A Message To Spiritual Leaders

00:02 I greet you this morning in the name of Jesus. Give glory to God for His goodness in bringing us through another week, another season where we can have been able to celebrate the birth of Christ. We did that a little bit by taking a couple of days as a family, those who are left at home anyway, 00:22 to go down to the Ark and to the Creation Museum. 00:26 And it was just a real joy to be together as a family, but also to be reminded of the authority of God's Word and the credibility of God's Word, and to take that in and be recharged, if you want to say that. 00:44 Recharged, renewed in our confidence in the Word of God and in the person of God. You know, the Word of God is only as good as His person. And His person is perfect, so His Word is perfect. His person is reliable, so His Word is reliable. 01:00 And His person is steadfast, and so His Word is steadfast and unchangeable. So anyway, with that in mind, I invite your attention this morning to Malachi chapter 2. Malachi chapter 2. 01:16 And before we read that, I just want to give you a little bit of a review on the book of Malachi. We had two messages previous to this. One was an introduction and talking about the setting that Malachi was writing to. And the other then was the pollution of God. 01:38 God being polluted by His people. And they had despised His name in chapter 1, verse 6. He said this classic statement, "A son honors his father and a servant his master. If I'm your father, where's my honor? 01:52 If I'm your master, where's your reverence?" And he was drawing an analogy there that they had despised His name and they had polluted His altar. 02:02 In verse 7 of chapter 1, "You offered defiled food on my altar." And of course, they were asking, "Well, how have we defiled you and defiled your altar?" And offered things that were contemptible and despised. And they did that by offering defiled and diseased sacrifices. 02:22 And they were offering the sickly and the blind and the lame and the diseased and the stolen and the defective and the blemished. And in doing so, they were showing what they really believed about God. And that God was not worthy of the best. 02:42 God was not worthy of their ultimate allegiance and sacrifice. They detested and mocked the Lord by saying in verse 13 of chapter 1, "What weariness! What a nuisance! How wearisome this is to serve God and to give Him the best of our flocks. You sniff at my offerings. 03:02 You turn up your nose. 03:03 You snort disdainfully." And He has an indictment of them that is now continued in chapter 2. Chapter 2, verse 1, He begins to speak to the priests. So we could call this a message to spiritual leaders. And it is a message to spiritual leaders, 03:23 but in another sense, it's a message to all of us in how we view God and our loyalty to Him, our confidence in Him, and our willingness to give to Him that which He deserves. 03:36 And you'll see in this passage, in a very real sense, that what you desire from God is largely determined will be what He gives back to you. What you desire from God this year, it may just be that He will give to you that which you give to Him. 03:57 Now, somebody said it like this. 03:59 What would happen if when you went to bed at night and woke the next morning, that the only things that you had were the things that you had thanked God for the day before? Have you ever heard that somebody give kind of a little analogy like that? 04:17 Can you imagine what it'd be like if you woke up this morning and the only thing you had was what you thanked God for yesterday? And in a sense, that's kind of a roundabout way of saying that there's times when God gives to us a response of what we have given to Him. 04:33 And if you want God's best in 2020, could it be that you need to give God your best and that God gives His best to those who give their best? And so think about that this morning as we read. Chapter 2, 04:52 verse 1, "And now, O priests, this commandment is for you. If you will not hear and if you will not take it to heart to give glory to my name," says the Lord of hosts, "I will send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have cursed them already because you do not take it to heart. 05:14 Behold, I will rebuke your descendants and spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feasts, and one will take you away with it. Then you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant with Levi may continue," says the Lord of hosts. 05:34 "My covenant was with him, one of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear me. So he feared me and was reverent before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity and turned many away from iniquity. 05:54 For the lips of the priests should keep knowledge and people should seek the law from his mouth. For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have departed from the way. You have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi," says the Lord of hosts. 06:12 "Therefore, I also have made you contemptible and base before all the people because you have not kept my ways but have shown partiality in the law." The story is told by H.G. Wells. 06:29 He was no friend of the church, but he did have an interesting illustration that years ago in The New Yorker, he told a story about an Episcopalian clergyman. It could have just been any clergyman, but in this case, it was an Episcopalian. And the bishop was a kind man who had always said pious things to people. 06:49 And whenever people with troubles came to him, he found that a particular helpful thing to say was, if he said it in the right tone of voice, "Have you prayed about it?" If it was just said the right way, it seemed to settle things. The bishop himself didn't pray much. And his life was wrapped in a neat little package. 07:09 But one day, life tumbled in on him and he found himself overwhelmed. It occurred to the bishop that maybe he should take some of his own advice and pray. So on a Saturday afternoon, he entered the cathedral, went to the front, and knelt on the crimson rug and folded his hands so that it would be just right in his prayer and began to pray. 07:31 He said, "Oh God." And suddenly, there was a voice. It was crisp, businesslike. And the voice said, "Well, what is it?" The next day, when the worshipers came to sunny services, they found the bishop sprawled face down on the crimson carpet. When they turned him over, they discovered he was dead. 07:51 Lines of horror were etched upon his face. And what H.G. Wells was really saying in that story is simply this: There are folks who talk a lot about God who would be scared to death if they saw him face to face. And in a very real sense, that's the sad story of these priests here this morning. 08:11 God says, "You talk a lot about me and you tell people to pray and you help offer them their prayers and so on, but you don't really know me. You haven't really entered into relationship with me. And you're not walking with me face to face, side by side. You're not following me. You're not living for me. 08:31 You're not honoring me. And you are not keeping the covenant that we entered into." Now, I want to give you a little bit of an outline of this passage this morning. The first three verses, we have the condition of the spiritual leaders. The second point is found in verses 4 and 5, 08:51 the covenant with the spiritual leaders. And then verses 5 through 7, the criteria for spiritual leaders. And then verses 8 and 9, the corruption of spiritual leaders. So let's look at this this morning. Verses 1 through 3, the condition of the spiritual leaders at this time. 09:12 He said, "And in a very real sense, God is giving to them that which they have given to Him." Now, there's some interesting plays on words here and some interesting interaction between chapter 1 and chapter 2 of God giving to the spiritual leaders what they gave to Him. And there's some contrast. 09:33 In chapter 1, verse 6, he talks about being despised. He says, "Yet you say, 'And what have we despised thee?'" Right before that, he says, "To you priests who despise my name." They were despising the name of God. But in chapter 2, verse 9, he says, "Therefore, I also have made you contemptible and base." In other words, 09:54 I am rejecting you to the degree that you have rejected me. And so could it be that sometimes we get from God that which we give to God? His response to us is contingent upon our response to Him. And if we despise His name, there will be a despising of us from Him. 10:17 And interesting to see that in this passage of Scripture. In chapter 1, verse 7, they polluted God. "You offered defiled food on my altar. In what way have we defiled you? By saying the table of the Lord is contemptible." And then he talks about their polluted sacrifices that they have given to Him. 10:38 In chapter 2 now, he's going to return that with polluting them. Chapter 2, verse 3, "Behold, I will rebuke your descendants and spread refuse on your faces." Now, that's just a nice word of saying dung or awful, the intestinal stuff of their sacrifices. 10:57 He said, "It's going to be thrown in your face. You polluted me. 11:01 I will pollute you." You see, as they offered sacrifices, there were parts of it that would be taken out of the camp and burned. 11:10 In Exodus 29, verse 14, it says, "The flesh of the bowl, the flesh, the skin, and its awful, its intestines, you shall burn with fire outside the camp." It is a sin offering. So they would skin the beast. 11:28 They would offer the meat to the Lord in an offering. 11:34 And they would take the skin and the intestines and take it outside and burn it outside the camp. 11:43 Leviticus chapter 4, verse 11 and 12, "But the bowl's hide and all its flesh with its head and legs, its entrails and awful, the whole bowl he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place where the ashes are poured out and burn it on wood with fire. Where the ashes are poured out, 12:02 it shall be burned." And so he said they weren't doing this. They were polluting His name and they were polluting God by what they offered in the offerings. And so he says, "I will pollute you and spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feast, and one will take you away with it. 12:23 So you will be banished from my presence in a shameful kind of way." And what would be more shameful than to have guts smeared on your face to be quite blood about it? 12:37 And so he says, "I want you to know that I'm going to respond to you in a similar way as you have responded to me." And then he says in verse chapter 2, he says, "I will curse your blessings. 12:51 I will curse your blessings." He's talking here about the blessings that come with a sacrifice that's accepted and approved. And he said, "Because your sacrifice is not accepted and approved, I will curse your blessings." That means to send evil or destruction on a disobedient people. This is not done maliciously. 13:11 This is done in judgment to their sin and to their 13:18 rejection of God and His ways. It is a judgment. It is a curse on accursed people. 13:26 In Proverbs chapter 3, verse 33, it says, "The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the just." And so you may begin to see this morning that God blesses in response to our blessings and God curses in response to our cursings. 13:47 So depending on what you want from God this year, we need to look at what we're giving to God this year. So then he looks at the... that was the condition of the spiritual leaders. 14:00 Then we look in verse 4 and 5 about the covenant with the spiritual leaders. And he's talking about this covenant, this covenant with Levi. "Then you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant with Levi may continue." He said, "I don't want to cut you off. 14:20 I don't want to reject you. I don't want to do these things to you. I want my covenant with you to continue, but there must be an agreement on your part with the terms of the covenant." And so he says, "I want that covenant to continue," says the Lord of hosts. "My covenant was with him, one of life and peace. 14:40 And I gave them to him that he might fear me. And he feared me and was reverent before my name." Now, in order to understand this, we need to do a little research into Levi and the sons of Levi. What is going on here with this covenant with Levi? So turn in your Bibles to the Old Testament, 14:59 back further in the Old Testament to the book of Genesis. Genesis, you have Levi not being such a nice fella. In fact, he was actually rejected by his father in some sense. 15:11 Yes, he was not rejected as a son, but his actions precipitated or went before and caused his father to speak negatively about his character. And Genesis chapter 49, verses 5 through 7, this is what his father said about Levi. 15:32 "Simeon and Levi are brothers. Instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place. Let not my soul enter their council. Let not my honor be united to their assembly. For in their anger, they slew a man and in their self-will, they hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, 15:52 for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel." Now, how would you like to have your father say that about you on his deathbed? Well, we probably wouldn't like that very well. But it was a recognition of the character of Simeon and Levi, which reflected their lack of character. 16:14 And what he's talking about here is in chapter 34, I believe it was, when Dinah, their sister, was defiled. And we won't go into a lot of detail with this, but their sister, Dinah, was defiled by Shechem, the son of Hamor, a neighboring village. 16:35 And he took a shine to Dinah and fell in love with her or fell in lust with her and said, "I want her to be my wife." He took her. He laid with her, committed fornication with her. And Levi and Simeon found out about it. And they decided, "We're going to get revenge." Now, the law allows for certain types of revenge, but not this type of revenge. 16:57 And actually, it's not revenge in the law. It's justice. And so they went beyond justice and got revenge and a cruel revenge where they entered into an agreement with Shechem. And they said, "Shechem, if you want our sister, this is what you're going to have to do. You're going to have to have all of the men of your community circumcised. 17:17 And then, and only then, will we give you our sister as a wife and enter into an agreement where we will give our daughters to you in marriage and vice versa." So they entered into a certain covenant, agreement with the neighbors there in Shechem. And of course, 17:35 if you remember the story, while they took that back to the city leaders and the leaders recognized the economic benefit of being in a relationship with the Hebrews, the sons of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac and Jacob. And they said, "Okay, we'll go for it. 17:51 We'll be circumcised." And while they were yet in pain from the circumcision, Simeon and Levi went in and slew the entire village, the entire community, killed them brutally, cruelly. Now, it was terrible what happened to Dinah. 18:11 Let's not underestimate that. But it was very terrible what happened in a breaking of an agreement and a covenant and deception and cruelty at the hand of Simeon and Levi. And so Levi was a scoundrel, recognized as that by his dad. But God saw Levi's potential. 18:33 And God still had a plan for the children of Levi. And over in chapter 13 of Exodus, we find the descendants of Levi entering into an interesting exchange with God, an interesting exchange with God. In chapter 13 of Exodus, 18:53 God says, "I'm going to buy back the firstborn and exchange them for the Levites." Now, this can be a little bit technical and a little bit confusing. 19:05 But you remember when God saved the Israelite firstborn from the death angel on the Passover night? All of the firstborn of Israel or of Egypt were killed. Firstborn males of Israel were spared. 19:26 We know exactly how many? No, we may not know. But we have some numbers attached to this because God said everything that is firstborn male now needs to die. And so all of the firstborn donkeys, all of the firstborn animals, all of the firstborn sheep and goats and all those things, 19:48 I think the donkeys had their necks broke and the others were killed in various ways as a payment for God giving the firstborn their life. Okay? And so God gave the firstborn their life. Everything else died. 20:04 But then he says, "I'm going to trade in the firstborn for the sons of Levi." And you can read about this in Exodus 13 and then in Numbers 3. Why don't you turn over to Numbers 3? Because it gives us, interestingly enough, some numbers. Numbers 3, 20:23 where God says, "Now, instead of maintaining this thing with the firstborn, where all the firstborn belong to me because I spared their lives, now I'm going to trade them in for the Levites. And all of the Levites are going to belong to me because I spared the life of the firstborn." I hope I'm making sense this morning. 20:46 And so in chapter 3 of Numbers, verse 43, God says, "All the firstborn males, according to the number of the names from the month old and above of those that were numbered of them, were 23,273." There we have the number of firstborn males, 22,273. 21:07 If anybody asks you how many firstborn sons were spared in Egypt, that's the number right there. Then he says, "Now, in verse 46, verse 45, take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel and the livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock. 21:28 The Levites shall be mine. I am the Lord." And for the redemption of the 273... 21:38 okay, we got to back up here and say there were 22,000 Levites. So that left a discrepancy of 273 more firstborn than there were Levites. So in verse 46, for the redemption of the 273 of the firstborn of the children of Israel, who are more than the number of the Levites, 21:58 you shall take five shekels for each one individually. You shall take them in the currency of the shekel of the sanctuary, the shekel of 20 gheiras. And you shall give the money with which the excess number of them is redeemed to Aaron and his sons. 22:14 And verse 51, Moses gave their redemption money to Aaron and his sons according to the word of the Lord as the Lord commanded Moses. 22:22 And this exchange then made certain that the Levites belonged to God in a similar way as the firstborn did. They literally were purchased by God. They were chosen by God to do what? To be the priests, to be the priests. 22:42 And because they belonged to God in a special way, they were like a tithe, almost a tithe of the children of Israel. They belonged to God in a special way. They did not get any inheritance, but they lived in the tabernacle, by the tabernacle, by the temple, by the offerings that came. And they had their specific cities with a certain amount of thing, 23:05 acreage around the city. And they did not have a a a plot of of territory like the other tribes did. Now, why is this important? Because we see the Levites being redeemed. See, Levi, the scoundrel, and then Levites being purchased by God. So you see a picture of the gospel there, actually. 23:27 And then we have the Levites restored. Now, this is interesting. Who was it that defended God's name with the golden calf? Look over to Exodus chapter 32. Exodus chapter 32, Moses is up on the mountain. The people are down in the valley and under the direction of Aaron, 23:47 who was a Levite, 23:51 son of Levi, the first high priest. And under his direction, they grind up this this gold and they and they melt it down and they fashion the golden calf. God tells Moses, "Get down there and deal with the people because they have adulterated themselves. 24:11 They have polluted themselves." And in verse 32, 26 through 28, Moses stood at the entrance of the camp and said, "Whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me." And who showed up? The Levites. All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. So at least Moses had on his team the Levites. 24:32 And he said to them, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel, let every man put his sword on his side and go in." And he's talking to the Levites here. "Go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor." So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about 3,000 men of the people fell that day. 24:54 Who took vengeance for the name of God? Was the Levites, the Levites. And so the Levites were redeemed. And now they were proving themselves as spiritual leaders. But God really entered into a close covenant with them in Numbers chapter 25. So go to Numbers chapter 25, 25:16 verses 10 through 13. And this comes at the heels of the incident with Balaam and Balak. Balak hired Balaam to come and curse the children of Israel. "Stand on this mountain. Look down. Curse the children of Israel." Balaam said, "I can't do that. God has blessed them. So I'll only say what God says." And then Balaam ended up blessing them. But after that, 25:36 it appears that Balaam said, "If you really want to bring a curse on the children of Israel, then invite them into your worship and into your bedroom. 25:47 Invite them into your worship of Baal and intermarrying with harlotry and prostitution with the women of Moab." And so that's exactly what they did. And they brought... they they lured the Levitic... okay, we're looking at Numbers chapter 25. 26:09 They lured the men of Israel into an illicit relationship of idolatry and idol worship of Baal. And Phineas was the man who took the name of God seriously. So Moses comes on the scene. 26:31 And he says, "There must be judgment of this." And then the Lord said in Numbers 25, verse 4, "The Lord said to Moses, 'Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the Lord out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.'" And so there evidently had been leaders involved in this that were enticing the people. 26:50 He said, "Because this plague broke out of judgment upon the people of Israel, God says, 'Hang those leaders out in the sun,'" literally hung out to dry. They use a common colloquialism, "hang them out to dry. And then we've got to turn the fierce anger of the Lord away from Israel." So Moses said to the judges of Israel, 27:11 "Every one of you, kill his men who were joined to Baal Peor." Now, what happened in this setting, there was a man, an Israelite, who brought a Moab or Midianite... the Midianites and the Moabites were working together on this thing, brought a Midianite woman into the camp, 27:30 into the very camp of Israel, and took her into his tent to commit adultery and fornication with her in the tent. And this raised the ire of Phineas. And when Phineas, verse 7, "the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest Saat, he rose from among the congregation, took a javelin in his hand, 27:50 and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel." Now, you talk about gory. This is some gory Old Testament details. But nevertheless, it took the man of God to stand up and say, 28:10 "This foolishness has got to stop." And so this was God's response, verse 9. "And those who died in the plague were 24,000. 28:19 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned back my wrath from the children of Israel because he was zealous with my zeal among them so that I did not consume the children of Israel in my zeal. Therefore, say, 'Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace. 28:40 And it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the children of Israel.'" You get the point here by now. As we go back, notice that covenant of peace, covenant of peace. 29:00 Now, we go back to Malachi and we look at this, what God says. "I entered into a covenant of peace, a covenant of life." In other words, "You Levites were on my team. You were my special possession. You were my leaders. 29:20 I put you in charge of the spiritual sacrifices of this great company, of this great nation. And you have rejected me. My covenant was with him, one of peace and life. And I gave them to him that he might fear me. So he feared me and was reverent before my name. 29:40 The law of truth was in his mouth. And injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity and turned many away from iniquity." And there you have the special relationship that Levi had with God. But these descendants of Levi, 29:59 these priests in the time of Malachi, considered that not worthy to continue. 30:07 So what is the criteria for spiritual leaders? We've seen the condition of these spiritual leaders. We've also seen the covenant with these spiritual leaders. And God, in this passage, gives us the criteria for spiritual leadership. The criteria is found in verse 5 through 7. 30:29 A whole heart giving glory to God, fearing the Lord, walking in the law of truth, injustice, walking with God in peace and uprightness, turning people from sin, proclaiming the knowledge of God, and serving as a messenger of God. Let's break this down just a little bit. 30:49 We see these spiritual leaders needed to pursue God with a whole heart, chapter 1, verse 2. "Your love for God has not been wholehearted." No, chapter 2, verse 2. I'm sorry. "If you will not hear and if you will not take it to heart." Where does serving God start? 31:09 It starts in the heart. It starts in the heart of the Christian leader. And then he must give glory to God. He must give glory to God. "Your heart," verse 2, "is not bent on giving glory to my name." And worship is important to a spiritual leader. 31:31 The whole heart sacrifice is important to God or to the spiritual leader. Giving glory to God rather than taking the glory upon ourselves as spiritual leaders. Acknowledging God, adoring God, worshiping God. I said some time ago, 31:50 "Beware," on my last message, "Beware the man who won't sing." Now I'll say, "Beware the spiritual leader who won't worship." Beware the spiritual leader who does not worship, who does not worship God. And then he says, "You need to walk in my fear," chapter 1, verse or 2, verse 5. 32:08 "I gave them to him that he might fear me." So he feared me. He feared me. And that we would walk in his ways. Verse 5 continues. "I gave them to him that he might fear me. 32:26 So he feared me and was reverent before my name." In verse 6, "The law of truth was in his mouth," the law of truth, not lies, not fabrications, not made-up stories, but truth, the law of truth, the true law of God was in their midst, in their lives, in their lips. 32:49 And justice. And injustice was not found on his lips. A spiritual leader must walk in the truth. A spiritual leader must walk in injustice and inequity and walk in peace with God and uprightness. 33:07 The New Living Translation has a really good translation on this when it says, "Helps give us better understanding when he says, 'The purpose of my covenant with the Levites was to bring life and peace. And that is what I gave them. This required reverence from them. And they greatly revered me and stood in awe of my name. 33:29 They passed on to the people the truth of the instructions they received from me. They did not lie or cheat. They walked with me, living good and righteous lives. And they turned many from lives of sin.'" That's one of the characteristics of a godly leader. 33:51 It's not to make people comfortable in their sin, but to turn them from their sin. Proclaiming the knowledge of God is how we do that in verse 7. "For the lips of the priest should keep knowledge," that is the knowledge of God, "and serving as a messenger of God. 34:11 For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." I want to just have you think this morning about the fear of the Lord, where all this starts. It starts in the heart. It starts in the heart of a man who is in who walks in the fear of God. The Bible says in Psalm 111, verse 10, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 34:33 A good understanding have all they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever." Proverbs 1, verse 7, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments." That's actually a repeat of the previous verse. 34:53 Proverbs 8:13, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate." Proverbs 10:27, "The fear of the Lord prolongeth days. 35:04 But the years of the wicked shall be shortened." There you have that again, that what we give to God, he gives back to us in abundance. We give to God the fear of the Lord. Our days are prolonged. You give to God... you do not give to God the fear of the Lord. 35:24 The wicked... the years of the wicked shall be shortened. Proverbs 14, "In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence. And his children shall have a place of refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death." Proverbs 16:6, "By the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil." Proverbs 19:23, 35:44 "The fear of the Lord tendeth to life. And he that hath it shall abide satisfied. He shall not be visited with evil." Proverbs 22:4, "By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life." Now you say those are Old Testament scriptures. What about the New Testament? 36:04 The Bible says, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." It's true this term, fear of the Lord, is primarily an Old Testament term, an Old Testament phrase. 36:25 But here you have it that in the New Testament, the child of God will be perfecting holiness of flesh and spirit in the fear of God. And the Bible says that we're to even submit to one another in the fear of God. The Bible says in the early church, Acts chapter 9, 36:44 I think it is, that they continued in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Isn't that beautiful? Walking in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Wow. So what about the corruption of these spiritual leaders? 37:05 Verse 8 and 9, "But you have departed from the way. You have caused many to stumble at the law. 37:14 You have corrupted the covenant of Levi." This ought to take every spiritual leader and make us extremely prayerful and humble. That we would not depart from the way by causing many to stumble at the Word of God. 37:36 He is the messenger of God. Verse 7, "For the lips of the priest should keep knowledge. The people should seek the law from his mouth. When people go to the spiritual leader, they ought to be able to know that the spiritual leader will tell them the truth and not some concocted fairy tale. 37:55 For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." Let me tell you, brothers and sisters, we as pastors take this very, very seriously. We don't know everything. We're not all wise. We're not all... we're not God. 38:12 But there's something that happens when a spiritual leader is responsible for a group of souls that God gives wisdom if they seek it from him, if they're walking in the fear of God, if they're following with their whole heart, 38:31 if they're giving glory to God, if they're fearing the Lord, if they're in the law of truth, if they're walking in justice and equity and uprightness and in peace with God, that God gives special wisdoms. And brothers and sisters, we don't flaunt that. 38:47 But there are times when the pastoral team needs to speak into someone's life. And we take that very seriously, very seriously. Lest we should cause one to depart from the Word of God. 39:08 These priests had become so contaminated and corrupted that they had rejected the authority of the Word of God. 39:18 And that is our authority. That is our appeal, is the Word of the living God. I want you to look here. Something that jumped off the page to me this morning as I was finalizing this message. Verse 9, 39:39 "Therefore I also have made you contemptible and base, contemptible and base before all the people because you have not kept my ways but have shown partiality in the law." That phrase, partiality in the law, 39:58 immediately our minds go to the to the problem of being a respector of persons. And so it could be that these priests had their favorites and they were just... and they were judged by a different standard than their non-favorites. 40:18 That's entirely possible that that would be the case. Because where there's a corruption of uprightness and justice in in in leadership, there will be the potential for corruption of justice in the congregation. God forbid. But there's another way of looking at this verse. 40:39 He says, "You have not kept my ways but have shown partiality in the law." Did a little study on this. It could also refer to being partial about various parts of the law. 40:58 The New American Standard Version says that they were partiality, exercising partiality in the instruction. The ESV, the Holman, the CSB Bibles also use that term. They were partial... 41:16 they were exercising partiality in your instruction. The NIV, you were showing partiality in the matters of the law. I'd like to have you think about this. They were exercising... 41:30 it could be that they were exercising partiality in lifting up certain parts of the law over other parts of the law and discriminating between the law of God. In other words, this part isn't as important as this part. And this part is inferior to this part. 41:51 This part you don't have to do as long as you do this part. And by the way, that's what Jesus said to the Pharisees. He says, "You you you demand that people tithe and you emphasize that part of the law, but you're rejecting the part of the law that deals with the heart and that deals with the soul and the mind and the spirit. 42:09 And you're rejecting the parts of the law that don't fit with you, that you don't feel comfortable with, that would expose your sin. And you are picking and choosing which parts of the law you want," reminds us of some spiritual leaders today. 42:25 This part is good for the church. This part isn't good for the church. This part is good for... as part of God's Word. It's real and literal. This part is not literal. And all you have to do is just ask people what they do with the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Is it real? Is it true? Oh yes, it's true. It's true historical. It's accurate. 42:43 It is the authority by which we base the entire gospel. But there are those who will say, "No, it's just a myth. It's just a story. It's just a good lesson. It's just mythology. It's just allegorical." And they say, 43:03 "You don't have to understand or even believe in the first 11 chapters of Genesis as long as you believe in the rest of it." And they begin to pick and choose which parts of the scriptures are important for the church to believe. And so what the enemy comes along, he says, "Well, Genesis chapters 1 through 11 aren't authoritative. 43:23 They're just allegorical. They're just a story." And Revelation, we don't want to spend any time there because it's hard to understand. And really the thing about hell and the lake of fire and people going into it and staying there for eternity, we're not sure that's authoritative. And so we'll just cut that part out. As long as you believe the rest of it... 43:43 oh and then there's other parts here. You know what I mean about that part where divorce and remarriage and that part about homosexuality and that part about loving your neighbor as yourself and that part about being non-resistant? Oh I guess those parts aren't all that authoritative. 43:57 And they begin to discriminate against the Word of God and show partiality to the Word of God. 44:08 And if you do that, you will begin to discriminate against people because you have a shifting standard. Oh that God would reignite within us a passion for the authority of the scriptures, the authority, the authenticity, 44:28 the credibility of the Word of God. 44:35 You have rejected the authority of the Word. And because of that, it has led you down this path to the point where God has said, "I will reject you. 44:47 And as you have shamed my name in front of the entire assembly, I will shame yours." God help us. And so this morning, how do you start out 2020? Can you believe we're there? 45:06 2020? Wow. I remember going to ACE conventions years ago. And they were talking about the year 2020. And I thought, "2020? Man, they were talking about the Lord coming in or around the year 2020." And I said, "Wow, that's a long time. I think He can come sooner than that." But here we are, 2020. 45:27 Just right around the bend. 2020. What do you want to do? What do you want to experience from God in 2020? What if, just like these spiritual leaders, what we get to get from God or receive from God is directly related to what we give to Him? 45:45 And then ask yourself, what are you giving to God in 2020? Let's pray. 45:51 God, Lord God, Lord God Almighty, Lord of heaven and earth, Lord of hosts, Lord of the hosts of Israel, Lord of the hosts of angels, Lord of the hosts 46:08 of the church, Almighty God, we bow before You. We humble ourselves. We recognize that You are God. We are mere men. We are mere mortals. Unholy by nature, unscrupulous like Levi, 46:30 and yet redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, 46:34 restored by the blood of Jesus Christ, restored to walk uprightly before You in righteousness and true holiness. Oh God, help us to do that. Help us to do it better in 2020 than we did in 2019. Lord, increase our faith and our walk with You. 46:54 Continue to point out sin in our lives, Lord, where we might be in need of confession and repentance. And continue to point out Your goodness, Lord. We give You ourselves, Lord, as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is the least that we can do. We want to walk before You in the fear of the Lord, 47:16 dreading in any way that we would, in any way, 47:22 fall short of proclaiming Your name in truth. That we would, in any way, fail the grace of God. Lord, keep us. Keep us strong. Keep us holy. 47:41 Keep us as a church united. Keep us faithful. God, I pray for the spiritual leaders in this congregation. It's not just preachers and elders. 47:53 It's also fathers, mothers, teachers, childcare workers. Anytime we have the opportunity to influence someone else for Jesus' sake, we find ourselves functioning in the realm of spiritual leadership. But Father, 48:13 for those of us who are called for direct spiritual oversight of this congregation, Lord, help us to walk in humility and in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. 48:27 Lord, I pray that You will give us wisdom and insight 48:32 that when the congregation speaks to us, we might hear and listen and take counsel. And when we speak to the congregation, that the same might happen. Father, I pray that there would be no one that would be lost in 2020. 48:55 I pray that You will preserve us to the coming of Christ without the loss of one, whether that be in our families, in our church family, in our extended families. And so Father, we stand at the door of another year. 49:13 We could fear going in through that door. But Lord, we choose not to. We choose that the only fear that we want to function in is the fear of the Lord. For he who fears God need fear nothing else. And he who does not fear God should fear everything else. 49:29 So Lord, help us to walk in truth, uprightness, justice, righteousness, peace, and life, eternal life. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.