Christ Presbyterian Church is a local congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America. Visit us for morning or evening worship in Mobile, Alabama or on the web at cpcmobile.com. This morning our scripture lesson as we look and continue in the Minor Prophets, we come to Malachi chapter three. We're looking at verses six through 12, if you turn in your Bibles to that portion this morning. I've been asked, where are we going after we finish the Minor Prophets? We've been in the Minor Prophets for a little over a year now, and we are in the last book and the second to last chapter. We're coming to conclude that perhaps next week. What's coming next? Well, I'm beginning a series. I don't do this too often. I usually just stick with Bible portions, but occasionally I do a series that goes beyond that, a topical sermons, and I'm going to be doing that. I'm going to be doing a topical series on the reconciliation and peacemaking. I see a great need for that. A couple of weeks ago, I was at a 16-hour presbytery meeting. It was a trial. that was conducted by the presbytery. And I could shake my head the whole time and say, how sad. If we just would have done peacemaking and reconciliation as we should, perhaps this whole thing could have been avoided. It's not just in presbytery or around. We see it wherever we are in our culture. We see it in the church. We see it in individual lives. We need to understand the gospel of reconciliation with God impacts our lives and should make us peacemakers. In relationship to that, that's why I want to go with that series of sermons on reconciliation and peacemaking. In line with that, the session is also going to be meeting later this month with another church session, Heritage Presbyterian Church. We're meeting together because we're talking about putting together a peacemaking ministry, actually bringing in a conference, bringing in a speaker who would do a weekend conference on this subject of peacemaking. We're going to be meeting with them to discuss that possibility later this month. We'll also be discussing the possibility of doing a joint service for Reformation Sunday. So I appreciate your prayers for that, and I would in particular appreciate your prayers as I try to put together and think about this subject of peacemaking and the message of the Word of God. I'm going to have problems because there's so much in the Bible about it. huge amount, and I want to be wise in bringing forth those messages. So I'm preparing that now, beginning to, and I'd appreciate your prayers as I continue to do so. But for today, we're looking at Malachi chapter 3, verses 6 through 12. Listen to God's holy word. For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 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? Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, how have we robbed you? in your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke and devour for you, so that it will not destroy the fruit of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts. Thus ends the reading of God's holy word for this morning. Let us look to him in prayer. Heavenly Father, we do thank and praise you for this, your word. And the words that were communicated many, many years ago and yet are so true for us today. And we ask, oh Lord, that as we ponder these truths of your word, you would apply them to our lives by the power of your spirit, that we might see and understand your truth and build our lives upon your truth. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Change is highly valued within our culture. If it is not the most common words for advertisers, it has to be among the top. It's new and improved. Why? Because it's changed from what the old and unimproved was. It's not only in advertising that we see that, but we see it in the political realm as well. There's always the new candidate, the one who's challenging the incumbent, is going to say, we need what? Change. And so there is that call for change within our world. When God proclaims to the people in Malachi's day, I, the Lord, do not change, I think in our culture that's easy to say that must be bad news and not good news, because we typically think of change as that which is good. But we need to recognize that everything in our world is either sinful or touched by sin, and thus it's good when change comes. But everything about God is perfect, thus change of God is not good, it is something that is bad. It is hard for us to keep those two things separate. Our prayer ought to be, Lord, change things as you remain the same. But it's so easy for us to begin to complain in such a way as the children of Israel did in the wilderness, to grumble about our circumstances and situations in such a way that we're really saying, we don't like what you're doing, God, and because of that, we want you to change. We need to sort out the difference between those two. This morning we are looking at the immutability of God, that is, the fact that God does not change. I want to look at the meaning of that and flowing from that, the implications of that for our lives. The first thing I see in this portion that we need to know and understand as we think about the unchangeableness of God is the fact that his unchangeableness does not mean he is impersonal. We're prone to think of change as a part of being a person. I have a deep desire to continue to know my grandchildren as they're growing up. I don't want them to see me once a year. I want to spend time with them so that I can know them and I can see them changing as they're developing as persons. It's a joy to see them grow and change. Now that's not only true with children, we typically think of that as children, but I have memories and some of my greatest memories of people are adults that are changing. I'll never forget Olesipkas. I met him probably when he was around in his later 50s and knew him primarily in his 60s. And Oly would come into my office. He had been a Christian for many, many years. He'd grown up in the church. He knew Christ. But Oly would come into my office and he would say to me, if you had told me a decade ago that I would be an elder and a Sunday school teacher, I wouldn't have believed you. But in his 60s, he was growing. He was continuing to grow and develop, and it was a great joy to see the reality of that in his life. I don't think there's any greater privilege that a pastor has than to see people changing. So if God does not change, does that mean he is boring? He's not interesting? Or worse than that, he's impersonal? The answer to those questions, of course, is no. God is personal and is more interesting than anyone else you could ever know. Because God, you see, while he does not change, he responds to us. We see that in verse 7 here. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. The Lord cares about how we respond to him and he responds to us. That's not a lump. He's not a stone. A stone doesn't respond to anything. A person responds. And we hear here the reality that God does respond. He is joyful when we return to Him, when we repent of our sins. He is filled with sorrow when His children walk away from Him and His ways. The point of his unchangeableness is that he is predictable in these things. He never changes in relationship to him. There is never a time he does not find joy in genuine repentance, and there is never a time he does not sorrow when he sees his children stray from his ways. The reason people, the reason God is interesting is because he changes us as he remains the same. People who met Jesus were always amazed at him. After Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, we read in Matthew 27, And when Jesus finished these sayings, the proud were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. The scribes were saying, well, this rabbi taught this, and this rabbi over here, on the other hand, he taught this, and that's the way they would teach. But how did Jesus teach? He taught, verily, verily, I say to you, or we can translate that, amen, amen. It sounds strange to us because we're used to putting amen at the end of things. But Jesus put it at the beginning because the affirmation that what he said was true. Amen simply means I affirm that. And so he is unchanging, and in his unchangingness, as we come into contact with him, we find him extremely interesting if we seek him as he is. He captivated them because he was not changing. God is personal. Indeed, our personhood flows from him. But God is perfect in his personhood. Thus he never changes in his character and promises. And I've just given you the second and third points. But the second point is this, God's immutability means he is always consistent to his character. Change might be interesting, but inconsistency is frustrating. When the boss comes out and he gathers all his workers together and he says, you know, what we need is more creativity. And I understand that sometimes you need to get up out of your cubicle and you need to get a moving around a little bit and interact and make some movement so that when you go back in your cubicle, you will be more creative. And everybody hears that message, and the next day, when someone gets up out of their cubicle, they immediately hear the boss say, get back to work! And what do they say? They hate the inconsistency of the situation. Bob Steadman was, for many years, a guidance counselor. And as he spoke with the teenagers in the high school, he once shared with me, he said, he's never heard The teenagers complain about their parents' discipline being too strict. But what he hears regularly is that they say they're too inconsistent. Sometimes I do it and nothing is said. Sometimes I do the same thing and I get in trouble. The inconsistency of it. God, you see, is consistent. He is always consistent to his character. In 1 John 4 verses 8 and again in verse 16 we read, God is love. In Deuteronomy 4.24 and in Hebrews 12.29 we read that God is a consuming fire. It's another way of saying that God is holy in all his ways. This means that God is never unloving and never unholy. It's the outworking of these attributes and all of his attributes. The outworking of those things that causes people to think that God changes. People in Malachi's day thought God changed because they were not receiving the blessings that they had in the past. Verse 9 tells us they said, cursed with a curse, were they. And they asked, why have you changed, God? Why aren't you blessing us like you did in the past? Sometimes I think most of us, if not all of us, can relate to that. We're going through struggles or difficulties or problems. Maybe they're external, maybe they're internal. We feel the reality of the emptiness of God. He seems like he's moved away. He's no longer near us. We say, why have you changed, God? so we can relate to the question that is being asked here. And we prepare ourselves then for the answer that is given. God is not a blob of love. He's a personal God of holiness and of love. The reason people in Malachi's day stand as those cursed is because of their relationship to God. In verse six, they are called the children of Jacob. It's an interesting phrase, children of Jacob, because we usually read in the Old Testament that they're children of Israel. Israel and Jacob are the same guy, right? Jacob, remember, was born. He was a twin, Jacob and Esau. He was the second one. He grabbed his brother's heel and so he came out after his brother. The name Jacob, means he cheats. And Jacob lived down to his name. He was a cheat. He cheated his brother Esau out of the blessing of his father. And he went then, had to flee in that situation, and he would have continued to be a cheat. He wanted to cheat. That was his, that was his lifestyle. He tried to cheat Laban. But Laban was a better cheat than he was, if you will. And he got his own medicine back. But after a time, he had to leave, and he was going back, he was traveling back, and he had Laban behind him, and he was afraid of him. He had Esau in front of him, and he was afraid of his brother, and he wrestled with God. You remember that one night. And in that vision, in that dream, in that wrestling with God, he was given a new name. No longer shall you be called Jacob, he cheats, but you shall be called Israel, God rules. The Israelites were those whom God rules, in other words. But they weren't living as those whom God rules, they were living rather as cheats. And that flows into the accusation that comes that they are robbers. In verse 7, they are told, 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. The reason they are not being blessed by God is that they have turned aside from following after Him. It's very much as if I looked out and I said, where'd the congregation go? I don't see you, where did you go? But you see, I have been the one who has turned and changed, not you. Jacob had turned away from God, and thus they were experiencing the reality of who he was in a different way than if they were facing him, looking at him and his will and following after his plan for their lives. It's very significant that we understand that they were doing this not just that generation, But this portion says, from the days of your fathers you have turned aside. This was their whole style of life. They were continuing to turn aside and to turn aside. And because of that, they were experiencing the reality, not of his blessings, but of his curse. Malachi goes on to explain that their turning away from him brought about the fact that they were robbing God. The way that they were robbing God was by not bringing the tithes and the contributions into the storehouse. This portion's probably the most used portion from the book of Malachi, and I wouldn't doubt that it's the most used portion from all of the minor prophets in sermons. Tithe, the preacher shouts, if you don't, you're robbing God. But is the Old Testament command for us today? You know, we need to always understand, when we look at the Old Testament, that there is the moral law, which is for us. Thou shalt not kill continues to be for us. And there is the ceremonial and the civil law, which is not for us. The sacrificial system, which was commanded by God in the Old Testament, is not for us. Indeed, it is an abomination if we practice it. So the question becomes, in relationship to the tithe, is the tithe of the moral law of God, or is the tithe of the ceremonial and the civil law of God? The word tithe means tenth, one-tenth. We see it first used in relationship to Abraham when he rescued Lot. Abraham chose to give a tenth of the spoil to Melchizedek, who was priest of the Most High God. Now, note in that situation, it was something that he received from the spoil, being a warrior, and going back and getting Lot and rescuing him and those cities. As he did so, he took one-tenth of that and he voluntarily gave it to Melchizedek, who was the priest of the Most High God. We find in Genesis only one other time, and that's Jacob also making a promise to tithe in the book of Genesis. And then we come, under the law of Moses, there are three tithes. The first was that the people were to give one-tenth to support the priests and the Levites, Numbers 18. The second tithe of the produce was to provide for the annual religious festivals in Jerusalem. Deuteronomy 14, 22 through 27. The third tithe, which was to be given every third year, was basically to be used for mercy ministry, Deuteronomy 14, 29. So am I saying to you, give 30% rather than 10%? Is that what I'm saying? What is this? We need to look at these. We need to reflect upon them. These were all, especially the first and the second, a part of the Old Testament civil and ceremonial law, which is no longer in force. We do not see the command of the tithe anyplace by the apostles in the New Testament. We do see regular, proportionate, and joyful giving commanded in the New Testament by the apostles. How then do we apply this, robbing God? What does it mean for us if we're not commanded to give the tithe for the priest, since Jesus is our high priest, and we're not commanded to give the tithe for the annual ceremony, since we don't do those anymore, they're Old Testament, what does it mean for us to rob God? What sacrifices are commanded for us in the New Testament to bring? Well, one of those is Daniel read for us in Romans chapter 12, verse 1. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Did you hear that? What was the sacrifice? The sacrifice was your bodies as a living sacrifice. That's your right act of worship unto you. It's a particular Sunday when I was preaching a stewardship sermon in the church I was serving at that time. The choir, which sat upon the platform in a choir loft, had just come down from that to sing their anthem. And after that, they came down on the stairs, sang, and then they would go back to the choir loft. In the choir loft, there was a offering plate because while the deacons would pass the offering plates to the congregation, they didn't come up on the platform. They just allowed the choir to know that it was there and they would pass it themselves around. So as the choir came back on that particular Sunday, they came back and they sat down, they all stood until they could sit together, and Donna, the choir director, came, and she was the last one in, and she sat down, and she sat right in the offering plate. For a second, then she got up and moved. Isn't that a great illustration? Isn't that, go with Romans 12-1, That's what you're supposed to give. What are you supposed to give? You just sit in that offering plate. That's what you give. You give yourself completely, wholly. That's your acceptable worship unto God. That's what it means to be a Christian. You see, we rob God from God when we do not present ourselves, body and soul, to the Lord. He is the one who made us. He is the one who redeemed us. Do we not owe Him all that we are? It's been said that because grace is free, it requires more. Tim Keller uses a great illustration of that as he talks, talking with a young woman about grace and the fact that there's, you do not have to pay anything for salvation. It's totally free. It's all of grace. And the woman, as she was coming to comprehend the reality that it was all of grace, he then said to her, are you ready to come to Christ to receive his gift, free gift of salvation? And she said, no, why not? She said, well, if I understand what you're saying right, and you're saying that it's all free, that he gives it freely, he saves me freely without me having to do anything, then that means that he cannot ask anything too much of me. And I'm not ready for that. She got it. Wasn't ready for making that step, but she understood it. Because grace is free, God, and it goes with that Romans 12 one, asks for what our offering should be, and it's our whole being. It's everything. But that's really overwhelming, isn't it? How do we present our bodies as living sacrifice? Well, it certainly can't be reduced to just a tie, saying, well, if you do your tie, then you can go away and you got your other 90%, you can spend whatever way you want. That's to miss the point. Nevertheless, I believe the practice of the tithe is a witness to ourselves of our commitment to give the whole to Him. When we give offering, whether it's a tithe or whatever portion it is into that offering plate, it ought to be as a token of the reality that we are giving ourselves. And I think the tithe is a wonderful principle, but it's not a law. in the New Testament. It's a wonderful principle that gives witness and testimony to the reality that we believe everything that we have belongs to God. So I encourage the tithe, but not as a law, as a principle, as a challenge to indicate the reality that everything that we have belongs to Him. I want to bring it back to the main point now. God's immutability means that if we are obedient to Him and His statutes, then He will bless us. If we stop robbing God, if we give freely to Him as we should, then He will bless us. Now, this is a principle that has been much abused in our day. The so-called health and wealth gospel has run wild with this principle and misapplied it. They say that if you believe enough, you will be healthy and wealthy. The testimony of the saints in the Old Testament, the testimony of the saints in the New Testament, as Paul speaks of the thorn in the flesh, is against that. The testimony of the saints throughout the ages. In this fallen world, the godly suffer. and suffer all the consequences of living in a fallen world just like the unbelievers do. Nevertheless, there is a true principle that we see here. When we are walking by the grace of God in true obedience, God blesses His children. And we need to see that. If you want to know the reality of the blessing of God, walk in obedience to Him. Give yourself fully to Him. That's the only way to know His blessing. That might not mean material things, but it will mean His blessing. And when we walk in disobedience, the spirit within is grieved and we can expect the withdrawal of His blessing. Why? Because God is unchanged. And if we walk against His ways, He's not going to bless us. And if we walk in His ways, He will bless us. It's in accordance with his character. Thirdly, God's immutability means he never breaks his promise. Malachi 3.6 says this, Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? Listen again, carefully. Did you hear those words? If the Lord does not change, and the children of Jacob continue to rob God, should it not say, therefore you are consumed? In His holiness, should not the unchanging God consume them? But that isn't what it says. It says that they are not consumed. Here we need the additional truth, not only about the character of God, but we need to understand the promise of God. The fact that God does not change means he always keeps his promises. What did God promise Jacob and Isaac before him and Abraham before him? God had promised that they would be his people and their descendants would be his people. And that has not changed. That's the promise of God. And that truth, of course, for us is very significant because we, through faith, the New Testament tells us, are children of Abraham, thus children of the promise, and the promises are for us. So we rest not only on the character, or even primarily on the character of God, but upon the promises of God. This means that God keeps his promises to us even when we rob him. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2, 11-13, this saying is trustworthy. For if we have died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. That seems to change the whole perspective there. As children who have received his promise, if we are faithless, if we rob God, he remains faithful, he cannot disown his own. The same principle that we see here in Malachi. The unchanging nature of God is a comfort to Christians because of this last point. If we simply say that God is true to his character, It's not very comforting because that means that God is good to those who are holy and those who are evil, he brings retribution upon. And since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, that's not in itself good news. But if we understand along with that, that he keeps his promise and he's faithful to his promise, to his word, then there's comfort and there's peace in that. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. If I've believed in him, even though I have been faithless, I have everlasting life. All things work together for good for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. That means even if I am faithless, if I've been called according to His purpose, if I love Him in accordance with the gift of His grace, all things are going to work for my good. We can go on with the promises, thinking of the last one in Matthew 28 verse 20. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. He'll never leave us or forsake us. He's always with us. He's faithful to His promises. And we can rest in that. We can be confident of it because God never changes. Donald Barnhouse tells the story of when he was a man raising his family. One evening, he and his wife went out for supper for the evening. He left his children with the babysitter, and the babysitter, when he came back and came into the house, the babysitter met him and said, your oldest daughter, she's just crying and crying, and I can't, no matter what I say, I can't get her to stop crying. And Donald quickly went up to see what was wrong with his daughter, and his daughter said to him, tell me it isn't true, tell me it isn't true. He said, tell you what isn't true? The babysitter said that if I'm bad, you won't love me anymore. Tell me it isn't true. And he said, it isn't true. When you are good, I love you with a love that makes me glad. And when you are bad, I love you with a love that makes me sad. But I always love you. And within minutes, his daughter was asleep. That's the confidence of the promise, you see. To know the reality as children of God that we rest in the promises. And He will not break His promises because He will not change. Rest in that. God does not change, therefore we are not consumed. The Lord, our personal God, remains holy and loving at all times. The Lord, our God, always keeps His promises. Praise Him. He is the immutable, unchangeable God for all eternity. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank and praise You for Your Word. for the promises of your word and the fact that you will not change that which you promised you keep. We thank you, O Lord, that you continue to be a God of love, a God of justice, a God of mercy, a God of holiness. All your attributes are always true and you bring them consistently together, even though we can't fully understand it. We thank you that we serve an immutable God. And we ask, O Lord, that we might, as your people, be drawn onto you and rest in you and become more and more like you. Change us, O Lord, to become more like you. For we ask it in Jesus' name.