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Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthdays report may be possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. One-line donations may be made through the Bible-lined website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family. I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Malachi.

We’re studying in the book of Malachi. Malachi is one of the last, or I should say, the last of the Old Testament prophets. And he is the last word before 400 years of silence. And then lo and behold, the book of Matthew starts. But here in Malachi, it tells us about the voice of one crying in the wilderness that’s going to come. He says there’s going to be 400 years of silence. He doesn’t say how many years, but what he says is that there’s going to be a great problem because the people would not do what God says do.

They were going like to this, not then they didn’t have a synagogue, but they were going to the temple and going through the motions and then they were offering sacrifices. The priest had to perform the sacrifices in the temple. But it was only a ritual and like Christ says, your heart is far from me. You can say with the lips, oh, I love the Lord, but by your life it says just the opposite. So the Lord is rebuking them.

And if you will look there in Malachi in chapter one, he asked a couple of questions And he made some statements. See there in verse six, a son honor of his father, a servant, his master. If then I be a father, where is my honor? If I be a master, where is my fear? Say if the Lord of hosts unto you, O priest, that despise my name. And you say, where in have we despised thy name? And he says, where in have we polluted the in verse seven?

So it asked a bunch of questions and what was being stated was that God had had it up to here with these people. Because, you see, they had been in captivity, and why had they gone into captivity? Because of their wickedness, because the prophets didn’t prophesy correctly, the priest, they didn’t do their job correctly. The people, they were easily led astray because of the wickedness of their priest, because the priest he had the law was published to teach the people the law.

No right from wrong, how to discern. So the whole nation was corrupt. And in chapter one Isaiah says, the Lord says that from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head, you’re like totally sick. You’re evil and you’re corrupt. So God says, I’m going to take some people from another nation. I’m going to bring them in here, and I’m going to walk the par out of you. So that’s what he did. But he gave them warning over and over again.

He gave them warning. Israel wouldn’t listen. And so here comes Syria and took the 10 northern tribes and took them into captivity. And now the prophecy is that God’s going to take the two southern tribes, Judean Benjamin, take them into captivity, so they were taken into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. After 70 years, you would think, well, finally God’s people have learned their lesson. Boy, are they going to be straightened out now. Well, not so fast. 70 years. Ezra and Nehemiah brought them back, a bunch of them, about 50,000 the first time.

Nehemiah went back the second time, brought about 1800. There was a bunch of the people that had gone into captivity and they didn’t want to come back. They had become so corrupt, they wanted to stay there. I guess by now they’re old and decrepit and didn’t want to move. But when they came back, well, the walls were torn down, the temple was destroyed, the gates were burned, everything was an omece. And so Nehemiah had fun trying to get the people to work.

And so they rebuilt the wall and the temples and so forth. And the Bible says they had to keep the sword at one hand and lay block with the other because it was people that were trying to stop them. But a few years after that, even Nehemiah had to get with the people because of their wickedness. And so he was used by the Lord to kind of shake them a little bit. They straightened up a little bit, but it didn’t last very long.

I’ve noticed that in camps. I’ve taken teenagers to camp and we isolate them from the radio, the TV and the iPhone and the telephone and this phone and that thing and get away from all that junk and give them the Bible and a lot of good exercise and a lot of good sleep. Well, maybe not too much sleep. But the kids have an awesome time and many of them will dedicate their life to the Lord. And in about two weeks after camp’s over with, they’re right back where they started from.

And so then you got to have camp again. So for years, I would have Christmas camp and Easter camp and I would have summer camp. So I had these camps because I knew they don’t last for long. Well, even with adults, you come to church and you can hear the word, I’m going to serve the Lord all the days of my life. I’m going to straighten up and fly right. And before the next Sunday, you can’t even show up because you’ve already done forgot about You know what God means to you?

So then you got to hit him again and then do it again. And it’s just a constant battle. Wouldn’t it be neat if we could always stay properly motivated? Proper motivation is the result of proper thinking. If you could cause a person to always think right, you could get a person to live right. Did you know in 50 years since I’ve known the Lord, I’ve never had to have anybody fire me up. Challenge me to serve a Lord, to do right, to go to church, anything.

Nobody has to why? Because I’m a grown man. I can think for myself. It’s reasonable to me. So I don’t have to have somebody always trying to pick me up out of the mud. I learned long time ago. I don’t like the mud. I don’t have to worry about God chasing me every time I turn around because I don’t really want to get what chasing you see I had a dad who beat the Torah to me every time I turned around scared me to death well the last thing I want is for my heavenly Father to always have to bring out you know the two before or the bull whip I would rather have his his loving hand his gracious hand his mercy and his grace I I don’t want to make God mad.

So I can make decisions for myself. I wish that God’s people would grow up and not be babies that are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine that comes by. Some people is only as strong as the last person they talked to, but they never grow in the Lord. They never become strong the way God wants them to. So He also makes some statements over here. He says, when you come into the temple, he says, don’t you remember the law I gave to Moses?

Now the tribe of Levi, which was supposed to be the priestly Levi from where Aaron and so forth came from, and they’re supposed to offer the proper sacrifice at the right time for the right sin, and they’re supposed to be without spot, without blemish, you know, you only wanted to give God the best you had. Well if you look what he says here it makes a statement down here in verse 13 he said also, behold what a weariness is it and you have snuffed it say it to Lord of Hosts and ye brought that which was torn lame sick.

Thus, you brought an offering, should I accept this at your hand? In other words, you kept the best and gave God the rest. I think there’s something wrong with that. And so here we are 2,000 years later, and people today, they want to keep the best and give God the rest. If there’s anything left to give to God, God only receives a little tip from us every once in a while. What does people really sacrifice? What do you receive?

really give up to show God. I love you. God has sent his son, Jesus Christ, to down the cross, to pay for our sins, to give us the free gift of eternal life, give us the privilege of serving him on this side of the grave. And most people can’t even say, thank you Lord. Do you know your whole life should be one big thank you to the Lord for what he hath done. If he never did another thing for you for the rest of your life, what he hath done is enough for me to dedicate my life to him.

And I’m supposed to believe that I belong to him, everything I have belongs to him. So why should I be afraid of giving God anything that already belongs to him? Whatever we have should belong to the Lord. And God should have the freedom of taken anything he wants. If God wants what you have, then so be it. What if he wants to take your health? Is he free to do that? Is he free to take your wealth? Is he free to do that?

I mean you’ll let him do it without raising the fire on the rockers about death. What if he takes a lot of things from you and you don’t see why he should do it? He don’t owe you an explanation. God does not have to give you a reason why he does what he does. But if you read the Bible, a lot of times God will lay down principles in His Word. And now I preached a sermon a couple of weeks ago on because, because, because, because God has a reason why He does what He does.

Now I want you to look there in verse 14. In verse 14 it says, but cursed be the deceiver, which ation is flocked a male and vow of and sacrifice unto the Lord a corrupt thing. And Lord, here you are and you got too sheep. is perfect. Nothing wrong with it. And you got one that looks a little lame, it’s a little on the sickly side. I mean, it’s really bad. I’m going to give this one to the Lord.

And God says, don’t you remember my law? In other words, what they were saying was, if you look there in verse 13, it’s a worrisome thing to do what God wants me to do. You know what? Here we are living in good old America with all the wonderful blessings that we have. I don’t know how long, but wonderful blessings that we presently enjoy. And we have an option where we can either go to church or not go. We can pray or not pray.

We see we today, we don’t have to pray to God, meet my needs. Obama, meet my needs. And Obama says, hey, I can do that. All I got to do is keep raising taxes and taking all this money from all those rich folks and give it to all the rest of you folks who don’t have any money. That’s called a redistribution of wealth. Our government doesn’t have the authority to do that, but I’m not getting on that tonight. I want to, but I’m going to let it slide for a little bit.

But anyway, he says in the last part of verse 14, and you’re on the line, for I am a great king. God said, I’m a great king. He said, I’m somebody. If I am somebody, why don’t you treat me like I’m somebody? That’s why he says over there in verse six, a son honored his father, a servant, his master. Where’s mine? Where’s my respect? Like at one committee, he always says, I get no respect. I just get no respect.

God says, why don’t you respect me? I want to show you something. They’re in chapter two. Chapter two, he says, and now O ye priests, this commandment is for you. This commandment is for you. Now, what he says is, you do not take me seriously. You see when he says in verse two, if ye will not hear and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name, sayeth the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings.

Yay, I have cursed them already. And why? See that word? Because. Because why? Because you don’t take me seriously. You don’t lay at the heart. Do you believe that all God’s children today, those who know Christ is Saviorornings? Take it to heart that what God says, they take it seriously. You know, I guess maybe my problem was that after I trusted Christ as my Savior, I really believed, I really believe this is the Word of God. And I believe that what God’s Word says, I’m supposed to do.

So for 50 years I have tried to guide my life out of the principles found in God’s Word, because I believe that it’s right. In other words, I have laid it to heart. I take God seriously. That’s why I went to Bible school because I take it seriously. That’s why I’ve drug my wife and my kids all across this country and go into Indian camps in Oklahoma, Arizona, Iowa, Minnesota, and Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Why? I’ve done what I’ve done.

Because I take it seriously. But you know, I’ve got a lot of God’s people today that don’t take it seriously. They just think it’s a weariness of the flesh. I get tired, bored. I don’t want to go to church. You know, when I don’t want to go to church, you know what I do? I go anyway. When I don’t want to give a tenth of what I make and more, you know what I do? I do it anyway. God said so.

I do it because God wants me to do it. Has nothing to do with what I want. Servant God is not doing what I want to do. It’s doing what God wants me to do. And God’s people don’t take it seriously. It is so important for people to see this and understand it. So, I want you to take your Bible, look in Jeremiah chapter 12. Maya, chapter 12, and look at this scripture. There’s a scripture that I want you to see.

Jeremiah chapter 12, and look in there in verse 7, chapter 12 and verse 7. In verse 7 he says, I have forgotten mine house. I have left mine heritage. I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of our enemies. Over God says, look, you have no idea how much I love you. Remember when he started off with the book of Malachi, he says, oh, how I love thee, how I loved you. He saw have I hated talking about Edomites and so forth and that land there.

But Jacob, He says, oh, how I love thee. And what I’ve done for you, and he showed his mercy. And then all they did is just snub their nose at him. They rebelled against him, walked against him. And so he says down here in verse 10, and you’re the underlying this one, many pastors have destroyed my vineyard. Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard. In other words, there’s preachers today that no longer believe that this is the word of God, so they don’t use the word of God.

And many people who go to church anymore don’t even need to carry the Bible because they don’t even use the Bible. Here, if you don’t have a Bible, we have Bibles in the pew in front of you. And on Sunday morning, everybody needs to have a Bible because we teach the Bible, because we still respect the book. And if we respect the book, we ought to teach the book. But anyway, here in chapters, I want you to see another verse where it makes the statement that God says in verse 11, they have made it desolate.

And being desolate, it mourneth unto me. The whole land is made desolate and underlined that statement because it’s the same as you read over there in the book of Malachi because no man layeth at the heart. And remember now, this is over a hundred years before the book of Malachi. You see, that was the problem before the chasening. 70 years in captivity, and if I only come back to the land, you think they’ve learned their lesson. And they were still rebalious.

So God says there’ll be a famine for the hearing of the Word of God. and no prophets would speak. For a hundred years passed. It didn’t have to be that way. It’s just that that’s the way it was. I’ll look there in verse four of chapter two of Malachi. And you shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you that my covenant might be with Levi, say, of the Lord of hosts. Now Levi was the… Well, he was the son of Jacob, but he had the ministry given to him of the priesthood.

And that’s where Aaron was there, hit Hancho. And the Bible says, I made a covenant with him. And the covenant that he made with him was, well, looked there very quickly in Numbers in chapter 25, numbers in chapter 25, numbers 25, and there’s a couple verses there that I think is important to see. He was zealous for the Lord that He was, and He says there and in verse 10, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Finnehos the son of Eliazer, the son of Aaron the Priest, have turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake, among them that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.

Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace, and he shall have it and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood. And here’s why, because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for the children of Israel. Now this is to the priest. Over in verse 10 it’s a message to the people. But right now he’s talking to the leaders and as he talks to the leaders he letting them know what he thinks about their leadership and how they have failed to do what God says to do.

They were given the law and they did not obey the law. And he says Levi, he was zealous for the things of God and they weren’t. So see there in verse five. My covenant was with him of life and peace. Now when you read the book of Deuteronomy, it’ll also talk about the Baliwin chapter 8 where it talks about, I have said before you life and death. When you go into the land, the promised land, God says you can have life or you can have death.

He says, if you obey me, I will bless you. I will protect you. You disobey me? I’m going to curse you and I’ll use other nations to whoop you and take you out of the land. So God tells us what’s going to happen before it takes place. You see, that’s why you read the Word of God so you can know the consequences of your decisions before you make them. Wouldn’t that be helpful to know the consequences of decisions before you make them?

Well, some people listen and learn and some people never do. Now I want you to see the middle part of verse 5 where he says, and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name. That phrase for the fear wherewith he feared me. And you see what does it mean to fear God? Just walking around. little friend of God, that’s going to get me. That might have a little element of truth to it, but I believe it means more than that.

Take your Bible and look there in the book of Proverbs. Won’t you see this in the book of Proverbs and chapter one, Proverbs chapter one, there is a several statements made here that I think is very important because if So much was done because a man feared God. Now you see what happens because men do not fear God. And there’s people today who have no fear of God. The Bible talks about Amalek in the Old Testament. He feared not God.

It means that you do not have any respect for what God says, people today in our country. You see, years ago they used to have respect for the pastor. That has gone. People today do not have the respect for the pastor that they used to have. He doesn’t speak with authority. People don’t listen to him. They mock him. Make fun. See, science has the voice of America today. Everybody listen to the scientist. I love him or evolutionist, so you don’t see where that comes from.

But look in Proverbs in Chapter 1. And look there in verse seven. You know what I mean? The fear of the Lord. Now notice what the fear of the Lord means. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but full despised wisdom and instruction. Fear of the knowledge. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Look there in verse 29. Verse 29. For they that hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. Remember this, to fear the Lord or not to fear the Lord is a choice.

And people make choices. Some people can live their whole life and have no fear of God, no respect for God. They don’t lay it to heart. They don’t take them seriously. They do whatever they want to do with their life because it’s whatever they want. It makes me happy. My life I ought to be in charge of it and do whatever I want to do I Found out a long time ago. There was God And there’s me and I am not God God is God and Without him I’m a big zero.

I am nothing without him so if I want to be something then I need to follow him and I’ve found out that following the Lord and doing what God wants me to do with my life is a choice and Nobody can make you choose to love the Lord Love is a choice But look what he says For they that hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord So not to choose to fear the Lord is to hate knowledge, but over there in verse 7 it says but full despised wisdom and instruction, but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

So not to fear God is a fool, a man to fool. And what else does that mean? Well, since we’re right there, I don’t want to lose my place, shiv my Bible, but look there in Proverbs in chapter 8. Proverbs chapter 8. Proverbs chapter 8. Look in verse 13. And you’ll notice when he talks about the fear of the Lord is. In verse 13, the fear of the Lord is determined by what you hate as much by what you love.

So to love God, you have to hate sin. If you love flowers, then you should hate weeds because weeds will do in a flower. But the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Why? Because God said so. The fear of the Lord is to hate pride. Why? Because God said so. The fear of the Lord is to hate arrogance. Why? Because God said so. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. What? Because God said so. God said so.

You hate what God says to hate and you’re to love what God says to love. And He says not to love the things of the world. So many people love the world. So many people are in love with themselves. They’re not in love with God. When you’re in love with God, you want to please God. When you’re in love with yourself, you want to please yourself. Well, the Bible says that God created us for his pleasure, the book of Romans.

If God created me to please him, then my golden life should be, what does it take to please God? So I seek to find ways to please God. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. Our two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the Clear Gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bible line and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page. If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our our church website, calvaryoftampa.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bible Live, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and everyday, believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.