Malachi chapter 3 will begin reading at verse 6. Hear now God's holy word. For I am the Lord, I do not change. Therefore, you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you said, in what way shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, in what way have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And try 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 such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes. so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord of Hosts. And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of Hosts." Amen. Thus far, God's Word. Let us pray. Lord, as we come to this even hour on this Sabbath day, as we draw near to You in our worship, we pray, Lord, that You would draw near to us as You have promised even in this text. For we have come to seek You, Lord. We have come to hear You. We have come to have that good work of Your Word in our hearts. Lord, may we be humble and broken and a contrite people, ready to receive correction, instruction, and even rebuke, that we would receive the training of our God through that means which you have appointed, the preached word. Lord, uphold your servant. Use your servant in his frailty, that it would not be with eloquent, wise words of men, but that with the power and the working of the Spirit that we would hear the wisdom of God. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. Once again, I want to acknowledge my indebtedness to John Benton and his excellent treatment on the book of Malachi. I found it to be a great help. And I begin with an illustration that he uses in there. I find it to be very much resonating with the text. I'm not quoting it per se. I'll be quoting Daniel Defoe. For at the opening of this section, he reminds us of Daniel Defoe. Some of you say, That name sounds familiar. I think I read something by him once. Well, let me say Robinson Crusoe. And you might say, oh yeah, that's what it was. Yes, Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe, probably his greatest work. And in the midst of that, he makes a very correct statement. There he observes something that's true about man and repentance. And this is what he says, I have seen I have seen often observe how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is. That they are not ashamed of sin, and yet are ashamed to repent. Not ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of their returning, which only can make them be esteemed wise men. It's a very fine estimation. We as sinners, we're often not ashamed of our sin, but we're ashamed to repent. And the sin that we do would rightly had us to be evaluated by men as foolish. And yet our repenting would be to our accommodation that we were wise men. John Benton observes, and here I'm quoting, the pride of ordinary men and women is often one of the greatest hindrances of their repenting and coming to Christ. Once again, I see marvelously in God's providence that we have a text this morning from the New Testament in Luke 18 and a text this evening from Malachi 3 that just fit hand in glove, sounding the same note. And as your pastor, I declare to you, I've not orchestrated this. I've not planned this. This is God's word at work. And so what it says to me is that me as your pastor and we as God's people, God would have us to hear something about the problem of pride. You have two sermons in one day addressing the issue of pride. John Benton goes on to observe that pride is often the greatest snare for the religious man. Remember how we saw that in Luke 18 this morning with a self-righteous Pharisee? The inflexible man's prayer. That might be a way. This is a term that John Benton used here. The inflexible man's prayer. I think he's quoting from some other body of literature, though he does not show it. But I was thinking about how that title could be used for that Pharisee this morning. The inflexible man. And this is how he prays. Lord, grant that we may always be right. For Thou knowest we will never change our minds. You see, that's pride speaking. Grant that we may always be right, for thou knowest we will never change our minds. And how often we live like that. Repentance is a word in our dictionaries, but not a word in our hearts. And as God's people, that cannot be. In Malachi's day, the church was in trouble. Jehovah's covenant people were hard. They were proud. They were self-righteous. And Malachi had been sent by God to call them back to Jehovah. To call them back to faithfulness in the sight of God. And he comes in the midst of hard words. He comes to this text. And it's a note of mercy. It's the sound of grace that God gives to the prophet. He comes asking questions. helping them to search their own hearts. What we see throughout the book of Malachi is Jehovah is giving his people many opportunities to return to him to humble themselves and repent. Jehovah was not eager to punish them. God does not find delight in the death of the wicked. He does not find pleasure in punishing his people. He wants us to repent. He desires to bless us. But as we saw in the book of Judges, God cannot bless us when we're in our sin because it further hardens us. And he loves us too much to do that. And so he will chasten us until we are recovered. Remember, we said this earlier in the book of Malachi that The problem is not in a nation. The problem is with a church. And God will bring down nations and destroy them for the sake of purifying His church. Sanctifying His church so that the church will be holy. And that's what is going on here in the book of Malachi. We're going to consider these verses under three main headings. Jehovah's call to return. The return in worship. Jehovah's blessing for those who return. Begin then with Jehovah's call to worship. Look again at verse 6. For I am the Lord, and I do not change. Therefore, you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances, and you have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you. It's a very merciful call, a tender call. And here God is saying, I as Jehovah have not moved. I have not moved. I am right where I have always been. Now, children, you may know something about this. I don't know how many of you have gone on a trip where you need a ticket. More often today, people don't ride buses or trains. They get a ticket to go on an airplane ticket. And we get a round-trip ticket. And we buy a ticket from this point, this destination, let's say Bristol, Kingsport, where our local airport's at, to go to Kansas City. and then back to the Tri-Cities Airport. Well, why do we buy a round-trip ticket? Because we have a confidence that when we fly to Kansas City and we're ready to fly back home to the Tri-Cities Airport, it'll still be right there. It won't move. And so we can buy a ticket, a round-trip ticket, because it doesn't move. That's the sense of what God's saying. I'm right where I've always been. I've never moved. You know right where to find me. God is steady, fixed, and unchanging. This is the nature of Jehovah. And it's especially being underscored as the aspect of His love. Remember how this book began? God says, I've always loved you. I've always loved you. That has not changed. God is saying, I've not moved. I've always loved you. I still love you. You returned to Me. You moved. You left off from following Me. My covenant remains. My love is steadfast. My purpose is endure. That is why you are still here. That's the nature of what God is saying. Because I don't change, you're not consumed. It's because of my covenant love and my nature and my character that I have not utterly destroyed you. I made a covenant with Abraham to bless you. To bless his seed. And therefore, you're not consumed. And so God is saying, I've not moved. I'm unchanged. That's why you're here in the sense that you're not utterly destroyed. Yes, I raised up Nebuchadnezzar. And yes, I brought a heavy hand upon this nation. And it was just a remnant of you that went out to Babylon. But I blessed you there. And then I opened the door for you to return. And only a remnant of you were willing. But I brought you back. And as we've read recently through Ezra and Nehemiah, God enabled them and equipped them and encouraged them to build the temple, to build the walls. They're still a people. They're still here. And here we are a generation or two later. Actually, several generations later. And what are they doing? They're back doing the things that led their forefathers off into captivity. And God says, I'm a God of grace. I'm a God of mercy. I have not changed. That's why you're not consumed. return to me. He's saying, you've moved. You're just like your forefathers. Remember back in chapter 2, in verse 10, the questions are asked, have we not all one father? thinking of Abraham, and has not one God created us. And you remember at that point, we were talking about God constituted them, covenanted them as a people, as Sinai, giving them a common law, and making a covenant with them that they would be His people, and that He would be their God, and that He would not leave them nor forsake them. This is the nature. And God said, I've given you these laws that have made you my people. My law hasn't changed. My precepts haven't changed. My ordinance hasn't changed. My worship hasn't changed. It's the same God of grace. He says, return to me, Jehovah. God, in His unfailing love, desires to do His people good. It's the same call that we see here, interestingly, return to me and I will return to you. If you turn back to the opening of Zechariah, Zechariah prophesying about the same time as Haggai, during the time of the reconstruction of the temple, and in verse three, notice, therefore say to them, thus says the Lord of hosts, return to me. says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts." Notice, emphasizing Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah three times in that verse. Return to me. It's the same thing we see here fifty years later. A generation later after Zechariah declared it to the people, here's God again, steadfast, addressing the next generation saying, return to me and I will return to you. Powerful words. Indeed, a powerful reason to repent. God's unchanging character. You see, the New Testament opens up and reveals to us that Jesus Christ, God's Son, come in the flesh is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Thus declaring He is God, because only God is unchanging and unmoving. But there's more in the text. There's something more. We see Jehovah's heart revealed We shouldn't forget that the book opened with him saying how he's always loved his people. And here we have something of the tenderness and the coldness, the warmth and the tenderness of God that he is near to them. Notice, this is not a harsh, cold, distant, aloof word. He says, when I see you move toward me, he says, I will move toward you. Notice that. Return to me. He hasn't moved. He's right where He was. But He says, return to Me. And when I see you returning, I'll return to you. It's as though I'll rest force and embrace you. Remember the parable of the two sons from Luke 15 a few weeks back? And we saw the heart of the Father wondrously revealed in that chapter of the lost coins, the lost sheep and the lost son. And what was the nature of the Father? The Father of that prodigal son. that He stood looking for His Son. And Jesus said, while He was yet afar off, He saw Him, and He ran to embrace Him. You see, there's the heart of God. That's what we hear. Return to Me, and I will return to you. You see, there's the gospel. There's the grace and gospel of God. He pursues sinners. And He comes to them, and He will embrace them. This promise of God, return to me and I'll return to you, is the call of the Gospel unto Christians who are backslidden. Christians who are wayward, who have been disobedient. They've wandered far from home. Sin somehow captured them. Perhaps you can identify with that. Maybe you've fallen into what John Bunyan refers to as the slew of despond. Or maybe you found yourself shackled down in the dungeon in castle despair. Remember the grace of God. That was the key so that Christians could be set free. The grace of God, the love of the Father, the Gospel opened the door. Return to me, God says, and I will return to you. You see, it's as simple as a weak cry. Something like we heard from the publican this morning. Lord, help me. Just the humble crying out, God, I've made such a mess. Help me. Because as I've declared to you before, there is no pit so deep, and we can dig some deep ones, but there is no pit so deep that God can reach there in His grace and lift us out. Return to me, He says, and I will return to you. Because Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which is lost. We see the Father going after His people in the Old Covenant. Return to me. and I will return to you." Well, secondly, we see that it is a call to return to Jehovah in worship. These verses are familiar verses. There have been, I think it's fair for me to say, thousands of preachers, probably tens of thousands of preachers, truth be told, that have sat down, taken these verses and pulled them out of context and preached the stewardship sermon and called the people to tithe. And certainly tithing is here. Stewardship is in this text. But it is nestled in the context of God calling His people back to Himself. And the manifestation of their returning to Him is in worship. That's what this text is about. It's about worshiping Jehovah. Now the specific, the particular is tithing. That's what it's about, but it's within the context of the whole of worship, and that shouldn't surprise us, because in the book of Malachi, we've heard a lot about worship. We've heard how the people have been cheating God and bringing lame, maimed animals, and the priests corrupt as they were accepting them. So worship was a mess. And so God is coming back to that, but He specifically says, return to Me in this area of worship and with the tithe. It's not that God is saying, you need to stop robbing for me because I've just about run out of money. That's not the nature of it. God calls us, as we're going to see, to tithe because we need to. We need to do it for our hearts' sake. When we come to that point where we can generously and cheerfully give to God's work in the church, we have recovered the heart of worship. Now, as I've said, the context is about worship, but God settles on a specific place where the people had departed from him. We've seen already that it was in worship, but he comes to a specific thing. As some have said, the checkbook is an accurate indicator of where the heart is. If you save your receipts, pull them out of your wallet and spread them out at the end of the week, and there will be a story there of where you've been, what you've done, what mattered to you, what was important to you. And here we see that God was saying they were not bringing the tithe. That was required. And also, for failing to bring the offerings, that was above and beyond the tithe. It was voluntary. One compulsory, the other voluntary. And so God asked them, Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me, but you say, in what way have we robbed you? In tithes, in offerings. So what's the answer to the question? Will a man rob God? Jehovah says, yes. A man will. A man will be just that brazen. Well, clearly, we can see that's a matter of the heart. To think that we can rob from God and go unscathed is perhaps at the pinnacle of your rationality and foolishness. Now, again, as we talk about money and tithing, we need to remember that this is not so much about that, but it's about the heart and worship. It's about the heart's engagement to God in worship. The New Testament principle that we find, particularly in Paul's letters, is that if God is Lord of our heart, then He will be Lord of our wallet. And that's the same thing that we see Malachi saying in a different way. All of life is about worship. Our whole life is to be lived to the glory of God. We answer the catechism question, what is man's chief in? Man's chief in is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That's what should distinguish our lives. Lives lived in worshiping of Jehovah. And yet God says that it is a robbery when we fail to bring to God in worship that which He requires. Now we might ask the question, I think we'd be right to ask the question, can a man really rob God? Is it possible for us to gather up a great hoard of wealth and hide it someplace that God can't touch it? That we could say, I have absolute control over it and I own it. It's mine to do with as I will. Can we say that? No. There's been many, many wealthy men that have left this earth and took not a dime with them. God owns all that is in the earth. As the scripture says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. If you keep it in your wallet, or whether you put it in the plate, it's still God's. If you keep it in your checking account or whether you write out a check, it's still God's. That's something that we've spoken about before. We are accountable, not just for the tithe, but indeed for all that God is entrusted to us because we are stewards. So the robbing then is in this. When we keep for ourselves what we ought to give, for the advancement of the kingdom, we're robbing God. When we spend what God has entrusted to us out of His resources, His wealth, when we spend it on our selfish pleasures so that it's not available for the kingdom work, we have robbed God. When we withhold material things, when we do not use our time for the ministry of God's church and the advancement of the kingdom. We are hindering the work, but we need to remember that God is still sovereign. His work is not hindered. He will accomplish it in spite of our withholding from Him what is rightfully His. He will provide from some other quarter. But God has appointed that His people care for the work of the church, the ministry of those officers that Christ has appointed. Remember in Nehemiah this morning, in chapter 13, that one of the things that Nehemiah had to correct when he came back was the people were not bringing their tithes and their offerings. And it was such that the priests and the Levites had to leave off the ministry in the temple and to go into the fields to till and to plant and to harvest and to thresh so that their families would be cared for. And that was not God's design. God's design was that the people bringing their tithes and offerings, they were free from those worldly cares to focus on the things of the temple, the worship of God, the serving as priests between the people and God, and all that aspect. And that principle endures on into the New Testament age. that the church, God's people giving, bringing in, care for the minister of the word. You have said that in your call to me as your minister, that he would be free, that I would be free of worldly cares. We commit ourselves to paying regularly payments, however the language goes, this amount. And you see, that's an understanding of this biblical principle, a principle that abides in the Old as well as in the New Testament. God counts your giving to the church, then, as giving to him. And thus he says, if you don't do that, you're robbing me. It's not just hindering the work of the church. Now, why do we give in a service of worship? It's because it's an expression. It's an act of worship. It's a testimony of our heart that we are giving out of the abundance that God has given us. We give it back to God. We're testifying of Jehovah's faithfulness that he has provided for us, that he has met our needs. And we are showing our heart that we desire the ministry of the word. We want the ministry of the word to be cared for, that his needs to be met so he can focus on prayer and the word because we want the ministry of the word. We delight in God's word and so we give that we desire to have that and we desire that others would have that ministry of the word. I shared with you before the call to worship that how through sermon audio. Through the ties of God's people, the Word is going out far beyond us into places we can't even imagine. Perhaps into countries we've never even heard of. We couldn't find them on the map. And that should be something of what motivates us to give. We're having an opportunity to spread the Word of God far and wide. In the Old Testament times, the people were commanded to bring one-tenth of all they received. Now, that's the bulk of the people were farmers. looking after sheep, planting grain crops, cultivating vines, and harvesting grapes to make wine, and caring for olive trees, and all the different things that enrich their lives and provide it for them. God says, you take one-tenth of all that, and you bring it into my house. Why? Because God needs to eat? Because He needs to anoint His face with oil? Because He wants a glass of wine? No. Because God has servants there. And they need to. And you can see if the people brought from across the spectrum of what God put in their hand, then those who ministered before the Lord would have the fullness of what they needed as well. Now, again, remember, at this time, as we've seen earlier, Malachi, the priests are corrupt. Does that give the people a pass in? And they say, well, God, you know, we didn't bring the tithe because, well, look at the priests after all. We can't give to them. But see, that's not the point. You're not giving to the priests. They weren't giving to the priests. They were giving to God. God would deal with the priests, even as God deals with unfaithful ministers today. They were called to give. God called them to give because such giving was giving to Jehovah. God wants you to give because it's a true indication of your heart. You want to know where your heart is in relationship to the Lord? Look at how you spend your money. Do you put a tip in the offering plate? Then that's an indicator of just how much you think of God, His Word, His worship, His ministers. You see, God wants your heart. And it's in your heart that God sends His Spirit to reign. What we do with our money is like a thermometer. It indicates the temperature of our heart. The biographer, the great military general, the Duke of Wellington, who was victorious at Waterloo, when he was working on his biography, a good biography, would work in original sources. And as he was going through the Duke's papers, he discovered his checkbook. This is what he said. He said, when I saw his checkbook, I knew the man. When I saw how he spent his money, I knew the man. That's what we were saying earlier. It's an indication of who we are and what's valuable to us. Think about your checkbook or your credit card statements. If somebody was doing a biography of you, they could look through that and say, well, these were his hobbies. This is the kind of vehicle was important for him to drive. These were the sort of books he read. These are the kind of restaurants he liked to eat. And these were the things that he sought out for pleasure or entertainment. How we spend our money tells what we value. And God understands that. So the question is, does your checkbook speak of a love for Jehovah? Does it speak of your interest and desire to advance His Kingdom? A love for His Son and a love for the Gospel? A love for the Word that it would go forth right here in our own community and beyond into other places through the missionaries that we support? Now, as we come to consider this text, I remind you, we're talking about Old Testament saints. We don't have a temple and priest and storehouse. We don't bring lambs and wheat and barrels of oil and wine to the storehouse. How do Christians rob God? Based on the principles here, how do we rob God? Well, certainly by giving nothing at all. If we don't give anything at all, we're robbing God. Or if we give less than we should. Now, some tend to argue on this topic of giving You say, well, this is just nothing but legalism. You're just being legalistic about these things. We're not under the law. But let's think about that for a moment. Moses was the lawgiver. And it was through Moses that God gave the incredible detailed instruction to the people of the Old Book, to His covenant people of old. He laid out what they were supposed to bring and how they were supposed to sacrifice. All that was laid out. And so, they would look back, and we should look back, and say, well, Moses was the lawgiver. And some would say, well, you're being legalistic because we're not under that law. Well, that's a matter for a more lengthy discussion on another occasion. The moral law stands for every generation. We're not under the law as a means by attaining our salvation, but having been tutored by the law, seeing our need of Christ and brought to Christ by God's grace through faith, then we live under the law as the standard of conduct in the kingdom. But let's think about it. Tithing precedes Moses. Moses was in the loins of Levi. I'm sorry, Moses was in the loins of Levi, and Levi was in the loins of Abraham. We'll go back over 400 years, about 430 years before the law, and what do we find Abraham doing after the great victory over the kings that came and overran the valley? What did he do? He took from that and he brought a tithe to Melchizedek, a priest of Jehovah Most High. Why did he do that? Because it was in his heart to honor God. Abraham understood that there was no way he could take from the increase that God had blessed him with and give it to God. So he found a priest of Jehovah and he gave a tithe to Melchizedek. Long before the law, tithing is not a legalism. It is not the law. Abraham tithed out of a cheerful heart as an act of worship of God. Remember this morning how we were talking about the Pharisees, that they tithed all things scrupulously. And Jesus said that our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees. So he does not denounce their tithing. He's not saying, well, the Pharisees tithed, so therefore forget that. No, it was right that they tithed, but their heart wasn't right. He says, if you would have your action honored by God, then it must exceed that of the Pharisees. Indeed, as Christians, we're not ruled by just giving the tithe. No, we're called to give something more. Listen to Paul writing in Romans. Romans 12.1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, which is your reasonable service. You see, under the New Testament ethic, God doesn't just want our money. He wants all of us. Our whole bodies are called to be what? What was the language? A living sacrifice. A sacrifice hurts. Remember, sacrifices were put up on the altar and burnt. Christ sacrificed His all for our salvation and He calls us to surrender all to Him. We are to give in such a way that we feel it. That's what Paul is saying. Our bodies are a living sacrifice that we give and serve In such a way that we feel it. You feel a sacrifice. It hurts. And I dare say that we, I use the word we, we could all give more than we do. That's what Jesus was commending when He saw the widow drop her mites in the box. Because what did she do? She gave all that she had. It was a sacrifice. And that's what He commended. That's what was right in the sight of God. Are you giving in that way? You see, it's not a matter of comparing amounts with one another. It's not who gives the most. But God loves the giver who gives from the heart, sacrificially, out of love for God and with joy in the heart. What about our other wealth? The Scripture teaches us that wealth is more than just money in the bank account or gold coins in a bag. We have time, we have health, we have relationships, we have skills and abilities. All of these things are gifts from God and we are called to use all of these things for the glory of God. Do we give from the wealth of our time to the work of the Lord? Do we give from the strength of our youth to the work of the Lord? Remember, Solomon says, remember your Creator in the days of your youth. And I can assure you, as one who's growing grayer, that it's much easier to labor and to serve in the strength of youth than when one grows older and gray. Do we give Him the fresh hours of the day? Or do we wait at the last minute of the day and say, oh, I need to give some time to God when our eyes are droopy and our bodies are sore and we're longing for sleep? Are those the hours? Is there a sacrifice in that? Or is it when we arise fresh and give those hours to the Lord that are the best? You see, we use our time, our strength, and our intellect for things that we value. Things that are worthy in our estimation And indeed, all is a reflection of the heart and what is in it. How do we use technology? How do we use social interaction? We have all these social medias. How do we use those? What about our relationships? Are our relationships rendered up to the Lord? Husband, wife, parents, children. Our labor. You see, good things can become bad things when they get out of balance. We're to use our whole for the Lord. Now notice in the text, God says, you are cursed. This is verse nine. You are cursed with a curse for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. What does that look like in our modern day as Christians in this day? How does that affect us? Well, in that day, as I said earlier, they were farmers. They were cultivators. They were keeper of herds and flocks. And so they were looking for the increase of grain, of olive oil, of wine, of ewes that would have multiple lambs and so forth. They were looking for that increase from the hand of God. But what about today? The church is not a nation. We're not farmers. What does it look like when God judges the church? We've been learning that the kingdom of God is spiritual. So where do we look for blessings? And where do we look for curses from Jehovah? Where are curses to be found in the modern church? Are we seeing the blight and mildew on our labors? And so if you come to Christ through our witness, not talking about any person individually, but as the church, collectively, the church in this 21st century and our advanced, Western culture. Do we see God's curse of blight and mildew upon our testimony, upon our witness, when so few are coming to Christ? Do we see that the grapevine is casting its fruit to the ground? When we see people who were once with us depart for the world, they go out from us. Is that a manifestation of God's cursing in the modern day? I would say that it is, or how about this, that the Word is preached, faithfully preached to none effect. It's not heeded. It's not heard. It's not obeyed. Men don't repent. Would that not be God cursing us with a curse because we have robbed Him? God looks upon our congregation. This is application. If God looks upon our congregation and sees so little commitment to prayer, as we've been hearing about from Luke, or to the Word, or in tithes and offering. May He not visit a curse upon us. I'm going to make a specific application, and I'm following John Benton here, although applying it in our own context. There he points out that if a church is not adequately paying their pastor so that he is very concerned and weighed down with his worldly cares, then he may be doing things that take him away from the Word. I've had such an experience in recent days. You're trying to be a good steward of the resources God's entrusted to me. And so you're working laborously to keep a vehicle going, to nurse it along. Yes, if there was a little more money, you might pay someone to do that. And so in that we see a reflection upon our giving or our facilities. Do our facilities reflect that we care about them? When men come in, when men, women, visitors come in or pass by our grounds, do they draw the conclusion that we're not a congregation that cares much about our buildings? They walk around and look at how we care for things. Do they get the idea that we care? Do the men of the church engage with their time and their abilities to maintain the facility that the Lord's entrusted to us to the best of our ability, so that it's a positive reflection? So when visitors come, they say, these people love the Lord. I remember one of my seminary professors telling me that he was driving through the country and he came upon a church building and the yard was in disarray. The grass was overgrown. The weeds had not been cut down. It was as though the place was being overtaken. And just a little bit further on, on this country road, he found a man mowing his grass. He says, is there a congregation that meets up there? He said, well, yeah, there's a few. He says, do you know who I could contact? And so he found out who to get a hold of. And he went to the individual. He says, do you not see that your building is a blight upon the name of Christ? You have declared out there this is a Christian church. Look at your facility. Who can I hire? I will pay to get your grounds in order so that this place will not be a blight upon the name of Christ. You see, that really gets at the sense of it and the use of the facilities. What about our attendance upon the appointed services? We all know that the evening service is little attended compared to the morning, and we know that the prayer meeting is the least attended of all. Will a man rob God? Do we not rob God when we neglect His worship? You see, it's not just wealth. And should we think that God will not withhold His blessings? That He would even give us curses? That's His covenant promise, Deuteronomy 27 and 28. Would God be wise to entrust us with new converts? Are we ready for God to bring into our midst new converts to be cared for and discipled when we're not even faithful to disciple ourselves? We're to disciple our children. Will a man rob God? Again, thinking about the way curses look in the modern day, what about laying up treasures in heaven? Do we communicate love for God and gratitude for His amazing saving grace by our devotion to care for the poor, widows, orphans, and strangers? Too often we waste a day on those things that have no eternal value. Whereas Jesus says, don't give your any thought for the things of this world. Focus on the kingdom. Lay out treasures in heaven. I fear that many of us will arrive at the gates of heaven and we will say, I wished I'd spent less time on Facebook or fishing or golf, or email, or movies, whatever it is that you spend a lot of time. I am pretty certain that when we get there, I with you will say, I wish I'd spent less time on A, B, C, D, E. The list will probably be quite long. I wish that I had spent more time on these things. You see, we can rob God in a host of ways. Will a man rob God? God says, you are cursed with a curse for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. Perhaps we could apply it to ourselves, even our whole church. There are ways in which each of us have been robbing God, but it doesn't end there. The third thing we see is Jehovah's blessing for those who return. Notice again, verse 10, God engaging us to bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Now, try me in this, says the Lord, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. I don't know about you, but that sounds really good to me. And I'm not thinking about more money in the bank account. Spiritual blessings. poured down from God's bounty to have its souls converted unto Christ, men and women growing up in Christ. You see, God has issued a call for repentance, and He knows what repentance looked like, and He also knows how to welcome and bless those who return to Him. Notice He says, It's the only time that God says we're to test Him. We're warned over other places, don't test God. Don't tempt God. But here God says, test me in this. Try me on this. In this area, try me. You be faithful. Do not rob me to bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. And I will prove to you my loving provision and my bounty. He says, see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out such blessing. Now we see here that there's four areas of blessing that God mentions here. One, the blessing of abundance. Opening the windows of heaven and pouring it out. God says, I will bless you in such a manner that you cannot retain it all. These are unearned, unmerited blessings from the hand of God. Rewards from God. It's a picture of grace. It's a picture of grace. Think again of when we first believed. We were looking for someone to deliver us from this body of death. Someone to pay the penalty for our sin. Someone to deliver us out from under the wrath of God. And God did all that. And that's glorious. What a gift! What a glorious gift! But he went beyond that. He says, I own you as my child. I adopt you. I appoint Christ to be your elder brother. And I appoint that all the fullness of the inheritance I've given to him, I share it with you. Come and enjoy the rest prepared for you. You see, that's the nature of God. Abundance. Blessing. More than we can ask. More than we can think. Surely if God was willing to give us His own Son to save us from our sins, He is willing to give us every good gift. And that's what James celebrates. James 1.17, every good gift comes down from the Father of life. But two, we see that God promises the blessing of protection. Notice He goes on in verse 11. He says, And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field. There's many challenges for the farmer, or the great vintender, or the olive grower, the fig plucker. Many challenges. You look at the crop. You cultivate. You tend. You prune. You nurture. You pray. And it's looking like a bouncer, a bumper crop. Day after day you go. It's almost time. The harvest is almost ready. And then a great windstorm or a hailstorm comes. Or right at the key point, there's a torrential downpour or scorching heat. It's gone. That's what God's talking about, the devourer. Remember, all these things are in the sovereign hand of God. God says, if you will turn to me, I'll rebuke the devourer. That won't happen. The grapevine won't cast off its grapes. The fruit trees will not drop their fruit. I will bring it to the fullness of the harvest. Nor will there be other such pestilences as those who come in and overrun like we saw in the days of Judah. I mean, in the days of judges. When just as the harvest was there, the neighboring people, the Menomidean particularly, run in and just take it all. Leave nothing for the people to eat. God says, I'll rebuke the devourer. Thirdly, God says, I will bless you with a good reputation. Notice verse 12. And all the nations will call you blessed. For you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of Hosts. God says, I'll restore your reputation. Remember under Jeremiah, prophesying to the people what was to come upon them. He says, once you're in the captivity, people are going to pass through this land and they're going to see the destruction. They're going to see the city in ruins and they will go by hissing. It was a way of holding the derision in the culture. Hissing and shaking their heads. A people of no reputation. Some of the conquering kings said, yeah, you know why this has happened. God has sent us because you wouldn't serve Him. They mocked them with the reality. They had no reputation. God says, you obey me. You draw near to me. You return to me in repentance and I will restore your reputation so that your nations will call you blessed. My friends, that is a promise for the church on into this day that we are to be so faithful to the Lord that he then bestows upon blessing so that we have a good reputation. And there have been times in the history when the church was faithful and people looked on in amazement. We live on the tail end of that, the shirt tails of that in our own land. Not that the United States of America was ever a Christian nation, but within this nation there was a time when many obeyed the things of God and sought the things that the Lord said to seek. They were seeking to be faithful and lead their families. They were pursuing the things of God. They were keeping His commandments. And God bestowed bounty on this land. We pass living on the borrowed capital of those days. We're a nation bankrupt. And the problem is the church. The problem is the church. And so the Word of God is returned to me and I will return to you and I will restore your reputation. Does the church have any reputation in this land today? No. We're mocked. We're held in derision. Where is the reputation of the church today? Go to the lands where the church is persecuted. There the church is admired. People are being brought into the church. They see people suffer and live out their days for the glory of God uncompromisingly. And they say, those people are something. There's something about that. I've heard numerous stories of persecutors being broken by the Spirit of God and weeping before those they once persecuted, saying, how can you endure? How do you stand? I want to know this God that you serve. Why? Because God blessed them in their faithfulness. Not because they had a fat account and a fancy car, but because their life was a reputation for God and the wicked were drawn unto the Lord. Fourthly, the Lord said he will be the blessing of certainty. The worldling, the man of the world, the man of the flesh, thinks that the faithful Christian is crazy to live for Christ. He thinks you're out of your mind. I've been told that. Perhaps you have been as well. What? You've got to worship on Sunday? What a waste of time. Let's go fishing or golfing or whatever. You give money to God? That is foolish. You see, in the eyes of the world, they think we're crazy to come and to return to God as God's calling His people. They think that they're nuts. But notice the certainty that's in the text. In verse 10, Jehovah says, and try me now on this. says the Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh. Try me now on this. I am the covenant faithful God, and you of all people know my covenant faithfulness. I have always loved you from the beginning, from the foundation of the earth I have loved you, and I approve that love over and over and over and over again. And as a church, we know that God is faithful. And he says, test me in this. It's a certainty. God is not a man that He should lie. He will keep His Word and He will provide. But you see Malachi, in the middle of Malachi's day, might be saying, but we're under this Persian rule and we've got all these exorbitant taxes we can pay. Sounds like our day, right? All these exorbitant taxes. And you look at the prices of food and it just keeps going up. And today we say the price of gas, we just can't do that. And in the eyes of the world, they think we're insane, that we would take out of what little we have to keep everything going and giving it to God. But God says, test me now on this. We are tempted. Well, I need to keep a little bit back. And what if this breaks? And indeed, a wise man should make provision for those things. There should be some savings. But when we start holding on to it and we become confident in what we're holding on to, then we're not trusting in the Lord. You see, that's where sometimes we fail to give the offering. When there is a particular need. Someone in need that needs some extra money. A missionary who's had exorbitant fees thrust upon them. Unexpected expenses. You're saying, you know, I've got some extra money. I could help out, relieve some of that. Well, you know, I might need it for this. You know, we were saving it for that. No, God says, trust Me. Test Me on this. Give. Give the tithe. Give the offering. And see if I will not prove Myself faithful. Do you really believe God is real? Do you really believe that God is real? Do you believe He's sovereign? Do you really believe that He can open the windows of heaven and pour out such a bounty that you can't even hold it? Do you believe that? Truly believe that? Well, God says, test me. Try me in this. When I was coming up, there was a point when my father had his own business. It was a step out. He was working for a company and there was a regular paycheck every Friday. We knew what it was. We knew it covered the bills. But he wanted to start his own business. And so he had his own business. And then there was nothing certain. People came and paid the bills, frankly, when they felt like it. And so my parents very openly told us kids, you know, this is a situation. We got these bills. These men owe the money. Let's pray. And we prayed. And that was the practice of my parents through those years. You know what I saw as a child? God was faithful. God was amazingly faithful. And I value that experience. And as a father, I wanted that for my children. We left a job, a good-paying job, to go off to seminary. A cut in pay. We're making about a third of what we used to make. We kept the kids involved. We kept them informed. And we prayed. And we saw God faithful through all those days. We gave the tithe. And we never went without. And indeed, we enjoyed abundance and blessing beyond what we could ask or think. Things unexpected. Gifts of an unexpected nature at a timely time. God was faithful. We're called to not rely on self, but to rely on the Lord. You see, it's about pride. Stop relying on self. God says, return to Me. The call of God to return to Him is a call to humility. a call to dependence upon the Lord. Are you withholding unreserved worship from Jehovah? Are you keeping something back? Are you afraid? Do you believe God and His Word? You see, when we hold back, it's nothing less than pride. Unbelief is grounded in pride. And faith has its concomitant. That is, what goes with it is humility. As we heard this morning, we must humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, and then He will lift us up. God says, move toward Me, and I will move toward you. Malachi's message is a call to faith. Exercise your faith, and it will grow. God wants you to stop living a safe Christian life. God, your Heavenly Father, wants you to stop living in pride Stop walking by sight. Walk by faith. Stop depending on yourself and depend upon Him. Stop depending on your abilities and cast yourself on Jesus. You see, God can strip away everything in an instant. Then who will you trust? I've been reminded of that with a surgery this week and realize that there's a whole lot of stuff that I just take for granted that I do that I won't be able to do. I'll be entering into a season of dependence upon others. And you see, that's what God wants us to live. He would have us to see that apart from Christ, we are handicapped. We are hindered. We have broken libs and feeble bodies. And yet, when we depend upon Him, He will provide. Our Heavenly Father often withholds blessings because we're not seeking Him. And He does not want to harden us in our sin. Perhaps we need to pray the prayer of the little boy who was possessed and needed to be delivered. And he said to Jesus, Lord, help thou my unbelief. Is that not what's in our heart? Unbelief? Do we not wrestle with unbelief? Oh, we have some faith, but there's that unbelief. And that that Father honestly recognized that. He said, Lord, I've only got a little faith. Help my unbelief. It's overwhelming me right now. That is a very appropriate prayer for us. Now, God makes a bold promise here. And indeed, He has proved Himself faithful in these things in the material sense down through the generations. But what about spiritually? There's a spiritual aspect to this promise of God. For the Kingdom of Christ is not of this world. It's a spiritual kingdom. Did God honor this promise? Yes she did, but it was over 400 years later. 400 years later, the day of Pentecost, when 120 souls who were sold out to God in humility, depending upon God, they gathered in an uproom and they prayed and they prayed and they prayed until God sent what He had promised to send. He poured out the Holy Spirit upon them. So the tongues of fire came down upon them, a manifestation of the Spirit. And what did they do? They got up and they went out. And they went preaching. And they were speaking God's Word. And thousands were converted that day. My friends, it has not stopped. Yet, wherever God finds His church faithful returning to Him and seeking Him, He'll use such a church to proclaim His message to the dying world. And He keeps adding to the church. He indeed will pour out blessings through windows in heaven. Amen? Let us pray. Lord God, we need Your bounty. Lord, we long to see, as we sing, the churches full. We long to see men and women, boys and girls, repenting and returning to Christ, turning to Christ. Father, we know that the work must begin with us. It must begin in the church. Lord, as we move forward to be revitalized by your Word and Spirit, Lord, give us humility. Give us brokenness. Lord, help our unbelief. Lord, help us to return to You. For we know that Your Word is true. You will return to us. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.