Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. Malachi, chapter 3. Malachi 3. I look back over my notes, all
the notes that I've got, to see if I'd ever preached out of this
passage of Scripture, as far as I can tell. I never have. I quoted it, heard men
quote on it, mention it. But I'd like to preach out of
Malachi 3, verses 8-11. I've entitled this message, Will
Man Rob God? Will a man rob God? Now, just hold your place right
there. I'd like to begin by making a
few comments out of another passage in Proverbs. It's an amazing
passage of Scripture concerning the Lord's desire toward his
people. And I want you to understand,
before we begin, it is a marvel of the relationship between Almighty
God and His people. A marvel. He who inhabits eternity he who
the stars are not pure in his sight, the one that charges his angels
with folly, that he has set forth his heart of the relationship that a believer
has with the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's in Christ alone before
God Almighty. That God would look upon His
people only in Christ, one of all. Thank you. Thank you. That all the The work finished, the scripture
says, before the foundation of the world. Manifested in time,
but God's always seen it. And I know that in Him that I'm
complete, and I stand before God Almighty in my blessed Savior. Now that's a cover. That's that living water we've
talked about. If we drink, we just don't thirst
after anything, never thirst again for something else. But listen to this scripture, and don't ever forget what I
just said about us standing before God Almighty only in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to Proverbs 23, 26. Let
me read this to you. My son, give me thine heart,
and let thine eyes observe my ways. Let your affection be toward
me, and look unto me by faith, trusting. That's what it says.
Give me your heart. You know, you think about the
relationship between a man and his wife, and you think about
the desire that they would have one toward another. If a man
were to tell his wife, he said, look, I'm going to give you a
place to stay and a car to drive. checking account. But you just
don't have my heart. She don't have anything. What
is that? What is that? I don't have your heart? I mean, you give up everything else for
them to have a heart for you. I understand that. I can reason
with that. If Linda were to tell me, I'd
just, Harvey, I'd just unplug you. Boy, it'd devastate me. I mean, I'd give up anything
else, but to give up human in this life, give up my, no, no. I mean, we may not have anything,
but if we got each other, This is between God Almighty, God, and would say to his people,
my son, give me thy heart. That scripture just arrests me. He who rules and reigns expresses
that which he desires. The heart of His people, the
heart, the seed of their love and passion and trust, give me
that heart. I know that that forgiving of my heart, I know
that it's trusting His Son. I trust His Son, I believe Him. I trust, this is my beloved Son
in whom I'm well pleased, hear Him. To hear Him, trust Him,
to believe Him, to walk after Him, to long after Him, in a
voluntary surrender, made willing in the day of God's power, I
know that. But to voluntarily surrender
because I love Him. He who has given me all sets
forth his desire towards his people. Give me your heart. Not have heart, your heart. Giving him my heart, and I know
how that phrase has been abused by false religion, I gave my
heart to Jesus. From what I can view, when a
man normally makes that statement, I gave my heart to Jesus when
I was nine. I'm not worried about when you were nine. What think
you of Christ right now? I'm not worried about yesterday.
Yesterday's gone. I can't live on yesterday's faith.
Tomorrow's not going to get here. I've got right now. Today's today's
salvation. Today. What think you of Christ right
now? I'm talking about the Christ. concerning the report that's
given of Him. What think ye of Him? Giving
Him my heart. That's scriptural language. To
trust Him with the rule and the government of my life. My heart. I know that I trust, I know that
our faith, It's not perfect. I know that. I know that we waver, and I know
that except Almighty God view me in my blessed Savior, the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ, I know that I have no hope. I know that. But I trust Him. I love Him. as I would desire to love him?
No, I don't. No, I don't. Do I walk after him as I wish
I would? No, I don't. Paul the apostle
expressed it like this old wretched man that I am. That which I would, I don't do. Is there a believer sitting here
today that can truthfully say, I'm walking after him just as
faithfully as I want to? That's not what a believer is
going to say then. No, this is what you're going to say. Oh,
that I might know him. Well, don't you know him? A believer
does. But don't you want to know him?
Yes, I do. Do you believe him? Yes, I do.
Do you want to believe him? Yes, I do. Can we trust him? Can we trust
Him? Look at Matthew 6. Matthew 6,
verse 31. Now, remember the question. My
son, give me your heart. Give me your heart. Your trust. Trust me. Give me your heart.
Matthew 6, 31. Now, listen to the words of our
Lord. Now, listen to these Listen to
this statement, listen to this truth, listen to this promise.
Now, think about your saying this. Therefore take no thought, saying
Matthew 6.31, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal
shall we be clothed? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek for your Heavenly Father, knowing that you have
need of all these things. ye first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Therefore, take therefore no fault for the
morrow, for the morrow shall take fault for the things of
the day. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof. I'm asking Mark of this, and
you can ask yourself if you want to. Do I have any reason whatsoever
to worry about whether or not I'm going to eat tomorrow, or
whether I'm going to have anything to drink, or whether I'm going
to have anything to put on? Do I truly believe that Almighty
God is going to take care of my temple needs? You seek first
the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. and all these things shall be
added unto you." There is nothing wrong with asking the Lord for
temporal blessings. He has already promised that
those things would be added unto you. What teaches us to pray? Our
Father, which is art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom
come, thy will be Lord, I'm praying that what you have eternally
purposed to do in the salvation of your elect, I pray that that
comes. Give us this day our daily bread.
That's how he taught his disciples. Pray after that manner. I'm not
talking about quoting it every time. After that manner, in that
way. Do I have any reason to not believe
God? Do I have any reason to? No,
I don't have any reason to. Our blessed Savior has satisfied
every need, spiritual need. Everything that's demanded before
Almighty God for acceptance and peace and comfort, He has absolutely
satisfied it. And I stand before God complete
in Him. Now, do you think that He who
has everlastingly loved me, gave Himself for me, lived for me,
died for me, raised for me, ascended for me, intercedes for me, do
you think that He's going to let me not have something to
eat? I told you what Don Fortner's
son-in-law asked him one time. He said, Don, can I borrow a
wrench from you? He said, I gave you my daughter.
You think I won't loan you a wrench? Now turn back to Malachi chapter
3. In light of that blessing, my
son, give me your heart. And listen to these words, Malachi
3.8. Will a man rob God? Before I keep reading, I'm going
to go through verse 11 before this is over. Listen. Will a
man rob God? The omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent
God. Will a man rob the God who knows
all and sees all Some men will slip around in the dark and think,
if you don't know what I'm doing, I'll get away with it. I've had things taken from me. And it just, it just, number
one, it made me mad. Number two, it disappointed me
because I knew who it was. I knew who it was. It just disappointed me so great. Will a man rob God? Is that possible? Well, the next part of this verse
says that yes, it is possible, and yes, we have. Yet you've robbed me. The one who never sleeps, the
one before whom there's no cloth to hide. How desperate could
a man be? To rob Him who is going to give
to every man his due, either in Christ or out of Christ. God's
just. It's not an idle charge. Do you know who said this? Almighty
God said this. These are not my words. Now,
I know this. I know how those words have been
abused right there. And there's nothing, nothing
that drives me up the wall. Because you know in the next
few verses he's going to be talking about money. And I'm Lord willing,
I'm going to deal with it. But there's nothing that drives
me up the wall more than listening to people beg for money on television. As I've said before, they always
say send your money to God and they give you their address.
But begging for money and telling you, now if you don't, If you
don't give, if you don't sow that seed of faith, the faith
seed, you know? You want a bunch? You know. And all in the world it is. It's just nothing but just, it
has nothing to do with God's glory. But I, by God's good pleasure,
I'm going to deal with these scriptures. And in light of what
I truly believe, the message is set forth. Will a man rob God? Give me by heart. I want to consider,
for just a few minutes, on what is it to rob God? What does it
mean to rob God? Rob God of what? Trust. Listen to Proverbs 3.5. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. And how do you do that? Well,
the rest of the scripture says, and lean not unto thine own understanding. Trust in the Lord. Don't deviate. Don't deviate in your trust.
Don't even think about it. Don't even worry about it. Now, are we guilty here or not? I'm going to be honest about
it. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. It is a slur on
the character of Almighty God to not trust Him. We rob Him of respect. Are you
not glad that you stand complete in Christ and that the righteousness
of Christ answers for you? When I was in the eighth grade,
I wanted to go to the store. We lived probably five miles
away from the store. And I told my dad before he left,
I wanted to go to the store. And he said, I'll pick you up.
He said, I'll be back this afternoon. I'll pick you up. I'll take you.
I'll get off. He was a bread, had a bread bag. And I, that afternoon, it got
hot. It's hot. Louisiana's middle
of the summer. I started walking, because I
didn't think he was going to show up. And about halfway down,
I saw that bread truck coming. And he asked me this, did you
not believe that I was going to be there to pick you up? Oh,
that just hurt me. But I thought, what did that
do to me? My son, he didn't even believe
me. He didn't believe, I said, do we not rob God Almighty of
respect when we don't trust Him? Oh, wretched man that I am. I'm talking about right now,
not my standing before God. I'm not trying to establish a
standing before God. My standing before God is complete
in Christ. But I live in this world. And
you know what he's teaching me right now? He's teaching me just
like the Lord was teaching that woman at Sychar, at that well.
I'm going to teach you how desperate you need me. I'm going to show
you what you are. I'm going to show you how frail
you really are. Do you really believe me? Let
me ask you, how about worship? Adoration. Adoration from the
heart. Revelation 19, John had fallen
down before the feet of one that had been instructed him, and
that one that spoke to him in Revelation 19 said, John, see
thou do it not, I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren
that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. Worship Him. Reverence Him. Adore Him. How quickly, how quickly, how
quickly Does my mind just fade? How many times during the day
do I walk around and just absolutely not consider Him who is worthy
of worship? How about my time and devotion
brought in God? We've only got so much of it.
Life is but a vapor. Here today, gone tomorrow. The
Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 5, 16, redeeming the time because
the days are evil. Redeeming the time. If you're
like me, I read these words and I hear them and I understand.
I mean, I can read English pretty much. And I understand, I read
the word redeeming, but what does it mean? What does it mean?
Redeeming the time. What does that mean? Buy up and
set free. That's what it means. Buy up
and set free. Here's what it means. Let us
rescue and recover our time from waste. How much time do I waste? I'm just being honest. I'm telling you the more I go
into this passage. This passage was a conviction
when I started reading on it four or five days ago. And the
more I read on it, the more I thought on it, the more I realized I've
got to preach on this. It is a conviction to me. Now,
here again, I'm dealing with me this morning, and you deal
with you. I'm talking about Marvin Stoniker. How much does Marvin trust God?
I trust him, but oh, how little do I trust him. I read about how his disciples
acted around him. And these, how much they were
inconsistent with their devotion. I read about Peter when the Lord
told him, you will deny. Do you think that Peter was a
believer? Yes, Peter was a believer. How much did you see inconsistency
in Peter? How about in any of his disciples? Consider who we are. were cut
out of the same lump as they are. And oh, they saw their desperate
need of Him. How about our praise? In that time and devotion that
I have, time in prayer, time in worship, time in study of
His pictures, How much time do I have for everything else? Oh,
well, you say, I've got so many things to do. Listen, I'll use
that line too. We're not hiding anything. We're
just honest. Let's just be honest. Praise
unto Him. First time the word praise is
used in the New Testament. Here it is, Matthew 21, 16. Yea,
have you never read Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings
thou has perfected praise." Perfected. That word perfected means it
is the path of progress. This is the path of progress.
There were some little children that watched some miracles that
the Lord had done. those that watched what he did. And they praised him, they praised
him. The Lord said they did. They attested with pleasure or
satisfaction. They just were taken up with
what they saw. They were just children. And
everybody else would want them to, you know, Get those kids
out of here, think of what we're trying to worship. The Lord said, leave them alone,
except you become as they are. In our hearts, when we, by faith,
see what the Lord has done for us and is doing according to
His eternal purpose and power, we owe Him a praise out of the
heart And my old heart is so desperately wicked, I struggle. Here's an old man and a new man,
and I'm struggling and I'm struggling. And I see on one hand, I know,
I know that there's a nature in me that absolutely loves God,
the life of Christ. Christ in me, the hope of glory. There's a life in me that does
not sin. Now you know that scripture. That does not sin. That which
is born of God sineth not. But there's a nature in me that
does nothing but sin. Nothing but rebel against God.
And they're contrary one to another. And I struggle with it. Will a man rob God? Rob Him of
honor and praise and time? The Lord says, you brought me,
and I'm guilty. I'm standing here right now and
I'll tell you that I'm guilty. Oh, how thankful for the message
of God's mercy in Christ. I'm guilty. But those Jews ask,
in that verse, But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? What do
you mean? We go to church. We go to church. Now, listen
to the answer of our Lord. Wherein have we robbed thee?
He said, in tithes and offerings. In tithes and offerings. Now, I just looked at where a
man truly robs God of devotion, honor, praise, worship. And listen
to the words that he uses. Wherein have we robbed thee,
he said, in tithes and offerings. All right, I've got another question
for you. Does God Almighty need anything from us? Does he need
anything from us? Listen to Psalm 50, verse 12,
ìIf I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world is mine
in the fullness thereof.î What does God Almighty lack in
Himself? What does He lack? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. So then if God Almighty needs
nothing from His people, why does He say that you've robbed
me in tithes and offerings? Why? Why does He say that? Somebody will say, are you saying
that we've robbed God in tithes and offerings? I'd say no. God said it, and that just settled
it. Why does he say tithe and offering? Well, first of all, let me ask
you this. What was the tithe? Well, in
the Old Testament, Malachi's Old Testament, the tithe was
concerning the law. The tithe was concerning the
law. It was the first fruits. One-tenth of everything that
a man received, the first of it, one-tenth, was to be given
to the maintenance of the Levites and of the tabernacle. That's
what the tithe was for. It was a tithe. It was demanded. It was not up for debate. They
took it. They took it. Offerings. Offerings, I looked it up, they
were gifts. They were gifts that were given.
Like the tithe, obviously tithe and offerings must be something
different. The tithe was demanded. The offering was a gift that
was given. Does the New Testament teach
tithing as it was set forth in the Old Testament? No. No. No. 2 Corinthians 9.7 says, Every man
according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not
grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. Is one-tenth demanded as it was
under the law? Not scripturally. But I will
tell you this, A.D. Mewes said this, and I heard
Brother Henry said the same thing. A.D. Mewes says this, he said
a man that ties, demands ties, works at all of this and everything
around ties, he gives according to law. If he's a tither, you
know, well I'm a tither. But what he's doing is he's giving
according to law, but a man that doesn't give is an outlaw. He's an outlaw. He's a thief. That's all he is, he's a thief.
A thief? How can you say that? Well, let's go back to my question. If God needs nothing from his
people, why does he say that we brought him in tithes and
offerings? Remember what the tithe was for.
It was for the maintenance of the Levites, the priests, the
priests could not work. They couldn't. And God was going
to take care of them. The maintenance of that temple,
it was a tight, it was a tight, it was a tent, it was demanded
of everything, everything that they had. It was a tight tent. Why did he say, you've robbed
me? The people had come to the point
to where they didn't maintain their Levites. The Levites were
doing what they could to get by. And God Almighty said to the
people, you've robbed me. You've robbed me of honor. You've
robbed me of glory. You've robbed me of trust. The rebellion and failure in
giving exposes what a man really thinks about God. I'll prove that. I'm approving.
I know that. Turn to Luke 18. Let me tell
you this. You know the scripture says the
love of money is the root of all evil. Luke 18, I said this,
my rebellion, what I really think in my heart, is evidenced by
my generosity or the lack of it. Luke 18, starting in verse
18, a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good master, what shall
I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why
callest thou me good? None is good save one, that is
God. Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not
kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness unto thy father
and thy mother. And he said, All these have I
kept for my youthful. Now when Jesus heard these things,
he said unto him, Thou lackest, yet lackest thou one thing. Sell
all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt
have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. And when he
heard this, he was very sorrowful. He was very rich. Now wait a minute, I've never
committed adultery, I've never killed anybody, I've never stolen,
I've never lied on anybody. I honor my father and my mother, but are you saying that I'm covetous? He went away very sorrowful.
And I turn over to verse 19. Verse 1, Jesus entered and passed
through Jericho, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus,
which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And
he sought to see Jesus, who he was and could not to the press,
because he was little, a statue. And he ran before him, and he
climbed up in a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass
that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and
saw him and said unto him, down and received him joyfully,
and when they saw it, they all murmured, saying that he was
gone to be a guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus
stood and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my
goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from
any man by false accusations, I will restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This
day is salvation come to this house for as much As he also
is a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man has come to seek and
to save that which is lost. Now let me ask you this. Does
it mean that if a man gives some money that he's going to be saved? No. What I'm saying is, a man
that God opens his heart is a generous man in all things. He gives. exhibits that he trusts God,
that he believes God, that he hopes in God. You say, well,
these words are hard. You say it would be such a risk. You don't understand. I've got
stuff I've got to pay for. I have got things that I've got
to make good on. I've got kids to raise. I've
got obligations. I just can't afford it. I just
can't afford it. I just can't afford to obey God.
You say, Marvin, these are hard words.
I remind all of us who said them. Before you think too hard about
the messenger, think of the source. I'm talking about all of us.
We're going to raise our finger and point our finger at God and
say, it's just too risky to believe you. It's just too much of a
sacrifice. I don't mind. I understand, I
understand it being the other way. No. We just don't believe
God. We just don't believe Him. I
just, now look, let's just quit trying to be, you know, let's
just, I just can't believe God. No, if I had to, you see, when
we have to give, now let me restate that. No, when we give, what
we're saying is, I do believe that He's able. Do you believe
that he's going to let you suffer and lack any good thing because
of obedience? I see what happens is when he
said, you've robbed me in tithes and offerings. See, this is the
matter. This gets right down to the heart of it. If he said, if you just show
up at church, if you just, but I'm telling you, When it starts
getting down to the nitty gritty of it, I just don't believe God. If you think this is convicting
for you, you ought to stand up here. You ought to come and stand
here and have to be thinking of this heart. You know, when a believer is
faced with a decision to make according to God's Word, you
remember the parable of the sower. Oh, how many times have I brought
that parable up. It says many, when they heard
the word, they fell on stony ground. It just sprang up quickly. Praise the Lord. Bless God. Bless
the Lord. I love Him. But when persecution
for the Word says, when they started realizing what the Scriptures
were saying. Am I saying that I'm trying to
establish a righteousness before God? No. I know better than that. I already settled that in the
first couple of sentences of this message. What I'm saying
is, God is going to teach us. If you be without chastisement,
you're none of His. What is He doing? He's showing
us what we really are. This is the heart of it. We're
coming down. Do we really believe God? Oh, when our faith is tried.
We read those scriptures of Neal and he just passed over so easy.
Faith is tried in the fire, amen. Well, let me ask you something.
When it comes right down to it, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
was told by Nebuchadnezzar And if you don't, I'm going to
throw you in a fiery furnace. Now when it comes right down
to a believer having to make a decision according to God's
Word, what is a believer? What should
he do? What should he do? Here's what those boys said.
We're not prepared to answer thee in this matter. If it be
so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning,
fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand. They knew
in life or death, He's going to deliver us out of your hand,
O King. But if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will
not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast
set up. If you don't bow, I'm going to
throw you in the fire. Well, you're just going to have
to go ahead and throw them at Him. Now, you know that takes
grace to believe God. And they threw them in there,
and you know what happened. God delivered them. Those men
did not count their lives so precious. I'm not going to not
believe Him. By the grace of God, I'm going
to believe Him. You see, tithes and offerings to money, That's
not the issue. The money is not the issue. The
issue is my mistrust of God. He's just exposing it like that.
Our carnal nature tells us that it's too risky to obey God and
believe God. But God's word refutes what my
old man just told me. You can't afford to. You just can't afford to. Not
with all the stuff you've got to pay. Well, then I just better get
rid of some stuff. The Lord told him in verse 9,
He said, You're cursed with a curse. You've robbed me. Including this
whole nation. You're cursed with a curse. Not
an eternal curse. No. No. God's people were not
cursed. He was talking to His people.
They walked contrary to Him. And they persevered in rebellion
and were impoverished by their rebellion. Haggai 1.6 proves it. He says,
he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with
holes. How many times have we read,
think of Elijah, when he was kind of exiled. He wasn't going
to eat. God sent some ravens every day.
He drank water out of that brook, and those ravens brought him
some meat every day. He ate. Remember when the prophet went
to the woman, and all she had was just a little crumb. She
had just enough, you know, some oil and some flour. I got just
enough to make me and my boy here another biscuit, and then
we're going to die. And the prophet said, you make
one for me first. And that was enough every day.
We read those things and we think, boy, I'm telling you, those Old
Testament, man, wasn't that marvelous? You remember when the nation
of Israel, they came to the Red Sea and there they were and the
Egyptians were on their way and Moses said, you stand still and
see the salvation of God. And God opened up the Red Sea.
Man, wow, what a story! We're in Katy, West Virginia
today, and God never changes. Do I really believe God? The Lord said in verses 10 and
11, bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may
be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord
of hosts. If I will not open you the windows
of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room
enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer
for your sakes. He shall not destroy the fruits
of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before
the time in the field, saith the Lord of Hosts. You know, we are so proud. If
I tell you something, and I know what a frail creature I am, I
know that. And I know the propensity of
my old wicked heart to be deceitful, I know that. But truly, my desire,
at least when I say it, I want you to believe me. If I tell
you something, if I tell you I'm going to be there, I'll be
there at 10 o'clock. Come here and meet me. I'll meet you. I'll
do this, I'll do that. If you were to tell me, Martin,
you're going to have to prove yourself to me. You're going
to have to. You know that would insult me.
Prove myself to you? My word's not good enough for
you? That Almighty God would say,
prove me now? I mean here a nothing, a nobody
in myself, a nobody that would just get his feelings hurt and
you would, you would. It would take me a while to get
over that if you told me that. And here is God Almighty. Prove
me. Prove me now. You trust me. And see if I will not open the
windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall
not be room enough to receive it." Well, am I going to be rich?
Probably not. Probably not. Am I going to be
healthy? Not forever. What do you mean, pour you out
a blessing? Matthew 5, as we close. Matthew 5. I'll pour you out a blessing
if there won't be room enough to receive it. Matthew 5, verse
3. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that
mourn, grieving over themselves and grieving over others, for
they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, those that
are willing to just wait on God, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are
they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. when men shall revile you, and
persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely,
for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they, the prophets,
which were before you." Yes, I know when the prophet
Malachi wrote those words, I do know that it was under the Old
Testament dispensation. And I do realize the law of tithing. I do realize that we're not under
law, thanks be unto God. Men don't give because they have
to. Men give because they believe God. That's why. They trust God. It exhibits It
exhibits what they are. Can God be trusted? Can he be trusted? He said, you
prove me. My dad, I was little. I don't remember how little.
I do remember where I was. I was on the edge of the house. Mama was there in Greenway Park.
I don't know how I got on the roof. I don't know how. But man,
I couldn't get off. I couldn't get off. And I'm thinking,
now what am I going to do? And my dad saw me and came over
there and he put his arm, and he wasn't, the end of his hands
wasn't that far from me. I mean, he just about reached
gutters. He said, okay, let's just jump
off. Oh, oh, oh. He said, I'm not going to drop
you. I'm going to catch you. And I knew he was. I knew he was. Oh, that's so
far. Now he might have dropped me. Maybe he didn't mean to, but
he might have. But he said, I'll never leave
you. I'll never forsake you. Come
unto me, all you that are weak and heavy laden, I will give
you rest." Trust Him. He can be trusted. Last verse,
Mark 12. Mark 12, verse 41, 44. Mark 12. Mark 12, starting in verse 41. And Jesus sat over against the
treasury, and he beheld how the people cast money into the treasury,
and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain
poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a party. And he called unto him his disciples,
and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that had cast more
in than all they which have cast into the treasury. For all they
did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast
in all that she had, even all her living." I was taken back when I read
in verse 41, Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld Not how
much, but how. He looked in what way they gave. Will a man run God? Left to himself,
yes. I know what happened in the garden.
I know what God told Adam. You can eat of everything, but
not of this tree. And what did Adam do? He robbed
God. He robbed God of trust. He robbed God of respect. He
robbed God. Was Adam one that God showed
mercy to? Yes. And I wonder, how willing is a man, once he
realizes what he is by nature, How willing is he to just walk
and just rebelling against God? I'm just not going to. I said
before, the money is not the issue. My relationship to him
is the issue. And the means by which he teaches
me what I am, and money obviously, is God's way. God Almighty knew
what the issue was. It's like that big junk ruler. He went away sorrowing because
he had a lot of money. I just, I just, that's just too
much. That's just too high a risk.
I just can't do it. I just can't do that. Okay. Okay. May Almighty God have mercy on
our hearts. Teach us first naps. God can
be trusted. Lord help me, Lord I believe,
help that man I believe. For Christ's sake. Amen. Let's
stand together.