“WHEREIN SHALL WE RETURN?” (Mal 3:7-8a)
Dec 28th, 2003
1. Here we see Israel rebuked for defrauding the Lord (Mal. 3:7-15)
2. God graciously calls His people to return to Him with the promise that He will return to them, but still comes the answer.
3. “In what way shall we return?”
4. They had robbed God by withholding their tithes and their offerings, as required by the Law of Moses.
5. God’s blessing was withheld and a curse was upon the nation.
6. The command is to bring all the tithes into the storehouse, with the challenge to prove Him for the assurance of abundant blessing.
7. A Christian today must be a cheerful giver, giving as the Lord has prospered him and must be under the direction of the Spirit of God.
8. The ancestral background of these people is clearly recorded in the book of Hosea.
9. The deaf ears on which God's voice fell resulted from tolerated deficiencies which produced an inevitable spiritual decline, the ultimate of which was reflect in Malachi's day.
I. CONSIDER ISRAEL’S PROBLEM (Vr. 7a) (Gone away from God’s ordinances)
A. THEY SUFFERED FROM A LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
1. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hos. 4:6)
2. (Eph 4:18) “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:”
B. THEY SUFFERED FROM A LACK OF GROWTH
1. "Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer" (Hos. 4:16)
2. (2 Pet 3:18) “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”
3. We look with pity upon someone who doesn’t grow in statute.
C. THEY SUFFERED FROM A LACK OF DEDICATION
1. "Ephraim is joined to idols" (Hos. 4:17)
2. "They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God" (Hos. 5:4)
D. THEY SUFFERED FROM A LACK OF ENJOYMENT
1. "Their drink is sour" (Hos. 4:18)
2. "Believe none, and you will have no joy. Believe little, and you will have little joy. Believe much, and you will have much joy. Believe all, and you will have all joy, and your joy shall be full. You will be like a bowl pressed down and running over."
E. THEY SUFFERED FROM A LACK OF HUMILITY.
1. "The pride of Israel doth testify to his face" (Hos. 5:5)
2. "Humility is a lot like underwear...essential, but indecent if it shows."
3. Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) said: No garment is more becoming to a child of God than the cloak of humility.
4. J. C. Ryle: “Humility may well be called the queen of the Christian graces....Abraham and Moses and Job and David and Daniel and Paul were all eminently humble men.”
5. F.B. Meyer, writing in the Alliance Weekly, said, "I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves one above the other, and that the taller we grew in Christian character the easier we could reach them. I have now found that God's gifts are on shelves one below the other, and that it is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower, and that we have to go down, always down, to get His best gifts."
F. THEY SUFFERED FROM A LACK OF CONSIDERATION
1. "They consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness" (Hos. 7:2)
2. (Hag 1:5-6) “Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.
G. THEY SUFFERED FROM A LACK OF SEPARATION
1. "They are all adulterers" (Hos. 7:4)
2. (2 Cor 6:17) “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you..”
H. THEY SUFFERED FROM A LACK OF EARNESTNESS
1. "They have not cried unto me with their hearts" (Hos. 7:14)
2. The conclusion of the matter found in these words is: "My people are bent to backsliding from me" (Hos. 11:7).
3. Their waywardness commenced with a tendency, continued with a carelessness and culminated with a habit.
II. CONSIDER THE LORD’S PROMISE...(Vr. 7-b) (Return unto me and I will return unto you.”
A. NOTICE GOD’S CHARGE AND ISRAEL’S RESPONSE. (Vr. 7-b)
1. God charges Israel with going away from His ordinances and Israel crys, "Not guilty."
2. God’s call for Israel to return was a call to repentance. (Vr. 7-b)
B. NOTICE ISRAEL’S RESPONSE.. (Vr. 7-b) “Wherein shall we return?”
1. Sinners are just as arrogant today as they were back then.
2. Church members today, cry, “I go to church Sunday morning”
III. CONSIDER THE LORD’S CHARGE AGAINST ISRAEL. (Ye have robbed me)
A. CONSIDER THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE CHARGE.
1. William Jay says: “ "Will a man rob God?" (Mal. 3:8). Is it probable? Is it possible? Can he be so disingenuous ?
2. “What, rob a father, a friend, a benefactor; the best of all fathers; the kindest of all friends ; the most generous of all benefactors! Can he be so daring?
3. “To rob a being so high and sacred, and whose glory so enhances the offence! To injure a fellow-subject is felony, but to injure the king is treason.
4. “To steal from a man is injustice, but to steal from God is sacrilege. The wretch adds profaneness to violence when he breaks, not into a house, but a temple, and takes off things dedicated to the service of the Deity.
5. “Can he be so irrational? To rob a being, not when he is absent, for he never is absent, but when he is present; not in the night, but in the day, and darkness and light are both alike to him; not when he sees not, observes not, but while he is looking on, and must look on, for his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he pondereth all his goings! Can he be so desperate?
6. To rob one who can, who will punish, and whose wrath is not only unavoidable, but intolerable! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
7. “Yet says God, and he cannot be mistaken, or accuse unrighteously, "Ye have robbed me."
8. “But on whom falls the charge?
a. “A Pharaoh only, who would not let the people go;
b. “a Nebuchadnezzar, who carried away the vessels of the sanctuary;
c. “a Belshazzar, who profaned them;
d. “an Ananias and Sapphira, who kept back part of the property they had sold;
e. “a Herod, who beheaded John;
f. “or a Nero, who slew Paul?
9. “Alas, the criminals are less obvious characters, and are found much nearer home ; they are to be found in our own houses; they are to be found in the house of God.”
B. CONSIDER THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE QUESTION. “Will a man rob God?”
1. This is one of several probing questions in the Bible. Jesus says,
2. (Mk 7:37) "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"
3. (Heb 2:3) "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?"
4. (1 Pet 4:18) "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?"
5. (Mal 3:2) "But who shall abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth?"
6. (Jer 7:11) "Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD."
7. (Acts 19:37) “For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess”
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C. CONSIDER THE THOUGHTLESSNESS OF THOSE THAT ROB GOD.
1. A man received a sharp letter from one of his creditors demanding payment. He wrote back to the firm and said, "Dear Sir. Every month I take all the bills I have and put them on the table, shuffle them, and pick out six, which I pay. Now, if I have any more trouble out of you, next month you'll be out of the shuffle entirely." Have you shuffled God out of your giving?
“THE GOD ROBBER”
He seemed to have the money
To buy a new TV,
And tho' it cost him plenty,
He vacationed by the sea.
But when they took an off'ring,
A special for the Lord,
He only gave a dollar,
'Twas all he could afford.
He had a good position,
The kind for which you seek,
A job that paid him more than
Three hundred every week.
The church suggesting tithing--
A tenth unto the Lord--
But still he gave his dollar,
'Twas all he could afford.
We wouldn't rob our neighbor,
It's wrong by our belief,
Yet we withhold God's money--
Are we not then, a thief?
To spend our tens and twenties
For what brings us delight,
Then give the Lord a dollar,
It simply isn't right.
2. 3-24-03 Federalist: "For the second time in as many years, 74-year-old J .C. Adams was confronted by armed robbers at the cash register of his Atlanta convenience store. For the second time in as many years, the Korean War veteran grabbed his 12-gauge shotgun and, using one hand to steady himself on his walker, used the other to fire on his assailants. For the second time in as many years, a thug has died trying to rob Mr. Adams. The moral of the story according to Mr. Adams: "Go to work and make your own money. Quit trying to take mine."
a. If a man can’t rob his neighbor and get by with it; he is a fool who thinks he can rob Almighty God and get by with it.
3. Following three church robberies in one day, a Fort Worth deputy chief of police lamented, “The church was once the most sacred place in town. It was a place of safety and security. But now it has become the target of thieves. When criminals have the audacity to rob God’s people, we are in terrible times.”
The house of God is no stranger to thieves. Long ago, the prophet Malachi accused Israel of robbing God by abandoning the practice of tithing (Mal. 3:8).
Conclusion: Next week, we shall consider Israel’s next question..(Vr. 8) “Wherein have we robbed Thee?”