The Lord be pleased to bless
us tonight as we consider his word together. Let us turn to
the prophecy of Malachi and read chapter 3 and verse 7. The prophecy of Malachi chapter
3 and verse 7. Even from the days of your fathers
ye are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. return
unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.
But ye said, wherein shall we return? This is, of course, the last
prophecy, the last book in the Old Testament, and We know that
from this time, or at least more or less this time, there was
no further revelation until the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ,
or perhaps when John the Baptist actually came just before that. And so the Church of God would
have relied really on what they possessed up to this time. And
here in this prophecy of Malachi, there are many things which are
very salutary to the days in which he wrote it and very salutary
to the years which were to follow those 400 or so years. A long
time, isn't it? If you think of that, go back
in our nation to 1611 or so. It's a long time ago, isn't it?
There was no real vision or no real word in all that long time. And yet, here was the Word of
the Lord. Now, the Word of the Lord was
not just written, of course, for that time. It was written
for all time, from the time it was written down to the end of
time. And it does have a very real and potent word to the Church
of God throughout the ages. And indeed, no less to us today
in the age in which we live. And the Word of God speaks to
us really very straight and very solemnly. And it says, Who may
abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire,
and like a fuller's soap. And he shall sit as a refiner,
and purified 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." Well, of course, the sons of
Levi were the priesthood, they were the favoured tribe that
was ordained by God to look after the tabernacle and the temple.
And this is directed to them, those who were privileged to
be in that position. Those who were favoured to be
able to observe the gracious work of the Lord and to see those
sacrifices which were presented day by day. And yet we observe
that the Lord spoke against them. They were not doing those things
that they should have been doing. And is that not true down through
the ages? Is it not true today, the Church
of God at large? And if we're honest in our own
lives, we fail also. We cannot claim to be perfect
in our life. There are many failings, there
are many failures. And we see here this statement
that the Lord sits and refines and purifies. Well, it's a good
thing, isn't it? For us, it is so. in our life,
there is that refining, there is that purifying. It's much
rubbish, isn't it? If we gather together, much of
ourselves, much of our own feelings, we put together and place them
in front of God's Word. And how fallible we are, and
how easily We are moved away from the great truth of God. How easily we rely on our own
feelings, our own interpretations, and how we fail. And how then
we do need to know the Lord is gracious to us. And what a blessing
it is that our God is gracious. He doesn't deal with us as our
sins deserve. He does take us in hand. and
he does purify us and he does purge us as gold and silver. Now I'm sure we know what those
things entail. Purifying, purging, refining
means passing through the fire. What does that mean? It means
passing through a testing time. in our life. The Lord puts us
to the test to see whether our religion is
real or false. And in that way, we pass through
this refining and purging that the Lord sees fit to engage us
in. to realise that the Lord hasn't
left us on one side. He hasn't passed us by. What
a blessing that is, isn't it? He doesn't pass us by and leave
us. What a blessing if when he passes
by, he says, live. Oh, life in our soul. and then to realise that the
Lord is dealing with us graciously. And we enter into those situations
which the flesh doesn't like, the flesh dislikes the way, but
faith approves it well. And I believe if you and I are
being taught by the Spirit of God, we shall understand the
need for such situations developing in our lives, because there will
be that failure otherwise to grow spiritually. We perhaps
foolishly anticipate that growing in grace and in the knowledge
of our Saviour will just be a smooth easy path. We learn, we're taught
when we come through and into the fires of opposition and persecution. And it may be in our own heart,
it may be outwardly, it may be those testing times which I believe
then drive us to the Saviour. And it's then that we recognise
and realise the reality of true religion and that true religion is More
than notion, something must be known and felt, but not felt
without knowing it. It's known in the heart, and
the influence of the Spirit of God is felt within. It's that
communion then, that we have with the blessed Holy Spirit,
that reveals to us His work in our heart. Well, here we have
this statement then, stated here by Malachi, as he wrote his prophecy,
and purged them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the
Lord an offering in righteousness." There may have been those offerings
brought which were not pure offerings. They were sinful offerings. There
may have been false offerings. We may indeed have brought that
which was condemned. For instance, in Old Testament
times, They were not to bring an animal that was deformed or
an animal that was afflicted or ill. They were to bring only
the best, the purest. Or perhaps we've been guilty
of giving God second best. Perhaps we haven't given God
the best of our time, the best of our life. But, what a blessing if the Lord
takes us in hand and in this refining fire, he shows us that
we haven't been offering these offerings in righteousness. But
he says that they may offer now. See, as there is that purifying.
And that purifying means to be cleansed from many effects of
this poor world. Many effects of the flesh, many
of those things which just please the flesh, but separate between
us and our God. They don't draw us to God, they
take us farther away from God. Now therefore, offerings brought
in that condition won't be in righteousness, they'll be in
unrighteousness. We may have thought we were pleasing
God. In fact, we were only satisfying
our conscience. And perhaps our offerings were
an abomination unto the Lord. And therefore the Lord needs
to take us in hand and deal with us. And to show to us that it
is, don't forget this, it's in love to our soul. The Lord deals with us. We haven't
been left alone. In love to our souls, the Lord
deals with us, so we're not left. We're bolstered up in pride,
bolstered up in those things we've accomplished. The Lord
may bring us down in a big crash. We realise it was mostly the
flesh. Well, what a favour it is then
to know that God is dealing with us, that they may offer then
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 and as in former years. Well, perhaps again
in our lives there may have been those times when offerings indeed
were pleasant to the Lord, They were of the Lord. They were through
the Lord. They were by the Lord. They presented
to Him and they were pleasant. Well, the Lord has taken us in
hand and perhaps corrected us and instructed us and brought
us back in line. And to then think, then shall
the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as
in the days of old as and as in former years. Well, I believe if you and I
possess the grace of God in our soul, there will be that light
shining, not perhaps very bright, but it will be shining. And there
will be then that desire to be healthy in our spiritual life,
so that we may shine forth as gold. Yes, shine forth as gold. purified, seven times. We don't want, do we, to be a
mixture. We don't want to be dull. We
don't want to be stated, how is the gold become dull? Well my friends, is it so in
our lives? Has our life, has our spiritual life become dull?
Doesn't shine. We need the Spirit of God to
revive us. And I will come near to you to
judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers,
and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against
those that oppress the hiding in his wages, the widow and the
fatherless, and that turn aside to the stranger from his right,
and fear not me, Seth, the Lord of hosts." What a great statement
that is. One of the clear evidences is,
when we are not walking with the Lord, then we are not walking
in the fear of the Lord. That means we are not desiring
to do that which is pleasing to the Lord. We seem to have
lost that fear. We carry on in our own way, pleasing
ourselves. And then Malachi just reminds
us, for I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. And that's a very solemn and
important consideration, because we have a God who doesn't change. He doesn't change his views.
He doesn't change his judgments. He doesn't change his blessings. He's not someone to look at a
situation and decide to change the pattern or to change the
direction. No, the Lord's way is the same. The Lord's way is set forth in
the Word of God and we are not to try and change it. We are
not to try and Alfred. We stand before this God and
it is because we stand before this God who is compassionate
that we are not consumed. Because otherwise we would be,
because of our backslidings, because of our hardness of heart,
because of our rebellion. Can we say tonight, O blessed
be God, for His mercy, for His favour, for His loving kindness
toward me, in not dealing with me as my sins deserve. I haven't been cut off. The Lord therefore says, therefore
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. What a mercy, what a favour,
what a gracious God we have. Let me come to this word then.
Even from the days of your fathers, ye have gone away from mine ordinances,
and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return
unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, wherein shall we
return? It's almost as though they're
saying, well, we think we're all right. What have we got to
return? What is there for me to return? Surely I'm doing everything that's
right and needful and necessary. You see, there's a self-righteous
perspective. That's really what this word
is directing us to. A self-righteous perspective.
How easy it is for us to be self-righteous and brittle when anybody deems
to criticise us, perhaps, or to speak against us, well, our
self-righteous spirit rises up and we really speak in words
like this, wherein shall we return? We've no need to return, we're
in the way anyway. Well, the Lord comes and says,
he directs this word to them, directs this word to us, even
in the days of your fathers, ye are gone away from mine ordinances
and have not kept them. Now, there's many things that
we might perhaps think of. One of the most important ordinances
is of course the ordinance of prayer. Prayer. And perhaps the day and age in
which we live in, that's one of the greatest departures. Prayer. prevailing prayer, resting prayer,
true prayer, continual prayer, earnest prayer. Oh, how do we
measure up to such a requirement? Have we gone away from this blessed
divine ordinance? And when we consider it, it is
a glorious day in which we live because We are blessed with a
great and glorious High Priest to go to. The one who understands
us and knows about us, who recognises our infirmities, because he has
felt the same, and knows the temptations, because he is tempted
in all points of life as we are. We have a great and glorious
Saviour, and therefore how Important it is that we do not neglect
prayer. Now I believe it's one of the
greatest obstacles today that we face, prayer. So many other things crowd into
our lives. We don't seem to pray as we should,
and as fervently as we should. So here we have this, that even
from the Days of your fathers, you have gone away from my ordinances
and have not kept them." Well, how does that affect us? How
do we pray? How often do we pray? Are we
worried? Are we concerned? When we don't have access, it's
very easy to just have a formal prayer. The Word of God speaks
against just following a mere formal tradition. Now, it is
so right to have a form of prayer and follow a tradition of prayer,
but it is so easy to fall into a tradition of prayer without
praying. Without praying. Just a form
of words. Now, there are those occasions
when we prevail. when we are blessed with that
access at the throne of grace. When the Lord Jesus comes to
us and we recognise and realise He is our intercessor. He is the one who is presenting
our prayers to our Father. And it is our blessed privilege
then to draw near unto our God. Now, may we covet these occasions. having these occasions and desire
to have them and know them more and more, prevailing prayer,
how necessary, how essential it is, and it is a blessed ordinance
of God, ordained by God. And here we are told tonight
that we perhaps have not kept this ordinance as we should. We've allowed other things to
influence our lives, other situations, and therefore if we're honest,
we haven't known what it is perhaps to prevail with God. What a blessing
if we can look back and remember those occasions when we have
prevailed with God. Jacob prevailed with God. But it wasn't easy, was it? He wrestled all night in prayer. But he did prevail. He prevailed
with God. What a wonderful thing, you know,
if we are able to come and to prevail with God. But many things
aren't there. and our own lives, the lives
of our families, the lives of our church, the lives of our
nation. And we need God to appear. And we need Him to be blessed
with this wrestling, prevailing prayer. Even from the days of
old, your fathers, ye are gone away from mine ordinances and
have not kept them. We have this gracious, wonderful,
word of admonition, return unto me and I will return unto you. I have another statement in James'
epistle. Draw near to God and He will
draw near to you. Now, on the face of it, it's
impossible. But may God grant us that grace
to draw near to Him with that real desire in our hearts that
we may be blessed with that access. Draw near to God and He will
draw near to you. Here we have the same statement
really in different words. Return unto me and I will return
unto you. Saith the Lord of hosts, This
is not the word of a poor old man. This is the word of God. This is the promise of God. Now we can rely, can we not,
on God's promises. Here is His greatest promise.
Return unto me and I will return unto you. Well, are we then desirous
to return and to keep the ordinances of God. There are other ordinances
which we are commanded to walk in. We are to follow the example
of the Saviour. If we are told, if you love me,
we are to keep His commandments. And His commandments are that
we should follow Him, that we should follow Here's an example. And of course that is very far-reaching,
isn't it? Sometimes we may think, well,
that perhaps refers to the two ordinances which we keep in a
physical way, that's the ordinance of believers' baptism and the
ordinance of the Lord's Supper. But of course, those two are
very important. And indeed, It is very relevant
in the day and age in which we live that many people have not
kept these ordinances, have gone away from mine ordinances and
have not kept them. And therefore this is a gracious
word with regard to those, return unto me and I will return unto
you. To be a true follower of the
Lord in that way is right and proper and be assured of this
is the answer of a good conscience in following the Lord in those
things, and the Lord has set them before us very clearly to
demonstrate our desire to follow a despised and crucified man. Yes, the Lord Jesus deigned to
be baptised in Jordan, and we today are to follow his example. The Lord Jesus graciously instituted
a Lord's Supper We also are to keep that sacrament of remembrance,
lest we forget. We are not to despise the ordinance
of the Lord and say, in effect, wherein shall we return? Why
should I do that? I'm all right, really. Well,
the Lord sets his things before us. And also then, the example
of the Lord in following an example. One of the greatest words I think
is that we read the Lord Jesus, he pleased not himself. How important
that is today in our lives. How we put self first so often. How we want to please ourselves.
How we want to have the best for ourselves. Well it would
be a good thing if we were willing to take the lowest place. The Word tells us, humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you
in due time. It's good to humble ourselves,
not to exalt ourselves, not to think that we're somebody important.
The Lord Jesus was the most important person that ever lived, and yet
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. What was he doing? He was doing
his Father's will, obeying it, willingly, not grudgingly, willingly. So today, if you and I are to
be a true follower, not pleasing ourselves, we have the example
of the Saviour, To not do those things which are for our own
ego, but to do those things which are for the honour and glory
of God. Speaking about our daily life,
perhaps we ought to ask ourselves the question, am I doing this
for the honour and glory of God? Or am I doing this to exalt myself? He hath gone away from mine ordinances,
and hath not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return
unto you." Return unto the Lord with that desire, to be humble,
to be like the Saviour, to follow His footsteps. He went about,
didn't He, doing good. Every opportunity He did good. There are many opportunities,
aren't there, in our lives. Sometimes we may be like the
Pharisee, we may be like the scribe, we pass by on the other
side. We just don't want to get involved.
It's just too messy, too problematic. We pass by on the other side.
The Good Samaritan, He came where He was. The Blessed Saviour,
He comes where we are. Isn't that a mercy? He doesn't
pass by on the other side. He doesn't leave us in our ruined
and lost condition. He comes to us where we are.
He heals us and He bounds up our wounds. Those wounds of sin,
deep wounds sometimes. deep wounds, he binds them up,
he pours in oil and wine, he pours in the Gospel into our
heart. Oh, it revives our spirits. It
revived that poor man, didn't it? Oh, bless God then. You see, for that spirit which
is demonstrated in that parable of Good Samaritan. Oh, how good
for us today. In either of the lines, we take
on board Such an example. We don't pass by just because
a situation is a bit difficult, just because it appears to be
a bit messy, and because we think, well, we don't want to get involved,
we just pass by on the other side. That is not doing the ordinance
of the Lord. We have the example of the Saviour
set before us so clearly. May we truly then understand
this, mine ordinances and have not kept them. Again, we need
to pray for grace to observe in our lives if we are not keeping
them. Sometimes, you know, sin blinds
us. Sin blinds us. It's a very sad
thing, isn't it? There we are in a blind condition.
We need to have our eyes opened to observe whether we are walking
in the right way, or whether we're walking in the wrong way,
and that we are condemned, we've gone away, we've gone away from
the right way, haven't been a true follower of the Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we might be saying, wherein
shall we return? Well, I'm alright. We need to
look into our hearts. These last words in the Old Testament
really are so relevant, aren't they, to the Church of God. They're
so relevant to us today. How important it is that we're
not just carried away with the spirit of the age and that we
put things of God far from us, or perhaps not far from us, but
it isn't in the forefront of our lives. It isn't the most
important things. And then, just passing on for
a moment or two, the prophet speaks and says, will a man rob
God? Yet ye have robbed me, but ye
say wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Now,
this may have, and I'm sure it does have, a natural application. But I believe also it has a spiritual
application. And the spiritual application
If we are right in the spiritual application, without any doubt,
the natural application will follow automatically. But if
we don't follow the spiritual application, how far off we can
easily wander. And so, here is his statement.
Are we robbing God of what is His due in tithes and offerings? That
really means in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord for what he's done.
For all his blessing and all his favour toward us. Have we
not brought to the Lord those offerings of praise and thanksgiving?
And have we robbed God? The devil wishes us to rob God.
The devil wishes us to hide our lies. And yet, as we read on
farther in this chapter, then, they that fear the Lord. Well, is that you? Is that me? Do we fear the Lord? The definition is that they speak
often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it. There was something profitable
to speak about. There was something necessary
to speak about, because it was God honouring. It was that which
God had done for them. It was a blessing in the Lord
which they'd enjoyed. It was perhaps a revelation that
they'd been favoured with as they'd walked with the Lord and
they'd grown spiritually The Lord had come and revealed himself
to them. Perhaps he had shown them his hands and his feet. And they had the confirmation
that their names were engraved in the palms of his hands. They
had something to speak about. Now the word here is, then they
that feared the Lord. It would seem to be clear here
that if we fear the Lord, then there will be that speaking one
to another. And that the Lord hearken and
heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them
that fear the Lord and that thought upon his name. You see, it's
not just speaking, it's thinking as well. And that thinking results
in speaking. And they shall be mine, saith
the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels." So
think of that. We are a jewel, one of God's
jewels. What a blessing it is to be numbered
amongst his people. And so, coming back to these
words, if we are not bringing this offering and ties to God,
The Lord speaks very solemnly and says, ye are cursed with
a curse, for you have robbed me and even this whole nation. How solemn to be cursed. I'm sure we don't want to be
cursed. Well, may we hear God's Word speaking to us. In this
way, even from the days of your fathers, you have gone away from
mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me, and
I will return unto you. This is how we do it. Bring ye
all the tithes into the storehouse. There may be meat in mine house.
And prove me now howwith, 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." Oh, is that an
attractive word to us? Is that what we really desire
and really long for? The blessing of the Lord, as
it were, being poured forth and to eat spiritually in the
Lord's house, to gather together, to be fed in our soul with meat,
So, this statement says, bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse,
all those offerings of praise and thanksgiving, that there
may be meat in my house, and to prove me. The Lord invites
us to prove the Lord. What condescension of our God,
isn't it? To prove him. 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, there shall not be room enough to receive." What
great words these are, aren't they? Oh, what great words they
are. Oh, may our faith stretch out.
May we desire to be those who observe these things, these favours,
these blessings, and may we therefore be concerned to walk in this
way set before us by Malachi in these verses. And be blessed
with living grace to return unto the Lord. Oh, my friends, if
we've departed, and I'm sure if we're honest, more or less,
we have departed. Perhaps some more, perhaps some
less. But if that is so, that we've
gone away, we've gone away, Oh, return unto me, and here's the
gracious promise, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord
of hosts. And the promises of God are yea
and amen. Oh, may we prove it. May we bless
God for it. And may we be able to truly come
and praise his great and glorious name as that one who hears our
petitions for Jesus' sake. Amen.