Turn with me to Malachi chapter
2. Malachi chapter 2. Our business as the people of
God in this world is to glorify and honor God our Savior by the
preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now I could pause there
and preach for a week and ought to sometime. To honor God our
Savior by the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not by acting like religious
fools. If there's anything our Lord
Jesus told us not to do, read the 6th chapter of Matthew and
you'll see it plainly. He said don't try to show people
you're a believer. Don't try to show anybody that
you know God. Well, I won't have a good testimony.
Don't try it. Don't try it. Don't try to show people that
you know God by the way you talk or address or the things you
say and do. We glorify our God by the proclamation
of the gospel, walking before Him in faith, not walking before
men in a show. I saw a billboard when I was
in Alaska the first time. I think it was on a bar. It might
have been someplace worse than that. But if I ever put a billboard
up out in front of our church, it's what I'm going to put on
it. When I came home, as a matter
of fact, I titled a sermon after this. I said, if you wear your
halo too tight, you give the rest of us a headache. We glorify our God by the preaching
of the gospel of Christ. And God's church has no other
purpose in this world. God didn't send us here to establish
churches to have schools and hospitals and old folks homes
and young folks homes and entertain people on their way to hell.
God's church has one function, the preaching of the gospel,
nothing else. And our existence is only to
be a sounding board for the gospel of our Redeemer. To carry the
good news of redemption accomplished and salvation free to needy sinners
in Jesus Christ the Redeemer, our great God and Savior. The
title of my message this morning is Seeking a Godly Seed. Seeking a godly seed. Now I know some folks who by
poor instruction think that if they can multiply and replenish
the earth all by themselves they will have a godly seed. No, if it comes from you it ain't. No, no. I'm talking about another
kind of godly seed. I'm talking about a godly seed.
of godly seed. A godly seed that can't be corrupted. A godly seed. Malachi chapter
2 verse 15. Here the spirit of God tells
us that God's purpose in creation God's purpose in the entire human
race. God's purpose in making all men
in one man in our father Adam. Indeed, God's purpose in everything
in predestination and in providence. God's purpose is this one thing. He's seeking a godly seed for
himself. And did he not make one? That
is, God made all of us in one man. He made the whole human
race in one man, that man Adam. Yet he, yet had he the residue
of the Spirit. In that one man Adam, God created
all men. And the Spirit of all men comes
from that one man God created, Adam. And wherefore one? Why did he do it this way? That's
not how he made the angels. He made the angels individually,
they stood individually, and they fell individually. Why did
he make all being one? For this one purpose. Say that
word, that. That he might seek a God-messiah. Brother Donnie
said just a little bit ago, but the best way I know to interpret
that word, big doors hang on little hinges. Why did he do it this way? That
he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit,
and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
Now remember when you see this again, this second chapter of
Malachi is talking about God seeking a godly seed, and is
talking about God preserving that seed, and he urges those
to whom this book is addressed, the priest particularly, this
commandment he says in verse 1, is for you, O priest. When he talks about this dealing
treacherously with the wife of your youth, He's not talking
about divorce and remarriage. Read about that in 1 Corinthians
7. That's not what the subject is
here. This is altogether spiritual. Here we're told that there is
in this world a chosen people who must and shall be saved.
They are God's elect and they are referred to throughout the
book of God as His seed. Turn to Psalm 22. You don't need
to turn to it, you can look it up later. Psalm 22 is the Psalm
of our Lord Jesus hanging on the cross. It's the Psalm of
the crucifixion. He speaks of his horrible agony
and suffering. And then at the end of this,
here he is, this man cut off at the age of 33, in the midst
of the years, cut off from the living. This man put to death
upon the cursed tree. And he's got no bride that anybody
can see. He's got no wife anybody can
see. He's got no children anybody can see. And this is what the
book says. A seed shall serve him. A seed shall serve him. It shall be counted to the Lord
for a generation. They shall come and shall declare
his righteousness unto a people that shall be born that he hath
done this. We got a generation leaving here
rapidly. A seed been serving him. And
they came and declared to this generation, the Lord did this. And now here's another seed coming
along and serving. Same seed, just another generation. Declaring, the Lord has done
this, to the generation yet to come. And thus the word of the
gospel is perpetuated from generation to generation. Psalm 89, His
seed also will I make to endure forever. And his throne as the
days of heaven, his seed shall endure forever, he says again,
and his throne as the sun before me. Isaiah 53. It pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He'll see them redeemed and justified
and sanctified and glorified, all of them. He shall prolong
his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
head. This chosen people are called here a godly seed. What a strange way to speak of
this seed. The word might be translated
God's seed, or a seed of God, or a seed for God. But in the
light of the fact that this is used to speak, this word is used
up elsewhere, in Isaiah 63, or 66 rather, in verse 13, they're
called a godly seed, but in the book of Ezra, And in the book
of Isaiah, they're called a holy seed. He shall seek a holy seed? He shall seek a godly seed? Shouldn't that be read, he shall
seek a seed to make holy? He shall seek a seed that shall
be a godly seed? I'll give you a little secret.
This is hard, this is hard for theologians to get. But you folks
who haven't been trained in theology, you can get it. If the book says
it, that's the way the book meant it. He shall seek a seed that's already
godly. A seed that's already holy. Because
they are godly and holy, being redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb from the foundation of the world. And God says they're justified. God says they're godly. God says
they're holy. Because they're accepted into
beloved from eternity. Accepted into beloved before
the world began. Never was a time when they weren't.
Well, but surely you don't believe men were born justified. Well, sure I do. Sure you don't
believe folks were justified before they were justified. Of
course I do. Even they were redeemed before they were redeemed? Yes
sir. Yes sir. And if you weren't redeemed before
you were redeemed, you'll never be redeemed. We're redeemed from
eternity, and we come to experience redemption in time. Justified
by the Lamb slain from eternity, but justified in time. And the
fact is that which was done in eternity guarantees what is done
and experienced in time. The reason Adam didn't perish
from off the face of the earth. God said, In the day thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. And Adam took the fruit from
his wife's hands, and he said, God, you've got no right to be
God. You've got no right to destroy
my wife and me because of this little thing I've got in my hand.
And he takes it. And with that vengeance in his
heart against God Almighty, that horrible incensed anger against
God, God said in the day you do that you're going to die.
And you know he ate the whole apple? He still lived. He kept on living. Well, that
means die and thou shalt die. He said in the day you shall
die. Well, he died spiritually, but he's still walking around
in the flesh, how come? Why didn't God, right then, rid
the world of this thing called sin and humanity and start all
over? One reason, because in that one
man, in whom God created all men, there is a godly seed who
must be sought, and must be called, and must be saved by his grace.
And so Adam is still preserved right now, and God's still calling
out a godly seed for himself. People say, well, why doesn't
God destroy this world? The scholars say, where's the
promises of his coming? I can understand that. I can
understand that. Where's the promise of His coming?
Enoch was talking about His second coming before the flood came.
Job spoke of His second coming back in the days of Abraham.
Those fellows have been talking about it for a long time. We've
been reading about it, talking about it, as the apostles did
in the New Testament, telling people to stand on the tiptoe
of faith, looking for Christ to come right now. Wake up every
morning looking for Christ to come. Why hasn't He come? Because
the Lord is not slack concerning his promises, as some men count
slackness, but is longsuffering to usward. Not longsuffering
to all men, but longsuffering to usward. Not willing that any
of this godly seed should perish, but that all should come to repentance
and the knowledge of the truth. Now, turn back to 2nd chapter
Malachi. And let's look at these 17 verses
and learn what God tells us about this great work of God, seeking
a godly seed. When the Lord began to open this
chapter up before my heart, I had to say with David, Blessed
be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. Here are six things I want you
to get. Number one. Blessings neglected, despised,
abused, and misused are made to those who neglect them, despise
them, abuse them, and misuse them, a curse to destroy them. Blessings despised become a curse
to destroy. That which ought to have been
Israel's salvation. God gave to that nation alone
the Word and Oracles of God. To that nation alone He gave
the tabernacle and the priesthood and the sacrifices. To that nation
alone He showed the way of life in tight picture and prophecy.
But that which ought to have been their salvation was made
to be their curse to this day. Verse 1, And now, O ye priests,
this commandment is for you. If ye will not hear, and if ye
will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, saith
the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I
will curse your blessings. Yea, I have cursed them already,
because ye do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will corrupt your seed. and spread dung upon your faces. Even the dung of your Passover,
and your Feast of Tabernacles, and your Feast of Pentecost,
and your Holy Days, and your Sabbath Days. Even the dung of
all your religion, the manure you have made of religion, I'm
going to spread it all over your face. So this is shame to you. And one shall take you away with
it. That is, these very things that
should have been the blessing of God upon you shall take you
away to hell in judgment and in shame. One shall take you
away. It refers to Israel's sacrifices
and her feast and all those things by which they should have seen
and heard the voice of God. Those very things instituted
to teach sinners the way of life. God made a curse to that nation
and by them corrupted their seed. Corrupted the physical seed.
So thoroughly corrupted the physical seed when God cast off the nation
of Israel. You read about it in Romans 9,
10, or 11. That he might have mercy upon
the Israel of God scattered throughout all the nations of the earth.
When God destroyed the nation, He so distorted it that it ain't
gonna get fixed. Those folks who live over there
now, They may be able to trace their lineage to, somehow, back
to somebody who was Jewish. But there's not a Jew in the
world who knows what tribe he came from. There's not a Jew
in the world who can discover what tribe he came from. I don't
care if you pay a thousand dollars a month to search your family
tree on the internet. You can't find him. There's not
a Jew in the world who can find out where his tribe is. Why?
Because God corrupted the seed. God corrupted the city sent them
marrying out here and there and everywhere. Here's the second
thing look at verse 4 Bless God his purpose He's not
frustrated It is not overturned In fact, it's not even hindered
by the weakness of men and the wickedness of men but only fulfilled. You mean, Brother Don, men like
these Jews described here in this first chapter in the Old
Testament who abused God's sacrifices? Men like my wife, my husband,
my son, my daughter, my neighbor, the fellow who used to sit here
with me in the house, despise and abuse the privilege
of having the gospel set in their backyard? You mean the actions
of such men are used of God to fulfill his purpose? Let's see. Let's see. The psalmist said,
Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder
of wrath wilt thou restrain. He says in verse 4 here, and
you shall know that I have sent this commandment. What commandment? I'm going to turn your blessings
into a curse. Yeah, I've already cursed them.
And you shall know that I sent this commandment unto you for
this purpose. That, there's that word again.
There's that little hinge on which this big door hangs again.
That my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of Hosts. Hold your hands here and turn
to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. Verse 3. What if some did not believe?
So their unbelief makes the faith of God without effect. Some years ago, Brother Ralph
Dale called me. He was preaching, pastoring a
church down in Gadkinville, North Carolina, just outside of my
hometown. And I hadn't seen Brother Dale
in a while. He said, Brother Don, I was wondering
if you could come help me out in a meeting. I said, Ralph,
where are you pastoring? He said, Gadkinville Baptist
Church. I said, is that what I think it is? He said, yes,
sir. Southern Baptist Church here in Yanktonville. I said,
Ralph, if I go down there, I'll help you plumb out. He said,
well, come on. So I went down and preached for
him for three days. Got a call Wednesday night. He said, Brother
Don, I'm out. I said, Zechariah, some believe
not. Some believe not. Does that make
the purpose of God a none effect? Does that mean your labor is
in vain? No. I still preach to some of the
folks who are out. Throughout because God called them by his
grace God forbid They let God be true But every man a liar
as it is written that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and
mightest overcome When thou art judged look at chapter 9 Romans
verse 6 Not as though the Word of God had taken none effect
For they are not all Israel which are of Israel. Just because God
cast off the Jews doesn't mean He's cast off His people. They're
not all Israel that are of Israel. Look at verse 25, chapter 11.
For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this
mystery, lest you be wise in your own conceits, that blindness
in part is happened to Israel. God still got His elect among
them, preached the gospel to them. Blindness isn't over the
whole nation, it's happened in part to Israel. Until. This blindness until the fullness
of the Gentiles be come in. That doesn't mean that after
God saved all the people, He's going to save out of this parenthetical
Gentile age, this church age, that really doesn't mean anything,
then He's going to go back and revert to Israel. No. It means
that blindness has happened to them until God has finished His
work of grace in this world, and He's gathered all His elect
out of the Gentile world as well. until the fullness of the Gentiles
be come in. And when that happens, when God
has saved all He's going to save out of Israel, and all His purpose
to save out of the Gentile world, so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, there shall
come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto
them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the
gospel, they, the Jews who hate and despise us, the Jews who
crucified the Lord of glory, the Jews who will not allow folks
to even worship over in Palestine to this day, the Jews are your
enemies. For your sakes, but as touching
the election, as touching the purpose of God according to election,
bless God, they are beloved for the Father's sakes. For the gifts
and callings of God are without repentance. Alright, back in
our text. Look at verses 4 through 7. Here's
the third thing. God's covenant of life and peace
is an everlasting covenant. It's sure and unalterable. A covenant made with one man. A covenant entirely dependent
upon one man. One man whom he trusted as the
surety of the covenant, and that man is the Lord Jesus Christ,
here called Levi. Blessed be God that man, Christ
Jesus, is one who is proved and proved and proved and proved
again worthy as the covenant surety and the covenant messenger. Look at the last part of verse
4. The Lord says, I've done this, I've given this commandment that
my covenant might be with Levi. Now wait a minute, Brother Don,
that says Levi, it doesn't say Christ. And I want to pause and
say something about that. Whenever we start to speak about
something being typical, be careful. Be careful that you don't spiritualize
Scripture. It is wrong to spiritualize the
Word of God. What do you mean spiritualize?
I mean take it and say, well, this here says, What if some
did not believe? Now let me tell you what I think
that means. To my mind it means that's spiritualizing. That's
worthless. That's contemptible. That's contemptible. That's handling the Word of God
deceitfully. It is right to interpret the Scripture spiritually. To
interpret the Scripture spiritually. And when you come to look at
a passage of Scripture that says, this is a type of our Lord Jesus,
make sure it is. Make sure it is. Make sure it
is a type that is readily validated in the Word of God itself. If
it can't be validated in the Word of God, don't tell folks
it's a type. What you've done then is you
run to a passage of Scripture with an idea, an adoption, you
say, I'm going to prove this, the way I'm going to prove it
is I'm going to make this text say what I want it to say. God's
servants do not handle the Word of God deceitfully. How do you
know that Levi is referring to Christ? I'm going to show it
to you plainly in the text right here. Plainly in the text right
here. It is written right in front
of you. It's written even in the Old Testament. But if you
care to read the book of Hebrews, everything with regard to the
priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood, The Levitical priesthood, the
sacrifices of the priesthood, the Melchizedekian priesthood,
everything with regard to the priesthood, we're told in the
book of Hebrews, speaks of Christ and His finished work. Is that
right? Everything. Levi is talking about Christ.
Now what he says here, My covenants I made to be with Levi, saith
the Lord of Hosts, verse 5. My covenant was with him of life
and peace, and I gave them to him. I gave life and peace to
this Levi. I gave them to him for or because
of the fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid before me. The law of truth was in his mouth,
and iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with me in
peace and equity, and turned many away from iniquity. For
the priest lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law
at his mouth. For he is the messenger of the
Lord of hosts. Now, I can just give you the
highlights. Here's what the text says. This covenant is God's
covenant. It doesn't speak of two or three
covenants, this is the covenant, my covenant. And all the covenants
you read of in the Old Testament are but reflections of this covenant. All the covenants you read up
in the Old Testament, the covenant God made with Adam, the covenant
God made with Noah, the covenant God made with Abraham, the covenant
God made with Moses, the covenant God made with David, all the
covenants of the Old Testament are but varying ways in which
this covenant is administered and executed. It is this covenant
that God calls a covenant of life and peace. A covenant by
which life and peace is secured for somebody. A covenant by which
eternal life and peace with God is made certain. It is God's
covenant with Levi. With Levi. This Levi who's described here. If you go back and ask his daddy
Jacob to describe him. You think he's talking about
two different fellas. You think he's talking about two different
fellas. This is not the Levi Jacob head. This is not the Levi
who came out of his loins. Go back and read it. And Jacob
knew his boy pretty good. What's he talking about? This
Levi Jacob's son who was but a type of Christ. It says here
that the covenant stands with him who feared me, and was afraid
of my name. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as He
knelt in Gethsemane's garden, and swept blood from the pores
of His skin, with reproach breaking His heart in anticipation of
being made sin for us, cried unto God, and we're told in Hebrews
5, verse 7, He was heard in that He The covenant of life and peace
is with Him because He was afraid before my name. He feared me. This covenant is His and I've
given this life and peace to Him. I've given to Him eternal
life. I've given to Him all power over
all flesh and He should give eternal life to as many as I've
given Him. I've resurrected him and exalted
him that he should be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
The law of truth was in his mouth. Grace pours forth from his lips
for the law of truth is in his mouth. Iniquity was not found
in his lips. Well, that shuts Levi out, doesn't
it? This is Christ the Redeemer. Iniquity was not found in His
lips. He knew no sin. He did no sin. He's holy, harmless, undefiled,
and separate from sinners. The covenant hinges on it. The
covenant hangs on it. The covenant of life and peace
cannot be fulfilled except by this One who fears God completely. This One who has life in His
name. I won't lie to Christ, His seed,
I told you, shall endure forever. His throne, as the sun before
man, it shall be established forever, as the moon and as the
faithful witness in heaven. Well, how do you say amen to
that? How do you summarize all that? The Apostle Paul spent three
chapters in the book of Romans expounding Malachi's comments
here. Chapters 9, 10, and 11. And this
is how he summarized it. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his judgments. and his ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor?
Or who hath first given to him, and it shall not be recompensed
unto him again? For of him, and through him,
And to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.