God's Desired Response

a) So far in our study of Malachi here’s what we’ve seen. The faithlessness of God’s people. God graciously delivered them from Babylonian exile & brought them back into the Promised Land. But they doubted His love. They didn’t honor or fear Him. They offered Him worthless offerings.

b) They offered Him wearisome worship. Even the priests didn’t honor or fear the Lord. They accepted the people’s worthless offerings. They weren’t teaching God’s word or turning the people from iniquity. The priests turned aside from following God’s word & caused many to stumble.

c) And God’s people were faithless to 1 another. They divorced the wives of their youth & married women who worshipped other gods. Last week we saw how they even wearied the Lord w/ their words. They called evil good & accused God of being unjust & failing to keep His promises.

d) And God responded by declaring the messenger of the covenant, God Himself, was coming to refine His people & bring judgment to those who rejected Him & His ways. Today in v6-15 we’re going to see more of God’s response & more of God’s character which His people doubted.  

e) I’ve titled today’s sermon: God’s Desired Response. Let’s begin as always by hearing God’s holy word. We are going to read Mal. 3:6-15. READ & PRAY

Notice God’s 1stresponse & the 1st characteristic of God we see in v6. He is an unchanging God.

a) Israel questioned & doubted God. They asked: “Where is God’s justice? They declared God had abandoned His people & His promises. And look at how the Lord now responds in v6: “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.”

b) Malachi says the fact God’s wayward & faithless people were not consumed by His wrath was evidence of God’s unchanging nature, character & promises. This is what theologians call God’s immutability. That He is the same yesterday, today & forever. As 1 Sam. 15:29 tells us:

c) “He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man that he should change his mind.” James 1:17 says in Him there’s no variation or shadow due to change. God is not just unchanging, but He is incapable of change. He can never be made to change.

d) See, if God could change that wouldn’t be good for us. If God could change for the worse, He would no longer be perfect. And if God could change for the better, then He would not have been perfect in the 1st place. And if God could change His mind, how frightening would that be.

e) So God says to His people who are doubting His character: “You are accusing me of changing or being unfaithful, but “I the Lord do not change.” You are the one’s who’ve change. You are the ones who are faithless. If I was faithless to my covenant, you would be consumed.

f) Praise God He does not change. That He is a covenant keeping God. That He is faithful even when His people are not. Praise God He’s slow to anger & abounding in steadfast love. Consider the great comfort that should have brought to the people of Malachi’s day & to us today.

g) The great Hope of our salvation lies in His unchanging nature, character & word.

h) Most of us don’t like change. We like to know what to expect when we wake up each morning. But life is constantly changing. People are constantly changing. Children grow up & change. Spouses change. Jobs change. Our culture changes. Our physical bodies grow & decline.

i) Our physical beauty waxes & wanes. Our intellect expands & contracts. Our affections increase & decrease. Our circumstances change for the better & for the worse. Yet, we tend to say things like: “My wife always” or “My husband never” or “Well that’s just who I am. I can’t change.”

j) However, there’s only 1 person who does not change. Only God can say always & never. Only He is the same yesterday, today & forever. And our salvation & great hope rests in that reality. As we encounter change in our lives & in this world, we need a place to find hope.  

k) The unchanging nature of God is something we can stake our life on. He is a Rock big & strong enough to build your life on. He is an Anchor big & strong enough for your soul to hold onto in the midst of life’s waves & storms.

Here’s another response from God & a 2nd characteristic of God we see in v7: He is a merciful God.

a) v7: “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes & have not kept them. Return to me & I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.” The Lord says b/c I chose you as my people & b/c I do not change, not only haven’t you been consumed, but there’s still hope for you.

b) See, God’s wayward & faithless people should have been out of chances, but God wasn’t out of mercy. In v7 the Lord calls His people to repent. “Return to me & I will return to you.” See, they may have changed, but God had not. As James 4:8-10 says:

c) “Draw near to God & He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, & purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched & mourn & weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning & your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord & He will exalt you.”

d) As God’s people, when we become aware of our sin, we should return to Him like the prodigal son in Luke 15? Remember, how the younger son demanded his share of the inheritance while his father was still alive. Now such a request in that day was unspeakable & scandalous.

e) The younger son was declaring he didn’t want his father, but only what his father could give him. But when his father gave him the inheritance, it says he wasted it away on reckless living in a far away country. And after he’d spent all of his inheritance, a severe famine arose in that county.

f) So the son hired himself out to work in a pigsty. He longed to be fed w/ what the pigs ate, but no 1 gave him anything. Then Lk. 15:17 says: “But when he came to himself.” When he realized his sin, he decided to return to his father. He was ashamed & didn’t know if his father would accept him.

g) But the son arose & returned. And Jesus said while he was still a long way off, his father saw him & felt compassion & ran & embraced him & kissed him. The son said to his father in Lk 15:21:

“Father I have sinned against heaven & before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” And how did the father respond in Lk. 15:22-24? The father said to his servants:

h) ‘Bring quickly the best robe & put it on him & put a ring on his hand & shoes on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf & kill it & let us eat & celebrate. For this my son was dead & is alive again; he was lost & is found.’ How should we as God’s people respond to His great mercy?

i) Maybe you like those in Malachi’s day have wandered away b/c of sin or indifference or b/c of challenging circumstances in your life. God said to them & He says to us today: “Return to Me & I will return to you.” The parable of the prodigal son shows us what a merciful God we serve.

j) If we will confess our sin & repent & return to Him, He stands ready to embrace us. But how did Israel respond to the Lord’s invitation to return to Him? They said at the end of v7: “How shall we return?” The NLT translates it this way: “How can we return when we have never gone away?”

k) The original Hebrew is probably best translated: “For what reason ought we to return? What have we done that requires us to return to you?” They were blinded by their sin. So they stalled, deflected responsibility, delayed obedience & questioned God & said: “How shall we return?”  

That brings us to God’s next response & a 3rd characteristic we see in v8-12: He is a generous God.

a) To understand v8-12, 1st look at v13-14. “Your words have been hard against me says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts?”

b) God’s people in Malachi’s day looked around at their circumstances & said: there is no profit or benefit of serving God. There’s no benefit to keeping His law. We are not prospering. In v7 the Lord called them to repent, but they said: “Of what shall we repent?” So the Lord tells them.

c) Now look at v8: “Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes & contributions.” When God rescued & redeemed Israel from slavery & made them His people, He made a covenant w/ the children of Jacob.

d) He promised to bring them into & give them a land flowing w/ milk & honey. He promised to give them houses they did not build & vines they did not plant. And God gave them His law, so they knew how to relate to Him & to 1 another & how to rightly worship & serve Him.

e) And 1 of the requirements of that covenant or law was for Israel to bring a tithe (which means 10%) of the land’s produce to the temple. This tithe had multiple purposes for God’s people. 1st, it reminded them they didn’t own the land, but were tenants. It was God’s land He gave them.

f) It reminded God’s people they enjoyed the land & its benefits b/c of their gracious God & Redeemer to whom it all belonged. But the tithe also had 3 other purposes. 1st the tithe supported the ministry of the priests & Levites. Num. 18:21: “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting.”

g) 2nd, the tithe provided for the “the sojourner, the fatherless & the widow”. In Dt. 14:28-29, Israel was told that at the end of every 3 years they were to bring out all the tithe & lay it up in their towns so the sojourner, fatherless & widow “shall come & eat & be filled.”

h) 3rd the tithe was used to celebrate God’s blessing & to teach His people to fear Him. Dt. 14:22-23: “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. And before the Lord your God, in the place that He will choose to make His name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, your oil & the firstborn of your herd & flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.” The tithe was used to celebrate all that God had given them.

i) And this festive celebration reminded Israel that their remaining 90% was more than sufficient. It would remind them how God had provided for them & protected them. But here in Malachi’s day, they were robbing God. They were living on His land, but not giving Him the tithe.

j) So the Lord says in v10: “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 & pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”

k) Now if you’ve been in church for any amount of time, most of you have heard this passage before. It’s a verse most prosperity teachers use to get people to give. They say: ‘See if you’ll give God 10% of your income, He promises to open up the riches of heaven & financially bless you.’

l) But look at what this verse was saying to God’s people who weren’t tithing. When God says He would “open the windows of heaven”, we see that same phrase in Gen. 7:11: “In the 600th year of Noah’s life, in the 2nd month, on the 17th day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth & the windows of the heavens were opened.”

m) The windows of heaven referred to God sending water or rain upon the earth. God was telling His faithless people, bring your tithe into my house & I will then send the rain your crops need to grow & flourish. Don’t miss what the end of v10 says: “until there is no more need.”

n) The people were in need. Not b/c God wasn’t faithful, but b/c they were sinful & unrepentant & not tithing. Look at v11. God says if they will bring the tithe: “I will rebuke the devourer for you so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil & your vine in the field shall not fail to bear.”

o) God says He wouldn’t just provide rain, but He would protect the crops from being destroyed. Don’t miss what’s happening. In response to Israel withholding the tithe, the Lord was withholding His promised covenant blessings. Instead they were experiencing God’s promised covenant curses.

p) Listen to what the Lord told Solomon after he finished the house of the Lord in 2 Chron. 7:13-14:

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, & pray & seek my face & turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & heal their land.” See, this is what was playing out in Malachi’s day.

q) And so God called His people to test Him. And what would be the result if they would start bringing their tithes? v12: “Then all nations will call you blessed for you will be a land of delight says the Lord of hosts.” Israel would be a blessed people. Their land would be a place of delight.

r) And the whole world would take notice. Do you see the generosity of God?

So how does this apply to us as NT Christians? Do we still have to tithe or bring 10% to the church?

a) Now I know that a widespread cynicism toward giving exists in our culture. And that cynicism extends even into the church. Prosperity preachers have given tithing a bad name, so many no longer contribute to the work of the church.  But Christian ministry depends upon Christian giving.

b) And giving is part of worship. We give to show that we worship God, not money. We give to show we trust God & not money. We give to show that our hope & security for the future are found in God, not money. We give to fuel the work of our church in our congregation, our city & the world.

c) We give b/c we believe God is our provider. But ultimately, we give b/c of all Jesus has given to us. 2 Cor. 8:9: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.”

d) Now there’s much debate today about whether Christians are required to give a tithe to the church. And it would be easy for me to give you minimums & percentages & say this is what God requires so you can check that box. But let me instead remind you of what Christ has called us to.

e) He said in Matt. 16:24: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself & take up His cross & follow me.” Jesus said His disciples must deny themselves (die to your own self-will) & take up His cross (in other words, embrace God’s will for your life no matter how much that cost you).

f) Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:15 that Christ died so that: “those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died & was raised.” In other words, Christ has set us free to have a new way of life where a love for God & a love of God drives all that we do.

g) Including how we spend our time & money. See, money isn’t evil, but the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. We all know we need money, but money makes a crummy god. That’s why Jesus said in Mt. 6:24: “No 1 can serve 2 masters…You cannot serve God & money.”

h) God doesn’t need your money, He wants your heart. He wants to be the Lord of your life. Paul says in 1 Cor. 6:19-20: “You are not your own, for you were bought w/ a price.” The early church was known for radical giving & generosity. And what was their motivation for such radical giving?

i) The infinite generosity of God. As Rom. 8:32 says: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also w/ Him graciously give us all things?”If we’re deeply moved by the limitless cost Jesus paid to redeem us, we will be a people who give to Him w/ joy.

j) Surely we are more blessed than the OT saints. Why would we assume we’d be expected to be less generous? If OT believers were to give 10%, why would we assume on this side of the cross & empty tomb that we would be less generous? The NT gives no command for a 10% tithe.

k) But it does say we should give generously & w/ joy. Paul says in 2 Cor. 9:6: “whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, & whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”

l) Paul says in 2 Cor. 9:7: “Each 1 must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Such generosity flows from a heart that knows & trusts God’s unchanging nature, His great mercy & His infinite generosity toward us.

m) When we tithe we are saying: “You are my Lord & my God & my provider. It’s all yours. I owe it all to you. I trust you & love you more than money.” Friends, the most important investment you can ever make is in the kingdom of God. As Jesus said in Matt. 6:19-20:

n) “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth…but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven.” Why? “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” God doesn’t need your money. The cattle on a thousand hills are His. We give as an act of worship.

o) We give to God in response to how much He’s given us. We don’t give to get, but b/c He’s given us the greatest gift we can imagine: Himself. Eph. 1:3: “Blessed be the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ w/ every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”