites are the same. Us dudes, we get confused. We show up and we like white paint, and they're like, what do you mean white? There's like 18 whites, and you're just like, what do you mean there's 18? There's like white, white, and cream, white, and peach, white, and blue, white, and you're just like, what is this, okay? And what it's trying to say is that obviously what the fuller would do is they're taking that woolen garment that's white, but let's be honest, it's probably a little bit dirty white or cream white. It's not necessarily like super white, and they'll bleach it. And I'm not saying that they use bleach. I don't know what substances they use, but I'm just using that to give you a relative term of they're trying to make it whiter. They would do something to that wool, that fabric, so they're making really white clothing. And that makes sense. The Levites had to literally wear white linen garments, okay? And this is woolen, of course, I know that's different, but obviously white was a color that was important. They would wear this clothing. People had that in their genre, and it's saying no one on earth could ever white a government, as white as the garment that Jesus Christ is going to come in shining, okay? It's saying it's brighter, and it's more white than any garment that we have today, okay? So that just gives you an idea of what that's saying. If you go back, what is it saying? It's saying that Christ, when he comes, he's going to refine the gold to where there's no impurities in it, and he's going to take that white garment, and he's going to make it so white that it's only white, right? That soap of the fuller can't wash it, you know, in a human perspective, probably perfect, but it's saying, like, what he can do is he can make it so clean that it's cleaner than anything on this earth. Like the cleanest garment you could ever wish for, you know, downy or whatever, coming fresh out of the washing machine. It's like he's got it cleaner. So what is this talking about then? It's talking about how when Christ comes and he preaches the gospel, you know what it's going to do? It's going to wash away your sins perfectly. He's going to be that refining fire. He's going to be better than that fuller soap, and that he's going to make you completely new to the point where there's no impurities in you anymore. And it's not through repenting of your sin. It's through faith in Christ and him giving you his imputed righteousness, which is whiter. And I love that I went to Mark 9. Why? Because just like you can't make a garment through human means as white as Christ, in the same way you could never repent of your sins and get clean enough as how Christ is going to give you righteousness from his imputed state. So the standard by which you need to enter heaven by human means is impossible. By man, this is impossible. It would only be through Christ's imputed righteousness, his refining fire, his fuller soap, his ability to cleanse you for you to have true forgiveness of sins and sanctification and salvation. And so it's kind of just alluding to this. Verse 3, and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years. And I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right. And fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts. Now, again, he's saying that he's going to do this to the Levites. Why bring up Levi? Well, again, Levi is the priesthood, and it's the priesthood's job to sanctify the people. They go in and they offer the sacrifices. They go in and offer the atonement, and they're the ones that are supposed to cleanse the children of Israel and to purify them. But they can't do it perfectly. And the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins. So Christ is coming to actually truly purify, and to purify even the most pure, even the Levites themselves, and that can only be done through the gospel of Jesus Christ again. And then they're going to have true offerings of righteousness. And then, in verse 4, as it says, shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord. It's not pleasant unto the Lord for Old Testament individuals, Old Testament Israelites, to offer sacrifices unto God but not be saved, but not have had faith in the Lord. That was what the Bible would call dead works. And so those dead works are meaningless unto him. He cares about the heart. He cares about salvation. He cares about grace. He wants you to be saved by faith in him. And just the same way, those who are at the time of Christ have really turned away from the Lord. Very few people are saved. All their offerings are just kind of worthless. And you know, it makes sense in Malachi because it's kind of the same picture in Malachi, isn't it? He's talking about how he wants to spread the dung of their solemn feasts in their faces and how the priests in chapter number 2 are pretty awful. I mean, we read in chapter 2 about how bad the priests are. Who are the priests? The Levites. So he's saying, hey, I'm going to come and clean up the priesthood. I'm going to clean up the Levites. I'm going to clean up Judah and Jerusalem. And of course we understand that in the New Testament we have a change and that we don't have the Levitical priesthood anymore, but he's just saying in general he's going to clean up the children of Israel, the Levites, all of them, and then it's going to be pleasant. Then it's going to be like it has been in times past where the vast majority or a larger portion of the children of Israel actually were saved. And I think that there were times where there was a lot more people that were saved than others, certain generations where there's a lot more people serving the Lord honestly. I mean, the generation of Joshua is arguably one of the greatest generations. They inherit the promised land. They are very faithful. They fight for a long period of time. You can see probably a lot of those people being saved. And even all the people that were with Joshua, it's like the children of Israel did great until even those elders died out. And then it's like the next generation, they knew not the Lord. They really were a lot different, a lot less people saved. And I think that's the same today. I think that there's going to be certain generations that are better than others. And it doesn't mean that every individual from those generations is bad, but it's just saying as a whole, you're going to have some good and bad generations where certain generations embrace the Lord, love the Lord, get saved a lot more than other generations. And you kind of have this pitting against one another, and you see some differentiations. And then some people theorize this about like, oh, strong men bring in good times, and good times basically make weak men, and weak men bring in bad times, and bad times bring in strong men. It's just like this infinite loop. But I think that there's some degree that's kind of true. And you kind of even see that in the Bible a little bit. You kind of wonder about this, because I think for us, spiritually, we've been in a bad time. And that's been creating a lot of strong Christians. It's been creating a lot of zealous Christians. But we don't want to then in turn create good times spiritually to where our kids go soft. So we need to make sure that we still make it hard on our kids in some ways, and we still challenge them, and we still try to help them understand why we do the things we do, and to help build so that they don't necessarily get soft. When you hand your kids everything, a lot of times they go soft. You've got to force your kids to work, and to work hard, and to not just gift them everything. We need to make things difficult for them for their own benefit, okay? Now it says in verse 6, for I am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. I think that, again, obviously a lot of people take this verse and never use it in context. And it's fine to say, you know, hey, I am the Lord, I change not, and use it in different ways. But in context, you know, I believe what he's trying to say is even though you guys are really, really bad, and they are, I mean, Malachi is pretty clear, like, they're bad, that he's not wanting to just destroy them. He's going to send Christ, who's going to then clean them up. And that's why they're not consumed, because he kind of promised unto them. And here's the thing, Israel is God's chosen people, period. And they always will be. It's how you define that is what's important. And we got grafted in, but, you know, we grafted into Israel, we are Israel, and God never gave up on Israel. People say, God's not done with Israel. You know, God didn't give up on Israel. God didn't replace Israel. Sure, Israel still exists. Israel is still the apple of God's eye. Israel is still all, you know, God's not going to destroy Israel. But we have to define which Israel we're talking about. Because if we're talking about spiritual Israel, those are true, period. If we're talking about a physical group of Israelis or Israelites, that's not always true. Sometimes he did give up on certain Israelis, and sometimes he did give up on certain Israelites, and sometimes he did divorce certain Israelites, right? And some that are Israel are not Israel, okay? So we have to make sure they're always defining these things correct. But when he says, you know, the sons of Jacob are not consumed, like, we're part of that Jacob. And he wants to clean them up. And even then, he preserved the physical Israel, the physical Jacob, so that he could still take out a remnant from them too. He could still take out the apostle Paul and James and Peter and John. And you know what? Purify a lot of them, okay? And wipe them. And not just, here's the thing, God obviously saves everybody by complete grace. Just no works, free gift, you could literally live however you want, but obviously that's not God's desire that he would just say, hey, let's take a bunch of crappy people and save them and then they stay crappy. Like, what he wants them to do is actually serve God. What he actually wants them to do is not only get cleaned up on the inside, but on the outside. He just wants it to start on the inside and then for the outside to get cleaned up as well. That's why he brings up in verse number five that, you know, hey, he's going to be a witness against the sorcerers and the adulterer and the false wearers and, you know, all these people that are committing these horrible sins. Because after you get saved, it's not like God's just like, okay, live however you want. No, no. You live however you want. Swift judgment is going to come upon you when you commit these type of sins. And we see that in the New Testament that people committing horrible sins got judged very harshly. I want to go to another place here. Go to James chapter number four for a second. Go to James chapter number four. And I'm spending a little time on this point, but I think it's a good thing to kind of talk about here for a minute. James chapter number four, we're going to talk about the purifying and the cleaning up. Now look at James chapter four and look at verse number eight. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Now, here's the thing, James, I know people get confused. It's not an epistle to get saved. All right. James chapter two is not instructions on how to go to heaven. And James chapter four is no different. He's obviously talking to saved people. I mean chapter three, verse one, my brethren. And it's consistent theme throughout the book of James, my brethren, my brethren, my brethren. So there's two types of purification that in the New Testament are delineated from one another. The initial purification upon getting saved and the purification which is post salvation, which is cleaning up your life. And of course God wants us to do both. The first one was a free gift that Christ did. The second one is us in coordination with Jesus. Now, it's still Jesus doing the purifying, but you know how he does the purifying? Through this. So it's you reading this, studying this, meditating on this, and he cleans you up through the washing of the word. And that's how he wants to clean us up. And let's be honest. That's how people make changes in their life. Who are living the cleanest lives in this world are the people that know the most Bible. The Christians who know the least Bible are often living the worst lives speaking. And it makes sense because they just don't know. They're ignorant. They've never heard of it. People are like, oh, why do you preach so much Old Testament? Well, I want everybody to be cleaned up as much as possible, right? We don't just clean, you know, one elbow. We want to clean both elbows and our knees and behind the ears and everything. So it's like we want to get Leviticus and Exodus and Deuteronomy and we want to get Joshua and Judges and hey, we want to get Malachi, right? We don't want to have these spots on our body that we just decided not to clean. We want to clean it all up. And again, there's a difference between this purifying and the purifying that came in salvation. And Christ came to purify them that one time for salvation, but then also to start something inside of them like that little leaven that leavened the whole lump that would work its way outward and they would go through that process of sanctification and they'd become more like Christ and they would become more holy over time, okay? Now, I want to make this distinction. Go to Hebrews chapter 9. Go back a little bit just to Hebrews chapter 9. This is different than the purifying that happened at salvation, okay? Hebrews chapter number 9, there was two different purifying that we're talking about. Hebrews chapter 9, look at verse 13. So the purifying of the flesh of the Old Testament, it wasn't enough to get you into heaven. What you needed was the blood of Christ. But notice that this purges your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. We no longer need to do those sacrifices of the Old Testament to be right with God. We were already made right when we trusted in Jesus Christ and we had his blood come upon us and that purified us. Go to Titus, just go to the left, just a hair again, Titus chapter number 2, and this is important because Levi was out there trying to purify the flesh, but Christ is going to come and do something completely different. It's something that man can't do. It's something that the Levites can't do. It's something that's not a full, it's better than fuller soap. It's better than refiner's fire, okay? And that was the gospel of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice was a better sacrifice. And Titus chapter number 2 says in verse 14, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify on himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Notice he purified us, why? So that we could then be purified on the outside. Because the reality is those who strive to repent of their sins apart from believing the gospel are not even clean anyways. As evidenced by the Pharisees and Matthew 23, how Jesus Christ is rebuking them so harshly for how wicked they truly are. And he's saying the only way you would have ever gotten clean is if you had first cleansed that which is inside and then outward, but you guys are trying to clean the outward and it's just never going to happen. And so, yes, God and Jesus Christ care very much about us having works, serving him, and repenting of our sins. But you know what? We don't repent of our sins to get saved, we repent of our sins because we are saved. You got the order backwards. And I'll say this, you can't successfully repent of your sins until you first get saved. Those who try to repent of their sins, they end up going back and wallowing in the mire that they thought they got cleansed from because they're a swine underneath. God has to take you as that swine and turn you into that beautiful new creation inside so you have the capability of actually cleaning up on the outside. Go to Acts chapter number 15, go to Acts chapter number 15. And what we have to understand is that God is after one thing, your heart. He's after your heart. And this chapter is all about the heart. And really the whole Bible is about the heart. I mean, with the heart, man believeth. I mean, that's the center of the gospel. Why is it that people didn't get saved? Because of their heart. They had a heart issue. They weren't receiving Christ in their heart. And you know, to borrow from the liberals, you got to accept Jesus in your heart, right? But to some degree that's kind of true, isn't it? I mean, we have to have a soft enough heart, a humble enough heart to believe on Christ and accept Him as our Savior and not trust in ourselves. And that is what God is after. Look at Acts chapter 15 in verse number 8. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? So you know, in this chapter it's the Judaizers that are coming along trying to get them to repent of their sins to be saved. Trying to get them to get circumcised before they get saved or to add works unto salvation. And He's saying, no, no, no, no, no. What's getting purified is not their outward flesh through circumcision. What's getting purified is their inward heart through faith. And that's where the gospel is centered. It's not centered on what you can change about you physically. It's about what you can change in your heart. And getting saved in your heart will then motivate you to then end up having that work on the outside. That's why it's so important to understand, too, though, that God very much cares about you cleaning up. Like, they'll say, like, oh, the way you're talking, it's like God doesn't care if you sin or are sinful or wicked. No, no, God cares very much. But He's very long suffering with how dirty you are when you're unsaved. Because He wants you to get saved. He doesn't want to judge you harshly while you're unsaved, because He wants you to get saved. But then when you get saved, oh, warning, He's going to swiftly come and judge those who are the adulterers and the sorcerers and committing all these horrible sins. Because now you have the capability of cleaning yourself up, and you should have. You should have drawn an eye onto God and cleansed your hands, you sinners. And you know what? It's very strong language that God uses to those who are saved that now you do need to repent of those sins. Now you do need to clean up your life. And there's a lot of harsh punishments to those who don't. Go if you would back to Malachi. So I wanted to go through those verses, because I want us to kind of unpack a little bit of this, but it's important for us to realize the ramifications of this purification. And He says, for I am the Lord I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Why were they not consumed? They're dirty. They're terrible. This whole book is a testimony against them about how bad they are. But what needed to happen first? Jesus needed to come and cleanse the inside of their heart to clean them up first. Then now, okay, now you don't really have any excuses. You better clean up, then I'll consume you. And of course, those who never received Him, they got destroyed once He got the impurities. Think about it. You take this big chunk, and it's a rock, and there's a little bit of gold in it. And you put it in the fire. Well, you have a huge waste product. That was Israel. Israel was mostly a waste product. And then a little bit of gold came out. That was the disciples, right? And then there was probably a little bit of Judases in there, those impurities, so they had to put it back in that fire. And God just kept putting it in there. And He was like, you know, there's not enough gold here. So then He found some more dirty Gentiles with rocks with some gold in it and started putting them in there. And He's just, He's melting it down so He gets all the gold out, right? And then that's that final reaping that God's going to have, and then all Israel will be saved. Okay, there you go. There's Romans chapter 11. But you know, I think it's important to understand the context of why He's saying, I change not. What does that mean? Israel is going to be saved. God's not going to change. He's not going to get a new apple of His eye. It's always Israel. It's always been Israel. And then you'll hear a Zionist be like, oh, I'm Lord, I change not. Yeah, I get that. But that doesn't mean that the physical nation of Israel, you know, as a whole didn't get rejected. Okay, you're just not understanding that point. Verse 7, even from the days of your fathers, you're gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. Turn unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, prayer and shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. You're cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation, bringing all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, and there shall not be room enough to receive it, and I will abute the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. So now, he brings up them returning, and specifically, and one commandment and one instruction is tithing. Now again, this, the book of Malachi is not only about that. There's a lot of things they're doing wrong that he wants them to change. This is just another one of the things that he has against them. He's upset that they are not tithing appropriately, and of course, when they're not tithing, what's the consequence? Well, then his house doesn't have money, and when the house doesn't have money, then the Levites don't have money, and when the Levites don't have money, the Levites start doing their job, and then what's going by the wayside? The work of the Lord. Okay, and so he just gets mad about that, and he's saying, look, if you return to me, then I'll return to you, but what was the way that they start to return to him? What is the way you just start returning to God? Tithing. Isn't that what he's saying? He's saying, hey, the first step, step one in getting right with God is the tithe, and I think that this could be applied in every way, a singular person, a church, or a nation, and let's be honest, we need all three, right? As an individual, to start returning to God and getting things right, it's the tithe, and I think the reason why he does this is because, let's be honest, what's tugging your heartstrings more than anything other than God? It's money. Right? I mean, if it's the one thing, I mean, when we read the parable of the sower, what's the thing driving people away from producing fruit? It was the riches, the cares and the riches of this world, right? It's kind of like you can't serve God and mammon, right? So the tithe just kind of gets your heart right for the things of God, and of course, where your money is, there will your treasure be also, right? So if you're investing in church, you're probably going to show up, right? It's kind of, it would be counterintuitive to think that there's all these people tithing to church and they never go, right? It's probably unlikely. You know, I'm sure that the people that buy season tickets to the Rangers games go to the Rangers games, right? Some of them sell them, and I get that, but it would be a little weird if it's like, man, I always buy season tickets to the Rangers, and it's like, how many games do you go to? I don't go to any of the games, but I love buying the tickets. You know, it's just like, hey, it probably doesn't happen, right? And the people, you know, the guy that says, you know, I just don't know if I want to buy tickets or not this year. I guarantee the guy that buys the season tickets goes to more games than the guy that decided not to. Why? Because he kind of already made that decision, didn't he? Kind of like, hey, I'm just going to go ahead and invest in this, so I'm going to end up doing it. I think the same as with church, it's like, hey, there's this principle that, you know, when you start putting that first, then you start taking church seriously. And think about it, when people start putting more money into church, more things can happen. When people aren't giving to church, less things happen. That's just how it works. This church is no exception. The more money we get, the bigger, nicer parties and events and conferences and all the things that we have. When less money, it's like less things, less employees, less stuff, you know, whatever is going to happen. It ebbs and flows based on that. And he's saying, how can the nation return to God? How can you as a whole start putting your money in good churches? I mean, what if America said, hey, we're going to only start giving our money, we're going to all tithe, every Christian is going to tithe, and we're only going to tithe the really good soul-winning churches. You think there would be a difference in this country all of a sudden? Yeah. There's a reason why people aren't returning to God, though, because they're putting their money somewhere else, aren't they? And by default, because they're not putting their money there, they're also not putting their mind, heart, effort, energy, and everything else. And what's silly is people don't put their money there afraid sometimes, but God's even saying like, hey, when you give me money, I'll give you even more than you had. He's like basically saying, you're going to have more money by tithing to me than you would if you didn't. And you say, how does that make sense? It does not make sense. Like how is that physically possible? It is not physically possible. You have to believe it by faith. But you know, you could, and again, people have all these testimonials about it, and it doesn't matter. It's anecdotal evidence. But it's like just hypothetically speaking, just to give it in a plain language, yeah, you could start tithing, and God could give you a promotion to work. You could get a new job. You could get an inheritance from a family member that now favors you. You stopped tithing. You could lose the inheritance. The family now hates you. You could get an accident and hurt your leg. That would suck. I'm not saying it's because I didn't tithe, okay folks, all right? I know you're a bunch of Job's friends out there, but I'm just kidding, right? You could, but seriously, you could get all kinds of horrible things, right? Everything in your house could break. Your car could break. You could get fired. You could lose your job. I mean, and think about what he's saying. Verse 11, I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes. So what's kind of the consequence of not tithing? According to the Bible, is he's going to destroy the fruits of your ground, and you know, basically the things you have get destroyed, taken advantage of, stolen, bad things happen, don't they? And when you are tithing, doing right, he ends up giving you more than what you even thought you were going to have. And we probably have all had experiences like both of these. We probably had times where things broke and it sucked, and we had times where we got unexpected income that we weren't necessarily awaiting, and you know, I believe that when you tithe, God's going to take care of you. I do not believe that means you'll never have a problem. I've had plenty of problems, and yet at the same time, I've always been blessed and taken care of, and you know, I believe this. Go if you would to Hebrews chapter 7 for a second. I want to take time to explain this, just because this is what some people say, that's Old Testament. Now here's the thing. It is. Absolutely. Malachi is an Old Testament book. But you know, it's kind of funny to me, though, to think of it this way. It's like the last book of the Old Testament right in anticipation of Christ, and he really wants to emphasize tithing just for us to basically be like, oh, by the way, that's done forever, though. You know, like, it was like I just waited until the last book and the last little bit, and it's, you know, I'm talking about Christ coming, and I really want to emphasize this thing about tithing that has no bearing on the New Testament whatsoever. You know, that kind of defeats a little bit of the purpose, and you say, well, for that little short period of time it was important. Okay. But it just, to me, it would think that if God was going to spend so much time getting mad about something, it would have some kind of a reference to the New Testament, too, right? Or some kind of relevance, importance, or significance to the New Testament. Now I think it does, because I think the Bible's clear. Tithing is a universal doctrine. It's not a only the law doctrine, okay? Now it doesn't mention it a lot in the New Testament, and I will grant you there's not a verse in the New Testament that says thou shalt hide, okay? But, you know, there's also not a commandment in the Old Testament, or in the New Testament that says thou should not get a tattoo of the Star of David on your forehead, okay? Sometimes you kind of have to understand how the Bible works, that he doesn't necessarily always tell you every single instruction multiple times, or over and over, okay? But I believe it's still mentioned here, and I want to explain Hebrew 7 for just a second, and I know we're in Malachi, but look what it says in verse 1. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Mosiah God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth the priest continually. So Melchizedek is described as being like the Son of God, basically because he is, you know? I mean, really when you kind of understand, it's saying, hey, this Melchizedek figure had all the same attributes as Jesus. I wonder why, because it's Jesus, okay? And it's saying Abraham ended up being blessed by this Melchizedek figure, okay? We already learned, Sunday, hopefully you were here, you paid attention, that Abraham, the promises and the covenants and stuff given to Abraham had nothing to do with the law because the law was 430 years later, okay? So what we're talking about has nothing to do with the law, alright? Verse number four, now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. And again, this is also helping you understand this is not a man, this is Jesus, because he's saying Abraham is obviously the best guy. So if Abraham is giving money to somebody else, there's something unique about this. Where did this guy come from? That has no mom, that has no dad, that's better than Abraham, that Abraham is like giving money unto. That doesn't even make any sense. And think about it, it says he gave a tenth of the spoils. What the word tithe literally means is tenth, okay? Verse five, and verily they that are the sons of Eli who received the office of the priesthood have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham. There's your definition, tenth, tithe, tithe, tenth. Notice how they're used interchangeably because they mean the same thing. And he's saying, in contrast, Abraham. So it's making it even clearer. What Abraham did had nothing to do with the law because he's saying the Levites had something completely different where they were literally commanded to take a tithe, okay? They were commanded to take a tithe in the Old Testament, and it says in verse six, but he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham and blessed him that had the promises. So he's saying the Levites took a tithe, and it was commanded to give a tithe to the Levites. But Abraham didn't pay a tithe to Levites. He paid a tithe to Melchizedek. And we know from the Bible that the priesthood is changed to the priesthood of Melchizedek, okay? It says in verse seven, and without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better, saying that Melchizedek is the one who blessed Abraham, because it's obvious that the person doing the blessing is greater than the person receiving the blessing. So it's making it abundantly clear Melchizedek was better. Verse eight, and here men that die receive tithes, but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. Who is it that we're trying to witness that he lives? Jesus. And it's saying, hey, we give tithes to people here that die, but who's receiving them? Jesus is receiving them, okay? And I'm not going to read the whole chapter, but also let's read verse 12 for a second. For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. So I want to point up a couple things. Number one is that if you say, hey, the tithe that was commanded to give to Levi has been fulfilled so it no longer applies to me, I'll say, I agree, but you know what? We don't have the Levitical priesthood. We have the priesthood of Melchizedek, and Abraham tithed to the priest of Melchizedek. And he's saying here, yeah, men that die receive tithes, but you know who really receives them is Jesus Christ. Now I also want to point out something very important, because again, a lot of people get mad about this doctrine. Why? Because they don't want to give money to the church. That's it. That's the only reason. It's not because it's scriptural. But it says, for the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. Let me ask you this question. If tithing was completely done away with, why did we need to change the law? Right? I mean, if the law is done and there's no more need, why did it get changed? What's the point of changing it? Why do we change to the priesthood of Melchizedek? Why is there this change if it has no application? The reason why is because in the New Testament, tithing still applies. But what was the change? Instead of giving it to Levi, we give it to Melchizedek. Now you say, how in the world would I give it to Melchizedek? Well, you have to give it to a man that dies. And obviously it makes sense that if you're giving money to the Levitical priesthood, which is the house of God in the Old Testament, you give it to the house of God in the New Testament, which would be the church. So it makes perfect sense when you just unpack the chapters here that you would give money to the church that you're going to. And I think that that makes sense. If I was going to some church out there in the Netherlands or whatever, I don't know what it is. I'm just saying that. I wouldn't give my money to me. Give the money to the church that you're going to. Obviously there could be exception, but I'm just saying generally speaking, bless the congregation you're in and the church that you're in and help them and allow them to grow and to multiply. And that's what makes sense. Some people I've heard, they're like, well, you know, I give my tithes to, uh, to this missionary or whatever. It's like, well, but you know, I don't think that that's tithing. You know, I think that's, you know, you can give money that's not tithing to people. You know, I think that tithing is given to the local church. Now the local church uses that funds to give to that missionary. It's all fine and dandy, right? I'm not, that makes sense. But you know, to me, you kind of need to be giving it to the house of God, right? Well, I, I tithe by giving money to the poor. That's alms. That's not really tithing. Well, I tithe by giving my time. Well, you know what? That's not really, that's great. I'm glad you give your time to the church, but that's just not a, like, that's not what the Bible is talking about. Okay. And again, what was the point of the money? It's where your heart is. And you know, this sermon or this, this, this topic's not really a fun topic right now because I'm guaranteeing that all of us are in the worst financial times we've ever been in. Some might have an exception. I don't know, but you know, the economy is, is worse. Interest rates are 8% for houses. That's insane. It's stupid. I was, I read an article and it's like, it's not really the Fed's fault that they're raising interest rates and it's like, but they do set the interest rates, you know, what wonderful people, what wonderful Weinsteins and tiny hats that are setting those high interest rates for us, making life real easy, huh? But you know, I think that God also wants to see, how do you do when times are tough? And that's, again, he's after our hearts, right? For sake of time, I'm not going to, I'll probably finish this on Sunday night because there's, there's so much more we can talk about in Malachi chapter number three. But you know, at the end of the day, you got to ask your ques, you have to ask yourself this question. Where is your heart? Okay. You, you took that heart and you believed in Jesus. That was free. That was easy, right? It didn't cost you. It didn't even cost you a dime. But now we're turning to the Lord, cleaning yourself up, following his commandments. It does cost you something, you know? And in fact, according to the Bible, you know, you're, you're, you're worried about 10%. According to the Bible, it's actually supposed to cost you everything. So instead of getting so nervous about losing 10%, why don't you just get real, real nervous and just say everything. Now, I'm not saying give all your money to the church. I'm just saying, like, you should be willing to just say, you know what? Whatever it takes, whatever I lose in this life, it's worth it if I'm following Christ. And you know what? That's hard. It's hard for the people that have a lot. Some of you, some of you poor people in here, you're just like, yeah. Because you basically, you're like, take my jalopy, you know, take my truck that barely even runs. It costs me more money than it is worth, you know, by fixing it all the time, right? Take my rent, my apartment, you know, that I rent, you know, it's like those people, it's like easy, right? It was maybe harder sometimes the people in here that actually have some money or have something to actually lose or actually have a house or actually have, you know, those are the people that, you know, they have a high profile job or whatever. And you'll notice a lot of people that have nice high profile jobs don't come to church here. You want to know why? They don't want to lose it. And look, there's nothing wrong with having it, there's nothing wrong with having money, having riches, having goods, whatever. But you need to check your heart and say like, am I willing to lose it? And even the poor widow woman, when she had two mites, she said, you know what? I'll give it all. And according to Jesus, that was a bigger sacrifice than anybody else was willing to make at that time. It's not about the amount of money. If you're poor, you're like, well, I feel like I can't serve God. No, it doesn't matter how much money you have. It's just your heart. God's after your heart and you're cleaning up yourself and us purifying ourselves through the washing of the word. And, you know, you say, why did I come on a dark, gloomy night on a Wednesday to church? You know, it's to purify your heart a little bit more, is to get just a few more impurities out to check yourself and be reminded of the things. And, you know, let us be a church where God looks down from heaven and says, hey, there's a church that's returning to me. And you say, how could God quantify that? Well, are they tithing? I mean, that's what he said. And you know, you want to be prosperous in the next 10 years? You want our church to be prosperous in the next 10 years? That's what we've got to do. It's not my opinion. It's God's opinion. And honestly, it's kind of a win-win. You just have to believe it, right? I mean, you get more, the church gets more, it's all great, right? And then when you hold back, you lose more, we lose more. It's like, it's kind of a two-edged sword, but we have to have the faith to believe that God will provide and to do right. And just like Abraham gave a tenth of all to Melchizedek, let us give a tenth of all that we have. All right, let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this important chapter and be willing to purify us. We were free and had no chance of being saved on our own. Our works were as filthy rags, but thank you so much for giving us your Son, Jesus Christ, to cleanse us up and to give us free salvation, to give us the opportunity to go to heaven based on His righteousness and not our own. But I pray that we wouldn't take that free gift and just do nothing with it, that we wouldn't just take it for granted, but rather, we would allow that to motivate us to serve you, to cleanse our hands and to draw closer to you. And I pray that anybody that's skeptical or maybe is weak in faith, that you would strengthen them now, that you would help them to believe your word, that they could take a step of faith, and they would return to you, and that you would help bless them financially, you would bless our church financially, and that you would help us to just give you all the honor and glory, and that we continue to do the works for your benefit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, in closing, let's go to song number 27. Song number 27, The Old Rugged Cross. Song number 27. Everybody sing it out on the first. And our love had a cross, where the spirits had bled, for the world of the sinners was slain. So I changed the old rugged cross, till I told you at last I lay down. I will place in the old rugged cross, and exchange its sound cake for a crown. From that old rugged cross, slowly satisfied the world, at the wondrous contraction for me. For the dear live of God, left in glory of love, to bear in truth our Calvary. So I changed the old rugged cross, till I told you at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange its sound cake for a crown. In the old rugged cross, made the cross so divine, a wondrous beauty I see. For to love at no cost, Jesus so prepared God, to pardon and sanctify me. So I changed the old rugged cross, till I told you at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange its sound cake for a crown. To the old rugged cross, I will ever be true, in shame and repose gladly where. There you're calling some day, to my home far away, where it's glory forever I'll share. So I changed the old rugged cross, till I told you at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange its sound cake for a crown. I will cling to the old rugged cross, till I told you at last I lay down.