God Robbers

About this sermon

Introduction: There is something that I want to say at the outset of tonight’s sermon that I pray you will hear with the seriousness that it deserves. It is a point that I make based on everything that we see in the book of Malachi, not just the text that we come to tonight. Though, it is illustrated, once again, by the text we come to tonight. Here is the point. You are not the evaluator of the reality and the seriousness of your sin. You do not determine whether or not you are sinning. You do not determine how serious your sins are. And I want to bring this up, and underscore it, because we are living in a very dangerous time in the history of the church. We are living in a time when a sermon can be preached, or counsel can be given, that makes a clear case from Scripture about what should be and what should not be, only to have people shrug their shoulders. They go right on about their business practicing the very things that Scripture condemns and warns against, and then they basically say, “I just don’t see it that way.” Well, here is what I want you to be responsible for tonight. You may receive it, or you may not receive it, but either way eternity will reveal that you heard it. YOU do not determine what is sin. YOU do not determine how serious your sin is. YOU may feel perfectly fine about yourself and your choices when, in fact, what you are engaging in is seriously displeasing to God. GOD defines sin. GOD’S attitude toward your sin is all that matters. And God will deal with you, not according to the way you view yourself, but according to what He knows to be true of you. And I raise that issue tonight, because once again we see the prophet of God bring a charge from God only to have the people dispute the charge. GOD SEES SOMETHING. GOD SAYS WHAT HE SEES. THE PEOPLE DENY IT OR THEY ARGUE ABOUT IT. That is a serious problem. BUT THAT PROBLEM DIDN’T END IN MALACHI’S DAY. That problem is with us in our own day. And this is not new. This, in fact, has been the track record for the nation of Israel from the time of their fathers. And what we see embodied in Israel, has been the track record for humanity. What this means is that the only reason humanity exists, the only reason the nation Israel exists, the only reason the church exists, and that salvation is a reality, is BECAUSE OF THE GOODNESS, AND LOVE, AND GRACE, AND MERCY, AND FAITHFULNESS OF GOD. God, owing nothing to humanity, purposed to save. His salvation purposes are eternal. His decrees represent His freedom. The only one who is absolutely free, autonomous, independent, in the entire universe of persons, is GOD. God determined to save. God decreed salvation plans and purposes. God fulfills those plans. God explains mercy. And that’s where God begins in verse 6. THE REASON WHY ISRAEL EXISTS (vs.6) We must remember the previous oracle. The people have been complaining that God is not just. They want justice. In their view, they have been mistreated by God. God has been rewarding the wrong people. They have experienced leanness (we will see evidence of that, again, in these verses), and they are wondering where the God of justice has been. They deserve better than this. This is their view. God answers their complaint with the promise of His Son. The Lord will send His messenger. The Lord will come suddenly to His temple. But the one who is coming is not what they expect or want. His holiness is such that they will not be able to endure His presence. He is coming to purify. He will purify through salvation and judgment. He will produce a pure priesthood, through salvation. He will produce a pure nation through salvation and judgment. God will fulfill what God desires, and He will do it through His Son, the messenger of the covenant. And what they have missed in all of this, is that the only reason they still have an existence is because of the faithfulness of God. It is because God is faithful to the unconditional promises made to their fathers that they have not been completely consumed. NOTE: One of the great evidences of the premillennial viewpoint concerning the nation Israel is that the Jews have not been exterminated. It is not because others haven’t attempted it. The history of the Jewish people is a history of hating and being hated. I don’t have to explain to a people who have lived so near to the time of the holocaust, and to a people who still hear the threats of nations like Iran, that if this world had gotten its way, Israel would not exist. Right now, the vast majority of Jews are enemies of the gospel. But what God has planned for that people, a future outpouring of salvation, will be fulfilled not because of their faithfulness but because of God’s faithfulness to demonstrate the greatness of His own name.