0:10 Christ has defeated every sin. Cast your burdens now all your burdens now on him. Aren't you glad we sing hymns in this church? Praise the lord. Let's turn to the book of Malachi chapter two.
0:32 We continue to study this great book and the last book in the Old Testament, Malachi chapter two beginning in verse one. Malachi continues to address the priests. He began by addressing the nation of Israel by telling them that he loves them. I have loved you. And their response, we don't believe you.
1:13 How have you loved us? We're looking around us. We don't see any evidence, any proof of your love. They were looking at their circumstances, their problems. Everything's around them.
1:39 And now after he addressed the nation of Israel, he continues to address the priests. The nation of Israel despised God. Why did they do that? Why they didn't believe God? Because the priests did not believe God.
1:59 Because their shepherds, their leaders, they despised God. They defiled his altar. They defiled his table. We have seen they offered the sick, the lame, the blind, the stolen as an offering to God. Their worship has become unacceptable, worthless worship.
2:19 God has even hated their worship because it was not really a worship. It was not what God has required. It was a fake worship. It was performance. And we have said multiple times, the main reason was they did not see god in his beauty and his glory and his majesty.
2:41 And we don't when you don't see god in all of that, your worship become dull and superficial. God rejected this worship, and he told him it's better not to worship at all. It's better to shut the door of the temple not to worship at all than worship or offer such worship. In chapter one, God lays down the accusation of the priests. In chapter two, God pronounces the judgment.
3:15 And this is what we're going to see tonight. And now, you priests, verse one, this command is for you. God commands. Often people read the scripture and think, there is in it pretty good and great advices, suggestions. God suggests to do this or to do that.
3:42 Maybe we don't openly say that, but this is how we treat God's word often as a book of suggestions. We might call the 10 commandments by this name, but for us really are the 10 suggestions. God commands. He commands all people everywhere to repent. He does not suggest.
4:11 He commands all people to come to him. He does not suggest. It's a commandment. In the beginning, God commanded, and his commands brought things into existence. Let there be light, and there was light.
4:29 Nature listens to him when he commands. Even the beasts listen to him and obey him. When Christ was on earth, he commanded the evil spirits, and they obeyed immediately. The wind obeyed him. Be still, and the wind seized, and there was a great calm.
4:51 Even the fish obeyed him. He told Peter to go and cast his hook in the lake, and the first fish he finds to open her its mouth, and he'll find a shackle there. He commanded the fish to swallow a shackle and be there at the same spot where Peter is fishing. He commanded the fish even to bite that bait. He commands even the fish.
5:21 He commands his holy angels, and immediately they go to task, yet man refuses to obey. Nature obeys him. The angels, the holy and holy angels do obey him, yet man continues in their rebellion against God. How this commandment applies to us today. And now, oh, priest, this command is for you because some say, ah, it's not for us.
6:01 It is for the priests of old. How this commandment applies to us today. Now the New Testament never uses the word priest to mean a pastor. I hope we all understand and know that. There's no such thing in the New Testament as a formal or official priesthood.
6:25 There's no such rank. Four, an official rank of priest requires an official a formal high priest. But you cannot have a formal high priest because we have one, and his name is Lord Jesus Christ. And why is that? Because Christ's ministry as high priest is continuous and eternal.
7:03 Now I want to look at only one scripture. If you don't mind, if you turn with me to the book of the Hebrews chapter seven, just couple of verses I'd like to read that. Oh, let us begin in verse 20. Hebrews seven verse 20. And it was not without an oath, for those who formally became priests were made such without an oath.
7:39 But this one, Christ Jesus, was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him, the Lord has sworn I will not change his mind. You are a priest forever. This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. Look at verse verse 23. The former priests were many in number.
8:02 Why? Here the answer, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office. But he, Christ, holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. He does not die. Consequently, he is able to serve to the othermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.
8:30 The writer of the Hebrew is saying simply this, why there are many priests because each one of them going to die. Death prevented them from continuing their ministry. But now we have a high priest whose name is Jesus who cannot die. Now look at verse 28. What interesting.
8:52 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later in the law, later than the law appoints a son who has been made perfect forever. One became the substitute for the other. The priesthood of Christ replaced the priesthood of dying men. This is what the scripture tells us. This is the word of the Lord.
9:22 The priest was a mediator between man and God, but now we have Christ as our one and only mediator and intercessor. But in the letter, the second letter of Peter, he tell us that there are priests in the church today. Right? But not as an office, not as a rank, but as a privity privilege of all believers alike. Peter two five.
10:02 It says, you yourself, he's talking to believers, 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. Now I want to pay attention here. Peter, he is emphasizing only one privilege or a duty of a Christian as a priest. What is that? To offer spiritual sacrifices to God.
10:35 What is that? That is worship. What was limited to men alone, what was limited to the descendant of Levi alone, the center of Aaron alone has become the privilege of all believers in Christ Jesus in the New Testament church. The first duty of the priests was to offer blood sacrifices. Now all believers, as a priest, can offer spiritual sacrifices to God as our worship, no longer blood sacrifices.
11:21 And why? Because the perfect lamb of God offered himself once and forever. Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And by offering himself as a sacrifice, he ended all blood sacrifices that are offered for the forgiveness of sins forever. But the priest had another duty other than to offer sacrifices.
11:54 What was the other duty of the priest of old? Look at verse seven. For the lips of the first seven, I'm sorry, of of, Malachi two. We're back to Malachi two. 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.
12:34 This part of their duty continues today through the pastors in the church, through the Bible teachers, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ. So this part of Malachi is very live very relevant and very important for us today, especially to those who are entrusted by God to teach his word and have been given those gifts of teaching. The failures of the priests in chapter one was mainly in offering God what was unacceptable and inferior, but in this chapter, the focus turned to something else. It turn to their second duty to teach God's word and their failure to do that. Look at verse two.
13:45 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, I have already cursed them because you do not lay it to heart. Now this is a promise. Usually, we think of a promise as something positive, something good. No.
14:12 There's different promise. This is a promise not of a blessing, but of what? Of a curse. What does God ask the priest to do here? To give him the glory.
14:25 And again, we mentioned several times and again and again, they have not seen God in his beauty and glory and majesty. For this reason, they did not offer him what he deserves, what is due to him. Clearly, everything the priests were doing were doing for themselves, not it's not about God and his glory, but their own glory. And we see the theme of this book continues in this chapter. God is not letting it go.
14:55 It's very serious and demands more morning and admonitions, and God has not let it go. And we are not going to let it go until God says, I'm done with it. He calls his people to give him glory that he deserves. He calls pastors today to give him the glory that he deserves. He calls churches today.
15:18 He calls America today to give him glory that he deserves. Listen. There is nothing more abhorrent to God than giving glory to oneself or for another man or a woman. There's nothing. Our purpose in life, our goal in life is to give glory and honor to God all the days of our lives.
15:53 You remember King Nebuchadnezzar? In Hebrew is Nebuchadnezzar. I'm going to refer to him as Nebo because, my English pronunciation, is not very good. In Daniel chapter four, if you remember, the last words that came out of Naboth's Naboth's mouth after God's judgment fell on him. Look at verse 30 in Daniel chapter four.
16:42 And the king answered and said he's talking to himself, and we do talk to ourselves sometime. Right? He was talking to himself. And the king answered and said, is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and not for the glory of what? Of my majesty?
17:05 While the words were still in the king's mouth, they're full of voices from heaven, oh, king Nebo, To you, it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you. And you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you until you know that the most high rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will immediately. My glory, my majesty, while he was still speaking. And immediately, the word was fulfilled against the king. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles feathers and his nails were like birds' claws.
18:01 Listen what Jeremiah says. In Jeremiah chapter 13, you don't have to open verse 16. He says, give glory to your God before he brings darkness. Giving glory to God, America, before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on that we like mountains, and while you look for light, he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness. Giving glory to God.
18:31 Unfortunately, king Belshazzar, the son of king Nebo, did not learn from his father, and he did exactly the same thing. Oh, how people are slow in learning. Slow in learning. It's gonna be too late. It's going to be too late if you didn't wake up today.
19:03 King Belshazzar in chapter five, Daniel is speaking to him of the of of of Daniel, And he was speaking to him about his dad in verse 20. Daniel is saying, but when his heart about his father was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, He was brought down from his kingly throne and his glory was taken from him. Verse 22. And you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart though you knew all this. You knew all this.
19:47 You have not humbled your heart, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven, and the vessels of house have been brought before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them, and you have praised the gods of silver and of gold and of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know. But the God in whose hands is in is in is your breath and whose are all your ways you have not honored. Look at verse 26. This is the interpretation of the matter. Many, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.
20:28 Tekle, you have been weighted in the balances and found wanting. Paris, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Look at verse 30. That very night, that very night, Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. It's dangerous when someone gives the glory to someone other than God.
21:01 Do we have a similar thing in the New Testament? Do you remember a similar story in the New Testament? We have one. Right? In Acts chapter 12 verse 21, We know king Herod.
21:20 Right? We know we know many Herods in the New Testament. Listen to what the scripture tell us in chapter 12 verse 21, The book of Acts, on an appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them to the people, huge crowd. And the people were shouting the voice of a god, not of a man. Are you familiar with this word that comes later after that right away?
21:59 We've heard it today more than once, immediately. Immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. Listen. To receive a glory is as bad as giving in glory to someone else other than God. We must reject mercy glory, and we must do it fearlessly.
22:33 In Acts chapter 14, remember the story of Paul and Barnabas in Lystra. They were speaking to the crowds. There was a layman there and led by the Holy Spirit. Paul healed him. He immediately start leaping and jumping.
23:03 No need for training. No need for physical therapy. Right? This is the power of God at work. When the crowd saw what had just happened, they called in Zeus and Hermes.
23:18 And look at verse 13. Acts fourteen thirteen. And the priest of Zeus, whose temples what was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. Sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas. They want to honor them.
23:43 They want to give them glory that only God deserves. But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd crying out, men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like nature with you, and we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to the living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. Oh, that this may be the reaction of every child of God, of every Christian minister when he is given a glory that only belongs to God. Turn to to tear your clothes.
24:32 To reject it fearlessly, to rebuke those who do it, to rebuke those who are guilty of this sin. Herod enjoyed it. He enjoyed hearing the crowds praising him and glorifying him. And what was the result? Immediate judgment.
24:54 What a great warning to every Christian, to every church, to every minister that no man, regardless of the greatness of his spiritual gifts, may be elevated beyond what God has allotted to him. And I will tell you, if you truly love your pastors, you want to protect them. Don't let Satan take advantage of us under the pretense of encouraging our pastors to offer them only what God deserves, what only belongs to God. Pray for them. Tell them you love them.
25:36 Tell them you appreciate them. Tell them that you appreciate that they are teaching God's truth, but they must continue to decrease that might that God might continue to increase. It is enough that we pastors have an enemy within us called me. We don't need anyone to fuel the the me that is within me more. The me that I'm trying to kill every day, don't try to fuel it.
26:14 I want you to think a few things, very few things that you can glorify God in your life. Just very short list. How can I glorify God in my life? Christ is glorified when we give him thanks for what he has done for me. When I say thank you, Lord, Christ, God is glorified.
26:44 We remember the story in Luke 17 when 10 lepers were healed, only one came back. He fell at his feet at his feet giving Christ thanks, and he was a Samaritan. And he was answering, said, were were there not 10 cleansed? But where are the nine? They are not found that return to give they are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger, giving thanks to God.
27:15 That's one way we can glorify him. But also, there's another way we can glorify God is by bearing fruit. By bearing fruit. Are you a fruit bearer? Are you a fruit bearer?
27:31 John fifteen eight, by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Let's ask ourselves, how am I living for Christ? Am I bearing fruit or or there's a drought in my life? He's a glorified when we confess our sins. He's a glorified when we pursue holiness.
28:06 When I confess my sin, I'm acknowledging that God is holy and I am not. He's my savior, and I need a savior. He's glorified when I confess my sins and pursue holiness. One more thing. Christ is glorified when we suffer for him.
28:29 Do you know that? He's glorified when we suffer for him. That's one of the reason why God allows suffering. We always hear the question why God does allow suffering. One of the reasons God allows suffering because he is glorified through suffering.
28:46 First Peter chapter four verse 15, but let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. God is glorified when we suffer for him. The Bible teaches us to do everything for the glory of God, whether to eat or drink or do anything else. For you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body.
29:22 Isn't it surprising that God is executing judgment on these priests who had no reverence of God, no fear of the Lord in their hearts, no faith, no repentance, no fruits. Everything was done for all the only glory and self exaltation. I'm not surprised. And he continued to say, I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them because you do not lay it to heart.
30:02 What is surprising, really, that God is delaying his judgment, I believe. Not that God is judging. And what is surprising for me, even looking at America today, it's surprising me that that God is going to judge America. God is delaying his judgment because we deserve the judgment, and we have deserved it long ago. But God grace still upon this country, and he is patient.
30:32 The priest should have known very well the book of the Torah. The priest should have read Deuteronomy 28, that book of blessing and curses, but I don't think they believed anything they read. That's why they acted the way they acted. And that great chapter of Deuteronomy 28, if you read it, it begins with beautiful promises. The first 14 verses are of promises.
31:07 Don't you enjoy that? Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your hearse and the young of your flock, etcetera. 14 verses of blessing after blessing after blessing for those who obey his voice, but then come to verse 15, and the tone changes. And this is what you read.
31:38 But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and the statues that I commanded you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Curse shall be shall you be in the city, and curse shall you be in the field. Curse shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. And for the next 54 verses, one after the other, curse after curse. 14 verses of blessings, 54 verses of curses.
32:12 Let me repeat it. Chapter 28, the book of Deuteronomy, the first 14 verses of blessings, the next 54 verses of curses. Is this shocking? Why is that? Are God's curses more than his blessings?
32:34 Absolutely not. Absolutely not. The reason is very simple. God knows the heart of man. He knows that we always want to rebel, disobey, and break his laws.
32:50 He knows that we need to be warned again and again and again because we have the tendency to become cold, to forget, to not take him seriously, to make excuses. Don't we? I'm sure we who have kids have experienced that. Right? I was about one warning, and that's sufficient.
33:12 Right? My kids are so wonderful. I just give him one warning and he obeys and never make the mistake again. Right? We've experienced that.
33:20 Correct? Of course not. Of course not. They are exactly like us, parents. Right?
33:28 Stubborn, rebellious, disobedient, and make excuses and blame others. They're like us. Listen. God's blessings, as we see in this chapter, are conditional upon obedience if you obey. This verse that many of the stage preachers have eliminated from their vocabulary and their preaching and their sermons, those I call them conscious anesthesiologists, those conscious, numbing preachers who preach blessings without obedience, prosperity without faithfulness.
34:10 God says to these men and women, because we have an increased number of women preachers in our day, I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them. You might be bragging about your riches and about your positions, and many of them do today, but God says they are cursed. They are cursed. Doesn't matter how much you have accumulated, they are cursed.
34:45 And let us see what this rich is going to do you when you stand before the holy God. Now look at this three. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and a spring dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. In the King James version, we read, I will corrupt your seed. Here it says, I will rebuke your offspring.
35:14 And the Hebrew word for offspring or seed here is, which could really mean both seed and also offspring. And he said, and and and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taking away with it. I mean, I I don't think I can make this verse any clearer, and I'm not going to attempt. I think it's clear enough. According to Exodus 29 verse 14, the dung of the sacrifices supposed to be taken out of the camp and burned there.
35:56 What God is saying, I will spread the dung on your faces, and so together, you and your offering will be cast outside the camp for burning. You despise me, you will be despised. How fearful how fearful when God decides to put someone on public display. Wow. We have seen some who despise God, and God has put him on public display.
36:36 Remember, God is loving. God is compassionate. God is patient. But God also would execute a judgment on those who keep disobeying, keep rebelling, and keep not giving him the glory he deserves. Verse four.
37:01 So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts. You are descendants of Levi, one of the children of Jacob. I had a covenant with him, and you are the beneficiaries of this covenant. You see, if you weren't the offspring of Levi, and if I don't have covenant with Levi, things would have been different. If my commandments were not clear, I would not be angry with you the way I am angry, but my anger is with children that know the commandments and break them every day.
37:56 They have no regard to my statutes, neither they have any regard to the covenant. Now what is a covenant? We all know what's a covenant. Right? A covenant is a contract.
38:09 A contract between two parties or more is a promise. And the word testament in the new testament is the same word as a covenant. So we can say the new testament and the old testament, the new covenant and the old Covenant. God made a covenant with Noah. He would never destroy the Earth.
38:25 He made a covenant with Abraham. He will make him a great nation. All the people of the of the Earth will be blessed through him. He made a covenant with David. That through him, the Messiah will will come, and he will reign forever.
38:39 But have you heard about the covenant with Levi? What is this covenant God is speaking about? Now we have two incidents in the Old Testament. One in the book of Exodus and the another one in the book of Numbers that have both incidents exhibited the courage of the sons of Levi. And one of them or both have caused God to give them that covenant.
39:12 You remember Exodus chapter 32, Moses ascended to Mount Sinai to receive God's commandments. He would stay there for forty days, and, according to the unbelieving Israelites, he is taking too long. We don't know what's happening to him. So the people gathered around Aaron and asked him to do for them something. Right?
39:34 A golden calf that they may worship. And what was the response of Aaron? Well, no objection. No objection. What happened to you, Erin?
39:53 He quickly did what he wished. And by the way, have you thought about her? What happened to her? Remember her? Previously, by the way, when Moses ascended to Mount Sinai, he left Aaron and her with the people to take charge of them.
40:18 But we look here, and we don't see her. Where are you, her? Now according to Jewish tradition I emphasize, according to Jewish tradition, the people gathered around her first, but he refused to do what they have asked him to do, so they killed him. Now this is interesting, of course, speculation, but it's not in the scripture. What happened next, they gather around Aaron, and out of fear, Aaron just did what they wanted.
41:01 And he made a calf, they danced around the calf. Moses went down. He saw this is happening. He got angry. He broke the tin the the two tablets or the 10 commandments.
41:16 He burned the golden calf and and turned it into powder. And then in verse 26 of chapter 32 of Exodus, This is what we read there. Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side? Come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.
41:38 Who did? The sons of Levi. And he said to them, thus says the Lord God of Israel, put your sword on on your side, each one of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor. And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and that day, about 3,000 men of the people fell. Remember what happened the day of Pentecost?
42:09 Hallelujah. When the commandments were given, 10 3,000 people died. When the Holy Spirit was given, 3,000 people came to life in Christ Jesus. Verse 29, and Moses said, today, you have been ordained. That's the promise.
42:29 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. They received a blessing because of their stand for the truth, their courage to do what is right and confront the majority, confront evil. They received a promise with the Lord against the majority, with the Lord against corrupt worship, with the Lord against evil, and they received the promise. Now in Numbers 25, we have another story. After prophet Balaam fell failed to curse the people of Israel, If you remember, prophet Balaam was brought by the king of Moab to king to to to to curse the people of Israel as they were going out of Egypt and trying to enter the Holy Land.
43:33 He has promised him to come and do that, and he offered him a great pay. Balaam wished he could curse God's people, but God would not allow him to do so. And when he failed to accomplish what the king of Moab wanted him to do, he finally came with an idea from hell, a plan from hell. Remember what he did? He gave a plan, and the plan is to have the woman of Moab commit sexual immorality with the Israelis with the Israelites.
44:27 And he succeeded. And the Israelite committed sexual immorality with the Moabites. But you see, and listen to this, sexual sin does not end there. Never ends there. Never ends there.
44:46 Look at verse two of numbers 25. These invited these women whom the Israelites committed sexual immorality with. This invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was king built against Israel. Balaam having failed to pronounce a curse on Israel, he knew well that his only chance is to have the Israelites bring curse upon themselves by having them sin against God through sexual immorality, how this started.
45:32 He had a plan. He knew the weakness of the flesh and the power of sex. If he could have the Israelites fall in sexual immorality, everything else will follow. He was dead on. The Israelite did not stop at committing adultery.
45:56 They worship the gods of the Moabites. They have broken the first commandment. They have broken the heart of God who loved them. Never, brother and sister, never underestimate the sin of adultery or or sexual immorality. Never underestimate the sin of adultery and what it can lead to.
46:18 David? When you think of David, you always think of his sin with Bathsheba. Right? David never thought that this one sin would lead him to kill in order to hide his sin, and he could not hide it. He never thought that this one sin would lead to serious of events that will follow him the rest of his life.
46:46 We have summary, by the way, of the consequences of his sin. You don't have to open that, but in second Samuel, in couple of months probably, pastor Danny will get into that chapter. Second Samuel 12. Listen, the consequences of his sin that began again with sexual immorality. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.
47:14 Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house, even Absalom his son. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun. So we see sexual immorality led to idol worship. Sexual immorality leads to murder.
47:48 And and since we are talking about murder, let's talk a little bit about abortion in our country. That's the topic of the day. Right? Who gets abortion? Let me give you the New York Times numbers, not my numbers.
48:10 Who gets abortion? Never married, single women, forty six percent. Cohabitating, thirty one percent. Previously married, single, nine percent. Married, fourteen percent.
48:32 That is eighty six percent of not married women, eighty six percent as a result of sexual immorality. Lead to murder of millions of people, of babies. Only fourteen percent of married women get abortions. Sexual immorality leads to idol worship, leads to it never stops there. Never stops there.
49:11 Sexual immorality leads to all kinds of evil and destruction. That's why the scripture word us again and again and again against sexual immorality and tell us to flee from it, to run away. Was David forgiven? Absolutely. Absolutely.
49:32 If we confess our son confess our sins, he is just and faithful to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. David was forgiven. He wrote the Psalms. Psalm 51, the most one of the most beautiful Psalms. He was forgiven when he confessed his sins and repented, but the stain of his sin remains.
49:57 It's true that God does not see this stain. God does not count to David any sin, but we see it each time we think of David. It should be a reminder, a warning to all of us. It's true that God's grace is greater than all of our sins. His mercy endures forever.
50:20 There is no sin to be too big or too difficult for him to forgive. David's sin was totally forgiven, but the consequences followed him the rest of his life. What a warning. What a warning. Now we didn't finish the story of the Israelites with the women of Moab.
50:42 What happened next in that story is really very abhorrent. In daylight, in the front of the whole congregation, an Israelite man comes with his Moabite's girlfriend. The people of Israel are weeping. Moses is there. He brings that woman, and he takes her to his tent to commit sexual immorality with her in front of the whole congregation.
51:18 In verse seven of number 25, book of numbers 25, when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman, through her belly. Thus, the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty four thousand. And look in verse 10. And the Lord says to Moses, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy.
52:16 Therefore, say, behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, here the covenant. I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel. Wow. Now looking back at the book of Malachi chapter two, compare this with verses five and verse verses five and six. He says, dear god, my covenant with him was with a life was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him.
52:55 It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth. Verse six, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.
53:14 You see the carriage of the son of Levi? You see the carriage of Phineas, jealousy for God and his glory, fearing the Lord, standing in awe of his name through instruction in his mouth. No room was found in his lips, walking with God in peace and uprightness and turning many from their evil ways. God seeking such men and women today. God seeking men who are not afraid to confront sin, to confront the individual like Phineas did, and the majority like the sons of Levi did, who are not afraid to defend God's truth, who are not who are really too unwilling to take the risk for God, who fear the Lord and love his truth, who stand in awe of his name, not just talk the talk, but walk the walk, walking with God in peace and uprightness, not shying away from calling sinners to repentance, warning believers, loving, compassionate, gentle, yet firm, and not compromising God's truth and principles.
54:36 God is looking for such men in such a time like this. Are you willing to be that man? Are you willing and ready to be that woman? To be a Phineas of our age, to be the sons of Levi who will stand for God's truth? Let's pray.
55:27 Our god and savior, we we give you the glory that you deserve. We give you the honor and the praise. We worship you alone, But we think that we can be together even tonight to study your word and glean some truth from it, Lord. And we thank you for the old and the new testament that they are one book book written by God himself for our instruction. Lord, we love your word.
56:09 We love your commandments. Lord, help us always adhere to your word. Help us always sing of your love and abide by your commandments. Help us always, Lord, be a light in this world. Be gentle, compassionate, and loving.
56:42 Be always speaking your truth. Lord, I pray you raise people, Lord, raise people in this generation to speak of the truth we just heard today. People who will stand in the gap. We thank you that you are patient. Oh, you are patient, God, and you are merciful.
57:12 Thank you that you have not poured your judgment yet on our land physically. Thank you. That many may take this opportunity and return back to you. Lord, we give you the glory as your church. We give you glory as your people.
57:39 Lord, we want to honor you now and always. In your name, we pray. Amen.
