Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: One of the things I'm so thankful about the Word of God is it's the compass of truth. You'll never be disappointed. This is coming from a guy who's been studying the Bible as long as I can remember, just as a little kid going to church. I've never once been sad when I stuck with God's Word. There's never been one time in my life where I think, I think the Bible's wrong on that one.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador and the benefit of heating the Word of God.

Brett Meador: I just want to tell you, don't get sucked into this world and the way that does stuff. Go with God's Word.

Guest (Male): The message of the prophet Malachi to the unfaithful priesthood of the day was to expose how they profaned the holiness of the Lord. God's call to believers then and now is to revere the Lord, know His Word, pursue godly character walking in peace and equity, and preserving and promoting God's Word. Pastor Brett Meador shares these ever-timely truths in today's Word.

Brett Meador: A highway patrolman was pulling alongside of a little old lady who was speeding in the lane next to him. As he pulled up next to her, he couldn't believe what he saw. She was there speeding, but she was also knitting at the same time.

And he couldn't believe it and he said, "Pull over." And she looked at him kind of disgusted, said, "No, cardigan." What a witty little knitter.

But the Lord is calling out the people during Malachi's day and they don't get it. Everything that He says, they've got some witty little comeback that's actually kind of pathetic. And it's embarrassing how bad these people are out of sync with the Lord.

We saw him start in chapter one, I have loved you, and they said, "Where have you loved us?" And they just didn't get it. There was a million ways that the Lord demonstrated His love for the people of Israel. He said, "You have despised My name," and they said, "Where did we despise Your name?" And you've polluted my table and my bread, and "Where have we polluted you?" they said.

So this is kind of the way this book sort of rolls right now is with this sort of the people going, "What have we done? What are you talking about, God?" and that's sort of their attitude. It's interesting because if they would have understood His heart for them, His love for them, they would have not acted so badly.

We saw that sort of this is the end of that prophet's, the Old Testament period. It springs into the Intertestamental period, the silent years between the Old Testament and the New Testament when Christ comes. And this is chronologically that place also in the Bible. It's at that place. It's the very end of those times, and this is the condition we find the children of Israel.

We saw, first of all, in chapter one verses two through five, we saw number one, the denying of God's love. "Where did You love us?" And they were acting like God didn't love them. We saw that. But also in verses six through 14, we saw number two, the defiling of God's table. They defiled the worship service in the temple. They were bringing defiled offerings, and it was abomination before the Lord.

And the third part of this book divides into number three, the devaluing of God's Word. And that's chapter two, verses one through nine here in Malachi. So let's take it up in chapter two verse one. He says, "And now, O ye priest, this commandment is for you. If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto My name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you."

"And I will curse your blessings. Yea, I've cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung on your faces. Even the dung of your solemn feasts. And one shall take you away with it."

"And you shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that My covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace. I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared Me, and was afraid before My name. The law of truth was in his mouth, iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with Me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity."

He said, "You didn't listen to My Word and you didn't take it to heart." In verse two, he says, "If you're not listen or not here, and you didn't lay it to heart, then you're going to have trouble. And it's going to come back on you." is what he said.

It's interesting how the Bible is tricky that way, where we can have maybe an intellectual knowledge of the Bible, but they always talk about that 18 inches between your head and your heart. And you got to take the Bible to heart, where it's life changing and it's meaningful. It's the Lord's love letter that He's written to His people.

And the Jews are like, "Yeah, whatever." And they didn't listen. They didn't take the Word to heart. And because of that, the Lord says, "You're going to have dung on your face." You say, "That's kind of mean. Isn't that mean of God spreading dung on the people's face? Is God trying to be a bully?" No, it's because of what they were doing. They were doing sinful stuff. They were the ones dirtying themselves, and that was just the result.

Remember the prodigal? The prodigal took off, did his own thing, and he ends up in the pigpen, in the pig dung, and the pig slop. That's what sin does. When we don't listen to the Word of God, and you start kind of, why does my life stink? The answer? Got dung on your face.

And that's the problem. There's people in this world, "Oh, the world stinks." But actually it's because they've got dung on their face. That's why it stinks. And they need to understand the way you deal with that is you got to wash in the water of the Word. So there's sin nature of the people makes them wallow in the slop, in the dung, is the idea. And so their lives stink.

And what they need is they need to run it through a shower. How do you wash yourself like these people? What would be the answer for them? Well, we learn that in the New Testament. Here's a couple verses that I love on this notion. First John 1:7, "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His son, cleanseth us from all sin."

As you and I live in this world that's full of dung and we wallow in the slop with our sin, I'm so thankful for the cleansing of God, that God sends His son Jesus, and if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Another good one is the bride of Christ, the church. That's us. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church. Ephesians 5 declares. And it says, "that He might sanctify," that means to set apart, "and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy without blemish."

That's what the Lord wants to do for us. And how do we do that? By the washing of the water of the Word. But you have to understand, the Word has to be taken to heart. That's kind of the key. And so that's why we call this section of the scripture a devaluing of God's Word.

Notice he mentions a group of people here that once sort of had it dialed in. Who would that group of people be? It says there in verse four, "And you shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that My covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts."

If you recall the Levites, they were a people that were cursed. They got cursed all the way back to the father of Israel, Jacob. When he was passing out the blessings of the curses, the son of the 12 tribes, Levi, he was cursed by his dad. And if you remember the reason why was Levi and Simeon did these really brutal things to the men of Shechem. They tricked him into being circumcised and then slaughtered the whole town full of men. And you remember Jacob said, "Oh, you've caused my name to stink in the land."

And so when it came time to pass out the blessings, he gave a curse to Levi and said, "You will not have an inheritance in the Promised Land when God leads my people to." And that actually did happen. The Levites didn't have an inheritance.

But there in lies an interesting story that's very redemptive. Do you remember there at the foot of Mount Sinai? And you can go back to the story there in Exodus 32, where do you remember when Moses was up there getting the Ten Commandments? And the Lord says to Moses, "Man, you got to get down." King James says, "The people were at play." They were at play with all kinds of idolatry and sin and they made a golden calf and all this stuff.

Well, Moses comes down and sees the people partying down, dancing nakedly around a golden calf like the ones they had in Egypt. And Moses declared something there in Exodus 32. He says, "Who is on the Lord's side?" And there was only one group of people that said, "We are." It was the Levites, the cursed tribe. They said, "We're on the Lord's side." And so Moses said, "Draw your swords, hack up these people who are worshipping this golden calf." Brutal story.

3,000 people were slain that day. It was a horrible, horrible story. Now, by the way, there's sort of an antithesis of the day Moses came down with the law. It's when the Holy Spirit came down upon His church. Do you remember there in Acts chapter two, the Holy Spirit comes down upon Peter, and the men of that place where the Christians were, tongues of fire were over their head. And Peter filled with the Holy Ghost spoke a sermon. And so powerful. Do you remember how many people got saved that day? 3,000 people were saved that day when the Spirit came down upon His church. Beautiful, glorious story there.

But that's why the Levites, the Levites were particularly at this time set aside for God's purpose. There's actually a list here. So in verse five, we see that covenant that He makes with the Levites. Verse five, "My covenant was with him, life, peace. I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he was feared." They were God-fearing people. That's why they were on the Lord's side on that day in Exodus 32.

But there's a neat little list here of things the Levites, their characteristics that I think are worth noting. Stuff that you and I should perhaps look at in our own lives to see if we're doing very well with this. And the first thing we see here in verse six, there's actually quite a few little things listed here. Number one, the law of truth was in his mouth. That means that they had the Word of God near to their tongue. They were able to speak the Word of God. Are you one that speaks the Word of God?

The way you let the Word be on the tip of your tongue is be in the Word regularly, making the Word of God a major part of your life. That's a key. So that's the first thing, the law of truth was in his mouth. Number two, iniquity was not found on his lips. Boy, this is something I've noticed within Christians. We talk about stuff and we say stuff and we even cuss like we used to not cuss.

Have you noticed that? People are cussing more? It depends on your circle, I suppose. Some of you have never left the cussing at your workplace or whatever. You're like, "Yeah, Brett, it's always been cussing." But I've noticed even among Christians, it's like we've sort of acted like it's no big deal. But not just cussing, but just saying sinful stuff. The iniquity was not found on his lips. That's something that I would want. The Bible talks about your tongue as a deadly poison, an unruly evil. Boy, that's a truth. But we need to be people that have pure lips and pure speech and what have you. That's these Levites.

Number three, it says here that he walked with me in peace and equity. That, man, this reminds me of one of the great characters of the Bible, Enoch. Do you remember Enoch there in Genesis 5:24? It says that Enoch walked with God. And then in Hebrews chapter 11 it says that Enoch was one who pleased God. Those were the two things said about this little guy named Enoch. He walked with God and he pleased God.

And that's what God wants from you. He wants to have a steady progress walk. Walking implies progress and it also implies steady. Not a sprint, not a marathon, just walk with God day in and day out. That was the Levites' attribute when they set aside themselves. But then there's the last one of the list here is it said they did turn away many from iniquity. They were the hammer, not the nail.

Question. Are you a hammer or are you a nail? When you go to work or when you go to school, are you the one being influenced by the world, and the world drives you to go whatever direction they want you to go? Maybe you start cussing when you're around your cussing friends because you're a nail and they're hammering you in the direction that you should not be going. Or are you the hammer and they're the nail?

I did want to be the guy that kind of cleaned things up when I was in the room or at the workplace. And that's something you and I can do. You're either a hammer or a nail. These people, the Levites, they were turning many people away from their sins. Do you make people feel more comfortable in their sin or do you turn them away from sin? Hammer or nail? It's a question that you could ask yourself.

But basically, the Levites were doing what God wanted them to do. They were keeping the Word of God. That's why he refers to them. And that's in opposition to the general public during Malachi's time. They were doing none of those things. And they could care less about what God's Word actually said.

He goes on there in verse seven, "For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth. For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you are departed out of the way. You have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts."

Verse nine, "Therefore, have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as you have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law." Or some of your newer translations say, they have shown partiality with the law. Stuff we see today. But all that to say, this scripture, the Lord calls them out. They could care less about God's Word. They've departed out of the way, verse eight it says. That means out of the way of God, the way of truth.

One of the things I'm so thankful about the Word of God is it's the compass of truth. You'll never be disappointed. And this is coming from a guy who's been studying the Bible as long as I can remember, just as a little kid going to church. But I've never once been sad when I stuck with God's Word. There's never been one time in my life where I think, I think the Bible's wrong on that one. I think the world's got it right on this one.

Like I just want to tell you, go with God's Word. Don't get sucked into this world and the way that does stuff. But the idea is they were sort of doing this religious activity, going to the temple, bringing scabbed up, scurvy, blind, lame, crippled lambs to sacrifice to God. And they were not caring about what the Word actually says that they were supposed to do. The Word said, bring the first fruit of your lambs and come and be separate and do what God's Word tells you to do. But the people were not doing that.

And so because they had gotten away from the Word, they've departed out of the way. They were stumbled at the law, and they've corrupted the covenant. These are the things that people had done. And that's why Paul talked about, I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God, Acts chapter 20.

Acts chapter 20, by the way, is an amazing passage where Paul talked to the leaders of the church at Ephesus, a church that was very, you know, came out of a real worldly, godless kind of lifestyle. And they all got saved. And then Paul, for example, Acts 20 verse 28, Paul said to the elders, he said, "Take heed therefore to yourselves and to the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers." And notice what he says, "to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."

As a pastor, this verse gives me great pause and great sobriety. Man, I think, man, here's God telling me as a leader of a church and our leadership team here at Athey. The reason why the word overseer in that verse is the Greek word episcopos where we get the word bishop. And a bishop is really an administrative elder or overseeing governing type position in the church, the episcopos. But he says, "What is your number one job? Feed the church of God." How important is the church of God? He purchased it with his own blood.

That's how important the church is to Jesus Christ, that he purchased the church with his own blood. That makes the value astronomical. So take heed, he says, "Therefore, take heed to feed the church of God." Very important. These people were not doing that in Malachi's day. And sadly, I think we're equally not doing that today.

I do think there's people that are finally a lot of times fed up. We're seeing churches get thinner and thinner sadly, because there's not meat. There's not feeding, and people are starving in a day that's kind of crazy. What people need. And they really are spiritually starving for the meat of God's Word.

So that's the problem, the devaluing of God's Word. Number four, Malachi now calls them out for the deserting of their wives, to keep my Ds going here. The deserting of their wives. Check out Malachi chapter two, verse 10. He says, "Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the covenant of our father?" What covenant is he talking about?

Well, he goes on verse 11, "Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord, which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god."

It's interesting because that same verse, verse 11 in the New King James Version, it says, "Judah has dealt treacherously and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution, which he loves, and he has married the daughter of a foreign god."

And this is what you have to understand. And we know this from this passage, but there's also context of the actual children of Israel, what they were doing at this time, we know from other passages of the Bible. What these guys were doing is kind of the same thing you see, you know the guy that has a nice wife and a family, and then he gets to that certain age where he sort of says, "You know what, my wife's put on a few pounds and the kids are noisy, and I'm still good-looking and hot." And so I'm going to get a big fancy gold chain and have hairy chest and get a butterfly silk shirt and get a real nice sports car, red convertible. Sorry if you own one of these. I'm not calling you out. I'm just generally painting a picture.

And he walks out, and suddenly there's these young women in their 20s who have interest in him. And he's like, "Yeah, you know, I'm done. I'm going to dump my old wife, the nag." And then he marries the new improved version. The Bible says that guy is a total loser. So do we. That midlife crisis, well, it's really ugly. And that's what the people of Israel were doing.

The men were going from the wife of their youth, and they saw these young girls that were from other nations, the Moabite women, the Midianite women. And the Moabite and the Midianites, they were actually famous for being beautiful girls. And they'd come down, and these older Israeli guys were like, "Hey, these girls are hot." And they'd marry into these pagan foreign God cultures. And these women would bring their idols with them and put them on the mantle. And these Jewish guys were basically marrying into paganism, is what was going on there.

And that's why, you know, the Bible tells us about this, even in the New Testament, you and I should be careful about this. Marriage is an institution that God calls holy in this verse. Did you see that? You've profaned the Lord's holy institution. That institution is marriage, by the way. The Jews were very much prohibited from intermarrying these pagan cultures that were around them because they would draw them down spiritually.

So this is what the Jews are doing. Out with the old, in with the new, marrying these pagan women from other cultures, dumping their faithful, loving wives of their youth. Verse 12, "The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts." What does the Lord say? The Lord's going to cut off this man. Now, this is an interesting thing because these aren't just general men. These are some of the scholars out of the tabernacles. These are the guys that should be religiously sound. And they're the ones doing this horrible deed of midlife crisis and marrying these younger, prettier, pagans.

And the Lord says, "Well, you guys should be a little nervous about what he just said." He said, "The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this." Now, what does this mean cut off? Well, some scholars believe it means to be exiled from the people of Israel. Most scholars believe it means to be castrated. That would solve the problem. Castrated. That's what it probably means. The Lord says, "I'm going to cut you off."

An older man with a younger woman is not God's plan. You know, it's being the husband of one wife. That's the way God always intended it. And read on with verse 13. It says, "And this have you done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering anymore or receiveth it with good will at your hand."

Yet, verse 14, "You say, wherefore or why does our weeping on the altar not count?" Well, he says, verse 14, "Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously. Yet she is thy companion and the wife of thy covenant."

Interestingly, the Lord says, "I'm not going to receive your offering or your prayer when you go to the altar at the temple, because there's no repentance here. You just done what you want to do and married who you want to marry, dumped your faithful good wife for these younger models from the Midianites." Unconfessed, undealt with, unresolved sin.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador continues our verse-by-verse study of Malachi. We're reminded by the example of taking God's gift of marriage lightly of the harmfulness of sin against what is holy to God. And there's so much more from this last look into the book of Malachi in today's Word. And stay right there, Pastor Brett is going to share some hope in just a moment. If you'd like more information about today's Word or Pastor Brett Meador, just go to today's wordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of his messages online at today's wordradio.com.

Well, Pastor Brett has joined me now. You know, I'm sure there is somebody listening who may have tuned in and they might be feeling a sense of hopelessness today, possibly because of something that just happened to them, or they could be feeling lonely or even depressed in life. Brett, can you share some hope for that person today?

Brett Meador: Boy, Kurt, I know there's a lot of people out there that do feel that. And if someone's out there that feels hopeless, I just would say, just remember, you're not alone. More importantly, God sees you. He knows you. Sometimes it's the darkest seasons of our life. That's the very place where God does His deepest work. So try to remind yourself that maybe it's the Lord who's going to do a great work because I'm going through this season.

I've known people that were convinced their story was over. This is the end of the road. But the Lord often has a whole 'nother chapter and purpose for you. I've found that when we get in despair, we can often have a perspective that everything's really bad. But if you know the story the way God works, if you're a follower of Christ, a believer in Jesus, all things are working together for good. And you have to remind yourself. So that's the truth. Your feelings are real, but they're not final. God's got the final word on what's going to happen to you. And so you just have to put your trust in Him and that's where you really find true hope.

Guest (Male): It really is worth repeating that no matter what troubles we're going through, if we put our faith in God and trust Him, He does indeed have the final word and He wants the best for us. Thank you, Pastor Brett. A good reminder.

And one more time, if you've missed any portion of this study, you will find this message from Pastor Brett and more at today's wordradio.com. Well, next time, Pastor Brett will continue in the book of Malachi as we cross the bridge from the curse of sin and the law to the beauty of God's forgiveness and grace through Jesus Christ.

Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.