Messengers Of The Word - [Malachi 2:5-9]

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I love theological equations and theological paradigms and truths.
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Let me give you a couple. One is, as you've been taught, the right theology leads to correct methodology, which then manifests as doxology.
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What you believe about God determines what you do, determines your praise. Let me give you another one.
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When God reveals Himself, we respond. So in nature, He reveals
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Himself as a great creator, and you say, wow, man, God, you are amazing.
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When He reveals Himself in Scripture, we say the same thing. Oh, the depth and knowledge and the wisdom of God.
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And there's another paradigm that I'd like you to learn today from Malachi chapter 2. And that's this.
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When Bible teachers and leaders fear the Lord, stand in awe of His name, they will teach the
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Bible, and they will walk in His ways. The opposite of these paradigms are true as well, sadly.
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If you have bad doxology, it means something's wrong with your theology, because if you understood how great
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God was and how holy, you'd want to praise Him. It's like Isaiah, it's a knee -jerk reaction. You just praise
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God for His holiness. Similarly as well, when we don't respond to nature and general revelation, or we don't respond to the
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Word, there's something wrong with us, not anything wrong with who the Lord is and how He's shown
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Himself. And similarly as well, show me a man or maybe a lady, if she's teaching a
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Sunday school class, or maybe it's a mom who's teaching her children, or maybe it's an evangelistic outreach, show me someone who doesn't want to say to the other person, this is the truth about God, this is the truth about sin, this is the truth about the exclusivity of Jesus Christ.
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That reveals that that person doesn't really fear the Lord. They don't really stand in awe of Him and honor
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His name. Let's turn our Bibles this morning to the book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament.
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If you can find Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, just back up a little bit. Malachi is giving a burden from the
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Lord. It's an oracle, to use the ESV. And we're going to see today that what's good for leadership is good for the people, because like priests back in that day, like people.
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Like New Testament leaders today, like people. And it was tied to this, that these men of old needed to fear the
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Lord, to stand in awe of Him, so that they would teach the people of God the
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Word. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, that's true. But the fear of the
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Lord inspires people and ignites them to be obedient, to teach the Word of God.
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And here's the problem. If you've been around for a while, you'd realize that maybe when you evangelize a friend, when you start talking about those rough edges of the
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Gospel, those sharp edges, Jesus is the only way, sin is sin, homosexuality is sin, adultery is sin, the world's under the wrath of God, the holiness of God, the justice of God.
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We're tempted to maybe shave off some of those corners, to smooth things out. But if you remember the fear of God, and that you're preaching for an audience of one, as R .C.
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Sproul likes to talk about in Latin, he's always good for a Latin phrase or two, isn't he? One time in person, by the way,
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I saw R .C. Sproul pick up a piece of chalk, for you younger people, it's this white thing that has flecks on it, and he wrote some
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Latin words on the chalkboard. I was so happy to see that, Coram Deo, in the face of God.
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And so while this passage is specifically for Old Testament priests, underneath the
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Levitical system, the Mosaic system, the truths are transcendent, the truths apply today, because they were cutting corners, they were shaving off the rough parts of the truth of God, because they didn't fear
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Him. So there's going to be a call to fear the Lord, and to teach the Bible. It reminds me of the story about the preacher, who was brand new, he went to a church in Kentucky, not far from the
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Kentucky Derby, and the story goes that he thought he'd start off with a memorable sermon, so he preached against the evils of horse racing.
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Well, someone, a member afterwards, asked him, do you remember where you are? There's plenty of breeders here, horse trainers, fine thoroughbreds, and you better be careful.
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So the preacher took the hint, and then the next Sunday, he thought he'd preach a rip -roaring sermon on the evils of smoking.
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A different member reminded him that this was, in fact, Kentucky, and there were many tobacco farms, and many were dependent upon tobacco for their livelihood.
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Well, the next Sunday, he bitterly denounced whiskey, until he was reminded that Kentucky was the home of several distilleries.
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In exasperation and in desperation, well, what can I preach on? A church member said, preach against those heathen witch doctors.
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There isn't one of them within a thousand miles of here. I mean, when
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I was younger, I didn't really feel the pressure. And maybe I was just too naive, maybe
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I was just too bullheaded, but I wasn't really worried about what people thought. I'm just going to preach the
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Word of God. I'm a messenger, and I want to preach it. But the older I get, and maybe it's softening,
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I don't know, I feel the pressure. I feel the pressure when I meet someone, and they ask me about Jesus.
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Is He the only way? I feel the pressure when someone says, is sin really that bad that a finite sin could cause an infinite amount of suffering in hell?
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I feel the pressure. And so what's good for these Old Testament priests, what's good for me, what's good for you, is to be reminded that the fear of the
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Lord, and wanting to honor Him, and stand in awe of Him, and to honor His name, has to be the number one motivation for all ministry.
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Whether you teach at VBS, Sunday school, evangelism, you teach your wife, you teach your children, you're an elder, you're a pastor.
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The sin of the day, back in Malachi's day, besides offering these bad sacrifices, the priest wouldn't teach the
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Bible. So let's read Malachi chapter 2, verses 1 through 4, just to catch us up.
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This is what we looked at last time when we were in Malachi. And I think as you read it, you'll feel the burden.
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You'll get a subjective sense to how devastating this rebuke is through Malachi, the messenger.
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I don't want to be on the end of one of these stinging rebukes. Who would be? And it says in Malachi chapter 2, verses 1 and following,
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And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, all my attributes, who
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I am, says Yahweh of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you.
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Not any curse, but the curse. And I will curse your blessings, or your seed, or your offspring.
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Indeed, I've already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart.
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Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it.
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And now with language in verse 4, of leverage, a kind of a lever language to help people to realize it's important, it's necessary language.
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Then you shall know, so you shall know, and you can just hear the echoes of Moses talking to Pharaoh, and you shall know that I am the
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Lord, and you shall know that I am the Lord, and you shall know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi, just a general term for those who minister around the altar, may stand, says the
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Lord of hosts. This is what you're doing. And it's not to be tolerated anymore, because it's given no honor to the
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Lord, no fame to his name. And so he compares what the priest used to do, and should do, with what they're doing.
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So here's the good example. They weren't doing the right things, and so he shows leaders who did fear the
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Lord, and not the world. Who did fear Yahweh, and not other people.
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Who did fear the Lord of hosts, and not fear itself. Verse 5. My covenant with him, referring back to these
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Levitical priests, was one of life and peace, by the way, gifts from God, and I gave them to him.
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It was a covenant of, now look at this language, of fear, and he feared me.
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He stood in awe of my name. See, that's where it all starts.
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You priests, you old priests that were doing the bad sacrifices, you weren't standing in awe of God.
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You were people pleasers. And the people would come in with a sacrifice that had some blemish, or had some kind of eczema, or something wrong with its eyes, and you'd go, yeah, that's fine, but if you really feared the
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Lord, and you said, I answered to him, I'd like to please you, I want to be liked. My mother once said to me, it took me to be 40 years old to realize not everybody in the world liked me.
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And then you stand up, and if you're to speak for God, thus saith the Lord. This has to meet
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God's standards. This has to reflect on who the Lord is. And so since I'm going to fear
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God and stand with his honor, I have to do the right thing, and so the text is very interesting.
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Covenant of fear, and he feared me, he stood in awe of my name.
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Now remember, as we've talked for many weeks, the word fear, yes it means reverence, yes it means in awe of.
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You just would stand there, it's the kind of word when you go to the Niagara Falls. Ever been to the
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Niagara Falls? You have to go there sometime. I mean, the sensory overload, you can hear it. You can taste it, you can feel it, you can see it.
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I mean, the ground shakes, and you just think, man, this is awesome. I'm full of awe just looking at this.
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How much more to be in awe of who this God is. And if God is awe -inspiring, and he's commissioned me to be a prophet, in this particular case to be a priest, or to be a
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Sunday school teacher, then I want to respond rightly. Now this word fear could mean an emotional fear that's bad.
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Actually it's the word that was used of the animals after they got out of the ark.
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So the animals needed to run away so they didn't become lunch immediately, and so God put fear into them.
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That's what this is. So fear is afraid, to some degree. Reverence and awe we typically default to.
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But there's some fear in there. There's real fear, there's reverence, there's awe. An awe -inspiring spectacle, instead of offering up bad sacrifices, these men revered
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God. They stood in awe of God. Only here in Malachi, two verbs used together for the fear of God.
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And if you fear God, is there anyone else to fear? Should you fear anyone else? Now if I were to ask you a question, maybe a
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Sunday school question, what were the duties of the priest back in those days? The Levitical priest. What were the main things that they would do?
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Well, I think most of us would say the people would bring in a sacrifice, and they would receive the sacrifice and slay the sacrifice, etc.,
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make an intercession on behalf of the people. But did you know that right up there with accepting sacrifices on behalf of the people, they were to teach the word?
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We get preachers today, and Paul and Stephen and others, but listen to a couple passages in the
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Old Testament. It's often overlooked that Old Testament priests were to preach the word. Leviticus 10, you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the
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Lord has spoken to them by Moses. Yes, take the sacrifices, yes, make intercession, but preach the word.
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Teach the Bible. Deuteronomy 31 says the same thing. Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and sojourn within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the
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Lord your God, and to be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the
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Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.
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This is the kind of language that you'll hear in the New Testament as well, where pastors and preachers are to preach the word.
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And so these Levitical priests weren't doing it, and so Malachi shows in verses 5, 6, and 7 a good example of what they should be doing, kind of like the
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Ezra example, to study the law of the Lord, to practice it, and to teach it.
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But did you notice verse 6? True instruction was in his mouth.
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You've got people who don't teach the Bible. By the way, you don't have to look very far for people who say they're religious, and they wear the cloth of religiosity, and they don't teach the
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Bible. You just turn on CNN, turn on HuffPo religion section, they're all out there.
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But here, these real Bible teachers, these real servants of God, they're going to teach the
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Bible. And not only that, instruction was in his mouth, verse 6, no wrong was found on his lips, he walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many away from iniquity.
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So in light of the fear of God, the response is, I'll do what you say, and I'll try to live in a manner worthy of my calling, to use
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Pauline language. I'll try to preach the word, and I'll try to live the life. I'll try to walk what
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I talk, and talk what I walk. So much so, by the way, I don't know if you know this, probably five weeks ago,
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I walked up to the pulpit, and for the first time, I tripped and almost fell. I just thought, man, this is the judgment of God.
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I'm falling down, and I come up, because the words of Calvin come to mind. Calvin said, if you're going to be a preacher, and you'll preach the word, but you won't try to live out what you preach, you won't try to quickly repent for when you sin, then you should just as soon break your neck on the way up to the pulpit.
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But I'm alive right now. In leadership, it could never be perfection, sinless perfection, because that's only for the
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Lord Jesus. But there are qualifications, even in the New Testament, above reproach, blameless, those kind of things, where these accusations don't stick, and when the person sins, they quickly repent and move on.
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Here, those that fear the Lord, preach the word, and they try to live what they preach.
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It's a content of truth, verse 6, true instruction. That is, it's sound, it's stable, it's reliable, it's not false.
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You can imagine pastors who take bribes, and priests who accept these kind of wrong sacrifices.
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That's the exact opposite of this truth. It's not false, and you know what?
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It's found on their lips. It's in His mouth. That's fascinating.
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I always remember Corrie Ten Boom's illustration of a person that walks by the Spirit. She said something to the fact, like if you take a bucket and fill it down up with the well, and if you bump the bucket, out comes water.
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If you've got a teacup, and if you bump it, out comes tea. And if you bump a Christian who's walking in the
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Spirit, out will come love and joy and peace. If you're not walking by the Spirit, out will come bitterness and anger and wrath and malice.
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And when you bump the prophet, let's just make it super simple. If we go to Harry's house tonight, one of the elders, maybe we go to Pastor Steve's house.
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Let's meet at his house tonight at 1145. Let's just all honk at the same time. Steve should open up the door and just start quoting
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Bible verses. You just talk to pastors and preachers, and what comes out of their mouth is the Word of God.
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This is what they do. You go to pastors and you should expect that they should kindly, but they should give you the
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Word of God. It's exactly what's happening here. Paul talks about it too in 1
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Thessalonians, where there's no deceit in his mouth, or no trickery, no flattery, no trying to please people with impure motives or pretexts for greed.
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And if you're going to go for someone to take down the system, that is Israel, then let's get the priest.
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And so these commands for the priest, fear God and then teach the Word and live it. He goes on to say in verse 7, for the lips of a priest should guard knowledge.
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So not only preaching the Word, not only living out what you preach by the
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Spirit's empowerment, but guarding knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth.
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For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. Now when you do
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Bible study, there's a variety of different figures of speech and literary devices. There's something called a chiasm.
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Who knows what a chiasm is? Anybody? Some know chiasm. Chiasms basically result in focusing the reader's attention, not through yellow marker, not through red highlights, but through a literary device, where everything's focused in on the main important point.
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Now there's different ways you could do this in Hebrews. Six things the Lord hates. Yes, even seven. He hates all seven, but he especially hates the seven.
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You could say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, focusing on His holiness. And you could use something called a chiasm, where everything comes down to the centerpiece of the passage, for maximum illustration, for maximum point, for maximum important issue.
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It's a literary device, and it focuses in on verse seven. If we could arrange everything chiastically, verse seven would be at the center, because pastors, preachers, evangelists,
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Sunday school teachers, good application for everyone, should be messengers of the
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Lord. That's the issue. Everything comes to a focal point right there. In a chiastic literary fashion, people should be messengers of the
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Lord. They speak for God. The teaching ministry of the Word of God.
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You could ask yourself probably the question, even as you relate this Old Testament context to your old life,
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I hope you say, do I fear the Lord enough that my responsibility is to give other people the
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Bible? Junior church, I want to teach the Bible. Thus saith the Lord. Because if you don't, then we question, how much do you really fear
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God? That's the point. And not only that, look, there's knowledge to be preserved or guarded.
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It says in verse seven, people should seek instruction from His mouth.
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The guarding rather, I think, is at the beginning of verse seven. Guard knowledge. Take care over.
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Brood over. If you've got a well full of proper water, you put a lid on it.
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You guard it. That's exactly what is happening. This is the New Testament equivalent of, pastors should teach sound doctrine, and they should what?
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Refute those that contradict. There has to be a guarding of the water supply. Messengers.
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Give the message. Messengers guard the message. Oh, Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you.
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Avoid worldly and empty chatter and opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge.
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Timothy, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
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Second Peter, you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on guard so that you are not carried away by the air of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness.
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So here's what's happening in Malachi, and it's very applicable for us today. By the way, true or false?
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All the Bible is relevant. True. True or false? The pastor should show how it's relevant.
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My job is not to say, well, this is relevant or this isn't. But it is relevant. How? Because the same paradigm is true.
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Theology leads to methodology, leads to doxology, revelation demands a response, and the fear of the
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Lord, although it brings wisdom and other things, it's the beginning of knowledge and other things, it will make people say,
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I want to teach people what the Bible says about God. Whether you teach Sunday school or you evangelize.
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I meet people, I've met people, had coffee with them, and you know, when you sit and talk with folks, if I don't say to myself, my ultimate goal today is the glory of God, then you're going to be in trouble.
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If you say, my ultimate goal today is I want to lead this guy to the Lord, I want to lead this lady to the Lord, I can't wait to get back to my
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Bible and put a little tick mark in there because this will be the one that crosses those other four to make the five, and I want to be a winner of souls because a winner of souls is wise.
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A winner of souls is wise. But I can't really win them. I don't have the ability to give them a new heart.
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I am a messenger. So you're at work, and you don't get paid to evangelize, by the way.
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When you're on company hours, you don't evangelize, unless maybe you've got some exception, maybe you're a security guard or something,
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I'm not sure, but you're on company time, you work hard. On the breaks off company time or at some kind of fellowship afterwards, you are a messenger, and you tell them the truth.
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This is what God says about sin, about holiness, about the Savior. I've been asked recently, well, what if Jesus isn't the only
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Savior and I need to tell them? Well, what about sin? Is a finite sin really going to cost you hell forever?
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And the list goes on. And so when I evangelize and when I preach, and by the way, I want you to like me as a pastor.
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I want you to like me as a preacher. I want you to think I'm a fine guy. But there's a bigger issue, and I'm not trying to be untoward or anything else, but I'm here to preach the
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Word. And let's just say, and I know you're mature, and this isn't the case here, praise the Lord, I don't really mean that.
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But what if everybody wanted something different? And we want to have softer, smoother, watered down language.
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And what if I just gave you that? What if I just said, you know what? Instead of me thinking, wait a second, you want smooth, watered down words.
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You want minimalistic preaching, but I know you've got trials that are maximum, and how do you get through maximum trials with a little doctrine of God?
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It's not even good for you. But even before that, before you do any thinking about the congregation, you better have somebody stand up, and you better do this for VBS, for Bible study, for every other way.
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I have to honor the Lord, and if nobody likes it, nobody likes it. If everybody leaves, everybody leaves.
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Now, by the way, I'm not saying this because, you know, everybody's going to be leaving the church. At least it hasn't been announced to me that you're all leaving yet.
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So, first service people, they stuck around. The society is doing everything it can to muzzle the preachers.
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With no time lapsed hardly at all, I will not be able to stand up here and say, homosexuality is sinful.
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There's good news. You can be forgiven for this sin. But it's sinful. And there's no such thing as gay marriage.
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There's no such thing as flourishing as a gay marriage couple. Can't even say it.
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And I feel the pressure. Friends, I don't want to go to jail. I don't want a jail ministry.
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I mean, the Lord's going to do whatever He wants with me. I've been to jail maybe one time in my life. Well, I visited some other people, and Steve Cooley locked me in jail one time too.
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Couldn't believe it. When he was an officer, and that big door shut, I thought, I'm locked in. I mean, you can imagine what people would do back in the old days with a scroll, with a parchment, with some vellum, and they had one copy of the
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Bible. You can imagine what Corrie Ten Boom would do in the Nazi Germany prison camp.
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One copy of the Bible jammed between her collarbones. How precious that would be. How you would want to tell other people what was in it, and you would want to guard it.
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That's the language here. God has given the word to His priest to be a guardian, to be a proclaimer.
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And then He goes back to verse 8, and He says to the opposite,
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He says back to you, He condemned the priest in the first four verses, then
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He gave them a good example of what they should have been doing, and now He switches it back. But you have turned aside from the way.
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You've caused many to stumble by your instruction. What happens when there's no
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Bible teaching? You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the
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Lord of hosts. So I make you despised and abase before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep
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My ways, but show partiality in your instruction. Instead of preaching the
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Word where people would say, that's the right way to think about God, and this is helping me say no to sin, and yes to righteousness, no to temptation, and yes to forsaking that temptation.
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When you get these smooth, watered -down words from the pulpit, it makes people sin. The pastor is sinning, the people are sinning, because they find it acceptable.
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The pastor preaches a watered -down message, he lives a watered -down life, and the people think, that's just right.
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No wonder people heap up teachers after their own what? Desires.
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I'm so thankful that's not here. It's like Jeremiah, the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority, and my people love it so.
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Or like Isaiah, for those who guide these people are leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are brought to confusion.
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I'd like you to turn, as we wrap things up, to Luke 4, please. To Luke chapter 4, as I think about Jesus.
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Now, Malachi 2 isn't a messianic prophecy there, or anything like that.
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But when I think of the right way to be a priest or a Bible teacher in God's economy,
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I automatically default to Jesus. Don't you think when you're, as you're turning to Luke chapter 4,
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I mean, when I read these verses, don't you think, that's exactly like Jesus. He stood in awe of the
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Father's name, true instruction was in His mouth, no wrong was found on His lips,
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He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and He turned many from iniquity.
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Doesn't that remind you of Jesus? Like a priest, He guarded knowledge, and people sought instruction from His mouth, for He is the messenger of the
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Lord of hosts. So when I think of the Lord Jesus, that's exactly what
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I think of. He's the ultimate preacher. Matter of fact, He's the prince of preachers. Somebody should probably write a book,
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The Prince of Preachers. One time a person said to me, now, do you think maybe we shouldn't say,
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Prince of Preachers, because Spurgeon was called Prince of Preachers. I said, well,
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I don't think Spurgeon, especially right now in heaven, is going to mind that Jesus was called Prince of Preachers. And so, you watch
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Jesus, and this is what we're supposed to do. Now, we're going to look at Jesus here in Luke 4, for a few moments, for two reasons.
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One, I want you to see what real Bible teaching is like, and so you can say to yourself, this is the model.
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This is what He does. I also want you to look at Jesus' life, because any time we've cut a corner, or we haven't honored the
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Lord, and stood in fear of Him, and honored His name, and we've been maybe afraid to say something to our friends, that's the truth about the exclusivity of salvation, or anything else.
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Here's the good news, friends. Jesus never did that. So, when you are forgiven, all your sins of not evangelizing properly, are forgiven, because Jesus, as Harry taught us, said, it is finished, paid in full.
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But additionally, when God sees us, He sees us through the lens of Jesus, who always did the right thing, who always preached like He should, who always had instruction in His mouth, who never had wrong on His lips.
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And so, it's just great to go see Jesus preach momentarily, as we feel the burden of Malachi, and now we see the greatness of Jesus.
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Chapter 4, verse 14. Dr. Luke informs us, in volume 1,
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Luke, he says in chapter 4, verse 14, And Jesus returned to Galilee, in the power of the
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Spirit, the Spirit of God impels Him to this ministry, and news about Jesus spread through all the surrounding district.
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News spread. You know what the Greek word is there? Fame. So we get our English word, fame.
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Jesus is doing so many things, He's becoming famous, and the fame is spreading.
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The report about Jesus pervades the whole area. His ministry is noticed.
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Verse 15. And He began teaching in their synagogues, and was praised by all.
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His fame was preceding Him. He now begins to preach. This is His regular thing.
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The crowds give glory, our praise, and He's teaching in their synagogues, over and over and over, one synagogue to the next.
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When Jesus shows up, you'll know He'll preach, and you'll know He'll teach. Miracles are one thing, but Jesus has come to preach as He goes to Calvary.
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What's so interesting about Jesus? What's the excitement about Jesus? What could His message be? What will He talk about?
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Chapter 4, verse 17. And the book of the prophet Maccabees was handed to Him.
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Oh, sorry, Isaiah. Right? He's not teaching about what's going on in the book club of the equivalent of Oprah back in the day, and some kind of psychology, and sociology, and economy, and politics, and other religious writings.
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They give Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. Because when you went to a synagogue back in those days, there'd be the reading from the
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Torah, and then the prophet to follow. And so Torah's been read. They give Jesus Isaiah.
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It's handed to Him. He opened up the book and found the place where it was written. Now remember, the book is not really a book like we have folded with leaves, and we turn from one page to the other.
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It's a scroll. And what do you do with the scroll? If I had the scroll right here, what do you do? You open it up.
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Right? And you've heard me talk about this many times. I'll try to do the minimalistic one here with not too much blood.
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This is the Word. That if you go to heart surgery and you watch someone's sternum cut open, and then they put some instruments here, and then they crank open the chest so you can get to the heart, they open it up.
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They just open it right up. Oh, by the way, Luke was a what? He's a doctor. He's a physician.
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He's using this language. Jesus opens up the Scriptures to get to the heart of them.
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The place where it was written. Now either they handed Him the scroll, and He went right for Isaiah 61, or last week it was
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Isaiah 60, and providentially, perfectly, sovereignly, Isaiah's right there.
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And He opened up the book and found the place where it was written. What's Jesus going to say?
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Well, He reads Isaiah. But it's about Him. The Spirit of the
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Lord is upon Me, verse 18, because He anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor.
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He sent Me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the
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Lord. I am the Messiah. The Messiah that you've waited for.
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The Messiah that Isaiah talked about. I'm the Messiah. I'm in your midst. It's being fulfilled right now.
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Messianic era starts this second. I'm the anointed one.
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I'm going to grant liberty to captives. I'm going to give good news to the poor. You're going to have your sins forgiven.
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Sight to the blind. Real blind people. Spiritually blind people. Liberty to those who are oppressed.
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Cast out demons. Heal the sick. Proclaim the year of the
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Lord's favor. Verse 20. And He closed the book.
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Okay, hang in there. Gave it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
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So what do you mean? I thought He was done with the message. Friends, here's what would happen in the synagogue. You read
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Torah. You read a prophet like Isaiah. And then you sit down and then you do the exposition.
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The exposition of the passage happens now. All the eyes are fixed on Jesus. How would He exposit the sermon?
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How would He preach Isaiah? This is dramatic. He quietly, as it were, rolls up the scroll, hands it back to the attendant, sits down.
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It's teaching time. They sat when they taught. All eyes are fixed on Him.
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Verse 21. And He began to say to them. He began to say to them.
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There's more to be said, but we get the first sentence of the sermon alone.
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Today the Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. This is amazing. Now, I know I'm supposed to be content when
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Scripture is silent. Calvin said, I'm to be silent. But I want more than just one sentence of his sermon.
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In his first sentence, probably the most important sentence, we get, it was recorded by Luke. Today the
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Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. There's more to be said. Because He began to say, tells us that.
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There's more than one expositional sentence, but we only get the first one. He is the
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Messiah. And verse 22. And all were speaking well of Him.
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But that's got to be nuanced a little bit. Take a look. And wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips.
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And they were saying, is this not Joseph's son? You've got two people there.
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Both groups say He's an excellent speaker. His rhetorician is good.
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One group says, this is wonderful. This is marvelous. This is amazing. Gracious words falling.
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And the other ones are saying, yes, He can sure speak well, but isn't He got Joseph for a dad? Some were marveling in a positive response to His words, not just His rhetoric.
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And some just said, well, He's just got good rhetoric. Jesus is the one who
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He is a perfect picture of Malachi 2. He's in fear of God the
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Father. He stands before God the Father as the incarnate Son, honoring God, subject to God, wanting to be obedient to God.
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This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. He walks what
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He's been taught. He guards knowledge. And He is the one who's the model.
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Jesus is the only Son of God, and He happens to be the preacher. So I say this before we celebrate the
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Lord's Supper. When you are going to go visit someone and you say,
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I've got to go to a loved one's house to preach the gospel, how can you get ready for that? Well, you pray.
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But why don't you spend some time reading Isaiah 6? Holy, holy, holy is the
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Lord God Almighty. The whole earth, it's like a launching pad for His glory.
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I'm going to study God and how great He is, because when I walk into that room, I know what it's like to talk to relatives, and I just have that moment like I can't talk because they're relatives.
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You call me in to talk to your relatives, I don't have any problem. But my own relatives, I feel the reticence.
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But the fear of the Lord is to drive that reticence out not because we are to be messengers, we are to be messengers of the
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Lord. The fear of the Lord drives messengers of God to proclaim the truth about Jesus, His death, and resurrection.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank You for Your words in Malachi. How many thousands of years old are the words in Malachi?
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Yet so transchronological, so relevant for today. Father, as I look in church history,
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I cannot think of one person who was a sharp sword in Your hand, whether it was
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Mary Schleser of Calabar or Hudson Taylor, who didn't fear
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You and stand in awe of Your name and then teach the Bible. All of our great heroes of the faith,
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Stephen, Paul, Peter, John the Baptist, and yes, most importantly, our
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Lord Jesus stood in awe of Your name, taught the
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Bible, and walked a life of peace and uprightness. I pray that for Bethlehem Bible Church.
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I pray it for the leadership. I pray it for anyone who would dare teach. No wonder James says, let not many of you be teachers.
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And Father, for those who are gifted to teach and those who have the opportunity for evangelism, teaching kids.
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Father, help us to be messengers. Help us to talk about the guilt of sin.
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Help us to talk about the grace of the Lord Jesus, forgiveness, full and free by trusting in Him alone.