Why We Need Christmas (Part 1)

0:59What does God want of His people? Well, the answer is very clear in Scripture throughout. God wants His people to honor Him. In fact, if you're in Malachi, it's the very last book of the Old Testament, last prophetic word before a period of 400 years of prophetic silence, only to be broken by the coming of Christ. What does God want of His people to do? Well, in this Malachi 1:6, God says, A son honors his father and a servant his master. God wants honor. If you go all the way over to chapter 2 and verse 2, if you do not listen and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to my name, you see, from this section of scripture that we'll be looking at this morning, from Malachi 1:6 to 2:9, it's a passage about honor. God desires honor from his people.

1:59The biblical pattern throughout Scripture is this very simple spiritual defection leads to social disaster, which leads to societal disintegration. This is what the book of Malachi is about. This spiritual defection that leads to the social disaster, which ultimately leads to just this societal disintegration. Malachi, the book, is really a sad picture or a snapshot of a nation in ruin. It's a very tragic closure to all that God had done in Israel. He brought them out of Egypt. He took them through the wilderness. He brought them into the promised land. But they turned their hearts away from him. They defected from him, turned to other gods, worshiped other idols. And God, in his judgment, And wrath upon them, brought upon them the curses that he promised he would bring upon them in Deuteronomy 28. He brought the Babylonian Empire to come and destroy their temple, to exile what was left of them into Babylon. But then God was faithful during that period, and he protected his people even in exile.

3:26Look at the book of Daniel, look at the book of Esther. That's what these books are about: how God was faithful to his people, even in this Babylonian exile period. And then God and His provision and goodness and faithfulness to Israel brought them back through the land. You look at Ezra and Nehemiah and just see all that God did to bring the people back. And yet, their hearts did not return. A hundred years after that initial return from Babylon, we have Malachi writing to a people: the temple has been rebuilt, sacrifices are going on, yet it is a religion that is characterized by dead formalism, ritualism, empty ceremony, and joyless worship. It's a very meaningless existence.

4:28You think of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 10 is the picture of God's glory leaving Jerusalem just prior to the Babylonians coming in. The glory departed, but even though the people had returned, the glory of Israel had not returned with them. What a meaningless, meaningless existence. And much of the book of Malachi is the people are asking this question: God doesn't love us. How has He shown His love for us? And where is the God of justice? They're questioning His love, and they're questioning His justice. But the real problem comes down to Israel's spiritual defection.

5:12They refused to honor God. And so, this cycle, spiritual defection, which led to social disaster, which leads to societal disintegration, was a reality that they were experiencing. And such is the fate of any nation that refuses to honor God. And so, Christmas is a good time for us to come back and circle around and think about God, think about his son, and think about his king, and that we have a king to honor as his people. So, what does honoring God look like? Well, Malachi shows us by contrast. In our passage this morning, he shows us what dishonoring God is. God looks like. And he shows us four specific ways in which we can dishonor God. So I may be breaking a few preaching rules to say I'm going to preach to you how you can dishonor God. That's what Malachi tried to bend it and go the other way, but it really just, that's the flow of the text. How you can dishonor God. Of course, my intent is that you would see your dishonoring tendencies and be repulsed by them, and that you would turn and flee from them and seek to truly honor God. So this morning we're going to be learning by contrast. We'll look at four ways in which we dishonor God. The first way, we dishonor God by failing to recognize who He is, by failing to recognize who He is. Look at verse 6. I'm just looking at the first part of 6. Chapter 1, verse 6. A son honors his father and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my respect? says the Lord of hosts. O priests who despise my name. Stop there for a moment. God gives us two images of himself here. That image of a father and that image of a master. And as a father, God deserves honor. He deserves to be honored. Hebrew word for honor is also translated as glory. Kavod. Honor.

7:38It implies weightiness. And not the kind of weightiness that you put on over the Thanksgiving holidays, okay? The weightiness of gravitas. He is a person of dignity, of heaviness, someone to defer to. That's what honor is. That he is a person of substance and is to be treated as a person of substance. In fact, in Psalm 24, 7, God is referred to as the King of glory. He is the King. But as a father, he deserves honor. But as a master, he deserves respect. And the word for respect is also translated as fear in some of your translations.

8:26But fearing God does not mean being terrified of him. We've got a wrong image of what fearing is, at least in the biblical sense. In the biblical sense, it means a proper respect and reverence for him. A reverence that leads to worship. A fear that leads to obedience. That's the kind of fear. And there's no contradiction between the command to love God and the command to fear God. Deuteronomy 6, right there, the two are used right there next to each other in 6.5. 6.13 and throughout Scripture, the idea to love God is necessarily founded upon this idea of respecting him and honoring him for who he is. And failure to recognize God as father and master is to despise his name. And that's what he is saying. To despise. To despise is to think lightly of. Oh, he's not that significant. That's the opposite of honoring, to think little of.

9:31And the opposite of respect is to hold into contempt or hatred or dislike. To despise something is to dislike or to have contempt for something. So the very opposite of what you're to do with a father and a master. In Genesis 25, 34, Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went on his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. Meaning, I don't care about that stuff. That birthright doesn't mean very much. He treated it lightly. The word is also used in 2 Samuel 6:16. When the ark of the Lord was coming into the city of David, and Michael, the daughter of Saul, looked out the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in his heart. She despised him. That is, she held him in contempt. She despised him. Disliked him. And it's this failure to honor God, to despise him, is the heart attitude that led to Christ's crucifixion. Isaiah 53, 3 says this, he was despised and forsaken of men. That is, he thought little of, forsaken, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised, and we did not esteem him. But notice back at verse 6, the command is directed to the priests, the spiritual leadership of the nation. They're the ones who had despised his name. I mean, think about it. If the spiritual leadership of the nation failed to honor and respect God, what do you think is going to be happening in the general society? If those that God places in there, who are to lead spiritually, show the nation what is right and what is true and what is good and what God desires, if they defect from that, what do you think is going to happen to the masses? Such is the case. You see, when God brought the children of Israel back from exile from the Babylonian realm, the priests were the ones responsible to teach the people about God, to teach about the covenant which they were in with God, and that though they had experienced The curses, yet they could experience the blessings if they would yet change their heart towards God.

12:09But when the spiritual leadership fails to honor God, there's no hope for the nation. Friends, we cannot expect a nation to rise above the spiritual leadership of the church in our day. Who are the spiritual leaders in this nation? Who are they? And whom is Malachi's burden addressed? It's certainly addressed to the priests in Israel's day, the spiritual leaders of their time. But who would this burden of Malachi be expressed today? Well, certainly it's going to be expressed to the church. The church is that institution that God has placed in this world for the leadership, for the spiritual leadership of the nation. And certainly we're talking about pastors and elders of the church. We're talking about the teachers of the church. We're talking about leaders of all capacity. We're talking about those who just let us in worship upon the stage. We're talking about every individual who plays a role in some way or shape or capacity in this body serving one another. You are part of the This leadership institution that God has ordained would be a light to the nations.

13:39And if you and I do not honor God from the heart, no one will. See, in order to teach others to love and honor God, guess what? You are going to have to love and honor God yourself, or you're going to teach something totally different. You may have the words of the faith, but if you do not have the heart that goes with the faith, you're going to teach dead formalism, ritualism, joyless worship, and you're going to miss what God called you to do.

14:16You see, honoring God is not just a weekend gig, it's a way of life. And we communicate the honor, how God is to us. We communicate by the words we say, by the relationships we have, by the truth that we speak, by the integrity of our heart and actions. You see, you know, like, learned this at college. It wasn't so much what classes you took as who you took them from. But the leadership doesn't stop there. Leadership that God has, it's not just the leaders within. The church. It's the church itself. The members of the church, as 1 Peter makes so clear, the church is a royal priesthood, a holy nation, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous life. The church itself is a royal priesthood. Revelation 5:9 Speaking about a new song being sung, Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God, and they will reign upon the earth. Listen, all of us, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are part of that spiritual leadership to the nations. And I can tell you, whatever capacity God has put you in, you cannot help but go through this life impacting others. Listen, you may be two years old, you may be 12 years old, you may be five years old, you may have put your life, you may have given your life to Christ, and if you have done so, then you are a leader in some capacity. One needs to show us what the obedience and what honoring God as a five-year-old looks like. Or a six-year-old or seven-year-old. And think about you, teenagers. I'm telling you, there are some teenagers here. You've put your faith and trust in Christ. Don't think that you are outside this realm of leadership to the nations.

16:45This nation and these people around, your brothers and sisters here, need to see the world what, or need to, you need to show the world what honoring God looks like as a teenager. It's going to look different. But there's going to be a character and a quality that you demonstrate to those around you of what honoring God in your capacity looks like. Heads of households, I don't care who you are, show us, show us what honoring God truly looks like from the heart. And it's not just what you say, it's what you don't say that is important.

17:25Everything we are always communicating. You see, there's an exhortation for all of us, no matter who we are, in whatever capacity. If you are in Christ, you are part of that royal priesthood that has that duty and responsibility to honor God and to teach the love and honor to God to all those around. And let us be careful not to cheapen the name of God. You see, when we give Him a lofty profession, but yet we. Live like the world, we cheapen the name of God.

18:05You know, in our times, there's a movement, and I saw this this past weekend, in our society to change the name of Thanksgiving to what? Great Thursday. Probably saw it, probably hearing it. We don't want to give thanks to God. Romans 1:21 says, For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Listen, honoring God and thankfulness to God are so connected. If you look at Romans 1, that's the beginning of the downfall. They've refused to honor God, so God gave them over to a darkened heart, which later they gave over to degrading passions, and then he gave them over to a depraved mind. But it all starts right here, failing to recognize who God is. So if you want to dishonor God this holiday season, fail to recognize who he is. Fail to give him the weight and the honor to his name. But if you want to honor him, do just the opposite. Have an attitude of giving him honor. Defer to him. Place him first, recognizing who he is, and then humbly deferring yourself to him. So we dishonor God by failing to recognize who he is.

19:30We also dishonor God by bringing him lame offerings. Look back at Malachi 1:6. We dishonor God by bringing him lame offerings. Second part of verse 6, but you say, How have we despised your name? So this is question. It's back and forth. This question, the people, but how have we despised your name? And God's going to give them an answer. And this is going to go throughout Malachi. And he answers them. Your lame sacrifices reveal your despise. Look at verse 7. You are presenting defiled food upon my altar. How have we despised your name? How have we treated it lightly? How have we shown contempt for it? Well, verse 7, you are presenting defiled food upon my altar. But you say, how have we defiled you? In that you say the table of the Lord is to be despised. But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Look at your actions. But defiled food. That was the priestly portion. And then the table of the Lord is to be despised. That food taken from the altar. The priest didn't even want to eat it.

20:47Then look at the challenge, second part of that, verse 8. Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly, says the Lord of hosts? Take this offering that you have presented to me. Before me, who you declare me to be the king of kings, the Lord of lords, the Lord of heaven and earth, and yet you bring me this defiled food, this sick food? Take it to your governor. See how he's going to respond to you. You see, by contrast, and if you look at Nehemiah 5:17, you don't need to turn there, but by contrast, the governor's table was pretty lavish. Okay, and it would be unthinkable to bring in these diseased animals.

21:27I guess I had a little bit too much time on my hands as I was preparing this, and I just found an interest in a bunch of livestock diseases. I thought I would get in and kind of do some research on that. And there's some really, really nasty ones, okay? I mean, could you imagine cowpox? I mean, all these pustules, it's really just a gross skin disease. Could you imagine bringing this animal with cowpox all over it and say, here you go. There you go. I mean, I didn't want to touch the thing, but here, Mr. Governor, I want you to eat it. All right? And then there's that bovine paratuberculosis. Now, that's an intestinal. It's nasty. It's about as ugly as it gets. Could you imagine taking that, setting it over there? Here, here's a little paratuberculosis for you, Mr. Governor. I ain't going to touch it. And then there's that CVM. You know what that stands for? Let me tell you. Complex vertebraial malformation. Now, that's a problem. That's a genetic disorder. And the animals come out all deformed, and then they don't live very long. So if it's going to die in, Anyway, why don't you take that and offer it to the governor? Well, you can see very quickly that such a low-grade offering is going to really get you in trouble with the governor. He's not going to accept it. Then why do we expect God to take something less than we wouldn't give anybody else? And yet that's exactly what was happening in Israel. You see, low-grade offerings cheapen God's name. When we fail to give him his due and give him the weight and honor his name deserves, then we cheapen it. You see, bottom line is, most of us are better Americans than we are Christians. We pay tribute to our governor, to our government, in a number of ways, right? Taxes is one big one, right? We pay tribute to them. And we like to pay on time, don't we? I know we're in a volunteer taxing system, but none of us really like to test that, do we? Because we know what that ends up, right? It may be a volunteer system, but guess what? If you don't present it and pay proper tribute in the form of taxes, you will go to jail. And so, out of fear of punishment, we pay them, and we pay them on time. And listen, I've been very convicted about this myself. If I'm working through this, how am I, if I am to be a, if I am a leader, and I am, of anybody that should honor God, it should be me. And if anybody should pay tribute to God in a timely manner, it should be. Me. I've always thought, well, he knows I'm good for it.

24:05But sometimes we, you know, the governor, I mean, we don't treat our government that way, do we? Well, I know they know I'm good for it. No, they don't. Bottom line is, we should pay taxes. We receive a lot of benefit from living in this great land. Let me tell you, every breath you take is given to you by God. And we may get some roads, we may get some bridges, we may get some police, we may get a number of services out of our government, but we don't get anything like God gives us. So how much more should we honor him?

24:46You see, I think our mentality, we get it backwards. It goes something like this. God, you pay tribute to me, and then once you pay that tribute to me, I'll give you a token of my appreciation. Right? God, you bless me, and then I'll take a little bit of that and give it to you as a token of thanks. See, we want God paying tribute to us. And when He doesn't pay tribute to us, we say, ah, you don't love us. Or, ah, you're not a God of justice. Why? Why this? Why that?

25:19But the problem is in our own spiritual, defecting heart. I had a startling revelation this week. And I mean revelation, okay? I had a startling revelation this week, and it had a startling revelation about an event that happened in my life about 30 years ago. And this was a late junior high, early high school. I offended a girl. And it dawned on me why this week. I mean, I really got my, as I was working through this text, I understood what happened. I got to take you back to the time, okay? This was the era of ID bracelets. I don't know if any of you remember that, but it used to be you'd get these big chain bracelets, and you'd have your name engraved on it, and you'd carry it around. And then, whenever you had a girlfriend, boyfriend relationship or wanted to move, you'd give the bracelet over. I had one, but I lost it. But I think I had two and I lost them. But anyway, but you'd give it to the person, and then that person would keep it for a while, and then when they got mad at you, they'd throw it back. And that was kind of how the relationships happened back then, okay? It was just a good little way to say, we're in, no, you're out. Here you go, take it out. Kind of that expression. Well, it was also the era of letters. Okay, so people wrote a lot of letters, or pieces of paper with text written on it, and you'd deliver it. And so a lot of the relationships happened in these back-and-forth notes. Well, on one. Particular occasion, there was this girl, and it all came together. She was from a very prominent family in our community, I mean, very prominent, and started writing me letters. And so we carried on a little something. Well, one day, I took a quarter, and I went to one of these gumball machines, and I turned, put the quarter in, and out came this bracelet. Okay, and it was it was really a cool bracelet. I was really surprised at the quality of the bracelet for 25 cents. And it had all this kung fu etchings in it. So I thought it was really cool, and I thought it was great. So in one of my letters, and I had no idea, I didn't know I was communicating anything. I just said, oh, by the way, I got a bracelet I want to send you. So I wrote that. And then I don't know who she told. I don't know what went on in her mind. Well, then the next letter I sent, I put this little bracelet in there, and I'd wrote my name on the back, written my name on the back, just for safekeeping. And I put it in there. Of course, it only took one stamp to send. I mean, it was a little bitty flimsy thing. And then the next letter I got from her was just full of heat and fire and anger. And I mean, when I opened up the letter, I mean, it just came out. I mean, it was like, this was the end of our relationship. I want you to know this is the end of our relationship. I didn't know we were having one. But anyway, this is the end. And by the way, you can take that. Bracelet, and you can give it to somebody else since you spent so much money on it. And I was kind of offended. I was like, man, that was a good bracelet for 25 cents.

28:45Well, I know my kids are hearing this story for the first time. I think my wife is too. But the idea, and it dawned on me, you know, it didn't communicate what it communicated a lot about the way I thought about her. And that was understood loud and clear by her. I didn't, anyway. But the message: if you give lame sacrifice or if you give cheapness into relationship, it's spoken by what you give. Your gifts reveal a degree of your affection or the depth of your relationship. And so, what Israel was doing, they were taking these cheap, no-good offerings, and they were giving them to God and wondering, why aren't I blessed?

29:43Well, the simple message is: pay God what he's due. Pay what he's due. Honor him. He's a king. Verse 9 shows that God desires to be gracious. But now, will you not entreat God's favor that he? May be gracious to us. Even then, he wants to be gracious, but he doesn't want to be gracious with this cheap, ritualistic, formalistic, joy-departed, dead religion. He says that in verse 9, with such an offering, if this is how you are, will he receive any of you kindly? Of course not, says the Lord of hosts. Oh, and listen to this, verse 10. Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on my altar. I am not pleased with you, says the Lord of hosts, nor will I accept an offering from you. You see, there comes a point of time when God cannot stand our religious services. And he says, I don't want any more of your offerings. You keep them. Go do something else with them.

30:50And it's a frightening statement. You know, I think about Renee getting married here to Sisi in a couple of weeks. Think about if he brought a little ring that he got out of a 25-cent gumball machine. Do you think we'd be having a wedding in two weeks? I don't think so, right? Because the gift or the offering shows what you think about the relationship. It speaks of the relationship. But God rejects lame offerings. He loves pure offerings. And he loves pure offerings from those who want to honor his name. To those who want to have a genuine right relationship with God, this is who he is attentive to. Look at verse 11. And this is a reality of life. God says, Look, I'm not going to accept lame offerings because let me tell you something. From the rising of the sun, even to its setting, my name will be great among the nations. And in every place, incense is going to be offered to my name. That is prayers and a grain offering that is pure, not defiled. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. He says, Look, don't bring lame offerings to me because let me tell you something about who I am. My name will be great among the nations. People will bring their finest gifts, they will honor me from the heart.

32:23So I think the challenge is: let us be done with dishonoring God with something less than our best. Let us not bring him the lame offerings, but let us pay tribute to him with the very best that we have. And that's the challenge of Christmas. I want to challenge you this Christmas: give him more of yourself this season than you give anyone else. So we dishonor God by failing to recognize who he is. We dishonor God by bringing him lame offerings. We dishonor God, thirdly, by refusing to set things right. I remember. Refusing to set things right. Look, the priest knew the sacrifices were lame. Look at verse 12. But you are profaning it. Like God saying, My name is going to be great among the nations, but you are profaning it, meaning you are cheapening it. You are cheapening my name in that you say, the table of the Lord is defiled. As for its fruit, its food is to be despised. So the priest knows they're lame. They're saying, yuck, ooh, I ain't going to eat that. That was where they got their portion from. And yet they did nothing to clean up the worship of the people. They did not want to bother with setting things right. And this is their attitude. See, we dishonor God when we fail or do not have an attitude to set things right. Look at verse 13.

33:54You also say how tiresome it is. Too many details, weighty, too much. And you disdainfully sniff at it, like, ooh, don't like that offering, says the Lord of hosts. And you bring what was taken by robbery and what is lame or sick. So you bring the offering. Should I receive that from your hand, says the Lord? You know, think about your view of God. If you come up here and I see some purses get laid around here, and sometimes during the praise practice, and people are warming up, there's some purses out there.

34:30Think about if I went over and saw, oh, a purse, I'm going to reach in and grab a 20, and I'm going to run back there and put it in the offering box. And I think God's going to be pleased with that. I mean, it's pretty crazy, right? Or how much would it be if I went back to the tithes and offering box and I broke it open, or I saw it was open, and I reached in and grabbed some money, and then I turned around, walked around the corner, and came back and put it back in. God, would you be pleased with that? Well, that's exactly what they were doing. They were stealing. I mean, what kind of cheap view of God is this?

35:06Well, this is exactly what was going on. And the result, look at the result in verse 14. But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock and vows it. That is a good offering, a perfect offering. And he vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name is feared among the nations. You see, it is an evil act to vow something and not to pay it. It's an evil act to promise God you're going to give something great and then bring in a lame sacrifice.

35:48You see, this is vain worship. See, such a worshiper would come into the temple, mouth the prayer, act like they were giving God something great, and then they'd turn. Around and bring in a defiled, crippled animal that was really good for nothing. And it was the priest's job to teach them what was an acceptable sacrifice and what was not an acceptable sacrifice. And it was the priest who were to say, No, you take this back and bring something to God that is worthy of his name.

36:24But the priest wouldn't set things right. It was awkward. Okay? It was awkward. I mean, think about it. You'd have to tell one of the people that brought their animal, he said, you know what, take this one home and bring back a better one. Shame on you for this kind of behavior in the house of God. Shame on you for this. But see, that's kind of an awkward situation. And so they're charged with at the end of chapter 2 and verse 8 as showing partiality.

36:59It was a burdensome, verse 13 says it was tiresome. Oh, there's so many stipulations. I mean, God is a little too stringent in some areas, and his laws need a little relaxing. And so they took a moderating position and they trained people to give God less than their best. Look, to give God less than what our best is to despise his name, because if he is worth anything out of our lives at all, He is worth everything totally, completely, and only such a sacrifice honors his name, or only such an attitude honors his name.

37:43And the curse, God refers to them as a swindler. I mean, this is strong dislike, but their curse was upon the nation, not just the spiritual leadership. Yeah, the spiritual leaders failed to tell them what was right, but the nation went headlong in, treating God's name with dishonor. So, we dishonor God by failing to recognize who He is, by bringing Him lame offerings, by refusing to set things right, and finally, by not taking His word to heart.

38:23Look at chapter 2 and verse 1. God wants His people to listen to Him before anything else. God wants His people to listen to Him. Right? Chapter 2, verse 1. And now this commandment is for you, O priests, talking to you, spiritual leaders of the nation. If you do not listen, and if you do not take to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, He is saying, Look, I want honor, and I want you to listen. This is very important that you recognize who I am in your life and give me. the weight, the deference.

39:04And I fear that we, and I mean as a society and a church, have become sophisticated in rejecting God's Word. Just to be able to come up with all these reasons, this secular, rationalistic thought that just treats his word as if it were just another good idea. But listen to what he says in going on. He says, listen, if you do not listen and you do not take to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. You want to bless the people? They will be curses. And indeed, I have cursed them already because you are not taking it to heart. They're already in a state of being cursed because they're not taking God's word to heart.

39:52And it's a very graphic rejection. I want you to see that judgment begins with the spiritual leadership. And it is severe. Look at verse 3. Behold, I am going to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts. Gross picture. And you will be taken away with it. The idea is that when they came to present an offering, the animal was to be cut. Its bowels were to be cleaned out and stored, and that waste and excrement was to be thrown outside the camp. Outside the wall. It was to be disposed of. And what this language is, is he's saying, I will take that excrement, and I will smear it all over your faces, and I will take you and the refuse out of my temple. That's graphic. Your actions are a complete and utter offense to me.

40:58You see, God desires for those in spiritual leadership is to have true instruction upon their lips, to be able to turn people from sin to righteousness. Look at verse 4. Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may continue with Levi, says the Lord of hosts. My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave to them as an object of reverence. So he revered me and stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity. And he gives a definition of what spiritual leadership looks like. For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. You are to preserve knowledge.

42:00Should seek and esteem your instruction, but you are leading the nation into ruin because you, spiritual leaders, refuse to honor me for who I am. That is Malachi's burden to the spiritual leaders of his day. I think the priests of Malachi's day serve as a warning to us. Look in verse 8. But as for you, you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by the instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. So I also have made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping my ways, but are showing partiality in the instruction. In other words, he's saying, you have despised me, so I will make you despised and abased in front of all the people. In other words, they're going to hate your religion. They're going to hate your way of hate your dead formalism. They're going to hate your ritualism. They're going to hate your joyless worship.

43:13Because you have failed to give me honor and you have despised me in their presence. I will despise you. It's a terrifying, terrifying judgment. And as we Take this message to our own heart as we pay careful attention. Let us not turn aside from the way. Let us give instruction that comes from a heart that truly seeks to honor God. And let us be consistent in that without partiality, not regarding who it comes from. Let us not show partiality. You see, let us treat God with honor.

44:00So we dishonor God by failing to recognize who He is, by bringing Him lame offerings, by refusing to set things right, and by not taking His word to heart. This dead ritualism, formalism, insincere prayer, secular rationalism, complacency, apathy, and joyless worship characterize Israel's time, but it's not hard to see the parallels with our own times, is it? And we wonder why we are not blessed. And we'll even question His, God, do you love us? God, are you just? Well, the problem is the spiritual defection.

44:41Spiritual defection, which leads to social disorder, which will lead to societal disintegration. And my only hope, and God is gracious, and even in the midst of this, He says, Come, turn, turn to me. I will be gracious to you. My only hope and God's only remedy for the church in America, for the nation, is for us here, you and I, the spiritual leadership of this nation, to desire to truly honor him. Honor him. Give him the weight.

45:25Do his name. So, why do we need Christmas? Christmas is a good reminder that we need to honor the king. And as we see these images of the wise men coming and kneeling before him, let that be a reminder to us that we too are called to honor this king. And what a joy it is. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Father, that your faithfulness is everlasting. God, and that your desire is a right relationship with your people. Father, forgive us as a church, as individuals, forgive me as a pastor, Father, as a father, where I have failed to take on the whole weight of who you are and defer to you.

46:20Father, just pray that your name would be exalted first in my life and in this church, Father, that we would truly be. A people who defer to you, who love to honor you, that the joy and the glory of your church, Lord, the beautiful bride, Lord, would be exalted here in this community for who she is. And Father, we recognize we're not talking about sinless perfection. Father, we know we cannot muster up all this and give it to you. Israel couldn't, and neither could we. We depend upon your grace to be showered in increasing measure upon us and in us, that we may learn to walk in your ways, to say no to ungodliness, and to cherish your gift, your Son, your Messiah, the perfect image.

47:22And Father, we thank you for Him. In Jesus' name.