Priests Held Accountable

We ready hey glad y'all are here today, familiar faces all as

always and then those of you that are here for the first

time. Glad you decided to come check

out Vita. I was going to add on to what

Kurt was saying about our membership series class that's

coming up in a few weeks. That is not a like only if I

plan to become a member, I'll go to those.

That's for any of you who would just be curious.

It is completely fine to get through those classes and come

to the conclusion that this is not the right local church for

me. But we hope that you'll come to

those because that that's maybe one of the best places to learn.

We'll show you all our cards. Here's who we are, here's what

we believe, Here's what it would look like to be a part of Vita

Springs Church. So I would encourage any of you

in that camp that you're just curious.

Come to those, come to those classes.

All right, we're going to jump into the book of Malachi.

If you have your Bible with you, go ahead and jump there.

Malachi chapter 2. If you don't have your own

Malachi 2 · chapter mention

Bible, you can grab one of the black Bibles in the seat in

front of you. That will be page eight O 1

while you're flipping there. If you've not been with us the

last two weeks, The aim of the book of Malachi, Old Testament

book. It's a minor prophet.

Maybe you're not that familiar with it.

Probably a lot of us. The book of Malachi really

overall, it's calling God's people to honor him through

faithful living When we are he has always been faithful to us.

When we live faithful to him, then we bring him honor and the

book of Malachi's broken up into six different disputes where God

is calling out Israel, the nation of God's people.

So God, he's calling out of God's chosen people.

You've been unfaithful in these ways.

And there's a back and forth where God is calling them back

to faithfulness. The first week we looked at how

they have simply forgotten his love.

And that was a reminder in Malachi that before God does any

rebuke or correction, before any of that, he comes.

And basically, I remember telling you it's basically God

giving him a hug. It's like, hey, just remember

first, I love you. I've always loved you.

And now these things we've got to talk about.

And so we're, we got into the second dispute last week and

we're going to have a Part 2 to that dispute today.

And so Malachi Chapter 2 last week, it began pointing out the

Malachi 2 · chapter mention

failures of the priests. The priests have failed to guard

God's honor. And we're going to kind of recap

that in our verses today. But then we're going to spend a

lot of time looking at what success would be for a priest or

what the ideal priest would be. And so I've got a story for you

to kind of set the tone. When I was in high school, my

dad knew what high school boys were like.

And so when I would leave the house plenty of times he would

stop me. Hey, Gordon, remember who you

are. And there was no context.

There's nothing else. But he's, he's kept saying it.

Gordon, remember who you are. And to the point where I started

thinking what, what does he mean?

And he kind of, I think intentionally left it up to me

to figure that one out. Gordon, when you go out, no

matter who you're with, no matter what you're doing,

remember who you are. I think we've lost something in

our generation now that we have last names.

It used to be before that I would have just been known as

Gordon, son of Kevin, son of Dan, son of Monroe.

And that would have told you a lot about who I am.

And if I walked around remembering, ah, I'm not just

living for Gordon. It's not just my name that I

carry around. I am Gordon, son of Kevin, son

of Dan, son of Monroe. That would cause me to live

differently, wouldn't it? What we're going to see today is

that God is pointing out the failures of the priests, and he

points them back. Hey, priests, your son of

Phineas, your son of Levi. And I'm going to give you some

background, but he's essentially saying, hey, priests, remember

who you are. When you go walk around and you

remember who you are, it causes you to live quite differently.

And there's going to be a thing I think hopefully all of us

figure out by the end of the teaching.

We represent much more than we realize.

So we're in Malachi 2, as we regularly do at Vida, before we

read God's Word, we want to approach it carefully.

We want to make sure that our hearts are right, that we're

prepared as best we know. And so we're going to give 1520

seconds for each of us just to pray in our hearts.

Maybe that's confessing sin. Maybe it's a simple prayer.

God, point out whatever you want to point out today.

Help me and then I'll read and we'll get into the teaching.

Malachi chapter 2, starting in verse one.

Malachi 2 · chapter mention

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, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send

curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings.

Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it

to heart. Behold, I rebuke your offspring

and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and

you shall be taken away with it. So, so shall you know that I

have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may

stand, says the Lord of Hosts. My covenant with him was one of

life and peace, and I gave them to him.

It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me.

He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his

mouth. No wrong was found on his lips.

He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many

from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should

guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his

mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts.

But you have turned aside from the way you have caused many to

stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant

of Levi, says the Lord of Hosts. And so I make you despised and

abased before all the people, in as much as you do not keep my

ways. But show partiality in your

instruction. Heavenly Father, you deserve all

honor and glory. We as humans made in the image

of God. You deserve our honor, and then

especially those of us that would claim to be Christian.

You deserve lives that honor you.

God, help us prepare our hearts today.

Help me as I teach. I pray nobody would stiff arm

you today. We pray we'd all be receptive to

your Holy Spirit. And I pray, Lord, that you would

help us to become like the first song we sung this morning.

You're coming for a spotless bride.

I pray, Lord, we would be spotless and we know You're

going to help us get there. Thank you, Jesus Christ, for

your mercy, your patience, your help.

We pray these things in your name.

Amen. OK, so Malachi's got some good

verses in there, huh? Often when I'm reading through,

I'm like, oh, I said it the first week.

Oh boy, how, what am I going to say about this one?

But let's let's go through verse by verse.

So the first 3 verses, I'll just start there.

And again, it's kind of recapping the failures of the

priest that we talked about last week, last week, if you were

here, the people are bringing to God sacrifices that are

blemished, improper, not according to what God instructed

and worse. The priests are OK with it.

They're allowing it. They're out.

So I translated for us last week.

They're bringing improper worship and the priests are

allowing it. And for us as Christians today,

our lives are described as living sacrifices to God.

And so if we live improperly, it dishonors the Father.

That was the dispute last week. God was saying, if I'm your

father, then where's my honor? Priests, you've not been helping

the people honor me. Where's my honor?

And so verse one and now a priest, this command is for you.

If you will not listen, if you will not take it 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.

Indeed curse your blessings indeed I have already.

And so there's there's two things happening here with God's

dispute. He's saying in one effect, I

have already judged you, you're already under discipline.

But in another sense, he's holding out an offer.

He's saying if you will not take, if you will not listen, if

you will not take it to heart, there's this offer to you could

turn, you could listen, you could take it to heart, and then

this can be reversed. But you're already under

judgment in one sense. And if you don't take it to

heart and turn, this is what will happen.

What will happen? Behold, I will rebuke your

offspring, spread dung on your faces, the dung of your

offerings. Now dung, it's originally it,

it's referring to entrails, K guts.

Now, I grew up very interested in hunting.

I had a friend from our church that took me hunting as probably

like an eighth grader. And I shot my first deer.

I shot it in the guts and tradition, at least in the

South, would be when you're cleaning the deer.

If you gut shoot a deer, they take the guts from a 5 gallon

bucket and they tip it on your head, OK, They spread dung on

your face and that would teach you to never gut shoot a deer

again because of how gross it is.

Now the guy that took me hunting because of how gross that is did

not have the heart to do it, thankfully so, and I still

though understood the warning. I don't think I've shot a a deer

in the gut since. Anyway, God's saying here's what

would happen when you touch something unclean.

If the entrails were to touch the priests, they would become

unclean and they would no longer be pure and able to serve God as

priests. The dung, the entrails, was

supposed to be carried out outside the camp and burned

because it's unclean. And God is saying I will make

you like the dung priest because you've despised my name.

You've not guarded proper worship, giving me the honor I

deserve because of that. Here's the curse that's coming.

If you don't turn and repent, I will walk you outside the camp

and the people of Israel will see it and that will be a

display of God's justice because it is not OK to live proper

improperly in his world. And so jump down to verse 9.

God says and so I make you despised and abased.

Isn't that interesting? God started out the dispute with

saying you despise my name and now justice would be I will

despise you. I will make you abased in as

much as you do not keep my ways. You show partiality in your

instruction, verse 82. You've turned aside from the way

you've caused many to stumble by your instruction.

This is why God is coming to the priests first.

The people are guilty. Remember from last week, the

people are guilty of bringing improper worship, but God's

coming down on the priest because they're the ones that

we're supposed to instruct in what's proper and guard from

what's improper. And those two things I just

said, those are two of the big functions of priests in the Old

Testament. That's why God established an

office of priests for the people is because we as God's people,

we need instruction towards what's proper.

That's one function of priests. We need an instruction towards

what's proper and we need guarding from what's improper.

OK, so there's two things we'll we'll end up highlighting

throughout the teaching. But the priests have failed at

both of these. They have not instructed towards

what's proper. They've not guarded from what is

improper. And thus the Father, Heavenly

Father, Creator, our Master, our Lord, has not received the honor

he's due. God is now going to tell the

priests remember who you are. And verses 4 through 6, he's

pointing back to the original covenant he made with the tribe

of Levi, and he's saying, hey, priests, remember, remember who

you are. Now, if you're not familiar, the

priests, we're specifically from the tribe of Levi.

We talked about Jacob in the first week.

He was the father of the 12 tribes of Israel and the tribe

of Levi was the priestly tribe. And so you've got priests,

you've got high priests, which were there was 1 high priest

that was kind of over the under priests.

That'll be relevant in a second. But you got to know some some of

the background of who the priests are.

And we'll talk a little bit more about Levi in a second.

Before we dig into who the priests were meant to be, the

ideal, can I make a case for all of us that we as Christians are

modern day priests? Because that will mean a very

different application for today's teaching, right?

And so there's 4 supports for this.

Number one, the Bible calls Christians priests.

And we could stop there. Look at first Peter 2 Peter says

as you come to him, Jesus, a living stone rejected by men,

but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves,

like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to

be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable

to God through Jesus Christ. OK, way back in the Old

Testament, God actually promised through Moses, you're going to

be a Kingdom of priests one day. And this is what Peter's talking

about. South, the Bible calls us

priests. How is this possible #2 support

through Jesus Christ, our high priest.

He commissions us as his. You might call us under priests.

He's the capital P priest. We're the lowercase P priests.

Hebrews wonderful book talks a lot about the high priest.

Hebrews 414 calls Jesus a great high priest, calls Jesus that

about twelve other times. I want to point out Hebrews 10

to support that he's commissioned us as his priests.

Hebrews 10/19 through 22. Therefore, brothers, since we

have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of

Jesus. Pause.

Who could enter the holy places? Only priests.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the

holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way

that he opened up for us through the curtain that is through his

flesh, and since we have a great high, a great priest over the

House of God, and so Jesus Christ is the high priest, he

commissions us read through the rest of Hebrews.

It talks a lot of I think you'll see pretty clearly.

I only had time to mention one mention pretty clearly that we

give spiritual sacrifices. We serve as priests.

It talks a lot about the curtain.

When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain was torn in two.

And now we have confidence to enter into God's presence,

something only priests are able to do.

So #1 Bible calls us priests #2 Jesus commissions us as priests.

And if you think about it, there's the curse.

And the priests were supposed to be walked outside the camp, made

unclean. Who was the great high priest

who got walked outside the gates of Israel?

Jerusalem was made unclean. For whose improper living ours,

Jesus was made unclean. Jesus was hung on a cross.

Jesus said it is finished and the temple was torn in two.

We were cleansed, we were made clean.

Now we're able to do this holy service as priests because of

Jesus Christ, our high priest. If those two supports are

supports aren't enough. Put simply, those two functions

that priests are given the Bible, the New Testament tells

Christians to do those all the time, instruct towards what's

proper guard from what's improper.

The Bible tells us to instruct one place it says that Romans

1514. Paul says I myself am satisfied

about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness,

filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.

Benchmark expectation for Christians is that we would be

able to instruct one another. Also.

The 4th support. Christians are commanded in the

New Testament to function as garters from what's improper?

Improper teaching, sure. Improper living, too.

The New Testament calls us to admonish one another, which is

to caution, to reprove, to warn, to correct.

The New Testament calls us to exhort one another, which is

often to plead with an old English word to beseech OK,

we're to exhort one another. We're to restore the one among

us who's caught in any transgression.

There's even in Galatians. Paul writes to the Galatian

church, not to the pastors to the church.

I am astonished that you have so quickly deserted the gospel,

deserting him who called you and turning to a different gospel.

And so have I made a case that Christians or modern day

priests. There should be an oh boy in the

room. Oh boy.

We're supposed to do this as Christians, not just pastors,

not just elders, not just kids teachers, not just those with

titles. If you're a Christian, you have

a title as priest. I'm now clarifier.

I'm a pastor and so am I irrelevant.

No. God gives teachers and shepherds

and pastors and elders as gifts to the church to set the pace in

this. If you, if you're familiar with

NASCAR or marathons or running, there's a pacesetter, right?

There's someone that would go out in front and they would set

the pace for how to run that others can follow.

It gives them a a gauge for how quickly to run, how to run.

OK, as a pastor, I ought to be a pacesetter in how to live

properly and bring God honor. And so we need pastors.

But more than anything, we equipped you.

Ephesians 4 talks about we are to equip you to teach you to do

the ministry. And Ephesians 4 says when every

part's working together properly, the body builds itself

up in love. So if we as a church were

healthy in these things. If we had a strong base of

Christians who understood their role as priests, wonderful

things would happen. Let me say one thing to those of

you that you're in the room and you're not a Christian.

Why is priest relevant to you? Why?

What's the deal with priests for me?

How should I think about it? The reason we have priests is

because sinful people cannot dwell with a holy, sinless God,

and so that there ought to be a reflection right away for you.

I hope it's that because of my sin, I can never know my

Creator. I can never come into His

presence. I can never know the way that

this world was meant to operate. I can never know what it is to

live proper, and I certainly cannot bring Him honor because

of my sinfulness. And God gives Jesus Christ, the

great High Priest, to make a way for you to have your sin

cleansed so that you can know your Father, your Creator, so

that you can be made pure and have a relationship with Him.

It is only through Jesus Christ who is able to forgive sins,

that you can be forgiven of anything you've ever done, the

worst thing you've ever done, the thing you're most ashamed

of. Nothing would prevent Jesus

Christ from forgiving you. If you're coming to Him with all

your heart sincerely, if you want to have your eyes opened to

the way this world was meant to be, and you want to have your

eyes open to who God is, Jesus Christ is your great High Priest

and He would love to welcome you in today.

It's a prayer of repentance, faith in Him, and then a

commitment to follow Him. We have a bunch of under priests

around you today who would love to walk through those steps with

you. And so I would encourage you

talk with one of them before the end of today.

All right, now, priests, let's dig into what the ideal priest

is. Verse 4.

So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that

my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts.

My covenant with him was one of life and peace.

I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and

he feared me. He stood in awe of my name.

There's references here that we have to go back to.

OK, so they're fun. They're pretty fun stories.

OK. The Old Testament has some, you

know, like movie type blockbuster scenes, and we're

going to go to a couple of them. So first we're to understand

what he means when he says covenant of Levi in verse 4.

We'll go back about 1000 years before Malachi.

This story shows up in Exodus 32.

Israel, God's chosen nation, has been LED out of slavery to Egypt

and God has shown Israel his power, his might, and his love

for them by bringing them out. So all this is in the

background. God tells Moses, go to the top

of the mountain and I'm going to give you proper instruction, the

10 commandments. While he's up there, the people

who just got rescued by God are making a golden calf to worship

that. Instead, Moses comes down and is

appalled, furious, and it, it's crazy.

I could give you more details, but go read the story Exodus 32.

What I want to point out is Moses says to all the people who

will stand on the Lord's side today, this is not OK.

Justice needs to come. Who will stand on the Lord's

side? And you know what tribe came

forward? Levi, the tribe of Levi stepped

forward. And Moses says, all right, all

the sons of Levi go slay all the men who participated in this.

And about 3000 men were killed by the sword by the sons of

Levi. And after that, God says this

verse will be up on the screen today.

You have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at

the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow

a blessing upon you this day God makes.

So there's the covenant broadly with Israel, but God makes a

covenant just with the tribe of Levi to be to serve him as

priests. This was the beginning of it.

It was a covenant of fear because Levi, in a different way

than the other tribes feared God stood on his side.

I'll come back to this in a second, but the first, the first

trait we have of the ideal priest is the priests have fear.

Priests have fear, fear of God. They stand in all of his name.

So let me talk about fear and all and what it would look like

to stand in all of God's name. First, His name, his, the name

of the Lord shows up a lot in Malachi, OK, To have all of his

name or fear of his name, His name kind of embodies 2 things.

Reputation, OK, His name, like the Yoder name, my last name has

a reputation about it. OK, It's his reputation and it's

his identity. Yoder has a reputation, but also

I am a Yoder. OK, the name of the Lord, It's

God's reputation, what he's known for, and it's just who God

is. I know who God is.

I know who is, what his reputation is.

Therefore it would be right for me to have a kind of fear about

it. Not just anyone can approach

God. This God, God showed with a

mighty hand to Egypt, to Pharaoh, that he is the God

above all gods. He showed to the people of

Israel that you don't get to just worship anything you want

and you don't get to just live however you want.

OK. There is a fear, a right kind

of, we kind of muddy that word sometimes.

Fear is just reverence. It's respect.

OK? Think about guns and alligators.

You live in Florida. I have a respect for guns.

I also have a fear for guns. If I'm not careful with guns,

guns could hurt me and it wouldn't be my fault.

It wouldn't be their fault. It would be mine.

I have a respect for alligators and I also have an awe for

alligators. If I'm not careful, they might

hurt me and it wouldn't be their fault.

It would be my fault. OK, there's a healthy kind of

fear we have with God and a kind of all OK, let me put something

real quick for those of you Christians, because you've been

cleansed and made clean by Jesus Christ, Hebrews says you have

confidence to draw near to God. OK, you don't need to have a, a

kind of like, I'll just, I'll steal one of our other members

words he used when talking about this, a kind of dark fear or a

demonic fear or a but there can be a, a trembling and a

reverence and an awe like gazing at a mountain, like there's a, a

beauty about it. OK, so there's awe and fear

towards his name. And that's why the Levites would

be asked who's going to stand on the Lord's side?

And they're more afraid to be against God than they are to be

against the people. I'm I'm going to stand on the

Lord's side. I would rather be right with

God. I would rather do the right

thing than to be afraid of people.

God's name is great. God himself is great and great

is a puny word for God. We used great to describe our

dinner last night. Awesome.

Like think about what awesome was meant to be like.

Awe inspiring God is an awesome and the Bible uses that word.

He is an awesome God. And yet that's a puny word for

God because we talk about a movie as awesome.

OK, but you start using words like glorious, OK, God to to

honor God or to give him glory can be kind of synonymous.

He is a glorious God. He is a holy, that word holy.

There's no one like him. I can't, I can't think of a

close comparison. Who is like our God, glorious,

holy Almighty, When Jesus teaches his people how to pray

the Lord's Prayer, he tells them, Our Father, who art in

heaven, hallowed be thy name. In that hallowed it means holy

be thy name. So priests have fear, and that's

a quality that God said I need that for those who would do my

service. I'm going to make you the tribe

of priests because you have a right kind of fear for my name.

And so priests, do you have fear and all towards God's name?

Are you flippant when you approach them?

Do you draw near and don't really examine yourself too

much? Do you care more about what

other people think? Would you, Do you fear them more

than you do God? Are you so captivated with God

and his power and his might and his beauty, his glory, His

Holiness, that it compels you to stand on his side, even if

you're the only one? Even if, like Moses says, at the

cost of his son and of his brother, at the cost of

friendship, at the cost of your earthly reputation?

Do you have all? If so, that is a needed trait

for priests. And if not, ask him I I bet

he'll give it to you. Pastors, elders, we're

pacesetters in this. Do you have all and fear in

God's name? Would others describe you that

way? All right, let's go to trait 2.

There's another back story mentioned in our verses.

It says covenant of peace and life, and this picks our brains

up. Brains to another story.

This one will be in Numbers 25 if you want to go read the whole

account later, but here's the brief version.

There's a guy named Phineas. The people of Israel are

mourning over sin at this moment.

They're mourning over sin because many of the Israelites

have disobeyed God and taken wives from other nations and,

the story says, yoked themselves like, bonded themselves to their

gods. And so the people are mourning

over sin. And as that's happening, an

Israelite has the gall to bring a daughter of another nation

into Israel's camp. OK, this is tone deaf.

This is oblivious, this is ignorant.

It's probably too defiant against God by this guy in the

midst of this morning over sin, putting the very sin in the

faces of God's people. And the account says Phineas,

one of the priests, sons of Aaron, son of Levi, Phineas took

his spear and went and stabbed the Israelite and the woman

through the belly. And because of that, God says

he, this verse will be on the screen.

I'm just going to read a few parts.

He was jealous with my jealousy among them.

And then later, behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, OK.

And Malachi uses this word. It was a covenant of peace and

life because honoring God with proper living leads to peace and

life. Phineas is concerned with the

people's peace and life, and he's concerned with how this

would affect his God. He was jealous with God's

jealousy. OK, Phineas understands that

action hurts God and I'm going to have a right expression of

God's jealousy would be to pick up the spear and go.

Now we don't have Spears and swords anymore.

I'm going to tackle that one towards the end of the teaching,

but I want you to see the action, OK?

He takes action. He does something about it

because he's jealous with God's jealousy.

OK, When I was in high school, I had the 1st girl I really liked

and I'm away on a trip with a high school friend.

This is I think end of senior year and we're just trip to the

beach. I was with him and his family.

While I'm there I get a call from my girlfriend and she said

she's like in tears and she confesses that she was hanging

out with her ex-boyfriend and they kissed on the back of his

truck tailgate and oh man I was devastated.

I'm like man I could net based on how hurt I feel after a one

month relationship based on based on how hurt I feel.

I cannot understand what it would be like to be betrayed by

a spouse and I was there was a jealousy in my friend though

that I was with he. He was like what happened

Gordon? I was like she cheated on me.

She kissed her ex-boyfriend and he got jealous.

He got fired up. He was like saying all kinds of

things that had she been there, he was going to put her straight

And I felt like yes, thank you. He is.

You are jealous with my jealousy.

We went and cooled off by shooting guns later and eating,

going to a really good donut shop.

I still remember that Phineas acted with God's jealousy.

In his actions. We see something about how God

feels when people live improperly and when His chosen

people live improperly. Theologian Ji Packer defines

God's jealousy as this praiseworthy zeal to preserve

something supremely precious. Praiseworthy zeal to preserve

something supremely precious. For some of you, you get more

fired up, more zealous, more jealous when someone offends the

name of your political party, because that is more supremely

precious than God's name. Some of you would get more fired

up if someone hurt your own reputation than you would if

someone hurt God's reputation. Some of you would get more fired

up, passionate, when someone would offend your spouse's honor

than when someone would offend God's honor.

To be a priest means to have this second trait.

Priests embody God's jealousy. Priests embody God's jealousy.

They see God's name, which again, his reputation and his

identity, who he is. They see God's name as supremely

precious, worth defending. OK, we we see it as noble to go

defend your country's honor, and it is noble.

We see it as noble to go defend your wife's honor, which it is.

We see it as noble to go defend your mom's honor.

OK, mothers, if anyone talked about my Mama, it would be right

for me to take action. I'm jealous with her jealousy.

And in the same way, God's name is supremely precious and

Christians priests are to embody that jealousy.

One time I was sitting across the in a coffee shop across the

table from a college student, and he was telling me about how

he's growing in his spiritual life.

And it was, he was talking about the kind of peace he has now

where he used to just be very, very anxious.

And he says, it's like this, like the Holy Spirit's given me

peace. And it's like this, like Zen and

something like, and I'm like trying to think, how am I going

to, you know, what Zen is? He took the Holy Spirit's peace

and attributed it to a, a Buddhist figure.

OK, that Zen describes a different kind of peace, not

from God. And to attribute it to God's

peace, that's not OK. And I, and I approached it.

I made sure he knew the difference.

And like, what do you mean when you say Zen?

And if you mean like you got to be, you can't say that.

If you're talking about the Holy Spirit's peace, you can't say

that. I don't want anyone else in the

world to hear that and be confused about God's reputation

and God's identity. Priest, do you get jealous for

God in his honor? Do you get fired up when

something would offend God's reputation?

And elders and pastors, do you set the pace in this embodying

God's jealousy? So there's two traits.

And now we're going to go to two actions, those two functions of

priests that I've been talking about.

Now I want to highlight something, and it's kind of a

warning. If you go to these next two

actions as priests, instructing and guarding and you don't have

awe and jealousy, you will treat people like projects or you will

do dutiful religious service, but it won't be service to God.

OK, if it's coming out of somewhere else and it's not

coming out of I'm doing this for God and for his name, I'm

jealous for him. I'm doing this out of fear of

him. If we don't have those traits

first and foremost, we it's a warning.

It's dangerous then to start instructing or guarding and so

all fear towards God embodying his jealousy.

And now let's talk about the first action we see in priests.

Look at verse 6. True instruction was in his

mouth. No wrong was found on his lips.

He walked with me in peace and uprightness.

He turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should

guard knowledge, and people should see construction from his

mouth, for he is a messenger of the Lord.

And so you see in these verses how priests are called to

instruct towards what's proper. Hey, that's the action we see in

priests. They instruct towards what's

proper one by their words. OK, look at all the words that

reference on his lips, in his mouth the word messenger which

he is instructing with his words.

He's careful to make sure that no wrong is found on his lips.

Now, before you would go teach someone else to do something,

you have to possess that knowledge yourself, right?

You can't go instruct other people on how to live what's

proper if you don't yourself know what's proper.

And so this is being a lifelong learner of your Bible.

This is always seeking to know more, because you and I do not

know at all. It's being very careful when you

would press a conviction on somebody.

It's very careful that there's no wrong in it.

It's very careful that you would teach.

Carefully, it's why teachers, God says shouldn't want to be

teachers because they're going to be judged with greater

strictness. So we need to know it to to

instruct it. The other thing we see about

priests instructing towards what's proper is they do it by

their example. It's with their words and with

their example. So it says in verse 6, He walked

with me in peace and uprightness that he lived it out.

How many of you are going to trust me if I'm telling you to

do something and then you go see me living the opposite?

How many of you learn something from another Christian simply by

watching the way that they lived?

It's with our words and it's with our example.

And so question priests, do you instruct towards what's proper?

Do you cause many to stumble or do you instruct towards what's

proper a practical? And one thing we've been harping

on as a church is that for all of the members of Vita Springs

Church, each one teach one. OK, It was stolen from a local

track coach who was teaching one of Tony, our lead pastor,

teaching one of his sons. He was teaching the whole track

team. Hey, older athletes, each one

teach one. Take some of the younger

athletes and everything you've learned, pass it on.

And that is biblical. That's something we're called to

do as Christians. Older women teach the younger

women, OK, we're all called to each one, teach one.

And there's a practical for each of us.

And so priests, Christians, do you understand this is your

responsibility? God has given you a title of

priest. Are you teaching someone?

Are you discipleling someone? Are you taking them under your

wing? Are you bringing them along with

you? Are you opening up the Bible

together? Each one, teach one, even if

you're new to it, you've got something to help others with.

And then do you walk it out? Would others look at your life

and say they're walking in uprightness?

Elders, husbands, dads, are you setting the pace in this?

I sprinkled in husbands and dads because you're pace setters too.

Are you setting the pace in these things?

Kids, teachers, youth, you've got a really special job to

instruct our little ones and our student, our not so little

students, sorry to call you little.

You've got an important job to instruct them towards what's

proper. Moms, Oh moms, you, you have

such a key role that no one else can fill for you.

Your kids, they look up to you like no one else.

They watch you and the world is trying to teach them a lot of

wrong things and they need you to have no wrong on your lips

and to teach them what's true and to walk it out.

They need you. The reason I'm here today, my

parents dedicated me as a child, raised me in the church, in the

faith, and I have man no words to thank them.

Action 2 we see in priests, this is the final one.

Priest guard from what's improper.

And so look in, look in verse 7 for the lips of a priest should

guard knowledge. They should guard true

instruction from what's improper.

They should keep it pure, untainted.

They shouldn't let other false doctrine creep in.

They should guard knowledge, protect it.

OK, if you think about a guard, a security guard in front of a

vault with a ring, pop OK there. It's not precious.

No one is trying to break into that vault to steal it.

There's no threat or danger. But our truth, supremely

precious, the truth about God, who he is, the gospel, which is

described as the mystery that's been hidden for the ages, that's

now revealed in Jesus Christ. We finally have the keys to

eternal life and to know God through Jesus.

We have something precious and it's under threat.

The evil 1 is trying to pollute it.

He does it from within. He lets Christians take heresy,

false teaching. There's wrong on their lips and

he sprinkles it in. And who's supposed to guard it?

US priests guard from what's improper.

The first Timothy it talks about, it refers to the Church

of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

A pillar, the church, not a building, the church,

Christians, you're a pillar to hold up true instruction.

You're to defend it. You're to keep it from being

tainted. You use your words to do this.

We must keep it pure and untainted.

We must defend God's honor. And then I told you I'd

translate Spears and swords for us today, right?

A guard needs a weapon. Sometimes it requires a more

severe reaction to defend it. Hey, I'm not just going to be

able to use my my words to refute you or to stop you.

OK, here, here's the sword. Today, Hebrews 412 will be up on

the screen. For the Word of God is living

and active, sharper than any 2 edged sword, piercing to the

division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and

discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

OK, the literal sword that God's people used to have was only

sharp enough to stop a physical body from continuing to sin.

You know what's sharper? God's word.

That, unlike an actual sword, is able to stop the soul, the heart

from sinning. When you Christian, when you

wield God's word, you should see it for what it is.

This is sharp. You should put a lot of faith in

it. If you go around believing this,

you will. You won't just be combating

someone who is living improper or guarding God's truth.

You won't just be walking around like kind of using your own

logic or persuasiveness or opinion.

If you trust as in the sharpness of God's word, there will be a

Bible between you and you'll be opening it up and you'll be

saying look what God says. And it's from false teaching,

right? But it's also, it's also from

improper living. OK, what's 1 of the one of the

things that taints God's reputation, His name more than

anything else, His people who bear his name, who do not

remember who they are, and they go around dishonouring God.

And the message of Malachi is this, honor God through faithful

living. And the message of the second

dispute is this. God's people need priests to

help with this. We need priests.

We need others to hold us accountable.

We need others to guard us from living what's improper.

All of your friends, your brothers and sisters who claim

to be Christian need you to help them live what's proper and to

guard them and the witness of God's church and God's honor.

They need you to guard from what's improper.

You have to use your words, God's words.

You have to use the sword at times, OK, when it's not a quick

turning from iniquity, it's hey, can we go to the Bible about

this one? Because I think, I think God's

got something to say about this. Priests, will you guard from

what's improper? Will you pick up the sword at

times? Will you guard from improper

teaching? Will you study your Bible?

Will you be a lifelong learner and help us as a church make

sure that we're teaching what's true because we need that.

Will you help each other in your?

I know some of you maybe aren't part of Vita Springs.

You're a part of another local body.

Will you help each other at your local church honor God through

faithful living? Well, Gordon, I don't.

I don't have enough relational equity with everybody.

I'm not sure if I have enough friendship with them.

OK. If they claim to be a Christian

and you claim to be a Christian, you've got all the relationship

in the world to talk to them about improper living.

You know why? They're your brother and your

sister. You're their brother and their

sister. They may not like you talking to

him about it, but you have a God-given obligation as priests

to guard from what's improper. I had a friend here, he was in

my small group and a newer Christian, him and his wife and

super fun story about how they came to faith and he always wore

long sleeves when he came to church.

And then one time we were just hanging out and he had a short

sleeve and I saw why he wore long sleeves, which it's not it,

he had a tattoo sleeve and he was newer.

He didn't know like if that was cool or not.

And so anyway, but I was just, I was just asking him about his

tattoos and he pulled it up a little higher and there is a, a

picture of a demon on his arm. And it was, I asked, I was like,

again, I, I got to say something.

I asked him about it. He said, oh, it's this band that

I like. And it's a rock, metal, hardcore

band, but the the musicians, they dress up as demons when

they come onto the stage and perform.

And he loved their music. And when I started asking him

about it and talking to him about it and why that's not cool

to I, I know it's not easy to go and scrub a tattoo off your arm.

I was mostly concerned about what he's letting in his ears

that he's continuing to listen to it.

And it didn't really go anywhere.

And here's another beautiful thing.

We were still friends, we still hung out, we still saw each

other. I didn't make it awkward.

I I kept checking in about it. It wasn't till two years later

they moved away and I got a text on a random day.

He's like Gordon, I get it now. And I'm so thankful that you

were willing to talk to me about that.

I'm not listening to that band anymore.

Priests, there's going to be plenty of times where you stand

on the Lord's side and it's going to be at the cost of your

brother, but there's going to be plenty of times where you get

the fulfillment and joy of being able to do this holy service

that God gives to you and you get to turn someone from

iniquity. Look at the verse, got to find

it again. Last part of verse 6.

He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many

from iniquity. OK, there's a verse in Daniel 12

verse three it says, and those who are wise shall shine like

the brightness of the sky above and those who turn many to

righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

You want that on your tombstone at the end of your life.

Man, what a blessing. Those of you who are trigger

happy and you're ready to go have some conversations.

Let me caution you with this. We are to speak the truth in and

we are to correct our opponents with gentleness.

OK, so to wrap all this up, priests, remember who you are.

Remember who you are. You're not just sons of Kevin,

sons of Dan, sons of Monroe. You're sons of the living God.

He's your heavenly Father and he deserves honor.

Remember who you are as a church, we want to help with

these things, and I'm calling every member of Vita Springs

Church to take this a little more seriously, to guard each

other from what's improper and to instruct each other towards

what's proper. And there was one thing

specifically that kept coming to my mind.

There's some of you men who feel especially fired up about these

things, and I think it might be God giving you an aspiration for

the office of Elder. And so without any promises or

predictions of what that'll mean for you down the road, if God is

firing up, firing you up to be an instructor and a Garter, we

at Vita Springs need more pacesetters.

And so I would encourage you practically pay attention to

your character and develop that and keep having conversations

with the elders at Vita. We would love to know that

that's what God's doing in your heart.

And either way, go do some instructing and guarding.