You are listening to a sermon from River Community Church in Prairieville, Louisiana. If you would, please remain standing for the reading of God's Word from Malachi 3, verses 6 through 12. For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, how will we return? Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, how have we robbed you? in your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you." 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 and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need, I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. You may be seated. Well, I don't think any sermon series on giving is complete without a look at Malachi chapter three. And this is the passage that we're going to be ending our series with. Given the things that we've seen and discussed over the last few months, you should obviously, if you've been with us, recognize that there's some things that we need to handle carefully in this text. And that's the first reason I saved this until last. The book of Malachi presents us a long indictment of Israel's ongoing and repeated violations of their covenant relationship with the Lord God. It begins with the statement of God's love, followed by an indictment of the priests of Israel in particular, and then from the priesthood to their worship in general. Verse two of chapter one demonstrates this basic call and response pattern of the book. I have loved you, says the Lord. But you say, how have you loved us? So this pattern of God's statement and Israel's counter question is key to the structure of the book. And by their skeptical response to God's words, beginning first with how have you loved us, really? Israel reveals themselves to be at odds with God himself. Do good and harm and right, the coolness of the people's responses that we read throughout Malachi suggests that in his day, Israel was pervasively disillusioned and perpetually disappointed with God. Yet the people still expected God to bless them in the face of their personal disobedience. Malachi urges the people to consider instead whether their frustration and futility might not flow rather from their own failure to fulfill their covenant obligations to the God who not only had rescued them from Egypt, but more recently brought them back from the exile in Babylon. Now, the second reason I've saved this sermon till last is because I have desired to communicate grace and abundance in these sermons on money. I told you at the beginning, I don't want to communicate that we're trying to twist your arm into giving more to the church. But this text challenges us to remember that God takes what we do with our money very seriously. He considers generosity, especially towards the work of his kingdom, a vital matter of our walk with him. Remember, the first two people that are struck dead in the New Testament in the book of Acts are Ananias and Sapphira, because they lied to God about their giving to the work of the Lord. God takes this seriously, even in the New Testament. Because even in the New Testament, we are still in covenant under the sovereign Lord. We are his vassals and we owe him proper tribute. As beloved children, we owe him proper obedience. Now, what does obedience to this particular text look like for us who are New Testament Christians? That's what the sermon will focus on. Our sermon will follow these three points. First, the immutability of God. Second, the indictment of our failure to give. And third, the invitation to test God out. First, the immutability of God. So our passage begins with this statement of God's own unchanging character. I, the Lord, that is I, Yahweh, do not change. Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. One of the wonders of the biblical God, of our God, is that he is constant and unchanging. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This is the meaning of immutable, unchangeable. And because God himself does not change, that means that God himself never changes his mind. He never changes his mood. And this is good news because it means you can always know what to expect with God. There are lots of people in your life, and maybe even some of the authorities over you, your boss, your parents, that you don't know what to expect from them sometimes. They can be moody. They can get angry at the drop of a hat. But with God, it isn't so. We always know what we're going to get when we approach God. In Exodus 34, six and seven, God declares his unchanging character to Moses. The Lord, the Lord, he says, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. It is precisely because of God's unchanging character that as Christians we can have a sure and certain hope that we will receive mercy and forgiveness when we come to the Lord in repentance. And it's his unchanging patient character that always gives us time to repent. As Psalm 18 puts it, with the merciful, God will show himself merciful. With the blameless, he will show himself blameless. With the purified, he will deal purely. To the crooked person, he appears torturous. He will save a humble people, but the proud he will tear down. But before we get to the call to repentance, we need to note why this repentance is necessary. Why is Israel in danger of being consumed? We find the answer in verse seven. Much like God himself, God's people do not actually change all that much. They are children of Jacob, the schemer. And like him, they consistently and constantly try to do life their way and manipulate things to their benefit rather than doing life by faith independence. God says to them, from the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. God's choice of words here indicates that Israelites of Malachi's day were not merely lawbreakers. They were not merely disobedient. They have been habitual violators of the terms of the covenant. That's what the word statutes refers to. The word refers to contractual terms, legal duties. God is saying that Israel has constantly, repeatedly turned away from, even ignored their covenantal responsibilities. They've failed to uphold their end of the deal. Consequently, God sees this as not only a moral breach, but as a relational breach. It's not just disobedience, it's personal abandonment. In light of this violation, God gives a call to repentance. He says, return to me and I will return to you. Because of God's unchanging character, he is always there, always ready, always waiting to call and welcome his wandering children home. He is the father of the prodigal son, looking out from the balcony, waiting to see the son returning home. And when he sees him, he goes out to meet him. He rushes to show grace and favor and restore dignity to a vile sinner, to a stubborn fool. This is the key promise, the key idea of this whole passage. If we will return to the Lord Jesus, if we will only return to the Lord Jesus, He will return to us. Naturally raises the question, how do we return to the Lord? But before we get there, I need you to notice something. When it comes to restoration to the Lord's favor, restoration to grace, God leaves our return and restoration up to us. And when it comes to our salvation, God is totally sovereign. It is technically what we call monergistic. It is a single soul work of God as sovereign Lord that saves us. He saves us solely by His grace. That grace is irresistible. It takes out our heart of stone, gives us a heart of flesh, gives us new desires. It transforms us and gives us new life in an instant. We don't do anything except receive that from the Lord. But for those of us who are already saved and who are already walking in this gracious covenant of life with the Lord Jesus, Our growth, our reconciliation, our healing, our ongoing sanctification happens at a pace that we set. We have to want to return to the Lord. We have to want to change. We have to want to grow. So technically, sanctification is a synergistic work. We have to cooperate with God's word and with God's spirit to get to where God wants us to go. This is why scripture says we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling. And this fact of spiritual life is not only for individual people, but also for communities of people. Because God is addressing this passage not to Joseph Ben-Joseph of the tribe of Judah. He's addressing this passage to the entire covenant community of Israel. Even so, it's applicable first to us as a Christian church. That brings us to the second point, the indictment of our failure to give. In response to God's invitation to repentance, Israel asks, naturally, well, how should we return? How are we supposed to return? Duguid and Harmon note, this is a resistant questioning, questioning that is designed to deflect God, delay obedience, and possibly impute blame to God. Well, if only God had made the path of repentance more clear, then of course we would repent right away. Israel is here playing the part of the child who, when told, put your shoes on, answers, where are they? All the time knowing exactly where her shoes are, right in front of her. Israel knows what repentance looks like. You and I know what repentance looks like. But God responds to the question anyway, saying basically, because you are guilty of ignoring the terms of the covenant, The way you return to me is by upholding the terms of the covenant." Specifically in the area of giving. He says, will a man rob God? You are robbing me. Israel responds, but how have we robbed you? How can a human being rob God? God says, in your tithes and contributions, you are cursed with a curse because you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Note how God views it, my friends, when we withhold our contributions to the work of the kingdom. He views it as an act of theft. So, oh, well, the Lord is gracious. The Lord understands my life situation. Oh, he is gracious. He does understand what's going on with you. And he also knows when you're not being honest with him, when you're not being honest with yourself, and when you're not being honest about what you're giving and not giving, he views it as theft. Now, this is not an active theft. It's not like we're raiding the treasure vaults of heaven, but it is withholding God what is his due. It's like an employee who sits at their desk playing on their phone all day, doing hardly any work. Indeed, Israel's just like that. They expect to get paid by God and blessings and bounty, thinking that their just showing up is somehow commendable. They're like the child in a family business who expects solid pay for mediocre work because they have the family name and they get upset when they get passed over or demoted or even fired. It's like, how could you do this to me? It's because you're stealing from the company. That brings us to how this applies to us in the New Testament, who are no longer under the obligation of the tithe and its Old Testament framework. Now, let's recall our sermon on tithing from a month ago, if you can. If you weren't here with us, I would encourage you to get on YouTube and listen to that sermon because I have a lot more time to talk about the details of the tithe than I do this morning. But there we saw that the Old Testament tithe belongs to the ceremonial aspect of the Old Testament law of Moses. And because it's part of that ceremonial order, it has been fulfilled completely in Christ Jesus. Therefore, in its particulars, the tithe is no longer binding on the Christian any more than kosher food laws are. Now, there are plenty of principles that we can glean from the tithe, such as giving from our best, giving a percentage of our whole Giving from the gross before taxes and expenses. Giving to support the work of the church, which is necessary. But these are just that principles for giving, not commandments about giving. We also saw that with the coming of Christ's fullness, the New Testament commands us to give more generously from our fullness. To whom much is given, much is required. And so we saw that with the coming of Christ and all the fullness of grace we have in the gospel, that obligates us to giving more than the mere letter of the law. Just as we receive more grace from the Lord Jesus, we should readily give more to the Lord Jesus. And so the removal of the tithe should motivate us to more generosity, not less. And then last week, with the widow's offering of two lepta, two small copper coins, we saw that the gift Jesus most desires from you, the offering that Jesus most desires from you is the gift you put your life into. It's not the gift of abundance, it's the gift of need. The gift that communicates total dependence on God. This is the sense in which God wants your 100%. He wants all of you. He wants all of you. That's all Jesus asks for. All of you. It's what God has always wanted from your people, from His people. He wants you to love Him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. He wants your absolute and total devotion. So God is not happy with just a piece of you. He's not happy with just a part of you. Romans 12.1 says, I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. God help us. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20 says, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. As James Montgomery Boyce writes, The end of this matter is not that merely our money or time, but our whole selves, body and soul are God's. And therefore we are to honor God wholly with all that we are. That's the essence of it. So long as we are thinking legalistically in terms of financial percentages, we will be exactly like the self-righteous sinners of Malachi's day. We will do little and think it much. We will resent God who in our judgment should do more for us. On the other hand, if we give God ourselves as living sacrifices, then the most we give will seem to be little, and we will be overwhelmed that God is willing to use us in his service. To put a fine tooth on it, what God wants from you is exactly what he's given to you in Jesus. What God wants from you What God expects from you in the New Testament is exactly what He's given to you in the Lord Jesus. He wants you to give your whole self to Him, body and soul, without reservation. That's what God expects of Christians under the New Covenant. Giving God anything less than that, Anything less than everything is robbing God. God help us. So where does money come in? Money comes in where this series began in Matthew 6, 21, where Jesus says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If you want to know where your heart is, look where your money is. Look at what you spend in your budget. Where does Quicken tell you your heart is, or your Excel spreadsheet? Where does your investment plan, where does your charitable giving plan tell you that your heart is? In his series on giving, my pastor, Philip Palmetry, noted, over the last half century, the incomes of Christians in America have risen dramatically. But over that period, Christians have given proportionately less to support ministry, missions, and benevolences. And there's something wrong with that. That's got to be wrong. The ones we call the greatest generation, a generation that is rapidly dying off from the era of the Great Depression and the Second World War, They gave about three times more of their income, proportionately speaking, than their descendants give today. You hear that? We make way more money than they did. We give proportionately less than they did. That's the opposite of the American church growing in generosity. He concluded by saying, if following Christ doesn't make any difference in the standard of living we experience, if our support of the gospel, if our support of the spread of missions, if our generosity doesn't make a lick of difference in the level of our affluence, then the gospel just hasn't made that big of a difference in our hearts. And my point from Malachi is this, God sees this as a violation of our covenant with him. We are failing to uphold our end of the bargain. It's a betrayal of his lavish generosity towards us. So what do we do? That brings us to the third point, the invitation to test God out. Even for us today on this side of the cross, God's invitation beginning in verse 10 applies. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse. We might modernize it. Bring your full generosity. As much as you can decide in your heart to give, bring all of it and worship to God. So that there may be food in my house, in the temple. and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need, I will rebuke the devourer for you so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all the nations will call you blessed for your land will be a land of delight." This is the one area, my friends, giving is the one area where God says, try me. put me to the test." Ordinarily, we're forbidden to put God to the test, because that sort of testing arises from skepticism, cynicism, and doubt. It's this sense that God forbids in Deuteronomy 6.16, which Jesus quotes to Satan, you know these words, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And we put the Lord to the test that way when we don't believe his word. This is a different sort of testing. God is saying, look, you've got a lot of experience doubting my word. I want you to try out what being faithful might do for you. I want you to risk taking me at my word for once. Try me, see it if ain't so. Give all you can possibly give and see if I don't bless you materially in return. See if I don't bless you with rain and pour down so much blessing on you that you have no more pressing needs. See if I don't remove the pests from your fields and the blight from your crops. See if the world around you doesn't start recognizing my blessing on you. And because of that, the blessing of Abraham comes true for you. Put in more modern terms, we might hear God saying, test me, try me out. See if it ain't so. See if I don't turn the economy around. See if I don't reduce the impacts of inflation on your grocery bill. See if I don't give you better employees or better job opportunities. See if I don't bless you with better gains on your investments and interest on your savings. See if your neighbors don't notice something different about your manner of life and begin asking you for a reason for the hope that's in you. See if the world around you doesn't begin to recognize how vital the church is and Christianity is for society and for prosperity. Now do you think that can't happen? Do you think our society is so far gone that even God can't turn it around? That we're on a slippery slope and it's just a matter of time? Oh no, you might say. No, I believe that God can turn our society around. It will just take our nation turning around and humbling themselves before him. Is that right? Take a look with me at 2 Chronicles 7, 13 through 14. 2 Chronicles is at the end, towards the middle of the historical books. 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles. So 2 Chronicles 7. You know these words, you've seen them on posters and bumper stickers and lots of places. You may have even memorized them. This is God's response to Solomon's prayer. 2 Chronicles 7, stuck together. There it is, 13 and 14. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain or command the locusts to devour the land or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Okay, so first I want you to note the basic connection between the problems in this passage. and the ones in Malachi. We're dealing with the removal and the return of rain, the invasion and removal of devouring insects and the sending and healing of diseases. Very same picture between 2 Chronicles 7 and Malachi 3. Then we come to verse 14, if my people who are called by my name, wait, look at that again, who now? If my people who are called by what? My name." Now friends, who are God's people? Who is called by His name? Is this passage talking about the United States of America? Is this nation the New Testament people of God? No. So who in the New Testament is He talking about? The church. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ inherits this promise, not any geopolitical nation state. God is saying if the church who is called by the name of Jesus will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land." He's not talking about the nation's sin people. He's talking about our sin. Well, how have we sinned? Okay, now we're back to Malachi. I think we all recognize today that our land, our country needs the healing mercies of the Lord our God. The destructive trajectories of our political landscape are evident as of yesterday. The destructive trajectories of our economy are evident every time we go to the grocery store. And as though God is saying, the whole land is under the curse. The whole nation of you. So how do we see this trajectory turn around? Surely it's to get prayer and the Ten Commandments back into the public schools. Surely. No? The problem, my friends, is not out there. The problem, my friends, is in here. In here. The problem is a proud and self-sufficient and disillusioned and disobedient church. The reason our country is in the state it's in is because of the failures of the American Church of Jesus Christ, because we are the ones who violated the covenant with God, not Washington. We are the ones who have turned from the truth We are the ones who have lost our first love. We are the ones who have become lukewarm to God himself, and as a result of that, lukewarm to the lost around us. We are the ones who have stopped seriously giving to the building of Christ's kingdom. We are the ones who have surrendered charity and generosity to state and public programs. And so we are the ones who are having our lampstands removed because we're no longer bearing light. As we conclude, we often think that the New Testament gift of free grace means that we don't have any obligations in our relationship with God, that He doesn't have any expectations of us and there's nothing that we can possibly lose. It means that we're free to be takers and not give anything back. After all, God loves to give, we love to receive, it's a great relationship. But friends, while eternal life is a free gift that we cannot lose, the blessings of the new covenant can be lost. The rewards of the kingdom of God can be lost. The material blessings that God bestows upon his righteous can be lost. Because they are only granted to those who are faithful and fruitful. It's granted to people who make good use of their talents. It's granted to people who sow their seed in the field. It's granted to those who invest in the kingdom of God. And so our actions or inaction have a real impact on our present Christian experience and spreading from that on our nation. We can't just do what we want, live self-indulgent lives, and expect God to take care of the rest. Just look at the seven churches in Revelation. I've already alluded to them. These were Christian churches, some of them very significant locations in the early expansion of the church. Some of them were planted by Paul himself, and yet because of their spiritual lethargy and carelessness, they were in danger of having their lampstands removed, which means internal collapse. a dead congregation with no effect on the world around them. And many of those churches did die. Let's look at two of them. Turn to Revelation chapter two. And as I read these passages, I want you to think about what God said to Malachi. And I want you to hear that God has the same attitude to the New Testament church that he did to Old Testament Israel. Revelation 2, 1-7. To the angel of the church of Ephesus write the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake, and you have not grown weary, but this I have against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen. Repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. Yet this you have, you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. And then to chapter three, verse 14. To the angel of the church in Laodicea write, the words of the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. I know your works. You are neither hot nor cold, cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Let me ask you, River, will you hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you have the ears to hear? Will you return to your first love? Will you confront your spiritual disillusionment? Will you give your whole self unreservedly to His care and will you extend that to your pocketbook? To withhold your whole self from the Lord is to steal from Him. Return to the Lord and He will return to you. Thank you for listening to this sermon from River Community Church in Prairieville, Louisiana. where you will always find biblical preaching, meaningful worship, and the equipping of disciples. For more information on River Community Church and its ministries, please visit rivercommunity.org.