Well, we've found ourselves in
an interesting place in the scriptures again, a challenging place in
Malachi. And as we said last night, Malachi,
he was called the Seal of the Prophets by the Jews. He is also called the last of
them. And so as we said over the last
few weeks, we're not exactly sure of the time, but it was
some time after Nehemiah and probably not very long after
Nehemiah and yet again we actually have this remarkable word from
God who comes and speaks with truthfulness and with clarity
and exposes the hearts of men and in the glorious, I guess
the backdrop of the wickedness and the depravity of man we actually
see the glory of God shining ever so more brightly. I often
think of what it must have been like for Mary and Martha to have
those four days and more probably of anguish and darkness and in
a sense despair and yet through the eyes of faith they looked
to the Lord Jesus and they sent word to Him And then he said
those remarkable words, he said, if you believe, you will see
the glory of God. And in Malachi we actually see
the glory of God in the most amazing way. In chapter 3, we
might just read the first 12 verses. We looked at the first
6 of them briefly last week. He says, Behold, I will send
my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord,
whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the
messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in. Behold, he shall
come, said the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of
his coming? Who shall stand when he appears,
for he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap. And he
shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify
the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they
may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall
the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as
in the days of old, as in former years. And I will come near to
you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against sorcerers
and against adulterers, against false swearers, against those
that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the
fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right.
And fear me not, fear not me, said the Lord of hosts. For I
am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Even from the days of your fathers
you have gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept
them. Return to me, and I will return
to you, said the Lord of hosts. But you said, Wherein shall we
return? Will a man rob God? Yet you have
robbed me. But you say, Wherein have we
robbed thee? in tithes and offerings. You
are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this
whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the
storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me
now herewith, said 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, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your
ground. Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time
in the field, said the Lord of Hosts. And all the nations shall
call you blessed, for you shall be a delightsome land, said the
Lord of Hosts. as we read through the scriptures
and as we of course look to the New Testament and then look in
the world around us, one of the shocking things, the shocking
things is how far people can go in religion and think that
they are right. The Old Testament is absolutely
full of it. And here we are in Malachi after
the most extraordinary history. These are the people, the returned
people from Babylon. They have seen in recent memory,
they have seen God's judgement upon their wickedness. God warned
and warned and warned and promised and promised. promised from Deuteronomy
on and warned them. Every prophet came and warned
them of the same. And yet, like the Pharisees in
the Lord's day, what did Paul think of his righteousness? He
thought he was blameless. They actually thought that their
behaviour and their law keeping and their righteousness before
God was really acceptable to God. And so one of the most shocking
verses, you might be shocked by God saying you have robbed
me and in a sense all of God's people with Hearts of flesh rather
than hearts of stone would immediately think, dear oh dear, how much
have I robbed him? How much have I robbed him? How
much have I robbed him of his due? How much have I taken of
his, the things that are rightfully his, and claimed them for myself? But in verse 7, it's almost a
more shocking word, isn't it? He talks about their facts, the
fact of their history, even from the days of your fathers. It's now almost over a thousand
years since Sinai. From the days of your father
you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them. And then God offers a word of
grace, doesn't he, to these people who had and were the returned
ones. Return unto me, and I will return
unto you, said the Lord of hosts. But they said, wherein shall
we return? God says, they've gone away. Like their fathers before them,
they've gone away. And I say to God, what evils
have we done? What can be charged against us? What need is there for repentance,
for conversion? What need is there for us to
return? See what a shocking lostness
it is. Isn't it shocking? this clarification of the lostness
of man. So lost is lost man that he doesn't
know he's lost. He neither knows he's lost nor
any thought that he is lost, any need to return, any need
to repent. It's extraordinary, isn't it?
We have in Malachi God questioning these people. Again and again
He raises questions and then He goes and looks inside their
hearts and He sees and explains to them what they're really thinking. And here they are, these people
who have robbed God who have treated God with contempt, as
their fathers did, and they say, we're in. Why should we return? Why on earth should we return?
We're not lost. We're in a good and sound position. Let's go back to Jeremiah. There's
some remarkable passages in Jeremiah. It pays dividends, I think, for
us to read the last few chapters of Jeremiah and Lamentations,
and we'll see again and again that God's judgment is right
and true. You see, this is a word to the priests. This is a word to the religious
leaders. In chapter 2, verse 1, he challenges
them, doesn't he? Now, O ye priests, this commandment
is to you. If you will not hear, if you
will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, said
the Lord of hosts. Let's turn to Jeremiah 6 and
read some words out of Jeremiah 6 and bits out of the next chapters. This is obviously just probably
a couple of hundred years prior, but the reason they went was
because God had warned them and warned them and warned them.
To whom shall I speak, Jeremiah 6 verse 10, to whom shall I speak
and give warning that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised,
and they cannot hearken. Behold, the word of God is unto
them a reproach. They have no delight in it. Therefore, I am full of fury
of the Lord. I am weary of holding it in. I will pour it out upon the children
abroad, upon the assembly of the young men together. For even
the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him. from the least of them even unto
the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness. And
from the prophet unto the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed also the hurt
of the daughter of my people, slightly saying, Peace, peace. when there is no peace. Were
they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not
at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall
fall among them that fall. At the time that I visit them,
they shall be cast down, says the Lord. Thus says the Lord,
stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where
is the good way? And walk therein, and you shall
find rest for your souls. And what was their response?
But they said, we will not walk therein. Also I set watchmen
over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But
they said, We will not hearken. Therefore hear, you nations,
a congregation of what is among them. Hear, O earth! Behold,
I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruits of their thoughts,
because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor my law, but
rejected it." Let's go over to chapter 7 verse 8. Behold, you
trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder
and commit adultery and swear falsely and burn incense under
vial and walk after other gods whom you know not? And then come
and stand before me in this house which is called by my name and
say, we are delivered to do all these abominations. Is this house
which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes. Behold, even I have seen it,
says the Lord. But go ye now unto my place,
which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at first, and see what
I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now,
because you have done All these works, says the Lord. And I spoke
to you, rising up early and speaking, and you heard not. And I called
you, and you answered not. Therefore will I do unto this
house which is called by my name, wherein you trust, and unto the
place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done
to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my
sight, as I will cast out your brethren, even the whole seed
of Ephraim." Verse 16 is challenging, isn't it? Therefore pray not
thou for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for
them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear thee. see'st thou what they do in the
cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem. The children gather
wood, and the fathers kindle a fire, and the women knead their
dough to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven, which is the name
the Catholics give to Mary. Isn't it shocking that they take
a name of a pagan god? Such is their blindness. They
take a name of a pagan god and describe it to their goddess
Mary. and pour out drinker offerings
unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. Do they
provoke me to anger, says the Lord? Do they not provoke themselves
to the confusion of their own faces? Therefore, thus says the Lord
God, Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon
this place, upon man, upon beast, upon the trees of the field,
upon the fruit of the ground, and it shall burn and shall not
be quenched. Thus says the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices,
and eat flesh. For I spake not unto your fathers,
nor commanded them in that day that I brought them out of the
land of Egypt concerning burnt offering and sacrifices. But this thing I commanded them,
Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my
people. And walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you,
that it may be well with you. But They hearkened not, nor inclined
their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination
of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers
came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, have I even
sent you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early
and sending them. Yet they hearkened not unto me,
nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck. They did worse than
their fathers. Therefore thou shalt speak all
these words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee. Thou
shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee. But
thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not
the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction. is perished and cut off from
their mouth. Before we took too harshly upon
them, we need to remember again and again that all of the exposing
of the wicked rebellion of man in all of the scripture is exposing
of the Adam heart that bleeds inside of us. Who makes you to
differ? Who makes you to differ? If we
are hearkening and listening to the voice of God, it's because
of what God has done. I love the way Jeremiah finishes
his writings in the end of Lamentations, chapter 4. He has a prayer, doesn't
he? He prays in verse 19, Thou, O
Lord, remainest forever, and Thy throne from generation to
generation. Wherefore dost Thou forget us
forever and forsake us for a long time? And then he says in verse
21, Turn Thou us unto Thee. Turn thou us unto Thee, O Lord,
and we shall be turned. You do the turning, Lord, for
we, like them, will just go astray. You do the turning and we shall
be turned, and renew our days of old. Jeremiah lived to see some of
the most shocking things that have ever been witnessed on this
planet. And sadly, one of the great lessons
of history is that we learn nothing from history. We learn nothing
from it. Where shall we return, they say? What have we got to return for? Why? How shall we return? What
evils have we done? We've done nothing wrong. What
can be charged against us? It's interesting how the Lord
answers their question, doesn't he? He says, Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me, even
this whole nation. What a shocking word, isn't it?
To rob is to take something which doesn't belong to you and appropriate
it for yourself. It was Satan's great promise
in the garden, isn't it? You will be like God. You will know good and evil.
To rob God is to do as he said to these priests. It's a failure
to give glory to His Name. It's a failure to honour Him
as He really is revealed in the Scriptures. Let's just go back
through Malachi quickly and we'll see the character of God just
briefly that's revealed in these couple of chapters, these short
chapters. He begins in verse 2. his love. And his love is defined
there, isn't it? It's an electing love. It's a
distinguishing love. It's an effectual love. It's
a love that he shows to Jacob. And what does Jacob mean? Shifty,
deceiver. It's a love that emanates from
God. And it's not a love that's generated
by good things he sees in his people, except that he sees them
as one with his Son. So it's an effective love. And
he's a God who hates. As Jeremiah was told, don't pray
for these people. Don't bother praying for them. What a shocking thing. It's in
several times in Jeremiah, God says, don't pray for them. I'm
not even going to listen to your prayers. His hatred is just. It's a punishment of pride, even
though they are impoverished. and in a sense beggars. They
say, Edom says, we will return, we will build. God says they will build and
I will tear down. He's a God, in verse five, who
will be magnified. He's a God who is powerful. As we saw earlier, he's a God
who is glorious. In verse 6 he says, where is
my honour? He's a God deserving of honour. Where is my fear? So often we want to reduce fear
to the term that we sort of learned at Bible College, which is just
a reverential awe. But I do believe the fear of
God is a bigger and deeper thing in the hearts of God's people.
It certainly is reverential awe. There is reverential awe due
to God. But our God is an awesome, amazingly
awesome and blindingly holy God. He is due honour. He is due fear. And again and again as you go
through Malachi you'll see He is a God who has a name. His name is to be honoured. His name is to be revered. His name reflects His character. Verse 7, The Lord God is a God of sacrifice. It's really fascinating. If you
look at verse 7 closely with me, the people seem to know,
despite all of their apostasy and wicked, he says, you offered
polluted bread on mine altar, and you say, wherein have we
polluted thee? Isn't it interesting, even these
apostate people see that his altar and him are as one. He's a God of sacrifice. In verse
8, He's a God of judgment. You see, He says, when you offer
the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? It is He, He alone
who sees, and it's He alone who sees with the clarity to be able
to judge whether it is evil. And if He calls it evil, it is
evil. And they say in 2.17, where is
the God of judgment? The God of judgment is active
in all that's happening. He's a God of dominion, isn't
He? He says, I am, in verse 14, I am a great king, a great ruler,
a glorious king, says the Lord of hosts. He's a God of glory. He says in 2.2, where is the
glory? Give me the glory, you priests. If you do not give glory to my
name, you are robbing me. And he's righteous in his judgment.
He sends curses upon them. He curses them with righteous,
just judgment. He's a God in 2.5 who makes covenants. He makes promises, and he keeps
his promises. He keeps his covenant forever. He's a God of holiness, 2.11. Judah hath profaned the holiness
of the Lord. And it's the holiness that he
loved. Verse 16, He's a God of faithfulness. He hates putting away. He hates
divorce. He honors His promises and honors
them faithfully. In verse 3, verse 2, He is a
refiner. What a glorious refiner He is
and a purifier. Isn't it wonderful? He's purifying
and He's refining. Refine the gold and silver. And then the result of all that
that they may be refined to offer unto the Lord an offering in
righteousness. In 3 verse 4, He says, then shall
the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord. He's
the God who looks with pleasure and sees things that are pleasant
to Him. In 3 verse 5, He is the witness. He says, I'll be a swift witness. He sees perfectly. He sees the
hearts and He exposes the hearts. the thoughts and the intents
of the heart. In 3 verse 6 we saw last week,
He's a God who is unchangeable, the same yesterday, today and
forever. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. And in 3 verse 7 we have Him
calling people back to Him. I think one of the things that's
very hard for us to come to terms with, isn't it, is that God is
a person. God is personable. I don't want
that to be seen as blasphemous, to reduce him down to a man. But there is, in Malachi and
in the scriptures, there is a real dynamic that we are dealing with
someone who genuinely feels, has real emotions, guided and
directed by sovereign grace and mercy for his people. But his
love is a real love, isn't it? God is love, and it's a love
that God, who is light, is able to love with. And so one of the
reasons for these letters being so personal is that there's
a personal interaction between people and God. See, to rob God
is to deny Him the very characteristics that we've looked at just now,
isn't it? To deny him his love, to say that his love is not distinguishing
and not effectual, to say as we hear so often today that God
loves everyone, he has no hatred, is to deny his justice. To rob God. You think of the
characteristics we've just looked at. and see in our land and in
our places. We see what happens here in Malachi's
day and what we read in Jeremiah's warning to them, that the reason
the name of the Lord is blasphemed is because of what is said by
the priests, the so-called priests, the people who stand and speak
on God's behalf and they rob Him. They rob him of his power,
his glory, his honour. It's an extraordinary thing.
To rob God is a refusal to believe. He's worthy of believing. To rob God is to despise his
sovereignty, to despise him as king, to despise him as the one
who can say this is evil and this is not evil. It's to deny
his eternal purposes and performances, to deny him as the covenant keeping
and covenant making and covenant establishing and covenant signing
God of the scriptures. It's to bring harm to the name
of the Lord Jesus. To rob God is to rob Him of the
merit of the Lord Jesus, the merit of His blood, the merit
of His perfect righteousness. To rob God is to rob the Father
of His love, the Son of His work, to rob the Spirit of His mighty
operations of grace. God the Holy Spirit is talked
so much about and so little understood in these degenerate times. His
mighty operations of grace. I love quoting those words in
John 16. He will take, the Spirit will
take the things of Christ Jesus and He will reveal them. He will
make them known to us. He will regenerate. He will convict. He will call. to rob God is to
mix the works of man with the works of God, the works of Christ. Just any mixture, any mixture. If it's 99.9% grace and 0.1%
works of man, it is all works according to Romans 11 verse
6. It is just works and nothing
but works. And once man's works have been
introduced, man's will becomes the powerful thing, isn't it?
This powerful will that can constrain God and can hold the mighty God
at bay. Once man's will has been exalted,
then man robs God by putting his hand to the ark. to take His tool to His altar,
to break His Sabbath, to not rest in His Son. And the end
result is to give man some glory, just a little bit of glory, I
will take the glory. God's children will wait for
the glory that God has promised them in the Lord Jesus. Not unto
us, O Lord, saith the psalmist, not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens,
and he has done whatsoever he has pleased. Whatsoever he has
pleased. Will a man rob God? It's an extraordinary
question, isn't it? It's an unnatural, it's an illogical
thing, isn't it, to think that we could rob God. It's a daring
question, isn't it? It's done in His very presence,
under His divine eye. It's a shameful question, isn't
it? It's a question that God asks
of people. It's an extraordinarily ungrateful
question, isn't it? What extraordinary ingratitude
to God. And these are a people, as I've
said before, who have been the recipients of thousands of years
of God's distinguishing work. Saved from the flood. Saved from Ur of the Chaldeans
with Abraham. Saved from Egypt. Saved at the
Red Sea. Saved from the apostasy at the
foot of Mount Sinai. Saved from the death of those
multitudes, that 600,000 that died in those 40 years of wilderness
wanderings. Saved from the destruction of
the ten northern tribes of Israel, saved from the destruction of
Jerusalem when thousands, hundreds of thousands died in Jerusalem,
saved out of Babylon, saved back to Jerusalem, saved to see Cyrus'
heart moved to build the city, to build the temple, save to
see Nehemiah sent, save to see Ezra sent, save to hear the words
of Zechariah and Haggai and to see God move and build that temple
and build those walls and have those feasts and those festivals.
What extraordinary ingratitude. And we are just like them. What a great and merciful God. Listen to what he says in the
next words, isn't it? He says, You are cursed with
a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. And then he says in verse 10,
words of blessing, he says, Bring you all the ties into the storehouse. That storehouse which has been
robbed of the things that are rightfully God, that storehouse
where Elijah, just prior to this, had taken the things of God,
the things that represent the Lord Jesus and the offerings
to God. He'd taken them out of there
and he'd made a house. for Tobiah, an open enemy of
God. And here is God in grace saying,
bring them back, bring them back. And then he says a great word,
doesn't he? What a challenging word. He says, prove me now herewith. He says, test me, test my faithfulness,
brothers and sisters. Has he ever let us down? Has he ever, ever let us down. What a rebuke to me. Prove me now herewith, says the
Lord of hosts. Test me. And if I will not open
you the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that there
shall not be room enough to receive it." Not only will he pour out
blessings, but he'll rebuke the devourer for your sakes. He'll
turn away, he'll not destroy the fruits of your ground. And
you shall be called amongst all the nations blessed, for you
shall be a delightsome land, says the Lord of hosts." Isn't
it beautiful to think upon those things spiritually? What remarkable
grace. We have robbed God. We have been unfaithful. We have
been redeemed from the curse of the law through the Lord Jesus
being made a curse for us. And the Lord God calls us back
to Him. Come back. Look to the Lord with
the eyes of faith. Look to His Christ. Look to His
rich mercy, that covenant mercy in Him. God will supply all your
needs according to His riches. And you will find meat, and wine,
and spices, and bread. Christ the living bread. Christ
the living waters. Wait, he says, trust. look to
Him and we'll see the richest blessings poured out. Poured
out on a people who have acted with the most extraordinary wicked
disobedience and they speak back to God in their hearts. And yet He says, I'll pour out
these blessings, blessings more than you can imagine. It's lovely,
isn't it? He will open to you the windows
of heaven. What a beautiful description
of the blessings of God's people. Enemies would be put down, blessings
poured out, more than you can imagine. What does he say in
Ephesians chapter 3? Now unto him who is able to do,
powerful to do, exceedingly abundantly, it's almost as if he's running
out of superlatives, exceedingly abundantly above all that we
ask or think according to the power that works in us. unto him be glory in the church
by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. His barren land, the barren land
of our Adam flesh becomes fruitful in the Lord Jesus, wonderfully
fruitful. As I started with, I'd like to
finish with just looking back at that remarkable scene at the
house of Mary and Martha. What trembling faith, what tearful
faith, what a time to spare in faith, what remarkable things. Martha says, she says, I know
that even now, whatever you, Lord Jesus, ask of God, God will
give it to you. Verse 24, I know that he, Lazarus,
my brother, I know that he shall rise again She's saying this
through tear-filled eyes. You shall rise again in the resurrection
at the last day. Death is not the end. I'm looking
further and beyond. And then she says, yes, Lord,
I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God which shall come
into the world. And then the Lord Jesus says
this thing at that most despairing of scenes you can imagine, Lazarus
rotting and smelling in a tomb. And the Lord Jesus, weeping at
that tomb, said, if you would believe, you should see the glory
of God. And he just says a word, brothers
and sisters. He just says a word. We see the
glory of God. The windows of heaven have been
opened. We see the glory of God in the face of Christ. As Hebrews 1 says, it's the brightness
of His glory. What tithes, what revenues of
praise, what revenues of gratitude and thankfulness and God-given
faith what revenues of praise he gets from his work in the
hearts of his people. Let's pray.