WARNING TO PASTORS AND PREACHERS!

Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, sounds an ominous warning to our present status of the Church. Though he wrote over 2000 years ago to an apostate nation, the prophet's words have strong bearing today. In particular, look at what he said as God's messenger to the priests in Israel of his day. Fast-forward to 2024 and the language addresses exactly the same caution to pastors today.

GOD'S HONOR

"'If you do not listen, and if you do 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; and indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart.'" (chapter 2)

To honor God is foremost when we're called by His Name. Honor and reverence come from a fear of God that is holy and venerates His position as Creator and Ruler of everything in the universe. Only when God in His Person is honored will His word also be honored and obeyed. Sadly, the lie of evolution taught in our schools for decades robbed God of His honor as the Creator. Stripped of His glory in students' minds, it's now easy for them as adults in positions of responsibility to ignore His word or to relegate it to a minor place. Unless a preacher proclaims God's rightful position to his hearers, what will stir them to a fear of God, the beginning of wisdom for living holy lives? Or if you, a pastor, are one of those convinced the Bible is not the authoritative word of God, how can you call yourself by God's name?

"Behold, I am going to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts, and you will be taken away with it. Then you know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant may continue with Levi," says the LORD of hosts.

How many times has God tried to get the attention of ministers of the Gospel today? Only He knows what He has said privately and intimately to those men and women who declare the Word from pulpits and lecterns across our nation. What books has He penned through willing writers that expose truth from error so that pastors can know the truth? What calamities has He allowed in their congregations to stir and waken them to the sins of their people that they are not addressing correctly or at all?

GOD'S COVENANT

Listen to this that follows. The same covenant He made with the Levitical priests God makes with those who have been called to preach His truth today. God does not change. He does not vary.

"My covenant with him (Levi) was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him as an object of reverence; so he revered Me and stood in awe of My name. True instruction was in his mouth and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity."

Clearly, in response to the voice of God, the Levitical priests came before God with reverence and a holy fear that is lost today. John Bevere authored The Fear of the Lord in which he stresses our need as the Church to regain our awe of God for Who and All He is. How much more important is that message to men and women of the cloth?

Fear of the Lord put truth on the priests' lips and heart when they would not countenance any degree of sin in their personal lives at all! Malachi also stresses that the true priest of God walks WITH God in peace and uprightness. How many pastors and Bible teachers today spend time with God in prayer and Bible reading other than to find their next message? Most are too busy with earthly matters that rob them of their intimacy with God and chill their fervency for Him. Church growth, building size, programs to enlarge or entertain, popularity, and ratings take precedence over having their Lord's favor. But Malachi goes on:

"For the lips of the priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts."

GOD'S TRUTH

Where can the seekers after God find truth if not from the voice of pastors and ministers of the Gospel? Congregations of people who still attend church should be given answers to their questions that fall in line with God's word and truth. Even the world looks to those who identify with the ministry in one way or another as being unfailing examples of what it opposes. Too often the world sees and hears men and women that coddle sin and live just as it does, while expecting some sort of acclaim as being examples of a true believer. They are FALSE TEACHERS!

"'But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,' says the LORD of hosts. 'So I also have made you despised and amassed before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in the instruction.'"

Why has apostasy overtaken the Church at large? The responsibility falls largely on pastors and ministers who have diluted the Gospel and adopted the culture of the age. They preach to itching ears that want to hear only pleasant words. They fear rejection for preaching truth and inciting conviction in the hearts of their listeners. Salary, congregational size and security in general dampen their desire to preach the truth, the Word in its entirety and to stand for God no matter who stands against Him.

They have forsaken the truth of God. They once knew God in reality, but have slipped into complacency and comfortableness. They have sold themselves for a mess of pottage! Their failures are damning multitudes to the confines of hell forever, a destiny they also are forging for themselves! It is that serious a matter!

PROFANING GOD'S HOUSE

Yet, they keep up a pretense

"...for Judah (southern Israel) has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god...may the LORD cut off...everyone who awakes and answers, or who presents an offering to the LORD of hosts...you cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and with groaning because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand...you have wearied the LORD with your words, yet you say, 'How have we wearied Him?' In that you say, 'Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them' or 'Where is the God of justice?'"

What about the woke philosophy foisted on Western thinking? DEI? LGBTQ? New Age? Many preachers have bought into one or more in the name of 'love' that God says He is! You may not mix truth and idolatry and please God with all your rationalization! Please watch the video interview of Howard Pittman to hear the awful truth God gave him about his avid and seemingly 'on-fire' ministry. His works were an abomination to God. He would have gone to hell, except he had prayed to live after he faced death from a hemorrhaging ulcer. Preacher, pastor, if you are not on fire for God and utterly humble before Him as your Lord and Master, you are destined for hell, as well! God gave a frightening statistic to Pittman that of 2000 professing Christians who died during Pittman's fifteen-minute near-death experience, only fifty went into heaven. The other one thousand nine hundred and fifty people went to hell. That is only two and a half percent that have eternal life! Jesus said the way to heaven is narrow and few find it. It's that serious!

GOD'S INVITATION

If, in fact, you admit to your defection from truth and acknowledge your coldness toward God, Malachi gives the solution in chapter 3:

"...He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness...'from the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,' says the LORD of hosts...then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name.'

God is waiting for those who will turn back to Him. The church in Laodicea (Revelation 3) was lukewarm, evidence of preachers who did not preach all the truth and only the truth. Jesus said He stands outside the door, knocking, waiting for whoever will open the door. Pastors and ministers must be urgent in opening the door to their hearts in repentance to embrace God once more as their Lord and Master.

Clearly God says through Malachi that whose who do return are seen and heard by Him. Their names are written in a book of remembrance and those books will be opened at the bema judgment seat of the Church. God will remember and honor you when you honor Him.

For those who give no heed to His call, Jesus said in Revelation 3, "...you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." To them, Jesus did not declare a judgment about losing their souls, for they are lost already! Wake up while you have time. Heed Jesus' warning while you can. Lost souls depend on you, you who know the truth and have forsaken it. Return to God, preacher, pastor. Fall on your knees and repent! or know hell is your destination! Never can you say you weren't warned!