The Book of Malachi contains the Lord's last words, recorded for us in the Old Testament. There would not be another word from him again. There would not arise another king or a prophet or a judge to speak on behalf of God. No prophets, no judges at all. For 400 long years before the New Testament era, So man tries to put words into God's mouth as they do so often these days. And they come up with a set of books called the Apocrypha, which has been accepted as canon by the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. Man has always tried to put words into God's mouth, observe ceremonies that he has not ordained, and innovate worship that he has not approved of. They add things that they liked and they omit things that they disliked. But God tells us that he is not like you and I. Just because we like something does not mean that God likes it. He tells us in Psalm 50, these things has thou done and I kept silence. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such as one as thyself, but I will reproof thee. So God is totally and utterly different from us. The otherness of God. The God is infinite and we are finite. That he is the creator and we are creatures and made of dust and ashes. Well, the Book of Malachi is in many respects a very sad book. It makes a sad and abysmal reading. It reveals how little progress it has been for the last 1,500 years ever since God chose Abraham and made him a covenant promise that there would arise from his loins a church and a nation. But isn't it that a familiar theme? in our day as well, and in our experience, how little progress, how little sanctification we have made over the years, despite the abundance of literature and preaching and sermons online. Despite all these things, there's so little progress in our lives as well. But lest we become depressed and despondent, we have to realize that there is another factor involved and that is God himself. For although these are the day of small things, it is still the Lord's day. He is still in charge. He's still sovereign. And so you read of some hope and a bright light at the last pages of Malachi, verse 2 of chapter 4. But unto you that fear my name shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. The book, if you will observe, actually begins with a message of hope, Malachi 1-2. I have loved you, said the Lord, I have loved you, said the Lord. But you were searched in vain throughout the pages of this book for a melting of hearts, for a humbling of our souls, this astounding declaration of the triune God that he has loved us. All that is positive within the pages of this book is minimal. The rest of the book affords us abysmal reading. about the people of God, the one that He has chosen, given His covenantal promises, disputing God's love, imagine that, and disdaining His grace. I have loved you, said the Lord, yet you say, wherein have you loved us? see the priests were offering blemished sacrifices with a half-hearted and a half-zeal in their offerings to God. In an insincere and a ritualistic manner, they were divorcing their wives, they were remarrying unbelieving wives, and they were disobeying God in all His commandments. And they were withholding the tithes of the harvest to God. And they had the audacity to accuse God of not loving them enough, of loving them half-heartedly and of loving them insincerely. That God was being unjust with them because God had not prospered them adequately. And so we come to a verse, for example, in verse eight of chapter three, Yet you have robbed God. But what does robbing God mean in spiritual terms? In the context, it means that they were not offering, they were not giving the offering, the total offering that was demanded of God. But we don't need to restrict that terms in a physical term only. We could apply it in a spiritual sense as well, robbing of God. Is it not to deny him his sovereignty over us, his covenantal promises, his word, his oath, his promises? Is it not robbing God if we robbed him of his day, of his glory? Is it not slighting his works when he sent His only begotten Son to be the savior of the world. Is it not belittling that plan of salvation when we try to substitute it with our own plan of salvation, with our own self-righteousness? Is it not belittling the work of the Holy Spirit in us, in convincing us of sin and of unrighteousness? instead of relying on God's method of salvation and God's own righteousness. So the charge that's found in Malachi 3.8, will a man rob God? The word tithe means a tenth. The people of God were to offer a tenth of their substance to God in thanksgiving. But instead of offering a tenth, they gave merely a token in a half-hearted manner. And so there was this charge that God had made. Will a man rob God? They had not given the whole thyme, but they'd have kept it for themselves. In verse 10 of chapter three, we read, bring ye all the thyme into the storehouse. So they were keeping part of it to themselves. They did not give it with a willing and thankful heart. Well, as the Lord enables, we shall concentrate then on our minds on verse eight of chapter three. Will a man rob God? Firstly then, let us consider this as an astounding charge. You will notice that the book of Malachi has all the setting of a courtroom. There is the plaintiff or the complainant, the persecutor and the judge. all being God himself. And then there is the defendant, the nation of Israel, the one who was charged with a crime, a crime of robbery. The charge faced by Israel was that they robbed or defrauded God himself. Yet you have robbed me. This is such an outrageous charge that man should rob God. Seems almost unbelievable, illogical and self-defeating and condemnatory that a man should rob God. It's so ridiculous and so scandalous. You simply cannot make this up. But this is no made up charge. It is God himself who lays the charge against his people. The victim or the plaintiff is God himself, if we may put it reverently. Even true devotees of pagan and heathen religions do not rob their own gods. No heathen would be so barbarous to rob or defraud their gods of their honor or deal deceitfully with their gods. Temples have been robbed before, but most often it's not the devotees themselves, but outsiders. They do not rob their own temples. If Moloch had demanded human sacrifice, for example, the people would submit and give them that human sacrifice. It is a pit of human decency then that a man should rob his own God. Sometimes a son or daughter may rob the father or the mother even. But it's worse when temples are robbed and it's almost a monstrosity that a man should rob his god. This is astounding because it is daring. It's a daring robbery to rob god who sees everything. Rebels robbing royalty, thus defrauding deity. Tiny man thieving from the triune god. Can anything be more reckless, senseless, and repulsive and repugnant? It's a daring robbery. It is also a daylight robbery because most crimes, as you know, are done under the gaze of men, under the darkness. Did you not commit a crime under the full gaze of people, but they do it surreptitiously, by stealth, at night especially. But here is robbery under the very nose of God, before his eyes, in front of his face, because God sees everything in an instant. There's nothing that is not manifest in his sight, for all things are naked and open under him with whom we have to do. This robbery is also deliberate. It's not unintentional. They did not withhold the offering to God by mistake, as it were. The commission of a command accrues the same guilt as a commission against a command. But this robbery is not an oversight on their part. It was a deliberate and intentional robbery. It is also a damaging robbery because those who rob God themselves, rob themselves of God. You're not enriched by robbing God, but the very opposite is true. The loss is yours to bear alone. Well, surely after considering all these factors, no sane believer would dare rob God. And those that do, they must be desperately wicked or ungrateful. But what makes this the more astounding, what accentuates and increase the guilt and weakness of man is that all that they have has been given to them by God. We read, for example, in Chronicles, for all things come of thee and of thy own have we given thee. Or in 2 Peter 1, according as his divine power had given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Or again, in the psalm that we sung, a psalm of David, the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof, and they that dwell therein. It's a portion of psalm that was quoted twice in 1 Corinthians. Or again in Romans, or who had first given to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again. for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. What this means is that no man can give God anything at all which God had not first given to man, which God had not a prior claim or a right to it because the earth belongs to God. Even the cattle on a thousand hills. And so whatever we have, whatever possessions we have, belongs to God in the first instance. Adam in his innocence was not able to give God anything at all. The angels in heaven, in their purity, could never give anything to God at all. And most certainly, sinful man, such as you and I, can never give God anything at all. everything in heaven and on earth, especially those things that concern our salvation and that belong to our peace, they're all of Him. That is, they proceed from Him by way of creation, through Him by way of providence, in Him by way of grace. Listen to what God says in Job. 41, who had prevented me, that is, who has gone before me, that I should repay him whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine. Such is the riches of God and his richness towards us that we cannot fully comprehend the generosity of God himself. We cannot compensate God. We cannot recompense him, but surely we can fall down upon our knees and contemplate in reverential worship of the benefits that we have received from Him. What we have comes from God. But robbers of God are not contented with His gifts to them. They want more than what God has in His providence provided and supplied. And so they try and rob God of more. This is simply astounding, an astounding charge. Secondly, we note an accusatory contradiction. When sin has found you out, I wonder, does it make you harden to its scorching light? If there is a conscience that's not totally devoid, one would humbly have to confess its transgression and beg for mercy and forgiveness. For example, when Nathan confronted David after his sin and disclosed to him his guilt and said, thou art the man, David's response was not but or yet. It was, yes, I have sinned. Listen to what David said to Nathan in 2 Samuel 12, verse 13. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord, Nathan penned the penitential psalm, Psalm 51, the psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone into Sheba, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. In contrast, note Israel's blatant refutation of all the eight charges that God had made in the book of Malachi. They contradicted God and in turn accused God himself. Malachi 1.2, I have loved thee, said the Lord, yet you say, wherein hast thou loved me? Malachi 1.6, where is my honor and where is my fear, said the Lord of hosts unto you? And you say, wherein have we despised thy name? Malachi 1.7, you offer polluted bread upon mine altar, and you say, wherein have we polluted thee? Malachi 2.13, and this have you done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears. Yet, you say, wherefore, for what reason Malachi 2.17, you have wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say, wherein have we wearied him? Malachi 3.7, return unto me and I will return unto you, said the Lord of hosts. But you say, wherein shall we return? Malachi 3.13, your words have been stout against me, said the Lord, yet you say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Lastly, eighthly, Malachi 3, 8. Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But, you say, wherein have we robbed thee? In all eight times, there were no attempts at all, even to try and give an excuse. to their behavior. There was no admission of guilt. And then explain away the guilt, because this is a well-tested strategy that men have used and found to be useful. When Adam was found out, he admitted his guilt, but then he said, well, it was the woman whom thou gavest me. But Israel, in the book of Malachi, in these eight times, didn't even bother to reply to God's accusations with a yes but. In all the times, there is only a but or a yet. There's no yes, no acknowledgement that whatsoever they have done was true. That the charge that God had against them was true. And this reflects their stony hearts and their stiff necks and their rebellious spirits. It was a sad state of affairs indeed for a people who were meant to be the light to the Gentiles. But are these charges true? Of course they are because the plaintiff, the complainant is God himself. And God has laid this charge on a God who does not lie. So the charge is always justified and justifiable. But look at Israel's response. Wherein have we robbed thee? The tone of incredulity, of innocency, of an almost sardonic retort. What us? Rob thee? God? Surely this is too ridiculous to warrant a reply. Friends, It's so serious that it does demand a reply. So God replies how they have robbed him in tithes and in offering. Contradicting God, disputing his charges, is tantamount to calling God a liar. If the original charge is not serious enough, well, the response is even more serious and more devastating. Where have we robbed you? God, you are a liar. Where and when did we rob you? We gave you what you have demanded and offered what you have expected of us. Inspect the tone in that reply. Imagine the seriousness of that sin. It is worse than the initial charge that God had first laid upon them. Well, Thirdly, you must end with a note of hope. There is the attractive consideration. You might be tempted to think that crime pays and often and admittedly it does in a modern societies in a lot of countries. Crime sadly favors the criminal. Because in most cases, the victim is victimized all the more. Crime favors the brave and the brazen enough to commit crimes. There is a, the legal system is loaded against victims most of the time. I mean, there is some compensation, for example, if you have been injured during a crime, there is the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, which is funded by the taxpayer, and you do get a small amount of compensation. But these are essentially limited to injuries that are sustained, not to property or possessions that you have. There is an avenue for you to receive compensation from the criminal. But as you know, the probability of this happening is quite small indeed. Crime is so widespread these days. There was a time, time was when you could leave your doors open in a house and no one would bother. But now we have to keep everything locked, our cars and our houses and so on. And when we despair of the magistrate or the government, the civil authority, the police, to help us in protecting our homes, we make steps ourselves to protect them. And we pay a certain insurance, which is a form of tax to the insurance company to help protect our homes because of the inadequacy of the legal system. But you know that it was different in the Old Testament times in Israel. If you steal, for example, you had to make restitution. For example, we read in Leviticus chapter six. Leviticus chapter six, verses one, so on. And the Lord speak unto Moses, saying, If a soul commit a trespass against the Lord, and lie unto his neighbor in debt which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence, and had deceived his neighbor, or have found that which was lost and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely in any of these things that a man doeth sinning therein, then it shall be, because he had sinned and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took violently, or the thing which he had deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found. or all that about which he had sworn falsely, he shall even restore it in the principle and shall add the fifth part more thereto and give it unto him to whom it pertaineth in the day of his trespass offering. And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord, a ramp without blemish after the flock, with thy estimation for a trespass offering unto the priest. And the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord, and it shall be forgiven him for anything of all that he had done in trespassing therein. The Levitical laws does not provide for prisons in Israel. Unlike the surrounding pagan countries like Babylon and Egypt, remember that Joseph was in prison in Egypt one time. But prisons are a pagan institution. Justice is never served if you lock a criminal up in a prison. Restitution is the core principle of justice and of Levitical law. because if you were just merely to lock a criminal up in prison, the victim is not compensated for the injuries that he has received. He shall even restore it in the principle and shall add the fifth part more thereto. He shall restore that which he took violently away or the thing which he had deceitfully gotten. What we learn from the passage in Leviticus is that offenses requiring restitution are not merely horizontal, but vertical. When you commit, when you steal from someone, you restore it and compensate even more by a fifth. But it's also a restitution demanded vertically. A trespass is against the Lord as well as his neighbor. Secondly, restitution cannot replace repentance. He had sinned and is guilty. The criminal must confess his guilt and repentance, which of course is not needed in our legal system. Thirdly, restitution doesn't replace atonement. The financial repayment was not enough, was not sufficient to atone for the sin itself. The crime was addressed at the social level in that you repay the victim and you repay it by your faith. But the breach of faith against God requires a different solution. It requires atonement. It is a trespass against the Lord. Verse seven, and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord. So if you were to rob someone, as far as the relationship is concerned between you and him, you are to recompense him. But robbing God is a far more serious crime. It is, in fact, a capital crime, because it is sin. And any sin carries the death penalty. The soul that sins must die. And so when God says that we have robbed him, that carries a capital penalty, which is death itself. But listen to what God says next in Malachi, in verse 9 and 10. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, said the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out the blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. What God has said, He said to draw us back, to draw the sinners back to Himself, to alert us of the grievous sin that we have committed against Him. You are cursed, but instead of demanding restitution, and He has every right because He's the Lord, His every right under Levitical laws, nay, under his own law, he alerts us to the possibility of blessing. And who has ever heard of this? That the robber in state of being made to make restitution is rewarded. God promises that if you obey, if they obey God, God will bless them, not niggerly, but a pouring of a blessing that there shall not be a room enough to receive it. This gives the impression that crime seems to pay. But if you trace the plan of redemption closely, the very opposite is true. Crime does not pay. It never does in the sight of God. If you do the crime, you do the time. If the robber didn't repent by bringing in the offering, he or she has to pay the ultimate price, which is death. by robbing God. Just like the one of the two thieves on the cross in Calvary, he mocked Christ to the end and he was unrepentant. And he is now, even as we preach, doing time in hell itself. But there was another robber next to him at the cross who did repent. He was with Christ on that very day in paradise. Listen to the dying testimony of a repentant sinner. Dying testimony is most often more accurate than the living testimony. He said, does not thou fear God seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly for we have received a due reward of our deeds. But this man had done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. But you know that he didn't make any restitution at all. He couldn't because he was hanging on the cross. He was guilty. And yet he was regarded as innocent because Christ promised him that he would be in paradise that very same day. There was no restitution made for him. No atonement for sin, for his own sin was made by himself. Someone did it on his behalf. Someone died on his behalf. Someone paid his life for him on his behalf. For in due time, Christ died for this ungodly thief. While he was yet a sinner, Christ died for him. Christ died for his sins according to the scriptures. God cannot sweep away the grosses of sin, the penalty for sin, which is death itself. Justice demands payment. He is just. But how can God be just and still justify the ungodly? How can God be just and still justify the sinner? That is a question that is posed to all the world's religion if they could come up with an answer. How can there be a demonstration of justice at the same time letting the guilty, the sinful criminal, and that means you and I go scot-free. Remember that restitution is a core principle that must be met when a law is broken and a crime committed. Well, none of the world's religions can provide an answer to that. That God can be just and justify the ungodly. The answer to this is found at the cross of Calvary. At the cross, there was the display of all the dictates of justice, all the demands of holiness, all the display of wrath upon that salvation that is in Christ Jesus. and in that salvation brought by God, His glory is made great. All the dictates of justice meant that the death penalty, all the demands of holiness meant that sin must be atoned for. All the display of wrath against sin was upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ, and they were all fulfilled at the cross. God was satisfied with the infinite price paid by His very own and dear son, for all the sin and the unrighteousness of his people. The Lamb of God hath taken away the sin of the world. God is propitiated. The prefix pro- means for, so propitiation brings about a change in God's attitude, as it were. So then he moves from being against us, against the criminal, against the sinner, to being for us. Through the process of propitiation, we are restored into fellowship and favor with Him. But friends, don't merely see this in a legalistic way. This is all true. But see here at the cross, the demonstration of love of God. Christ was not spared so that we are spared. He was delivered up for our justification so that we do not have to be delivered up for our condemnation, so that we do not have to be delivered. Contrast the audacity of the sinner in robbing God with that of the humility of Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Christ, although he was equal with God, because he is God, did not cling on to the, with tenacity, the prerogatives of a divine majesty. He did not arrogantly display his equality with God when he came and became man and took upon our nature. But he assumed the likeness of man. He humbled himself and died on the cross for the likes of you and I, not for his own sin. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. A mind that's of humble submission to the will of God, to the commands and commandments of God. Be they ever so antagonistic to the flesh. This is the day that the Lord has made, but we too often rob God of his day. We do not rejoice in it and be glad in it. We do not call it a delight. The Sabbath rest does not mean inactivity, but it means one form of activity to another. And that is to delight and contemplate upon the majesty of God on his day. And it is a whole day and not just a Sabbath hour. We do not just go to the morning service and have the rest of the time to ourselves. We rob God of his glory when we steal it for ourselves. We do not, when we do not attribute all that we have and all that we are to his grace, we rob God of his worship. If we worship according to our own imaginations and our own ways, for as our confession says, The acceptable way of worshiping God is instituted by God Himself and so limited by His own revealed will that He may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of man or the suggestions of Satan or in any other way not represented, not prescribed in Holy Scripture. You know, man thinks that they are being wise to help God out. in the midst of dwindling numbers into our churches to enliven worship and to make it attractive so that sinners might flock to worship God and to think it's wise to help God and give Him a helping hand. But it's never piety to be wiser than God. It is pomposity, it's perversity, it's piousity, false sense of piety, but it is never piety. Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me, says God. May we then today be granted grace, humility to accept, to admit our guilt and thank God for all the graces and the blessings that he has given us in Christ Jesus. Amen.