“And you thought Phoenix was hot!” - (03/04/12)

Malachi 4:1-6 (Message #8 in Malachi Series)

March 4, 2012

INTRODUCTION:

            I’ve lived in some very hot places in my lifetime.  When I was a kid we lived in Guam for several years.  For those of you who may not know, Guam is a US Territory out in the far Pacific, located close to the Philippines.  It makes up part of the Marianas Island chain, which also includes the little islands of Saipan, Rota, and Tinian.  It is a lush green little island, very beautiful, densely covered with jungle.  I loved living there because of the easy-going laid-back Chamorro culture, the gorgeous white-sand beaches, and the incredible variety of sea life.  However, most people that go there complain of the heat.  Indeed, it gets very hot, and on top of that they have close to 100% humidity all year around.  You sort of get used to the heat but not completely.  Some days you just have to find a place in the shade and spend the day fanning yourself and drinking iced tea.

            Then when we ministered in Brazil as missionaries, our second term was spent in an interior city of the State of São Paulo known as Ribeirão Preto.  It is known all over the country as being very hot there.  Sometimes when I would be downtown walking around and going about my business the cobblestone sidewalks would get so hot that you couldn’t stand to walk on them.  After several days of scorching weather the basalt cobbles would heat up so much that you could literally cook an egg on them.

            And some of you have been to Arizona during the hot season.  You know what that’s like.  Folks who live down in Phoenix all have central air conditioning because without it you could hardly survive.  It gets ridiculously hot!

TRANSITION:

            Well, in our text for today the LORD talks about a day that will be even hotter than Arizona, or Guam, or Ribeirão Preto.  You thought Phoenix was hot, but you haven’t seen anything yet!

MAIN BODY:

Verse 1: “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” 

·       What day is the LORD referring to here?  You’ve probably guessed that He’s talking about the Day of Judgment, sometimes called in Scripture “The Day of the LORD.”  In the NT it is called “The Great Tribulation.”  This is a common theme in the OT.  For example, in Zephaniah 3:8 we hear the LORD say, “Therefore wait for Me,” declares the LORD, 
“for the day when I rise up as a witness. Indeed, My decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out on them My indignation, all My burning anger; for all the earth will be devoured by the fire of My zeal.”

·       He says here that on that day the heat will be like a furnace and will utterly burn up the wicked as though they were chaff.  They will be set ablaze and will be completely destroyed—from the tip of their deepest root to the tip of their longest branch.  There will be nothing left of them but ashes.  Absolute annihilation!

·       This idea of a day of fire and burning has already been introduced up in 3:2-3 where the LORD said “the day of His [Messiah’s] coming” would be like a “refiner’s fire” and a “smelter’s furnace.”  In both cases, anything that is not the pure precious metal is burned away to nothing.  Here in 4:2 the picture is a little different.  It is the useless chaff that will get burned away leaving only the pure, precious grain.

Verse 2: “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.” 

·       This verse stands in stark contrast to verse 1.  The Day of the LORD will put an end to the seemingly endless night of the wicked in which they appear to prosper and to get away with all their ungodliness.  When the Day of the LORD comes the wicked will be destroyed, and their time will be cut off.

·       “But for you who fear My name…”  He is, of course, speaking to the righteous remnant who continued to hold God in wonder and awe, who responded to Him in obedience, and who lived for Him with constant faith.  The Day of the LORD will be very different for them.

·       On that Day, He says, “the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.”  He is saying that on that day the righteous will be blessed, and healed, and filled with joy.  There are those who want to say that this phrase, “the sun of righteousness,” refers to Jesus Christ, that it is a veiled reference to Him.  I do not believe this.  I believe that it is a word picture showing the rise of the day of righteousness and the victory of godliness over evil.  This is in line with Isaiah 60 where God and His glory are likened to the sun.  Certainly the Lord Jesus will be the active agent on the Day of Judgment because He will be seated on the throne as the Judge, but I don’t believe that this phrase in verse two is referring to Him specifically. 

·       In the same way that in the night of wickedness the administration of evil touched every corner, when the day of righteousness comes, the beams of the sun will reach every nook and cranny and will root out and destroy every vestige of wickedness.  The sun of righteousness will rise like a majestic eagle upon its strong wings.  As the sun rises and its penetrating rays dispel the darkness, sin and all that sin produces will vanish away in an instant.

·       “…And you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.”  A young calf is one of the cutest things you’ve ever seen.  Their big brown eyes can melt the hardest heart.  When a calf is born it’s pretty unsteady on its feet but after a day or so it’s ready to boogie.  When the farmer opens the stall door and lets the little guy loose he will jump and run and gambol all over the place out of pure joy.  That’s the picture here.  On that Day the righteous will be filled with pure joy and will skip around like little calves, unable to contain their happiness.  No longer downtrodden and oppressed by the schemes of the wicked, the righteous will finally have their day!  What a beautiful picture!

Verse 3: “You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the LORD of hosts. 

·       “You will tread down the wicked.”  The wicked will be just so much dust under the feet of the righteous as they dance in the streets, rejoicing in what the LORD has accomplished.

·       “…on the day which I am preparing.”  This phrase looks directly back to 3:17 where the LORD promised: “And they will be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” 

Verse 4: “Remember the law of Moses, My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.” 

·       In these last three verses we have the concluding remarks to the book.  Here the LORD gives a closing exhortation to the children of Israel to obey the Scriptures.  He says, “Remember!”  This means more than to merely recall something.  It means to act upon the teaching that God had given them.  In the NT we are exhorted to be “doers of the Word and not hearers only.”  Earlier we saw that the LORD’S indictment of the Jews was that they had gone away from God’s ordinances (3:7) and had deliberately “forgotten” His statutes.  That’s “spiritual drift.”

·       This exhortation is really addressed to sinners and saints alike.  The Law, with all its statutes and ordinances, was given by God to Moses at Mount Sinai and was “for all Israel.”  No one was above it or excluded.

Verse 5: “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.” 

·       Elijah was arguably the most revered and beloved of all the prophets of Israel.  You can read about his ministry in I Kings 17 – II Kings 2.  His ministry lasted many years and during that time he performed many jaw-dropping miracles.  He was fearless in preaching the Word.  He took no guff from anyone.  I believe he exemplified the truth found in Daniel 11:32-33 which says, “…but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.  And they that understand among the people shall instruct many.” 

·       Here we see the promise of “Elijah’s coming” in verses 5-6.  God says He will send a prophet to prepare the moral and spiritual soil to get things ready for Messiah’s coming.  The appearing of this person was first spoken of up in 3:1 where the LORD refers to him as “My messenger” [literally, angel], saying that he would “clear the way before Me.”  In other words, this ministry of this human messenger would prepare the way for a divine Messenger, referred to in the same verse as “the Messenger of the Covenant,” who is, of course, Jesus Christ himself.

·       So here in 4:5 the LORD says that this human messenger is “Elijah.”  However, we know that Elijah was long since dead, so is the LORD saying here that He is going to resurrect Elijah, or is there some other explanation?  What we have here is a form of parallelism in which the messenger who will make his appearance before the arrival of the Messiah will be Elijah-like.  In fact, we learn from the NT that this prophecy is in reality speaking about the ministry of John the Baptist, who came “in the spirit and power of Elijah,” so it’s not about Elijah himself (cf. Matt. 11:13-14; 17:12-13; Mark 9:11-13; Luke 1:15-17).  Luke 1:15-17 is in the story about the birth of John the Baptist.  Here we hear the angel Gabriel telling Zacharias about his son who was soon to be born: “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb.  And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God.  It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”  So then we don’t have to guess what the LORD was talking about back in Malachi 4:5-6.  The NT lays it out for us.  John the Baptist is the “Elijah” spoken of in Malachi.

Verse 6: “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.” 

·       “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.” Luke 1:16-17 actually quotes from this verse, but what does it mean?  The LORD says that through the ministry of John the Baptist many people would be brought to the LORD through repentance and conversion, and once again Israel would be brought back to obeying God’s Law.

·       Malachi ends with both a promise and a warning.  You’ll notice that this verse is conditional.  The LORD in effect is saying that He “will not come and smite the land with a curse” IF the people’s heart’s are turned back away from wickedness towards righteousness.  We see this again and again in Scripture.  Whenever God announces judgment there is also always an offer of His mercy.  Jonah 4:2 is a good example: He [Jonah] prayed to the LORD and said, “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country?  Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.  Here in Malachi God is holding out an olive branch, a promise of a different outcome if they will turn away from their sin and return to Him.  However, if they refuse to repent, God will deal with them the same way He did with Edom (cf. Isaiah 34 5; Malachi 1:3-4).

CONCLUSION:

            So, although the OT closes with a conditional curse, the NT begins with the story of how this “Elijah” did come and did make ready a people prepared for the LORD.  He preached a message of repentance and many responded.  He preached about turning away from sin and many heard and obeyed.  He preached about the coming of the Messiah and many believed and rejoiced at His appearing.  John’s prophetic ministry “in the spirit and power of Elijah” produced a revival in Israel and prepared the way for the coming of the Christ.

            God’s offer of salvation is still in force today.  The Bible says, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  Have you done that?  If not, what are you waiting for?  Do it today.  “Behold, today is the day of salvation.”

FEEDBACK:

            What has been the most important thing you have learned from our 8-part study of the Book of Malachi?  Is there one particular truth that stands out?

“How to Tell the Righteous from the Wicked” - (02/26/12)

Malachi 3:13-18 (Message #7 in Malachi Series) 
February 26, 2012

INTRODUCTION:

            Scientists tell us that among the approximately 7 billion human inhabitants of Planet Earth there are no two people exactly alike.  Even those pairs that we call “identical twins” are, in reality, quite different one from another.  Oh yes, all humans share certain genetic and physiological similarities but in many ways each of us is unique.

            This fact sometimes creates problems.  For example, law enforcement officers always want to be sure that they have the right person in custody.  There are cases of people getting arrested, convicted, and imprisoned for crimes they did not commit, just because they bore such a striking resemblance to the person who did commit the crime.  To avoid such problems police investigators look for any DNA evidence, pore over fingerprints left at the crime scene, show comparative photos to the witnesses, and interview the possible suspects at great length.  They do all of this to try and sort out the good guys from the bad guys, the guilty from the innocent.

            Now on TV it has always been much easier to tell them apart.  In the old westerns, for example, bad guys usually wore dark colored hats, smoked stinky cigars, shaved only on rare occasions, and leered at the girls.  The good guys always dressed better, were clean-shaven, had smarter horses, wore white hats, spoke to the ladies politely, and sang songs on the trail.  But that’s television.  In real life, it’s not always so easy to tell the good guys from the bad.

TRANSITION:

            So then how can we do it?  How can we tell a righteous person from a wicked person?  Do they look differently?  Do they talk differently?  Are there any defining physical characteristics we should look for?  Oh, that it were so simple!

            Unfortunately, wicked people often look really good, and they try to pass themselves off as righteous.  Some of them even have religious titles and TV programs on Christian networks.  They dress nice, sing well, talk about Jesus, then lie and stick it to you to try to get you to send them money.  To use a biblical phrase, they are “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”  Moreover, they sucker many unsuspecting people into their evil, money-grubbing schemes because folks don’t know how to spot a phony.  In our text for this morning, the LORD tells us how we can tell the righteous from the wicked.  That may turn out to be a very useful skill, indeed.  Let’s look at Malachi 3:13-18.  

MAIN BODY:

Verse 13: “Your words have been arrogant against Me,” says the LORD.  “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’”  

·         You’ll remember that last Sunday we looked at verses 7-12 where Jehovah God invites the people of Israel to put His promises to the test to see if He would make good on them.  He accused them of stealing from Him by their unfaithfulness in giving the tithes and offerings they owed Him.  As a result, He warned them of what would happen to them if they didn’t repent of their waywardness and begin doing what He required of them.  At the same time, He promised to open up the windows of Heaven and pour out blessings upon those who repented and returned to love and serve Him with their whole heart.

·         Now the LORD brings up another issue.  They have been speaking evil things of the LORD.  But how did He know?  He knew because He knows everything.  The Word says, “Nothing is hidden from His eyes.”  What is done in darkness or in secret is laid bare before Him as though it were daylight.  That just means we can’t get away with anything.  You thought your mother had eyes in the back of her head?  God is way more perceptive than your mother.  He doesn’t have to guess.  He knows exactly what you are thinking and He hears every word you utter.  You can run but you can’t hide!

·         Here in verse 13 the LORD declares, “Your words have been arrogant against Me.”  The word arrogant means puffed-up, inflated.  We sometimes say that a person is “full of hot air.”  That’s the idea here too.  This is also the word for “proud.”  Their sinful pride is what has been driving them.  And right on cue, just like all the times before in this Book of Malachi, the people respond with, “What have we spoken against You?”  They plead ignorance.  They act like they don’t know what He is talking about.  So He lays it out for them.

Verse 14: “You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the LORD of hosts?’” 

·         Basically they have begun to view their worship and service of Almighty God in terms of dollars-and-cents.  They’ve been saying, “It’s not worth it to serve Him and to do the things He asks of us.  If there is no material prosperity coming from it, why should we keep doing what we do?  If we are not getting anything out of we might as well quit.”  That’s the kind of thoughts that were going through their heads, and God could hear those thoughts.

·         “We have walked in mourning before the LORD of hosts.”  The problem is that they had merely been going through the motions, showing the outward forms associated with repentance, without actually ever experiencing true repentance in their hearts.  Their religion was all on the outside.  And frankly, God has never been impressed by religiosity.

Verse 15: “‘So now we call the arrogant [proud] blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up but they also test God and escape.’”   

·         Moreover, these religious hypocrites go on to allege that the wicked in their pride say whatever they feel like saying and God doesn’t punish them.  On the contrary, they claim, He blesses them all the more, in spite of their arrogance and sinfulness.  And they don’t stop there—they say that these evildoers deliberately do things to test God, and still they escape judgment and justice.  This is just a rephrasing of their earlier charge against God stated up in 2:17.

·         These guys are angry and they don’t care who knows it.  And as often happens, in their anger and frustration they misstate the facts and lose perspective about what was really going on.  They are spouting off, and saying all kinds of stupid things that are completely untrue about their own innocence and about God’s supposed injustice and unfairness.

·         Now I think it’s important to note that it’s not a sin to question God.  He’s not intimidated by our honest questions.  In fact, the Psalmist in Psalm 73 struggled with this same issue and questioned why the wicked sometimes seemed to prosper.  Listen to his words starting in verse 3:

I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.  ⁴They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. 
⁵They are free from common human burdens; they are not plagued by human ills. 
⁶Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. 
⁷From their callous hearts comes iniquity; their evil imaginations have no limits. 
⁸They scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression. 
⁹Their mouths lay claim to Heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.  ¹⁰Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.  ¹¹They say, “How would God know? 
Does the Most High know anything?”   ¹²This is what the wicked are like—always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.

·         The difference between the Psalmist’s questions and those of the people of Malachi’s day was this—the attitude of the inquirer.  It’s OK to ask God hard questions in the genuine search to better know the heart and ways of God.  It’s not OK to murmur against God and accuse Him and impugn His motives and His character, especially His justice.  God hates men accusing Him of being unjust!  He will not tolerate that.

Verse 16: 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.  

·         But notice… all this badmouthing of God has now reached the ears of some of the godly people who have loved and served God all along for all the right reasons.  It says, “They spoke to one another, and the LORD gave attention and heard it.”  Not everyone in Israel had turned his/her back on God.  There was still a group of righteous people who had remained faithful to Him.  Moreover, that faithfulness was carefully noted by God.  “A book of remembrance was written before Him.”  Why would God need a written record?  Surely He doesn’t suffer from a bad memory like some of us.  No, He keeps accurate accounts so that for all eternity there will be a public record of the obedience and faithfulness of His people.  “…for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name.” To fear the Lord means to hold Him in awe and reverence.  His name encapsulates all of who He really is, so that those who truly love and revere Him will be zealous for His holy name.  We learn here that God rewards people for that.

·         The last part of verse 16 reminds me of Jesus’ words to a group of His disciples recorded in Luke 10:20.  He had sent “the Seventy” out to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom and to heal the sick and they had returned with amazing stories to tell of what God had done through them.  That’s when Jesus said: “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in Heaven.”  But where are those names recorded?  The Book of Revelation speaks of “the Lamb’s Book of Life.”  That is the record of every true child of God, those who are redeemed and will be in Heaven.  If your name isn’t in that Book, it won’t matter how many times you’ve walked down the red carpet or been voted into “Who’s Who.”  When the time comes, if your name isn’t in the Lamb’s Book, the Lord Jesus will say to you, “Depart from Me.  I never knew you.” 

·         I believe that Malachi 3:16 also shows the value of Christians coming together to share openly and prayerfully with one another in the sight of the LORD.  When we come together and praise the LORD, and talk about all His benefits, and testify of His goodness, and bless His name He is right there in our midst, and He hears every word we say, and He takes notes!  Not one word is lost!  It does pay to serve the LORD.

Verse 17: “They will be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.”   

·         “They will be Mine.”  The LORD says that in the Day of the LORD (cf. 3:1-2) He will claim for His own all those who have loves Him and faithfully served Him.  He regards them as His children, and will spare them the way a man spares his own faithful son.  You can actually hear the pride in God’s voice when He says this.  He is proud of His children. 

·         “…on the day that I prepare My own possession…”  I like the way this verse reads in the NKJV: “They shall be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “on the day that I make them my jewels.”  The Hebrew word here translated as “jewels” could be rendered “special treasure,” or “treasured possession” as we have it in the NIV.  This word is a beautifully endearing term that is used several places in the OT to describe the value that the LORD places on the people of Israel who have remained faithful to Him (cf. Exodus 19:5; Deut. 7:6; Psalm 135:4).

Verse 18: So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him. 

·         At the beginning of this sermon I asked the question: “How do you tell the righteous from the wicked?”  The answer to that question is found in this verse.  The righteous can be recognized by their service to God.  Specifically that means loving Him, putting Him first, obeying His commandments, and finding one’s greatest joy bringing glory to His name.

·         The wicked, on the other hand, care nothing about serving God.  They are only concerned with what’s in it for them, as we saw up in verses 14-15.  They are not zealous for His name; in fact, it means nothing to them.

·         Notice that He says, “So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked.”  This implies that they used to know the difference but had perhaps started to confuse the two.  The fact is, we are not always good at telling sheep from goats, but the LORD never makes that mistake.  With a glance He can tell them apart.  Even if you take a goat and dress him up like a sheep, you still haven’t fundamentally changed him.  In Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus told of a day yet to come when He will judge the nations.  He said: “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.  ³² All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; ³³ and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.”  In this word picture, the sheep are the righteous and the goats are the wicked.  The end of the story is in verse 46: “These [the goats, meaning the wicked] will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” 

CONCLUSION:

            When that great Judgment Day comes, which side will you be standing on?  Are you a sheep or a goat?  Will you go into eternal punishment or into eternal life?  For, you see, on that day God will act, and justice will be meted out.  For the wicked it will be a dreadful day (cf. Zeph. 1:15-18).  However, for the righteous it will be a glad day, because they have the promise of the Lamb that He will deliver all those who belong to Him (cf. Psalm 91:7).

            One more thing… the people that the LORD exhorts up in verses 13-15 were religious people who were just going through the motions.  Their hearts were not in what they were doing, so God had not blessed them.  In turn, they blamed God for not blessing them the way they thought He should.  There are a lot of professing Christians who walk around with the same attitude.  They say, “I’ve tried to do my best to please God but He’s just never satisfied, so now I’m just coasting.  It just doesn’t pay to go overboard on religion.”  They may attend church services but often they do it to criticize.  They have little interest in praising God, serving God, or worshiping God, because they really don’t love God.

            Religion for religion’s sake is a chore and a bore.  But when you have a close, intimate relationship with the Living God then worship services take on a whole new meaning.  When your heart is filled with gratitude to God for all His mercies, then service for Him makes perfect sense and presents no hardship.

            This morning, which are you more concerned about: What you are getting out of following after Christ? Or What Christ is getting from you?  If you are more worried about what’s in it for you, then you need to go back and truly get saved!

“Out on a Limb” - (02/19/12)

Malachi 3:7-12 (Message #6 in Malachi Series) 
February 19, 2012

INTRODUCTION:

            Are you a risk-taker?  Do you get a thrill from sticking your neck out and doing things that are a little bit dangerous?  I do.  That’s one of the reasons why I like riding my big, black motorcycle.  It’s a rush!  It’s also why I went skydiving a couple of years ago with one of my equally crazy preacher friends.  It was totally amazing and I will do it again in a heartbeat if I can ever come up with the money, because it was worth every penny.

            Going out on a limb, doing something that requires courage and that gets you out of your rut—is a good thing!  Life is short and we need to live it to the fullest rather than hanging back and living in fear and in the shadow of the “what-ifs.”  But sometimes that involves taking risks.  But when you think about it the most wonderful things in life involve taking a risk:

• Asking a girl to marry you, knowing that she might turn you down
• Having a baby, knowing that he/she might be born with Down Syndrome
• Getting in the car and driving to grandma’s for Christmas, knowing that the roads are icy and that you might have an accident on the way
• Applying for that new job, knowing that you might end up disappointed
• Flying to Europe for the vacation of a lifetime, knowing that there might be a crazed terrorist onboard who will try to bring the airplane down
• Buying your first house, knowing that you are now under the obligation to make the mortgage payments and to do all the upkeep on the place

           

            Sure, bad things can sometimes happen.  However, we take these kinds of risks because the outcome is worth the small chance that something might go wrong.  In our text for today, the LORD invites His people, the Jews, to go out on a limb and do something wild and crazy—namely, to trust that if they will be faithful to Him in their financial giving, He will bless them beyond their wildest imaginations.  God challenges them to test Him and see if He won’t open up the windows of Heaven and pour out on them blessings beyond anything they have ever seen.

TRANSITION:

            This text is very relevant to our day as well, because most Christians today give very little to the work of God.  Very few American Christians tithe or even give regularly.  Why is that?  What are we afraid of?  What does this say about our level of commitment to Christ and to His Kingdom?  And more importantly, what does God think about this?

            In the verses leading up to our text for this morning the LORD has announced to the murmuring people of Israel that the day is coming when He will suddenly draw near to mete out judgment upon the wicked.  Then He proceeds to explain the reason why He has until now withheld His blessing and His salvation of Israel.  He says that the reason why Israel waits in vain for the judgment of the wicked and the salvation dawning with it is not to be found in God, but in the Israelite people themselves, in the fact that for generations they have transgressed the commandments of God.

            He goes on to explain in 3:6 that while the world, including the nation of Israel, has continued to grow more and more wicked, He Himself does not change.  His character, His laws, His covenants, and His promises all remain unchanged through the years.  In fact, through His prophet, Malachi, He tells the people of Israel that His unchangeableness is the only thing that has saved their bacon up until now.  In spite of Israel’s unfaithfulness, God has remained faithful to His covenant.  If it weren’t for that He would have utterly destroyed them because they surely had it coming.

MAIN BODY:

Verse 7: “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.  “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’”

• The LORD is saying that this is not a new problem.  This has been going for generations, since the times of their great-great-grandfathers.  Isn’t it interesting that evil character and wicked actions, as well as noble character and righteous actions pass on from one generation to the next?  That’s because our kids watch what we do and listen to what we say.  Moreover, they read between the lines to see what we really believe and feel about things.  They can usually tell whether or not we really love God and serve Him from right motives.
• “Return to Me, and I will return to you.”  This is God calling the people to repentance, which is the real meaning of the word “return” used here three times.  The LORD makes them a conditional offer.  He says, “I’ll meet you half-way.  You turn around and move back toward Me [a 180 degree turnabout] and I will move toward you.”  But notice their response: “How shall we return?  Return from where?  Repent from what?  We haven’t gone anywhere and we haven’t done anything wrong.  In fact, we’re still doing all the right stuff, for crying out loud.  What do You want from us, God?”  They certainly do not have a teachable attitude here.  They obviously regard themselves as righteous and refuse to acknowledge any wrongdoing on their part.  So the LORD gives them an example of where they have gone wrong.

Verse 8: “Will a man rob [defraud] God?  Yet you are robbing Me!  But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’  In tithes and offerings.” 

• “In tithes and offerings.”  The LORD brings up the issue of the tithe, and also what was known as the “heave offering.”  “Will a man rob God?  Yet you are robbing Me in these things!”  Now you have to understand that the tithe (literally, “the 10^th”) was not voluntary in the OT.  It was not negotiable—it was the LAW and had been since the beginning, clear back to the time of Moses.  God required that every Jew set aside 10% of every penny he made, every crop he raised, every vegetable in his garden, and every animal in his flock to be given over to the LORD.  It was that 10% that supported the Levites and the priests and their families (Num. 18:24).  It was that 10% that maintained the Tabernacle and later the Temple.  The tithe also supported widows, orphans, and foreigners (cf. Deut. 14:28-29).  The Jews had a theocratic government where God was their King, so in a very real sense that 10% was taxes owed to maintain the society.  God says to them that to withhold the tithe is the same as robbing from Him.  [For a complete explanation of the tithe see Lev. 27:30-33; Numbers 18:20-32; Deut. 14:22-29].
• “In Tithes and offerings.”  This Hebrew word (terumáh) is used for freewill gifts, for gifts of the firstfruits, for the half-shekel sanctuary tax, and most importantly, for portions of sacrifices that were reserved for priests and their families (Num. 5:9; 18:19; Lev. 7:13-14, 32; etc.).
• But again, when confronted with their sin they weasel and waffle and dissemble and play ignorant: “How have we robbed You, LORD?”  As if they didn’t know!

Verse 9: “You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!” 

• So God explains that the result of their sin is a curse upon their whole nation, because the practice had become so widespread.  It wasn’t just one or two, here and there, but apparently refusing to pay the tithe had become the norm.  As a result, God has already visited them with severe punishment, with the curse of barrenness and the failure of the harvest.  The people were cursed with poor production from their land and animals, just as had been predicted in the Law of Moses clear back in Deuteronomy chapter 28.  Yet now God promises to lift the curse if they will but repent and mend their wicked ways.  He is holding out to them His offer of mercy, grace, pardon, and restoration.

Verse 10: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of Heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.”

• Here the LORD calls the people back to begin doing what they should have been doing all along—namely, “…bringing the whole tithe into the storehouse.”  The emphasis here is on the word “whole.”  Many of them were paying a portion of the tithe but were keeping back a portion for themselves.  But we can see here that by God’s definition, partial-obedience is just another name for “disobedience.”  By their actions they were defrauding the LORD.
• Those who believe that the NT teaches tithing have to explain this “storehouse” thing.  In the historical context it makes perfect sense.  There were storage chambers established near the sanctuary where the tithed grain and other commodities were warehoused until they were needed.  These storehouses were maintained and operated by the Levites.  This same Hebrew word is elsewhere translated as “treasury” (cf. I Chron. 27:25; Psalm 38:7, etc.). 
• However, like I said, those who teach tithing as a New Testament principle have to explain what the storehouse is in the modern setting.  Of course, they say that this is a reference to the local church, and that believers must bring a tenth to invest in the church’s ministry.  However, if we go down that road we will very quickly find ourselves coming under a heavy yoke of bondage of our own making, because God never commanded Gentiles to pay this tithe.
• Notice that in the second half of this verse the LORD.  “…Test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows [sluices] of Heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.”   Opening the sluices of Heaven is of course a figure, denoting the most bountiful supply of blessing imaginable, so that it flows down from Heaven like a drenching rain.  Remember, back in 2:17 the Jews were calling God’s character into question by saying that God rewards the wicked and withholds blessings from the righteous.  Now He challenges them to put His promise to the test.  This is not, as some have claimed, a contradiction in Scripture.  The LORD forbids us to “tempt/test” Him.  In Matthew 4:7 we hear Jesus in the wilderness temptation quoting Deut. 6:16 to Satan saying, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”  But this is different that what God is saying here in Malachi 3:10.  In this case Jehovah is encouraging His people to go out on the limb by faith and trust Him, and He promises that if they do they will not be disappointed but will find that He is always faithful to His word.

Verse 11: “Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the LORD of hosts. 

• Notice, “THEN I will rebuke the devourer for you.”  This is all conditional, predicated on their willingness to recognize their sinfulness and to repent and turn back to obey and serve God once again.  “The devourer” is a personification of the powerful curse that God has laid against them.  It probably took the form of ravenous locusts and devastating weather conditions that destroyed the crops.

Verse 12: “All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the LORD of hosts. 

• He says that all the other nations will be jealous of Israel when they see God pouring out His abundant blessings on her.  They will come to recognize that those blessings come from the hand of Jehovah and are not just some kind of dumb luck.
• “...for you shall be a delightful land.”  The Hebrew adjective indicates pure enjoyment and the things in life that are genuinely pleasurable (cf. 1:10, to be pleased; and 3:1, to be delighted).
• This would be in fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abraham way back in Genesis 12:2-3, that the blessings on him and his seed would be so great that they would overflow to the nations roundabout them.  In fact, through Abraham’s descendants all the nations of the world would be blessed.

CONCLUSION:

            So how are we supposed to apply this passage to our lives today?  You’ve heard very few messages from me about giving because fundamentally I believe that our giving should be between us and God.  However, the Bible talks A LOT about money and about its significance, and to be a faithful preacher of God’s Word I cannot shy away from certain subjects just because they make people uncomfortable or unhappy.  Of course, I realize that we are not Jews and the tithe was specifically mandated for them.  So what are the principles that apply to us?  Are there lessons about financial giving in today’s text that do apply?

            First, of all, as we’ve said before all Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for us, and that includes the Book of Malachi.  Even though we do not live as Jews under the Old Covenant we are still obligated to observe the spirit of the Law.  God is the Holy, Sovereign Ruler of the universe and we are His subjects.  All that we have comes from Him, even the air that we breathe.  He is the Lord and Master, and we are His stewards, entrusted with His things.  Nothing belongs to us—it all belongs to Him.  That is the starting point in building a Theology of Stewardship.

            Second, God does not need our money, but He asks us to give it because every time we do it reminds us that we are indebted to Him for everything we possess.  He could easily make $100 bills drop from the sky but instead He has chosen to do His work on earth through human instruments faithfully serving as His hands and feet and voice.  He cycles His money through our wallets and bank accounts but make no mistake, He still considers it to be HIS, and so should we.  The Bible says that it is “required of stewards that one be found trustworthy/faithful” (I Cor. 4:2).  That’s what God was looking for in Malachi’s day and that is what He expects of us, His servants, in 2012.

            The Bible teaches that our giving to God and to the support of His Kingdom is an accurate gauge of our love for Him and of our life’s priorities.  The Bible says, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt. 6:21).  Now does God still require a tithe from us?  I don’t believe so, but He does ask for our love, our faithfulness to Him, and our commitment to the cause of Christ.  He does still ask us to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33) and He promises that if we’ll do that He will “supply all our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).

            As I said a moment ago, I don’t believe that the tithe, per se, is a NT obligation on Christians.  However, that doesn’t mean we are off the hook!  The Scriptures give us several abiding principles that should guide us in our giving.  Let’s look at them:

1. We should give freely and liberally (Matt. 10:8; II Cor. 8:2-5; 9:7).  God loves us to give cheerfully and generously to support His work, both in the local church, in our community, and around the world.
2. We should give as an act of worship (II Cor. 8:8-9; Matt. 6:2-4).  Again, giving is an accurate gauge of our spiritual temperature.  When we give little it reveals that we love little.  When we give grudgingly it shows that our heart is not in it.  God wants our hearts and our undivided affection.  When He has that our wallet goes along for the ride.
3. We should give proportionately (II Cor. 8:3; 9:7).  As God blesses us with more we should give more.  Unfortunately, what usually happens is that when we get that raise we run right out and buy a bunch more stuff for ourselves, never giving a thought to the fact that God might have given us that extra money so that we could invest it in a missions project.  The average American Christian lives in debt, living paycheck to paycheck, house poor, with no margin to invest in the Kingdom of God because we are spending every cent on ourselves, plus some.  We call it “embezzlement” when an employee uses company funds to feather his own nest, and it can get you 15-20 years in the state pen.  Yet that is what we do to God.  We use Kingdom funds as though they belonged to us, and they don’t.
4. We should give sacrificially (II Sam. 24:24; Mark 12:41-44; Rom. 12:1-2).  If giving to God doesn’t sting a little then you aren’t doing it right.  If you don’t feel the pinch then you aren’t digging deep enough.  If your giving doesn’t cramp your style then it’s not a sacrifice, it’s just a tip tossed on the counter.  After looking at Christ’s sacrifice for us, is it so much to ask that we would make some sacrifices for Him?
5. We should not give expecting commensurate physical or financial blessings in return.  Our giving should not be done with the idea that this now somehow obligates God to repay us in earthly currency.  This is the awful error of the “name-it-and-claim-it”, prosperity-gospel fake preachers and so-called televangelists on TBN and other religious stations.  They claim that your financial gift is “seed money” and that if you will send it in to them then God will repay you 30, 60, or 100-fold, depending on the quality and quantity of your faith.  That’s a lie!  If that’s your motivation, try the stock-market or the horse-races.  We give to God, not because it is a great financial investment but because it is “our reasonable service of worship.”

            I believe that God is still inviting believers to go out on a limb and trust Him with their finances.  I believe that His promise of blessings for those who take Him at His word is still in force.  I believe that you can’t out-give God, and that to be a faithful steward is a wise financial decision.  I believe that if you are unfaithful as a Christian steward you will find that God withholds his blessings from your life.  I believe that if you will begin to give according to Luke 6:38 God will open up the windows of Heaven and pour out blessings so great that you won’t be able to contain them all.  In that passage Jesus said: “Give, and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”