Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning church family and friends.

Let us look at the Catechism question this morning.

Q. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?

A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

Pastoral Prayer

Tori’s Parents

Health of the Church

Let us Pray

Well we are on our 6th week of Malachi.

It is a challenging book.

I think we are starting to get some of the major themes of the book.

1st is that God’s people Israel have turned from God to their own selfish desires.

2nd they are blinded to the state they are in because they are “doing the right things” and do not see anything wrong with that.

3rd they are blaming God for the lack of blessings that they believe their facade of worship and obedience deserve.

These all add up the the fact that even though they we doing the right things, their hearts were not in it.

This book really boils down to heart issues of people and when they follow their selfish ways the Holy things of God become defiled.

God has been giving examples to Israel to see if they will wake up and snap out of their deception.

He reminded that he loved them and that they were his chosen people.

He revealed their false worship lead by the Priests.

That they were giving lame and sick animals as an offering to the Lord instead of the best of their animals.

He rebuked them for calling the worship of God, the sacrificial system a nuisance.

He rebuked the priests for failing to give the provide sound teaching and knowledge of God’s scriptures.

He rebuked them for divorcing their wive to go and marry the women from other nations that worshiped other Gods.

Because of all of this Malachi predicts two messengers will come.

The first with be John the Baptist to prepare the way for the Lord and the second would be Jesus.

And the in the end Jesus would come to refine and purify the people.

We pick up here today with God back accusing Israel of wicked behavior that reveals their lack of faith in God and his promised blessings.

Open you bibles to Chapter 3 we will be starting in 7 and reading till verse 12.

Malachi 3:7–15 (CSB)

7 “Since the days of your ancestors, you have turned from my statutes; you have not kept them.

Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Armies.

Yet you ask, “How can we return?” 8 “Will a man rob God?

Yet you are robbing me!”

“How do we rob you?” you ask.

“By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions.

9 You are suffering under a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing me. 10 Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house.

Test me in this way,” says the Lord of Armies.

“See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.

11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not ruin the produce of your land and your vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the Lord of Armies.

12 “Then all the nations will consider you fortunate, for you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of Armies.

Malachi 3:7-8 Return to God

The Lord of Armies starts this section with a call.

A call to return to him.

Since the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you have turned from the statutes of God or the scriptural instructions and commands of God.

They have not kept them.

He says return to ma and I will return to you.

We know from the scriptures that Israel was very successful and consistent in one thing.

Rebellion against and turning away from God.

I still cannot wrap my mind around the Golden Calf.

But they respond with “How can we return?”

This is not a sincere question, it is a sarcastic response from a people who believe they are with God but he is not holding up his end of the bargain.

Based on the book so far and the next section that is coming.

What does return to me mean?

It means to repent.

To turn away from their current state of sinful living and to re align their hearts with God.

Turning back to God is a theme in the new testament all the way to revelation.

To the church at Ephesus he writes

Revelation 2:4–5 (CSB)

4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.

Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Five of the seven churches in revelation are called to repent or to turn back to God.

This returning to God has been a theme of the Old Testament and this would not have been the first time they have heard this.

Jeremiah 3:10 (CSB)

10 Yet in spite of all this, her treacherous sister Judah didn’t return to me with all her heart—only in pretense.”

This is the Lord’s declaration.

Zechariah 1:3 (CSB)

3 So tell the people, ‘This is what the Lord of Armies says: Return to me—this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies—and I will return to you, says the Lord of Armies.

Jeremiah even says that eventually there will be those that will return to God,

Jeremiah 24:7 (CSB)

7 I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord.

They will be my people, and I will be their God because they will return to me with all their heart.

This is what God is asking Israel to do, to return to God with all their heart.

But they do not get it.

They see their actions as close to God but their hearts are not in it.

Here is a picture that might help.

As a kid, I would come home and go straight to my room.

I would though on the TV, pick up the phone, play a video game.

I would come up for dinner and wolf down a gigantic amount of food.

Do dishes and then run back down to my room.

Was I engaged with my heart towards my family.

Nope.

I was going through the motions of what was expected.

I was engaged in only one thing.

My life, my path.

God says if they return to him he with return to them.

This isn’t that God had left the building and will come home.

God is just and he has removed blessings or cursed Isreal because they have turned from him.

When they right themselves before God he will remove the curses and restore the blessings.

After they ask How do they return?

God then goes into another specific area that they have turned away from him in:

Malachi 3:9-12 Robbing God

Malachi 3:8 (CSB)

8 “Will a man rob God?

Yet you are robbing me!” “How do we rob you?” you ask.

“By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions.

This rhetorical question of will a man rob God.

The answer they would be thinking is of course not.

Who would ever do that.

So they would be taken aback when he says you are robbing me.

Of coarse they were like how? God’s answer by not bringing the tenth or the tithe an the contributions.