Malachi 3:7 Return to Me

Malachi 3:7 – Return to Me

Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

I. Israel’s Constant Turning Away

a. God is speaking to them as a people

b. They are like their fathers

c. They are rebellious

d. They are ungrateful

e. They could not see that they were far from God

i. They thought they were doing what pleased God, but they were really just doing their own thing.

1. Sacrificing without proper sacrifices

2. Offering tithes without joy in their hearts

3. Living like the heathens around them – divorce, idolatry, seeking riches

4. Putting God last in their lives – if at all

5. Using the name of God in vain, cursing, swearing, deceit speech

f. Turning away is caused by iniquity – Hosea 14:1 – Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, For you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

II. The Ordinances of God

a. They were to write them on their hearts

i. Proverbs 7:3 – Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart

ii. Deuteronomy 11:18 - Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.

b. What is the sum of them all –

i. Matthew 22:36-40 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

1. Do what is right by God

2. Do what is right by man

3. Show do love and honor to both

c. What is the purpose of them?

i. Proverbs 3:1-2 – My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.

III. The love and faithfulness of God

a. Return and I will return to you

i. Jeremiah 24:7 – I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart

b. His Word is to be trusted

IV. Returning to the Lord

a. Take fearless inventory of yourselves

i. Lamentations 3:40 - Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the Lord.

1. Examine and probe – to search and investigate – look into our hearts

b. Be sincere in repentance

i. Joel 2:13 – And rent your heart and not your garments. Now return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.

1. Repentance is not for the eyes of me – is it from the heart

a. Proverbs 27:19 – As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of a man to man. – Don’t deceive yourself!

2. Mark 1:15, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

c. Be Trusting in the Word of the LORD.

i. Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

ii. Psalm 9:10 – And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, has not forsaken them that seek thee.

iii. Isaiah 54:4 - Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.

d. Believe on Jesus Christ

i. Jesus said – Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. (John 14:1)

ii. Romans 10:9 - That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

e. Change

i. Hosea 12:6 – Therefore, return to your God, Observe kindness and justice, And wait for our God continually

1. Learn and be kind to one another – be kind

2. Seek justice for those who cannot seek it for themselves – be just to one another

3. Continuously seek the God

a. Study his ways

b. Be patient in his coming

c. Endure testing in his Spirit

V. Where are you today?

a. Are you a wayward child, who like your father has walked away from God?

b. Are you one who has given their life to Christ many moons ago, and not you are far away from the God who loves you, who died for you?

c. Are you one who has believed and just doesn’t see the need to follow God’s ordinances as he says? Are you doing your own thing before God?

d. Are you one who just needs to tell Jesus thank you for your love and for your ordinances?

VI. The Alter is open

a. Come pray with me