*****malachi 3:8-12

Malachi 3:8–12 (NRSV)

8 Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me! But you say, “How are we robbing you?” In your tithes and offerings! 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me—the whole nation of you! 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. 11 I will rebuke the locust for you, so that it will not destroy the produce of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not be barren, says the Lord of hosts. 12 Then all nations will count you happy, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.

Tithe: (Webster’s Dictionary) a tenth of one’s income paid to a church. The Hebrew word for tithe means 1/10. The Hebrew’s were required by God to bring a tithe to the Lord! But tithing took place before the law of God was given.

Warren Wiersbe said, “Tithing as an act of worship is as old as Abraham, who gave tithes to Melchizedek, acknowledging that Melchizedek was the representative of the Most High God (Gen. 14:20; Hebrews 7). Jacob vowed to God that he would tithe (Gen. 28:22), so tithing antedates the Law of Moses. However, tithing was officially incorporated into the Law of Moses as a part of Israel’s worship. In bringing the tithes and offerings, the people were not only supporting the ministry of the temple, but they were also giving thanks to God for His bountiful provision for their own needs.”

We are to tithe and give offerings to the Lord to support the work of the Lord Jesus and to show our thankfulness and gratefulness to the Lord Jesus for His bountiful provisions in our lives. Are you a tither? Do you faithfully give to the work of the Lord Jesus? Do you give a tenth of your income to the local church? Do you give above and beyond in offerings to support missions? Malachi declared God’s charge to the people and God’s challenge for the people concerning their tithes and offerings. Christians are to joyfully, faithfully, individually, and corporately give our tithes and offerings to the work of the Lord Jesus through His church. This passage gives us some facts about what the Bible says about tithing.

I. A charge of theft. (8–9)

A. It was a direct charge. (8a)

“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me!” But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.”

The Lord had promised the coming of the Lord’s messenger that would precede His coming. The promise of the Lord’s judgment was given and the promise of the Lord’s continued compassion for His people. He is a God of justice, but thank God He is a God of mercy. It is only by His mercy that the people had not been consumed.

In verse six He reminds the people that He does not change and in verse seven He reminds the people that they like their fathers have gone astray. God gives an invitation for the people to repent of their sins and return to God. He promises them that if they would return to Him that He would return to them.

The people had been so defiled and dulled by sin that their spiritual perception was blurred even to blindness. God was calling them to return to Him and they didn’t think they had left! According to the people they were alright, they were in good standing with God, and they didn’t need to return. (There are many in the church in this condition today)

→ Sin had so infected them,

→ influenced them,

→ and inflicted them

→ that they could not discern their own spiritual condition.

God makes a direct charge to the people as individuals and to the people as a nation. They were guilty as charged! When God says we are guilty we are guilty. God asks a direct question with a certain answer! Here’s the question: “Will a man rob God?” Rob: qaba’ kaw-bah’; to cover, i.e. (figurative) defraud:—rob, spoil. The only other time this word is used in Scripture is in Proverbs 22:22 which reads, “Do not rob the poor because he is poor, nor oppress the afflicted at the gate” The word can mean “to take forcibly.” The question is still for us today: “Will a man rob God?”

Robbery is the most costly crime in America apart from organized crime. Shoplifting and employee theft rank together as the #1 robbery category. Most thefts involve less than $30.00 of goods and yet they account for 70% of the loss suffered by business and costs $24 Billon annually. America is full of thieves!

In the 8th commandment the Lord says, “You shall not steal.” The average church member robs God! Credible sources tell us that the average protestant only gives 3% of their income to the church and only one-tenth of 1% of his income, which totals about $3.00 annually per person, to missions.

Sad Fact: There is more money spent on the care of and feeding of pets than is given to churches and charities in the United States.

“Will a man rob God?” It doesn’t pay to rob God or rob God’s people as well it seems. CRIME IN CHURCH DOESN’T PAY!

Among the CNN headlines for April 6, 1999, was this headline: “Armed Robber Holds Up Church During Easter Service.” It happened in a Louisiana church of about one hundred worshipers. A gunman wearing a ski mask entered a suburban New Orleans church fifteen minutes into the morning service. Holding a gun to one member’s head, he ordered most of the members to lie on the floor while the remaining handful were forced to walk through the room taking the “offering.” But he was disappointed with the results. He left grumbling that there were too many one-dollar bills.

God asked the question and then makes a powerful declaration against His people: “Yet you have robbed Me!” They were flat guilty of stealing from the Lord! Are we guilty of theft? Are their any thieves in the house today?

→ You might say, “Pastor, I can’t afford to tithe!” But I tell you that I can’t afford not to tithe!

There are some of you that are God robbers! You do not faithfully give to the work of the Lord. Challenge: You have never stepped out on faith and stepped up for the Father.

I heard about this man who came to visit his pastor and said, “Pastor, my tithe is becoming a problem to me. When I was only a fifty-dollar a week ribbon clerk, it wasn’t much trouble to drop five dollars in the offering plate; but now that I’ve gotten a large income I can’t spare the large amount of tithe that would be my portion now. I wonder if you could help me with this problem? The pastor replied, “Bill, I appreciate your candidness in coming to me. Let’s pray about it.” The pastor bowed his head and prayed, “Lord, Bill’s tithe is a problem to him because he is making so much money. Lord, give him business reverse’s, reduce his income so his tithe won’t be a problem.” Bill interrupted the pastor’s prayer and said, “Hold on, Pastor, I don’t think my tithe will be a problem anymore!”

How much more could we be doing for the Kingdom of God if everyone here who claimed to be a Christian would bring their tithes and offerings to the Lord! We see in verse 8 that this charge of theft was a direct charge. We also learn that:

B. It was a denied charge. (8b)

“But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.”

The Lord magnifies the people’s stubborn defiance and their spiritual destitution. They were so blind to the facts that they questioned God! Instead of humbling themselves they questioned God! When we do not bring in the tithes and offerings to the Lord we are robbing God. We need to learn from the Israelites of what not to do. They denied the charge against them! Most criminals will proclaim their innocence even when they are guilty. No one readily admits to crime! Israel didn’t see themselves as God saw them!

Sadly, many in the church do not really see themselves as God sees them! When God says we are guilty then we are flat guilty!

When you come to the house of God and the word of God is preached and the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin and draws you to the Lord Jesus for salvation and you say in your heart “In what ways have I sinned” you deny the Lord God and you defy the Lord God. When the Holy Spirit convicts you of not giving and you try to make excuses you are doing what the Israelites did!

Excuses:

◦ We owe too much money

◦ We are in a bad economy

◦ We have lost a job

◦ My hours have been cut

◦ God wants me to have some enjoyment

◦ The kids need clothes

◦ I need that new boat, truck, golf clubs, etc …

The Houston Chronicle reported that after Hurricane Ike hit the upper Gulf Coast of Texas on September 13, 2008, a small church in Uganda read about the devastation. The church elders at Mbarara church of Christ decided to collect a special offering to help with the recovery in Houston. On that day they raised $21.96, which is twice their normal offering of $11.00. In October, Sugarland’s First Colony Church of Christ received the check and was overwhelmed by the generosity. In a country where people typically earn less than $1 per day, that check represented enormous sacrifice. Ronnie Norman, pastor, called it “the most beautiful and generous gift our church has received.” The Houston suburban church has since multiplied the gift by challenging their members to each donate $21.96 or any number multiplied by $21.96. This generated another $40,000 that has gone to the rebuilding of a church in the hard-hit city of Galvaston. Such sacrifice is both humbling and inspiring.

We better not try to deny the charge against us when we know that we are guilty because God knows when we are guilty! The Israelites tried to play ignorant about the situation, but they were not ignorant! God was enlightening them! God tells them directly the way they had robbed God: “In tithes and offerings.” The tithe was 10% of the person’s grain, fruit, animals, or money.

▪ The annual tithe that was given to the Levites in which they in turn gave a tenth of that to the priest.

▪ Every third year a tithe was to be brought to the leaders locally to be used to help the poor.

They denied the charge in asking the question, but God tells them exactly how they had robbed God! It all belongs to Him anyway and we will never know the blessings of God in giving until we first recognize that we are stewards of all that He has blessed us with! Are you guilty of robbing God? Are you guilty of denying the facts? Would you come clean with the Lord Jesus today and begin to honor the Lord by giving to Him the tithes and offerings due Him? God gives them and us today a charge of theft! We’ve learned that it was a direct charge, it was a denied charge, and we also see:

C. It was a devastating charge. (9)

“You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.”

God answered their denial with a declaration! The people and the nation had already been cursed with a curse because of their crime! Their thievery led to their current condition of desolation. Cursed: Hebrew word means “to bitterly curse.” They had the hand of God against them! They were not experiencing the favor of God! When we rob God we can expect nothing less. The judgment was pronounced on the people.

Their land had dried up because of a lack of rain. Their crops had been eaten up by the devouring locust. Everything they put their hand to was failing. It all went back to their root problem of stealing from God. God says that the whole nation was guilty before Him. The judgment of God was against them. Warren Wiersbe wrote, “The money that rightfully belongs to God that we keep for ourselves never stays with us. It ends up going to the doctor, the auto body shop, or the tax collector.” Haggai 1:6 says, “You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.” If you are here today and you are not a tither and not a giver then God is calling for you to repent and begin to give to the work of the Lord. Because people rob God they are under the curse of God!

• No matter how hard you fight,

• how long you plan,

• how many jobs you work,

• you’ll never get ahead robbing God!

Ecclesiastes 5:13 says, “There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun: Riches kept for their owner to his hurt.” Reformer Martin Luther once railed his congregation for being stingy givers. From the pulpit he said, “You ungrateful beasts! You are not worthy of the treasures of the Gospel. If you don’t improve, I will stop preaching rather than cast pearls before swine.”

→ When folks rob God the judgment of God is on them;

→ when churches rob God the curse of God is on them;

→ and when nations rob God the hand of God is against them.

→ Poor harvests, faulty investments, and wretched returns were the disastrous results of provoking God.

There was a charge of theft which leads to:

II. A challenge to tithe. (10–12)

A. A proposition given to the people. (10a)

“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”

God gives the people a challenge to tithe. They were to bring their tithes to the house of God. They were not challenge to bring God part of their tithes, but all their tithes. We are not to be tippers, but tithers. We are to give God what is right not what is left!

You cannot out give God! We do not give to get, but the bottom line is that when we give from a grateful and joyful heart God will provide for our needs. He will give because He is the Great Giver! Storehouse: ’owtsar, o-tsaw(’atsar); a depository -armory, cellar, gamer, store (-house), treasure (-house) (-y). The temple had rooms and compartments designated for the service of the Lord that would hold these commodities. They were to give faithfully, sacrificially, and joyfully to the work of the Lord. The people were not bringing their tithes to the storehouse because they were far from God. Their love for God and their gratefulness for what He had done for them were not at the forefront of their thinking. G. Campbell Morgan wrote, “Tithes never reach the storehouse except in response to love. Mechanical religion cannot last; it always becomes weary and ceases.”

*When you and I have a revival of love for Jesus and thankfulness of Who He is and what He’s done we’ll gladly give of ourselves and our substance!* What is hindering you from bringing the tithes into the house of God today? What is holding you back from obeying God?

In the book “Tortured for Christ,” Richard Wurmbrand tells of his many years in and out of miserable Communist prisons because of his faith in Jesus Christ. He was often tortured, and on some occasions nearly starved to death. But the principle of tithing was so internalized in his heart that when he was given one slice of bread a week and dirty soup every day, he faithfully tithed from it. Every tenth day he gave his soup to a weaker brother, and every tenth week he took his slice of bread and gave it to one of his fellow prisoners in Jesus’ name.

God tells us to bring our tithes to Him! This is an Old Testament passage, but the New Testament does not do away with tithing. Matthew 23:23 Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”

The New Testament Book of Acts tells us that the early church gave sacrificially and faithfully to support the work of the Lord. The New Testament epistles teach us about Grace Giving! John Phillips wrote, “It is difficult to understand how a Christian under grace can give less than a Jew was required to give under the law.” I agree with him. God required the Jews to bring their tithes and as followers of Christ we can do nothing less! A tenth is the place to start! We are to give our tithes and then we are to expand our giving for the glory of God! In verses 10–12 God gives the people a challenge to tithe. In verse 10 there’s a proposition given to the people. We also see:

B. A promise given to the people. (10b–12)

1. The windows of heaven will be opened. (10b)

“And try Me 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.”

Try: (KJV: Prove) bachan, baw-khan’; to test (especially metals); general and figurative to investigate:—examine, prove, tempt, try (trial). This is the only place that God calls for the people to test Him. He was willing for them to put Him to the test! God promised to open the windows of heaven. All blessing come down from God! James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

This saying indicates to us that God had shut the windows of heaven and the rain had stopped and the crops had suffered! Deuteronomy 28:12 says, “The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.” God tells the people that if they give He will bless their life abundantly. God said that He would unlock the storehouse of heaven as they fill up His storehouse on earth!

God promises that the windows of heaven would be opened to them. Johnny Hunt said, “God said if they would open their wallets He would open the windows: if they would open their Billfolds He would send the blessings.”

→ Principle: Our investment brings His involvement.

God tells the people that if they will give that they will experience the blessings of God poured out on their lives. Luke 6:38 Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” God owns everything in heaven and on earth and His provisions will never be exhausted. Psalm 50:10 says, “For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.”

5 Principles that will help us with giving:

1. Everything that you have the Lord gave it to you.

2. The Lord never gives just so we can get.

3. The Lord gives so that we can give.

4. The more you give the more you get.

5. The more you get the more you ought to give.

God said that the blessings would be so abundant that the people wouldn’t have room enough to receive it. This is not health and wealth preaching, but Biblical stewardship! God made this promise to His children about their land and their lives. Even to a persecuted church filled with poor people the New Testament epistles tells us that God will meet all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19) The Bible says that the windows of heaven will be opened. We also see in verse 11:

2. The work of the Lord will be ongoing. (11)

“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”

The Lord promised the people if they would give that they would see the good hand of God and the blessings of God on the land. *If Christians would tithe we would have the resources that God wants us to have to do the work that God wants us to do.* We wouldn’t have to beg or borrow from Peter, Paul, Matthew, or Mark!

The outside world is not to finance the work of the Lord Jesus! The people of God are to be faithfully giving. The Lord Jesus has the resources to accomplish His will through His people. David Levy wrote, “Nowhere does Scripture teach that God’s work is to be supported by unbelievers, financial gimmickry, church raffles, rummage sales, bake sales, car washes, coercion by church leaders, or special stewardship organizations called in to collect annual pledges from parishioners. These kinds of fund raising seem inconsistent with the grace-giving principles.” We are not to try to get the money out of the people in the world to do the work of the Lord! We are here to minister to the world in Jesus name. When the people of the Lord give the work of the Lord will be ongoing in this world.

God’s work will be ongoing as His people faithfully give. God told the people that He would do what no one else could do. He would rebuke the devourer for their sakes. Devourer: ’akal, aw-kal’; to eat (literal or figurative) at all, burn up, consume, devour, dine, eat up, feed (with), food, ˣ freely, ˣ in wise (-deed, plenty), (lay) meat, ˣ quite. Most commentators feel that this refers to the locusts that would come and devour the crops and devastate the land. The Lord says that He would rebuke the devourer and the devourer will not destroy the fruit of the ground. God would give continual protection to and promotion of their crops. God’s work of providing for His children will be evident as the fruit of the ground would be plentiful.

God also promises “nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord of hosts” Fail to bear: (KJV: cast) shakol, shaw-kole’; to miscarry, i.e. suffer abortion; by analogy to bereave. The word of God says that God would prevent their fruit and their produce from spoiling and falling from the vine. Their vines would not waste their fruit. The fruit and produce would be immaculate because the Lord would be at work preserving, protecting, and producing the fruit for His people.

God’s work is ongoing in the people’s lives as they honor God and are faithful in their giving. If God’s people will give God will bless our lives and His work in the world will be seen

→ in His people, for His people, and through His people.

Longtime pastor of Westminister Chapel in London, England, R.T Kendall said, “Tithing is the solution no one talks about … If every Christian tithed, every congregation would be free of financial worries and could begin truly to be the salt of the earth. If every Christian would tithe, the church would begin to make an impact on the world that would change it. The church instead is paralyzed.”

• The average church of 100 families could increase their weekly budget by $1000.00 if each family only made $20,000 and faithfully tithed.

• Such obedience would generate an extra $20 billion among all American churches.

• To put that into perspective, $20 billion would produce a stack of new $1000 bills, 2½ miles tall.

• With such commitment, more Americans might look to God’s church for solutions rather than turning to the government.

Are we hindering the work of the Lord Jesus here because of our unfaithfulness in bringing our tithes and offerings to the Lord? The Lord promised the people that the windows of heaven would be opened, the work of the Lord would be ongoing, and lastly we note:

3. The words of the nations will be obvious. (12)

“And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

What a testimony of the people of God when the Lord opens the windows of heaven and sends the harvest that will bless His people. All the nations will call Israel blessed if they would do things God’s way and not their own. Word would get out to “all nations” that God’s hand is upon His people.

The land of Israel would be a delightful land. Delightful: chephets, khay’-fets; (chaphets); pleasure; hence (abstract) desire; concrete a valuable thing. Their land would be a living testimony of God’s favor upon His people. When we obey God as His people God will use us and our testimony in the world will be strong for the Lord Jesus. People will know that we are the people of God and that we have the presence of God and the power of God on our lives. What words do others say about the church today? Are we a delightful land? Do people in our families, neighbors, and co-workers know that God’s good hand has been upon His people?

Let us begin to obey the Lord Jesus today and start tithing and giving to the work of the Lord Jesus. May we surrender ourselves daily and take up our cross and follow Jesus. May we be known as givers! The Lord Jesus said that it’s better to give than to receive! Do you need to surrender you wallet, your bank account, your resources to the Lordship of Jesus Christ?