Let us turn again to God's Word
and turning to the book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament
Scriptures, the prophet Malachi in chapter 3 and verse 7. Malachi chapter 3 verse 7, Even
from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from my 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? And the latter part of the text, Return unto me, and I will return
unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, wherein shall we
return? In the former part of the chapter
we have that promise of God's presence. In verse 1, the Lord,
whom thou seekest, shall suddenly come to his temperance. The promise of that coming, that
presence of the Lord, and then We see that it is a searching
presence when God appears in the midst of his people. Verse
2, who may abide the day of his coming, he shall stand when he
appeareth, for he is like a refiner's pyre 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. How is coming then is one that
searches his people sits his people the opening chapter of
the revelation where John is granted that remarkable vision
of the glorified Christ. He speaks of him whose eyes are
as a flame of fire. It's the same person, of course,
who is being described here in Malachi chapter 3, the messenger
of the covenant, the mediator, that is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the one whose eyes are as a flame of fire, searching, And so we
have it here in this ministry that he exercises as he sits
like a refiner watching over the crucible and the whole process
of the purifying of the metal. We read again in Isaiah of the
Lord whose fire is in Zion and his fern is in Jerusalem. Now God in the days of the prophets,
time of the game, comes in such a ministry that was really the
experience that they were to pass through at the time of the
Babylonian captivity. God was dealing with them, sifting
them, searching them. And so, for example, in the book
of the Prophet Ezekiel, who of course was ministering at the
time of the Babylonian exile. What solemn words we have recorded
there in the 22nd chapter. The Prophet says at verse 17,
The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, the house
of Israel is to me like brass. All they are brass and tin and
iron and lead in the midst of the furnace. They are even the
dross of silver. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will
gather you into the midst of Jerusalem, as they gather silver
and brass and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace
to blow the fire upon it, to melt it. So will I gather you
in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there and
melt you. Yea, I will gather you and blow
upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the
midst thereof. For silver is melted in the midst
of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof,
and ye shall know that I the Lord have poured out my fury
upon you. It is then a terrible coming
when the Lord does come amongst his people when he comes to do
this searching work, this sifting work. And yet God's end of course
is a good end, a gracious end. He knows the thoughts that he
thinks towards his people. Thoughts of peace not of evil
to give them unexpected end. And so again, in the prophet
Isaiah, in chapter 48, he says, Behold, I have refined thee,
but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction. I have chosen thee. He makes
choice of his people. He refines them, he says, but
not with silver, not among silver. Dr. Gill remarks, concerning
the process, it is not lengthy or severe. God is doing a good
work, a gracious work, a saving work. And so here in this chapter
of Malachi, although we might say that his presence is a fearful
thing, as he comes searching his people, sifting his people,
who may abide the day of his coming is the question that he
asks at the beginning of verse 2, and yet This coming is really
a saving coming. It is God at work graciously
amongst his people. So what do we read in the opening
verse of the chapter? Behold, I will send my messenger
and he shall prepare the way before me. Who is the messenger he's spoken
of here? This is the ministry of John
the Baptist. who prepares the way for the
coming of the messenger of the covenant, who is the great harbinger
of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember how he is spoken
of again in familiar words that we find in the book of the prophet
Isaiah. In the 40th chapter there we
have a claim statements, prophecy concerning the ministry of the
Baptists. Comfort ye my people, saith your
God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that
her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned,
for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her
sins, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness. Prepare ye
the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our
gods. Every valley shall be exalted,
every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed. This is the ministry of the Baptist. And what is the ministry about
ultimately? It's comfort. The Lord's coming
to his people then, though it be solemn and searching, yet
It is a comforting presence. It is the coming of grace, speaking
comfortably to Jerusalem. And so the Baptist, I say, is
the one who is spoken of here in the opening parts of this
first verse, God's messenger. And he prepares the way for him
who is then spoken of as the messenger of the Covenant. Two
different messengers. My messenger is John the Baptist,
the messenger of the Covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger
of the Covenant, whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. And this, I say, speaks to us
of Christ and how he comes. And what does he do? Yes, his
ministry is that sifting ministry, the process of the refiner. But
see what we're told concerning his presence, he shall sit as
a refiner and purifier of silver. How carefully he watches over
that whole process, the heating of the crucible, He doesn't want
to destroy the pure metal. The intention of course is that
the dross might be separated from the pure silver or the pure
gold and then the dross can be taken away and the pure metal
is left behind in the crucible. But he sits and he watches most
carefully again in Isaiah. When thou walkest through the
fire thou shalt not be burned Neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee, he says. Why? Because the Lord himself
is there. And he is that one who is the
mediator of the covenant. He says in verse 6, I am the
Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. All our Jacob's sons, the true
seed of God, they're not consumed. In all of this process that's
spoken of in the previous verses. This then is something of the
context in which we have the seventh verse says. In the previous verses we have
this coming, this searching presence of the Lord and yet this gracious
presence wherein he comes to save his people. And then in
the words that I want us to turn to for our text we have this
call. return unto me and I will return
unto you saith the Lord of hosts but you said wherein shall we
return return unto me is it not the call to repentance when God calls his people to
turn to him when God calls his children to return to him what
is that turning? it is repentance And we know
that that was the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says,
I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Here is a call then that comes
to sinners. And I'm sure tonight we would
each of us acknowledge and confess that we are sinners, yes. And
here is God's call to sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
come and call righteous men and women. They are not aware of
any need of repentance. They are self-satisfied with
what they are and what they have. The Lord addresses himself to
sinners. He came to call the sinners.
And what do we see? In this chapter we see something
of sin and I want to mention a number of things that we see
with regards to sin and how we are to examine ourselves with
regards to these things. First of all, there is the antiquity
of sin. Here in verse 7, Even from the
days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances and
have not kept Go back in time to the days of
your fathers. Bishop Usher reckons that Malachi
was one who was contemporary with Nehemiah. He was exercising
his ministry as God's servant, God's prophet, in the days when
Nehemiah was the governor. and that's why we read that particular
chapter in Nehemiah chapter 9 and see how in that chapter time
and again their sins or the sins of their
fathers are being spoken of in chapter 9 of Nehemiah verse 16
But they and their fathers bowed proudly and hardened their necks
and hearkened not to thy commandments and refused to obey neither were
mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them, but hardened
their necks. This is how they behaved themselves.
Time and again they rebelled against God and rebelled against
the ways of God. He outlines something of their
history. In verse 26 he says, Nevertheless
they were disobedient and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law
behind their backs, and slew thy prophets. which testified
against them, to turn them to thee, and they wrought great
provocations." Time and again, you see, God would deal with
them. He speaks of their history in the days of Moses, in the
wilderness, when they come into the land, in the period of the
judges. And yet God was pleased time and again to raise up those
who were saviors. The judges came and there was
deliverance time and again. We see it here, look at verse
27, the end of the verse, according to thy manifold mercies thou
gavest them saviors, that was the judges, who saved them out
of the hand of their enemies, but after they advanced they
did evil again before them, therefore left us out of them in the hand
of their enemies so that they had the dominion over them. Yet
when they returned and cried unto thee, thou heardest them
from heaven, And many times did so deliver them according to
thy mercies. Read the book of Judges. Time and again we have them departing
and God granting a deliverer, a judge, a saviour. And then
they depart again. This was their history you see.
The history of rebellion against God. All the antiquity of the
sins of the children of Israel. We can go right back of course.
right back to the books of Moses, the first books of scripture.
And there in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 9, and verse 7, remember? It says, Moses, and forget not,
as thou provokest the Lord thy God to wrought in the wilderness
from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt
until ye came onto this place, you have been rebellious against
the Lord. Also in Horeb, that was where
they received the commandments. Also in Horeb you provoked the
Lord to wrath so that the Lord was angry with you to have destroyed
you. He is referring to the matter
of the golden calf. After they had received the Ten
Commandments And then Moses was those 40 days and 40 nights in
the mount receiving other commandments. So they grew weary. Oh, we wish
not what has become of Moses. They want Aaron to make them
a captain. Now return to Egypt. They have the golden calves and
they imagine that they're worshipping Jehovah by these images that
they've made. Time and again, you see, we have
the sad record of their many sins against God. Again, if we
turn to that book of Deuteronomy, the end of the book, in chapter
31, mention is once more made of their sinful rebellion against
God. Now they are about to enter into
the promised land. And what does Moses say? When I shall have brought them
into the land which I swear unto their fathers, that floweth with
milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves
with wax and fat, then will they turn unto other gods, and serve
them, and provoke me, and break my covenant. Here is, Moses shall
see the man of God, the mouthpiece of God, speaking the word of
God to them, that even when they go into that land that he has
promised, they will rebel. Verse 27 he says, I know thy
rebellion and thy stiff neck. This is Moses speaking there.
Behold while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious
against the Lord, and how much more after my death. They will
at time and again a rebellious people, rebelling against the
children of Israel. Nehemiah, as we saw in that 9th
chapter, he recounts something of their history. We find something
very similar in the 20th chapter of the book of Ezekiel. Read
Ezekiel 20. And again there we have the record
of the rebellions of the children of Israel, even from the days
of your fathers. You are gone away from my ordinances,
said God to them. But who are we to cast stones
at the children of Israel? If we know anything of God, we
have to acknowledge that we were sinners from the womb. Or David,
the man after God's own heart, makes that confession in that
part of the Psalm, the 51st Psalm that we were just singing in
the metrical version. He says, Behold I was shaken
in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. How we must come to terms then
with the antiquity of our sins. It's part of our very nature,
as we're born into this world, we're born in that condition.
We're dead in trespasses and in sins. And if we try to sin
back, we have it there at the beginning of human history, when
our first parents rebelled against God, so he had set them in the
very paradise which was the Garden of Eden. There is in here the
antiquity of sin. And then secondly, what do we
say? We see something of the arrogance. The arrogance that
is evident in the heart of the sinner. They have gone away, it says.
They have not kept. Even from the days of your father's
year, gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept mine ordinances.
This was no accidental, unintentional sin on their part. It was deliberate. They were guilty of willful sins. That was what Israel did. They
deliberately turned themselves against the Lord. They turned
their backs to God. They refused to walk in the way
of His commandments. Doesn't the Psalmist cry out
that he might be kept from such sins as that, presumptuous sins?
Presumptuous sins, the great transgression. In the 19th Psalm, verse 13, he
says, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins, let them
not have dominion over me, then shall I be upright and I shall
be innocent from the great transgression. For God have mercy and keep us
from any presumptuous sin. And we see it here in the text.
God's call of repentance is so plain, return unto me, he says.
And I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But, he said,
wherein shall we return? We're not to imagine here that
they are making an innocent inquiry of God. It's not as if they want
to know the way wherein they are to turn back to him. What
they're doing in this question is dismissing God. They don't
want to hear this call to repentance. Wherein shall we return? We see
an arrogant spirit in the people throughout the book of Malachi.
We see this time and time again. They question God, they question
the Word of God and it's still the same today as it was. How
men question God and question the ways of God. In the very
opening verses of the chapter, verse 2, this is the first chapter,
he says, I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet ye say, wherein
hast thou loved us? Was not he so? Jacob's brother,
saith the Lord, yet I love Jacob. And I hated his sword and lady's
mountain and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. See, God comes and it's a very
gracious word that God speaks to the children of Israel, the
descendants of Jacob. I have loved you. Yet you say, wherein? Wherein
hast thou loved us? There, in the sixth verse of
that first chapter, a son honours his father, and a servant his
master. If then I be a father, where
is mine honour? If I be a master, where is my
fear, saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priest that despise
my name? And ye say, What any man will
despise thy name? For they don't bow, before the
authority of what God is saying through His servant the Prophet,
they throw the word in the Prophet's face. Wherein have we despised
thy name? And again, in the next verse,
he says he'll offer polluted bread upon mine altar. And you
say, wherein have we polluted them? In that you say the tale
of the Lord is contempt. No, they won't have this faithful
ministry that Malachi is exercising as he speaks to them the word
of God. Time and again they come and they query and they question
everything that the prophet is saying to them. We see furthermore
in the second chapter, verse 14, yet ye say wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness
between thee and the wife of thy youth against whom thou wast
dealt treacherous love, yet is she thy companion and the wife
of thy covenant. See how he has spoken to them
previously, how they had loved and married the daughters of
a strange God. They had forsaken their Hebrew
wives, they had taken strange wives. Yet ye say wherefore? They want to do what's right
in their own eyes. And they don't like it when God's servant comes
and rebukes them because of their sins. And so here, in this third
chapter, in the very next verse to our text, verse 8, Will a
man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me, but ye
say wherein have we robbed thee? How have we robbed God? And he
tells them in tithes and offerings. Oh, they were not bringing the
tithes as they ought to have done. They were not making the
offerings that they ought to have made. And so time and again we see
how God rebukes his people because of their folly, because of their
sins. at the end of that second chapter
he says you have wearied the Lord with your words yet ye say
wherein have we wearied him? when ye say every one that doeth
evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in
them where is the God of judgment? oh they wearied God by their
sinful ways oh their words you see were so wicked stout words
he calls them Here in chapter 3 and verse 13, your words have
been stout against me, saith the Lord, yet ye say, what have
we spoken so much against them? Ye have said, it is thine to
serve God. From what profit is it that we
have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully
before the Lord of hosts? Stout words, proud words, the
arrogance of their sins, you say. refusing to submit to God
and to the authority of the Word of God. This was their sin. And
yet, what a gracious word it is that God speaks in the text.
He says to them, return unto me and I will return unto you. All their sins, you see, they
were ancient sins even from the days of their fathers they had
gone away. They are so proud so arrogant
in their sinning. And then there's the actual sins
that they committed. And we see it here in this 8th
verse that we've already intimated. They sinned against God in the
matter of the tithes. They were not bringing the tithes. You've robbed me, says God. But
ye say wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings? Now we see how that was certainly
the case in the days of Nehemiah. They were not bringing to God
those offerings that were required of them under the law of God. In Nehemiah chapter 13 Verse 10, I perceived, says Nehemiah,
that the portions of the Levites had not been given them. For
the Levites and the singers that did the work were fled every
one to his field. Then contended I with the rulers
and said, Why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered
them together and set them in their place. Then brought all
Judah the tithe of the corn and the new wine and the oil unto
the treasury. they were failing you see and
Nehemiah had to speak sharply to them this is what was required
of them in the law of God that they were to bring their tithes
whereby supply was made for the Levites of course they had no
portion in the land they had no land allotted to them like
the other tribes They had their cities to dwell in and the suburbs
of the cities, but they were dependent upon the people to
support them. And so we have that command at
the end of Deuteronomy 14, at the end of three years, Thou
shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year,
and shalt lay it up within thy gates. And the Levites, because
he hath no part nor inheritance with thee, and the stranger,
and the fatherless, and the widow which are within thy gate shall
come, and shall eat, and be satisfied, that the Lord thy God may bless
thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest. This is
what God had commanded. Quite plainly there in the law
of Moses, the man of God, the Dardane had been failing in this
very matter. They were robbing God. They were
not really robbing the Levites and the widows and the fatherless
and the strangers. They were going against God.
They were rejecting the Word of God. That's robbing God. And
not only in the matter of tithes, it was also the case with regards
to sacrifices. What were the offerings that
they were bringing? Here in chapter 1. And verse
7, He offer polluted bread upon mine altar, and ye say wherein
have we polluted thee? In that ye say the table of the
Lord is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for
sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and
sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor.
Will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person, saith the
Lord of hosts? Again, at the end of that chapter,
you have profaned it in that you say the table of the Lord
is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.
You said also, behold, what a weariness is it! And you have snuffed at
it, saith the Lord of hosts, and you brought that which was
torn, and the lame and the sick. Thus you brought an offering.
Should I accept this at your hand, saith the Lord? but cursed
be the deceiver which hath in his flock a mile and voweth and
sacrifices unto the Lord a corrupting. For I am a great king, said the
Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen."
They were not bringing those offerings that God himself had
prescribed in his holy law. He had told them quite clearly
that they must only bring those animals for sacrifice that were
perfect, complete in all their parts. In the opening words of
the 17th chapter in Deuteronomy, Thou shalt not sacrifice unto
the Lord thy God any bullock or sheep wherein is blemish,
or any ill-favouredness, for that is an abomination unto the
Lord. These are the actual sins they
were committed. They were not presenting to God that that He
required of them, that worship. See how solemn a thing it is
to worship God. That was Old Testament worship.
Those were the things that God required at the hands of His
children when they came to the tabernacle or to the temple.
And we come to worship God and what are we to give to God? We
are to give of our best. We are to be those who would
be all attentive in the house of God. We are not to be those
who would reject his words or in arrogance refuse his commandments
with the desire that we might know something of that spirit
of real humility before him. We are to present that acceptable
sacrifice of a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart.
God doesn't despise that. These are the things that we
are to bring on to God. And this is what God is calling
these people to, to turn from their sins. The call of the Gospel
comes to the sinner. Christ came to call sinners to
repentance. Return unto me, and I will return
unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But he said, wherein shall we
return? He goes on at verse 9 to say
your curse. with a curse for you have robbed
me even the whole nation why were they cursed? because they
refused the word of God they refused to hear the word of God
this is what these people were doing look at that second chapter
again in the second verse he says if ye will not hear And
if you will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name, saith
the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I
will curse your blessings, yea, I have cursed them already, because
you did not lay it to heart. We are to hear what God is saying,
we are to lay what God says to us to heart. We are not to refuse
his words, we are not to kick against his commandments. You
see what the Prophet is saying to Israel, these typical people,
the people who are typical of the children of God. The importance
said of hearing, hearing God's word, hearing God's voice, that
call of God. We know, because we are told
quite clearly by the Apostle in Romans chapter 10, O faith
cometh. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the words of God. But where there is faith there
must also be repentance. And these two stand together,
the call to faith, the call to repentance. And can we not then
say that repentance also cometh by hearing? If we take this question
that they put at the end of verse 7, where in shall we return?
There is not so much an expression of their rebellion and their
rejection, but if we think in terms of an enquiry, a genuine
enquiry of God, how they are to return to him, how they are
to repent, how do we repent? We have to attend to hearing,
to hearing the word of God. Remember what we said with regards to the context here, in the opening
verse we are reminded of the ministry of John the Baptist,
we are reminded of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
what was John's message? Behold I will send my messenger,
he shall prepare the way before me. And we are told of that ministry
of the Baptist, in the very first book of the
New Testament in Matthew chapter 3. In those days came John the
Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repentance
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken
of by the prophet Isaiah saying the voice of one crying in the
wilderness. Prepare you the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,
the fulfilment you'll see of Isaiah 14. But what is the message
of John? Repent, he says. The Kingdom
of Heaven is at hand, we're to hear that call. That voice that is preparatory
to the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we have the ministry
of Christ. Here in verse 1, the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly
come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom
ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. What is Christ's ministry? When we are introduced to that
public ministry again there in Matthew, In chapter 4 and verse 17 we
read, from that time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Christ's ministry is
the same ministry. It's His call, His call to return
unto the Lord, to turn to Him, to repent. And of course the amazing thing
is this, that what Christ commands in the Gospel, Christ gives. Well that's our comfort, is it
not? What the Lord commands when he says repent, is he not exalted
to that very end? Exalted the Prince and the Saviour
to give repentance to Israel? And the forgiveness of sins? That's the gospel, you see. The
gospel is so different to the law. The law commands do and
less. But how different is that voice
of God in the gospel? When Christ says repent, He gives
repentance. And we have to look to Him and
call upon Him and request that repentance of Him. And He's exalted
to give it. He has all authority in heaven
and in earth. He bestows His good gifts. What
are we those who despise the riches of His goodness, His long-suffering
and forbearance, says Paul, not knowing that the goodness of
God leads us into repentance? This is the way of the Gospel,
you see. It's that gracious way. The Lord doesn't just give the
command, He grants the gift to those who would seek Him, those
who would come and cry to Him and call upon Him. We know that there is a repentance
that is really nothing more than remorse. And we see it so clearly
in the case of Esau. those sad words that we read
concerning Esau in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 15 Paul speaks of the
necessity of us looking with all diligence He says, looking
diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any
root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many
be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person
as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For
you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited
the blessing, he was rejected. for he found no place of repentance,
though he sought it carefully with tears." That seeking, you
see, it was all centred in himself, centred upon himself. It's godly sorrow that workers'
repentance to salvation not to be repented of, says Paul. And
the sorrow of the world only works death, that's what he sought.
We sang in our opening hymn of that godly sorrow that leads to true
repentance. In the hymn 1099, in the third
verse, thy dying love, thy mercy felt, makes godly sorrow rise,
and tears of penitential grief gush from the sinner's eyes. You see, where true repentance
is to be found, it's at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
grieving over Him. It's sorrowing over Christ. He's
dying now. That's what makes godly sorrow
rise in the heart. It's not the terrors of the law.
It's that wondrous grace of God in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Here is the call then, the call
to repentance, return unto me and I will return unto you, saith
the Lord of hosts. We have it in a sense more fully
expressed in that lovely 55th chapter in the book of Isaiah. And there at verses 6 and 7. And I'll close with these verses. Isaiah 55, 6 and 7. Seek ye the
Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord. and he
will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. Amen.