Good morning. Man, let's try that again. I know there's some distance between us, but I haven't done this for a few weeks, so I need a little encouragement. So good morning, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. We're in this beautiful, beautiful setting. extend a warm welcome to all of you who are here on the field and to those of you out there watching us live streaming. It's a delight to be able to come and share God's word with you this morning. So this morning, I have the privilege of continuing our look at the book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. It's a minor prophet, as our theme says, a minor prophet with major truths. and we're gonna be in chapter two, we're gonna start at verse 17, and we're gonna look at verses 217 through 312. And so, what a beautiful setting to be able to do that in. I have a bunch of pastor friends from across the country, and a few weeks ago, when we first started meeting here, I posted a picture of our gathering out here, and we are very blessed by our God to have this facility, to have this setting, to look up at the hills and just to have all of this wide open space. And they were conveying to me what a privilege that must be. And it is a privilege for us. because we recognize not every church has opportunity to be able to do this. And so we're grateful that we do. And so appreciate you're taking the time to be with us this morning as we we come, we worship, we gather with one another. And now we spend some time listening to God speak through his word to us. And so let me open it a word of prayer. And after I finish preaching this morning, I'll have the privilege then of leading us in communion. I trust all of you received your little cup with the wafer on top. And so we'll explain that momentarily once we get to that part in the service. But let me pray. Father in heaven, we come into your presence this morning. We're delighted, first of all, to be your children through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord and our Savior. We're grateful for the privilege to be able to come and now open the word of God. This is your word. And it's our desire to hear your voice speak through this word. And Lord, as we look once again into this prophetical book written by Malachi, we pray that we would understand its meaning, but we would also understand its application for us here in 2020. Marvelous thing about your word, Lord, is it's ancient, and yet it's relevant all at the same time. So may the Spirit of God take this word of God and minister to us, the people of God. And we ask for all of this in the precious name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, amen. So as we look at the world and we see what appears to be the wicked prospering and the righteous suffering, we may conclude as many often do, that God isn't fair. That God isn't fair. The Israelites in Malachi's day had a similar attitude about their own circumstances. They asked the question, where is the God of justice? Where is the God of justice? The prophet helped clear up the confusion for God's people in these passages that we look at this morning, these verses that we look at this morning. And we're going to see a very, very important truth taught by the prophet Malachi. And so, this is what he wants us to understand this morning. God's justice may be delayed, but it is never deterred. God's justice may be delayed, but it's never deterred. Eventually, God will accomplish his purposes. Eventually, the wicked will be judged. And eventually, the righteous will be rewarded. And that is the theme of these verses this morning. So let's consider three thoughts from our text. First of all, we're gonna look at the Lord's accusation. The Lord, through the prophet Malachi, levels an accusation against the Israelites. Secondly, the Lord's purification. He talks about a future day, future in that day, even future in our day, when the Lord Jesus would return and he would purify this world in which we live. And then thirdly, we're gonna look at the Lord's confrontation. He tells them that they have not been faithful to him. And they raise the question, how haven't we been faithful to you? And so he tells them precisely. And we're gonna look at all of that this morning. Now Malachi continues his role in our text this morning as the Lord's messenger in our passage. Remember Malachi's name means the Lord's messenger. And so here he is preaching this message from God on high to the people of Israel, God's chosen people. He has previously called out the Israelites, both the people and the priests, the leaders as well as the people they are supposed to lead. And he does so on the basis of their faithless and foolish responses to God's great love for them. God began this book by telling them how much he loved them and how he had demonstrated that love. But now he's bending the balance of the book, rebuking them for their multitude of sins that they just kept repeating. So he continues to use a question and answer format, which he's been doing through these previous two chapters. And he addresses some additional acts of disobedience. So let's look at verse 17 of chapter two, and here's where we find the Lord's accusation. And this is how Malachi begins. He says, you have wearied the Lord with your words. You have wearied the Lord with your words. And at first, this may appear to be a contradiction to a passage of scripture you might be thinking of right now, Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 28, where God said, he does not become weary or tired. So is it a contradiction? No, I don't want you to panic. I don't want you to get up and leave. I don't want you to lose sleep over this because it's not a contradiction. First of all, Isaiah is addressing God's essential character. God doesn't tire like humans. And so that's the first thing to remember. Secondly, Malachi was metaphorically emphasizing that the Lord was fatigued and tired and exhausted by all of their disrespectful talk to him. And finally, Malachi is using big word anthropomorphic language, and all that means is he was using something that was human-like and ascribed it to God so that these people understood what their words were doing to God. They were just wearing God out. They were tiring God. They were fatiguing God. They were exhausting God with their repeated questions and criticisms regarding God and his plan and his purposes. It's interesting that back in chapter one, Malachi recorded for us that the priests had become weary with God. They had become wearied and exhausted with the fact that God's had these exacting precise requirements for sacrifice. And frankly, the priest said, we're tired of it. So turnabout is fair play, right? So God says to them, you're tired of me and my requirements. Well, I'm tired of your empty words and I'm tired of your empty rituals. And so thus begins the conversation through Malachi with the Israelites from Jehovah. He says, yet you say, how have we wearied him? And so, totally oblivious to their sin, the Israelites respond with disdain and skepticism, and they say to God, in what way have we exhausted your patience? They're not convinced that they have. So they raise the question. He says, well, in that you say everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them. knowing they were God's chosen people. Their thinking had become so twisted and so distorted by the events of the exile, because they had been in Babylon, now they're back in the land, and they've been there for a few decades now, and their return, just so much confusion for them. First of all, they knew the exile was a punishment for their sin, yet they were now back in the land, so they mistook that as God's grace rather than The fact that, excuse me, they mistook it for God tolerating sin, when in fact it was really God manifesting grace towards them. They had experienced hardship during the exile and afterwards, and they apparently felt it just wasn't fair. My daughter, my oldest daughter, Anna, when she was a little girl, when things did not go her way, she would often say to us, it doesn't make fair, daddy. And that's kind of what the people were saying to God. It doesn't make fair. Here's why they didn't think it was fair. We are, after all, your chosen people. And after all, those Babylonians, they're wicked, pagan, deserving judgment. Furthermore, they were back in the land. The temple had been rebuilt along with the walls of Jerusalem. But they had not seen any miraculous happenings associated with their return to the land, especially the return of the presence of Jehovah to the temple. He left the temple when they, in their idolatrous behavior, continued to whore after other gods, and they were hoping once back in the land, once the temple was rebuilt, that the presence of the Lord would come back, the Shekinah glory, but it never did. And that bugged them. And that's why they then began to speak about God the way they did. Things weren't as they hoped, and things weren't as they believed they should have been. And therefore, with contempt and impudence, they questioned God's very being. They distorted the truth of his righteousness by declaring the opposite of what was true of the Lord God. Evil is good. And it brings joy to Jehovah. That's what they were saying about God. Can you imagine? Evil is a good thing, obviously. And it must delight the Lord. I mean, what insolence and what disrespect. And furthermore, they asked another question. This question, where is the God of justice? With this question, they challenge God's infinitely wise plans for Israel. In today's vernacular, it would be what I mentioned at the very beginning. God isn't fair. God isn't fair. Jehovah answers this question in the following verses. But before we move on, let me just make one application. I want you to think with me about this. Because of Israel's circumstances, Not being what they believed they should have been, being his chosen people, they questioned God's person and they questioned his purposes. And God found their questioning very, very exhausting, fatiguing, and tiring. But let me ask you a question this morning. As you sit here this morning, this beautiful setting, I don't know what's been going on in your life. I know in general what's been going on in your life. And I think we're all suffering from a bit of the COVID fatigue, and we all have a lot of questions about a lot of things. But let me ask you a question. Have you wearied God with your words? We complain, even as followers of Jesus, we murmur, We argue with him. We even go so far as to criticize him because we're not happy with how events are unfolding in our lives. Has that been you during the course of these past four plus months? Or was it you even before those four months? You see, we can be just as guilty of those, as those Israelites were, of fatiguing and exhausting God with our words. And so I want you to think about that this morning. Have you been guilty of wearying God with your words? Because all you do is complain to Him. All you do is argue with Him. All you do is criticize Him. Let me share with you, by way of counsel, the words of the Apostle Paul that he wrote to the church at Philippi. Chapter 2, verse 14, he says, do all things without grumbling or disputing. That means arguing. So that, here's why. so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life." There is no greater testimony for the reality of God than God's people finding contentment, finding peace, finding His grace sufficient, even in the throes, even in the midst, even in the face of great trial and tribulation. And I think we all understand that's where we find ourselves today. So my challenge to you this morning is to remember something that Eric Little wrote many years ago. He was the famed Olympian that was featured in the movie Chariots of Fire several years ago. He said this, circumstances may appear to wreck our lives and God's plans, but God is not helpless among the ruins. God is not helpless among the ruins. And that's because he is using all of that to further his purposes, which ultimately will bring glory to himself and which will bring good and beneficial results to each and every one of us who are his children. So I have a challenge for us this morning as we think of this first point, and that is this, By God's grace, let us praise Him with our words and not weary Him with them, knowing He is infinitely loving and wise. He is worthy of our trust, no matter the circumstance. Amen? And that's what we need to remember this morning. That's the lesson we can take away from the Israelites who were wearying God with their words. Now let's move on to chapter three and let's look at our second point, the Lord's purification. In verse one, Malachi continues, behold, I am going to send my messenger and he will clear the way before me. So Malachi is the prophet, but the words he's speaking are God's words. So this is God speaking, behold, I'm going to send my messenger and he will clear the way before me. So here's God's answer to the important question that we looked at back in chapter two in verse 17. As often seen in many of the writings of the Old Testament prophets, Messiah's first and second comings are mingled together. And so as we read through the prophets of old, we have to discern with the Spirit's help which coming is in view. Is it the first coming of Christ or is it the second coming of Christ? These verses allude to the future forerunner of Messiah, and his identity is not in question. And that is because Jesus identifies the one that this passage refers to as none other than John the Baptist, who was the forerunner to Jesus when Jesus was on earth. If you go to Matthew chapter 11, we see that taught to us by Matthew as he records these words for us of Jesus. Verse 9 of Matthew 11, but what did you go out to see? Jesus speaking to the people, a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet, this is the one about whom it is written. And then guess what Jesus does? He quotes this passage. He quotes Malachi 3.1. Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you. Truly I say to you, among those born of a woman, born of women, there has not arisen anyone greater than, here it comes, John the Baptist. And so this is a prophecy given 400 years prior to John the Baptist coming on the scene. And these verses allude to his ministry. This took place 400 years later. He readied the people of Israel by preaching a message of repentance, and he readied them and prepared them for Christ's arrival and Christ's preaching of the gospel. And that all happened at the first coming of the Messiah, the first coming of Jesus. Now Malachi continues, quoting the Lord, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his people and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming. So now we have ourselves introduced to another messenger. It's not John the Baptist. He was the forerunner to Messiah, but now this is an introduction to another messenger. And of course, his identity is evident by several indications in the text, which I'll point out to you here momentarily. And this messenger is none other than the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. For instance, he is called Lord in the text. And interesting, in the Hebrew, it's not the Hebrew word Yahweh or Jehovah. It's the Hebrew word Adonai. which means he would be the master to his disciples and he would eventually be the sovereign of a literal kingdom. Secondly, he's called the owner of the temple. Did you notice that the temple is identified as his temple? The temple of ancient Israel was the house of the Lord. The temple is identified as his. He is called the messenger of the covenant. The word messenger literally in the Hebrew is angel. This would seem to be an allusion to the numerous pre-incarnate appearances of Jesus as the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament. All of this is pointing to the identity of this messenger being none other than the Lord Jesus. Also, these Jews, even in their sin, eagerly anticipated Messiah's coming. He said, you seek his return, you seek his coming, and that's because they knew it had been promised in the Hebrew scriptures. And then he's called the messenger of the covenant. Covenant is an important word to understand in the Old Testament because God entered into all kinds of covenants with Israel. Covenant is an agreement. A covenant is a contract. And sometimes there are conditions. You do this, I'll do that. And then sometimes God's covenants are, it doesn't matter what you do, but I'm still gonna do stuff. And so the question is, what covenant is in mind as he writes these words? This could be the new covenant promised by God to future Israel. If you have your Bibles, go to the book of Jeremiah in the 31st chapter. Let me read. What that new covenant is this is jeremiah chapter 31. I'm starting at verse 31 Behold days are coming declares the lord when I will make here comes a new covenant with the house of israel and with the house of judah Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of egypt. That would be moses and his my covenant which they broke although I was a husband to them declares the Lord but this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord here's the covenant I will put my law within them and on their heart I will write it and I will be their God and they shall be my people That's the new covenant. If you go to the book of Ezekiel chapter 36, you find greater description of it. And there he talks about how God was going to give to the Israelites a heart of flesh, not a fleshly heart, but a heart that's tender and responsive and obedient to God. And so it could be the new covenant is in view here. So the Messiah, when he comes, he will enter into that new covenant with the nation of Israel. Or it could possibly be the Mosaic covenant, and behind it, the Abrahamic covenant. Because there was a covenant that God entered into with Moses, and there was a covenant that he entered into with Abraham. And the thing about those two covenants is that there are some elements of them which are yet unfulfilled. They were unfulfilled in that day, and to be honest with you, they are still unfulfilled today, which means God being a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God, He still has a plan for Israel. And I say that because my Reform and Covenant friends believe that he has finished with Israel, he's replaced Israel with the Church, but that is not what the Scriptures teach. Clearly, he has future things yet to fulfill for Israel. So if you say that these covenants have been abrogated, that they no longer are in force, then you're saying God is a promise-breaker, not a promise-keeper. And that's not my God. My God makes a promise. My God keeps a promise. And these covenants are promises He's made to Israel, and He will fulfill them. And those days are yet to come. In verse 2, He continues, But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? Here the prophet clearly anticipates the future judgment by Messiah. which is part of his second coming purposes. So the return of Messiah has a number of purposes, and one of those purposes is to judge unrighteousness in the Gentile world and all the unrighteous Jews, and then to save the remnant of Israel, which will go into the kingdom. And so, this is talking about that judgment portion, when Messiah comes a second time. His first coming was to make provision for sin, right? Jesus said, I didn't come to judge. He said, the father sent me to become the savior of the world, both Jew and Gentile. And so his first coming has as its primary focus to make provision for sin. But his second coming is to judge sin, is to judge sin. Here's a couple of verses. I don't think any of us memorize early on in our following of Jesus because they're kind of depressing. Hebrews 10, verses 30 and 31. This is a segment of that. It says, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Did you memorize that early on in your walk with Christ? I suspect you didn't. I didn't. I preferred the verses that said, for God so loved the world. That's the verse I liked. But this verse teaches us that God is a multidimensional creature, a multidimensional being, and He is infinite love, but He also is infinitely holy, and His holiness requires judgment. And this is a passage that prophesies those coming days of judgment upon planet Earth, and He will be judging the unrighteous Gentiles and the unrighteous Jews. Or here's another verse in Hebrews as well, chapter 12, a couple of chapters later, verses 28 and 29. Our God is a consuming fire. How about that one? Did you commit that one to memory early on? No, I preferred 1 John 4, 8. For God is love. But again, he's a multidimensional being. My point in quoting those verses is, look at the next section of the verse. For he is, referring to Messiah, for he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap. This future judgment of Messiah is compared to a couple of cleansing agents, fire for metals and soap for clothing. And he further elaborates in verse three, he says, he will sit as a smelter, somebody who works with metals, precious metals, and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi. The sons of Levi were the guys who had the responsibility of running the temple and everything associated with it. And of course, if you were a priest, you were of the tribe of Levi as well. And so he will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver so that, to what end? That they may present the Lord offerings and righteousness. In other words, the Lord will remove all the moral and spiritual impurities of the future Levites and priests so that they gleam and endure like gold and silver. Unlike the unholy and the impure priests and Levites of Malachi's day, which he rebuked back in chapter one and two of Malachi, these men, these future Levites, will have their sins forgiven, and therefore they will be approved before God to offer sacrifices that God will find acceptable because they are the correct sacrifices. They're not the leftovers. They're not the leavings. They're not the impaired. And these men's hearts are right with God. Therefore, they bring acceptable sacrifices to the Lord. In verse four, he continues, then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. This purifying begins at the top with Israel's leaders, the priests, but it impacts the people of Israel as well. That's what is in view there when he talks about Judah and Jerusalem. The priests and the people are cleansed and ready for the king's reign. In view is the saved remnant of future Israel during the tribulation in preparation for Messiah's reign over his kingdom. The sacrifices, he notes, will be as effective as they were in the days of Moses and David and Solomon. That's what he means there. What he talks about is in the days of your fathers. And then in verse five, he says, then I will draw near to you in judgment. God now specifically, and he directly addresses the question about justice raised earlier by the disobedient Jews in 217. What did they say? Where is the God of justice? Jehovah assures Malachi's listeners, there will be future certain judgment for the sinful at the time of Messiah's second coming. And he continues and says, I will be swift to witness against sorcerers, and against adulterers, and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear me. You see, upon Messiah's return, his judgment will be quick, thus the word swift. There will be no dawdling. There will be no hesitation on the part of righteous Jesus. He will come and he will instantaneously make the absolute correct judgment call on all sinners, Jew and Gentile alike. And this would fall upon all types of sin that the Lord had forbidden in the law. For instance, he talks about the practitioners of magic. Those who consorted with the devil and demons. He said they will be judged. That kind of behavior was forbidden of the Israelites. Deuteronomy chapter 18. Men and women who would be unfaithful to their spouses. Those are the adulterers. Men and women who would be perjurers in a courtroom. They would lie under oath. Employers who would take advantage of their employees by cheating them of their wages. These are samples of all the people that are gonna face the judgment of God. In addition to that, he says, people who will oppress widows and orphans and aliens, all of which had a special place in the heart of God, they will be judged. And all this behavior was a result of the people ignoring and intentionally disobeying God's commands. And so even though right now it looks like the just are suffering and the wicked are prospering, that's all going to change one day. It's just a matter of time. And that's what he's getting at here with these Israelites. In verse 6 he continues, for I the Lord do not change. This may initially appear to be a contradiction to other places in the Bible where it is said that God changes his mind, but again, don't lose sleep over it, because Malachi's point is that God never changes in his essence or nature. In his being, he is always the same. He has always love. He has always wisdom. He is always holy. He is always righteous. He is always peace. He is always all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere present. None of that will ever, ever change. He doesn't ebb and flow depending upon his mood of the day. He is consistently God. And this is the marvelous declaration of what theologians call God's attribute of immutability. He never changes in His character, and He never changes in His eternal purposes. And men and women, in the face of everything we're looking at today, I want you to walk away with that. He never changes in His purposes, and He never changes in His being. James 1.17, James says of the Father, He is the Father of lights with whom there is no variation, and there's no shifting shadow. Its significance here is to assure the Israelites that God will always be true to His nature to judge sin and to forgive repentant sinners. Aren't you grateful for that? God will always forgive a repentant sinner. Always. Doesn't matter the sin. Because the blood of Christ is sufficient. It cleanses. It washes. His work is adequate to reconcile sinners with God. He's reminding the Israelites of that. He says, therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. God makes and keeps his covenants with Israel. This is why this is put here. He talked about the one who's coming, who is the messenger of the covenants. And he says, I want you to know, the one behind the covenant is this God who never changes. If he makes a promise, he'll keep a promise. God makes and keeps His covenants with Israel. It is what He does. He will judge unrepentant Jews, but deliver the believing ones in that day. He is assuring His people of their future existence and His untold blessings that await them. And it's due solely to His never-changing grace and mercy. Because God never changes he assured Israel that he would keep all of his promises to her He intended this to comfort her in view of her trying circumstances The New Testament contains numerous promises from the Lord meant specifically for us the church In the face of our personal trials in the face of hardships May I remind you? that He still doesn't change. So His promises to you in the New Testament, like, Lo, I'm with you always. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. May I just remind you that He is faithful to those promises because He never changes, because He's immutable. Hebrews 13a, the author of Hebrews says, Jesus Christ is the same. You say it with me. Yesterday and today and tomorrow. He is the same. He never changes. His promises are certain. You can take them to the bank. They are true. They are always valid. They are backed by his very nature. He never changes. Are you familiar with the FDIC, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation? They're the group that backs the banks. They guarantee the banks. Or the UL, United Laboratories. You'll see that little emblem on products that are electrical. They are the lab behind the product saying that this is a safe product. Or how about the good housekeeping seal of what? Approval. When you see that stamped on something, you know that the good housekeeping people are behind it. You know the UL people are behind it. The FDIC are behind it. I want you to know this morning that every promise in the New Testament given to you as a follower of Jesus, the God of the universe who is immutable, unchangeable, is behind it. And you can take that to the bank. And then finally, we come to the Lord's confrontation. This is an interesting conversation between Jehovah. From the days of our fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. See, from their earliest history, the nation of Israel had a pattern of deviation from Jehovah's straight paths of righteousness recorded in the Mosaic law. Our first five books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, it's called the Torah or the Pentateuch. He says, return to me, and I'll return to you. What a great promise from God. Return to me, and I will return to you. In James chapter 4, it's similar. He says that he is the Lord, and if we draw near to him, he says, I'll draw near to you. That's what he says here to these Israelites, clearly in view. are the ideas of repentance and renewal and restoration, things God wants to do for His people, the Israelites. They were commanded to repent and convert, and the Lord mercifully and graciously promised He would restore them to fellowship But you say, so here's how they responded. But you say, you Israelites say, how shall we return? Yet again, they give another disrespectful, impertinent question in response to God. And it implies they didn't believe they had done anything that would require repentance. They were innocent of the charge. So God says, okay, you want an example? Let me give you an example. Verse eight, will a man rob God? If wearying God with your words didn't convict you, this one will. Will a man rob God? He says to these Israelites, you are robbing me. But you say, how have we robbed you? And he answers, in tithes and offerings. The Lord had many options to use as illustrations of their disobedience and need of repentance. He chose their giving to him as an example. Let me say this, stealing isn't just taking what does not belong to you. We understand that dimension of stealing, right? When I was a little kid, I had a serious thievery issue. I would take stuff from my friend's house. If there was loose change on top of their dressers, I would take it. If there were candy bars or something sweet in their room, I would find it, I would take it. Stealing isn't just taking what belongs to others. You see, stealing can also be holding back what is rightfully someone else's. Holding back what is rightfully somebody else's. They were thieves of the worst kind because they were stealing from God by failing to give all God asked for in his law. In the law, they were required to tithe to God. A tithe means a tenth. They were to give one-tenth to God. And listen to this. If they give one-tenth to God, that means they get to keep how much? Nine-tenths. I mean, everything was God's. He loaned it to them, and he said, I'm just going to ask for one-tenth of it back. You can keep the nine-tenths. They weren't even giving a tenth of what they owed God. Three major tithes in the Old Testament for the Israelites. Two were yearly, one was every three years. You'll find that in Leviticus 27, Numbers 18, Deuteronomy 12, and Deuteronomy 14. These offerings supported the priests and the Levites because they didn't have jobs other than the job and responsibility that were sacred in the temple service. That was their job and the people were supposed to support them with these tithes. But in addition to being the sole source of provision for those men, and if they didn't provide for those men, those men would have to leave the ministry and they would have to go out and farm to survive. That was not God's intention. But these gifts also supported widows, orphans, and foreigners. And by holding back, they were hurting the most vulnerable people in all of the land of Israel. He said, you want to know the accusation I have against you? One amongst many, you're stealing from me. As a matter of fact, in verse 90 says, you are cursed with a curse for you're robbing me. The whole nation of you, this sin was widespread. It doesn't mean every single Israelite was stealing by holding back their offerings, but this sin was widespread throughout the nation. And God responded as he promised by cursing the land and animals with poor production, which is what he said in Deuteronomy chapter 28. In verse 10, he says, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. The remedy to this problem was simple. God says, obey me, obey my law, give all that I have required of you. And this temple had storage rooms in which the food supplies, the crops, the animals, et cetera, for the priests and the Levites, which were reserved for sacrifice and also for taking care of the poor. They were stored in these treasury rooms, which went around the perimeter of the temple. That's the storehouse. And then he says, and test me now. In this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. God challenges the people to trust him by giving what he required. And he in turn would make abundant provision for their needs. There would be plenty of rain and sunshine to grow the crops and to feed and water the flocks. And it would be so overwhelming, they wouldn't have enough room to store it, he says. And then he says, I will rebuke the devourer for you. So if they brought all that was required, he said, additionally, I will rebuke the devourer for you so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground, nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes. And he further promises he would preserve all that was planted. The locusts and the animals and the various other pests would not destroy the crops and the grapevines would not be damaged. They would go undamaged. So he's saying, just, just obey me, please just obey me. I just want to pour out such blessing on you. All you have to do is obey me, but you don't. So now you reap the consequences of disobedience. Faithfulness to God, he says to Israel, would result in fruitfulness of the land. And that's going to happen in the millennium. All of this will come to pass in the millennium, but not until then. In verse 12, he concludes by saying, all the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land. He's saying the Gentile world, the non-Jewish world, would acknowledge God's blessing on Israel because of the abundance of the land, and they would be drawn to worship the God of Israel, Jehovah the Lord. Let me wrap up with one more application. God is the greatest of all givers. Would you not agree with me? John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever Believes in him would never perish but have everlasting life Over in 2nd Corinthians 8 in verse 9 for you know the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich Yet for your sake he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich. He's not talking Literally there he's talking spiritually there He invites us to take what He provides us with and return it to Him for His glory. We are not Old Testament Israel, so we don't operate on the basis of the Mosaic Law and its tithing requirements. I hear people talk about tithes in the New Testament all the time, in New Testament churches. The New Testament church doesn't tithe. I mean, if you want to use that as a rule of thumb where to start, 10% of whatever your income is, that's fine. But in the New Testament, God says, I just want you to give as you determine before me, and then I want you to give it regularly. I want you to give it systematically. I want you to give it proportionately. I want you to give it generously. I want you to give it joyfully. We find that in two places, 1 Corinthians chapter 16 and verse 2. On the first day of every week, Paul writing to the church at Corinth, on the first day of every week each one of you every individual christian is to put aside and save as he may prosper so that no collections be made when i come And then in 2 Corinthians 9, 6 and 7, Paul continues with insights on this. He says, now this I say, he who sows sparingly, that is, gives, will also reap sparingly. And he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves literally a hilarious giver. My point Israel was challenged by God because they were stealing from Him. He gave them all that they had, and He only asked for a tenth of it back, but they didn't even give that. That was one of many sins they were guilty of, and that's what they're being rebuked for. We in the church age, in this era in which we live, we have the privilege of returning to God what it is He's blessed us with, because we don't have anything except that God gave it. That's what John the Baptist said in John chapter three. We only have because God has given it. And over in first Corinthians four, Paul says you have because you've been given. We're stewards, we're managers of all that he gives us. And that includes our time and our treasure and our talents. And here's an admonition from the scripture. And in light of his gift of himself to us as our savior, ask yourself the following questions about your giving to him. Do you give regularly or haphazardly? Do you give systematically, prayerfully planning what to do? Or do you just show up, reach in your pocket and go, ah, ah, ah, ah, I don't have anything today. That's not how we want you to give. Do I give proportionately? As I prosper, do I give more? That's the idea. Do I give generously or am I stingy? And do I give joyfully or reluctantly? If this is an area needing some attention, I want to encourage you and admonish you as a follower of Jesus that you would prayerfully address these questions. Nothing pleases our Lord more than his people following his example of giving. Someone once said, we're never more like Jesus than when we give. And I wanna thank all of you who do give generously and consistently so that we can continue to function as a local church, evangelizing and edifying our community. Thank you, thank you, thank you. God's justice may be delayed, but it is never deterred. That is the main point of Malachi's words to the Israelites. I leave you with these words from Revelation 22, verses 12 and 13. This is Jesus speaking. And I'll leave them with you as you think of this idea, as you look at the world and you see the wicked prospering, you see the righteous suffering, remember this. Jesus said, behold, I am coming quickly and my reward is with me to render to every man according to what he has done. I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Father, thank you. For this time, in your word this morning, we come to you now and ask that you'll bless us as we close our service by celebrating the greatest gift that ever has been given to man, the greatest gift we individually have ever received, the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ, who died upon the cross for our sins, died in our place. who was raised from the dead three days later to prove he was the son of God and to prove that you accepted his payment in full for our sin. And we pray that you'll bless this wafer and bless this juice to our remembrance of that great sacrifice, the ultimate demonstration of what it is to give. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So I'd like to ask you right now to tear the cellophane on top, which will then release the wafer. In the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread, he broke it, and he said, this is my body, which is broken for you. Let's eat this, remembering that. On that very same night, he took the cup, and after he blessed it, he said, this is my blood, which has been shed for you. Let's drink it, remembering his sacrifice.