WEBVTT 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:19.920 This morning we're going to be in the book of Malachi, and as we've been studying the book for a few weeks, this week and then next week, we'll finish it up on Palm Sunday before we get to Easter Sunday together. 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:26.800 This morning we're going to be in Malachi chapter 3, verses 6 down to the end of the chapter is our text. 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:29.519 So why don't we just jump in by reading from the Word of God together? 00:00:29.679 --> 00:00:37.520 Will you look down at your Bibles and follow with me as I read from God's Word, Malachi chapter 3, beginning in verse 6? 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:42.320 For I the Lord do not change. 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:46.159 Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:50.880 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:54.479 Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. 00:00:54.719 --> 00:00:57.200 But you say, How shall we return? 00:00:57.600 --> 00:00:58.960 Will man rob God? 00:00:59.200 --> 00:01:00.719 Yet you are robbing me. 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:02.880 But you say, How have we robbed you? 00:01:03.119 --> 00:01:05.120 In your tithes and contributions. 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:09.680 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:22.879 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you, and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 00:01:24.079 --> 00:01:36.480 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that he will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts, then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts. 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:42.480 Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord, but you say, How have we spoken against you? 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:45.200 You have said, It is vain to serve God. 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:50.480 What's the prophet in keeping his charge or in walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? 00:01:50.799 --> 00:01:52.239 Now we call the arrogant blessed. 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:57.120 Evildoers not only prosper, but they are putting God to the test and escape. 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:08.879 Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another, and the Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him, and those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. 00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:16.400 They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:24.639 Then once more you will see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and the one who does not serve him. 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:27.120 This is the word of God. 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:31.120 Life is filled with many tests. 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:40.080 Start school as a young kid, you have test after test, and you finally graduate and move on with life, and you enter employment, and there's test after test. 00:02:40.159 --> 00:02:46.800 And it's been said often, and well said, that life is really just nothing more or less than a series of tests. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:50.159 Even when it comes to more personal matters like relationships. 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:55.919 Think of what the Bible describes as our closest relationship, the covenant relationship of marriage. 00:02:56.319 --> 00:03:02.560 At least in most Western societies, marriage begins with one big test: dating. 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:04.240 Isn't that all dating is? 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:06.800 It's just one long, prolonged audition. 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:08.960 It's a test to see, are you the one? 00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:13.280 And if you pass the test, maybe you can enter into marriage. 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:20.960 Well, I think what all of these tests have in common is that kind of human nature, we don't really like being tested. 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:32.400 So I find it striking that in the passage that we just read, our text for this morning, the heart of it is an invitation from God to allow his people to test him. 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:36.960 He says in verse 10, test me in this. 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:45.759 Now we remember that the book of Malachi is a prophecy from the Lord to his people at a period of time in which they had come back from their Babylonian exile. 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:54.639 They had rebuilt the temple, building the city walls, and they're expecting that God is going to fulfill all his promises to reconstitute Israel as the center of a global kingdom. 00:03:54.800 --> 00:04:04.719 He's going to establish them in the land, he's going to come dwell among them in their presence, and he's going to usher forth a perfect kingdom of righteousness in which all the nations of the earth worship the God of Israel. 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:07.840 That's what they're expecting, and it hasn't happened. 00:04:08.159 --> 00:04:16.000 And so after a few generations of not experiencing the fulfillment of God's promises, the people had become disillusioned and disenchanted with this God. 00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:20.240 And so God raised up the prophet Malachi to reaffirm his promises. 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:25.759 We saw last week that the Lord reaffirmed his promises that he is going to establish his kingdom. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:37.439 So reorient your mind, not around your present circumstances, as disappointing and difficult as they really may be, but reorient your heart towards eternity and the certainty that God is going to establish his kingdom. 00:04:37.839 --> 00:04:49.040 In this passage that we're studying this morning, he moves forward and says, I don't just want you to orient your heart towards eternity, I also want you to consider your relationship with me now, in the present. 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:58.720 And what God reveals in this passage is that he has requirements for us if we want to be in a covenant relationship with God now and in the future. 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:13.199 And what he offers us in this text is an invitation to test him, to see if we give ourselves unreservedly to God, if he will not unreservedly give himself back to us. 00:05:13.759 --> 00:05:18.560 So I want to walk through this text, and it'll unfold in three stages as we study it this morning. 00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:23.360 And the first is a declaration that God gives us, and we find that in chapter 3, verses 6 and 7. 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:28.800 So look down at your Bibles at verse 6, where we read, I the Lord do not change. 00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:31.600 Therefore, you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:36.160 From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:40.319 So you see the contrast here between the people of Israel and the God of Israel. 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:43.519 The people of Israel have turned aside from God's statutes. 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:47.360 And the book of Malachi has been replete with these indictments. 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:50.800 The book began by God charging the people with doubting his love. 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:59.839 Then he charged them with not honoring and revering him, and in fact polluting his temple, despising him by corrupting temple worship. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:04.560 And then in chapter 2, verses 10 and following, he charged them with unfaithfulness towards one another. 00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:10.079 They've been breaking relationships, they've been divorcing one another, they've been committing injustice and oppression in the land. 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:18.160 By the time you get to chapter 2, verse 17, God says, I've been wearied with you, questioning my character, doubting my promises, being unfaithful to me and one another. 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:24.160 And yet in this text, God affirms that because I do not change, you have not been consumed. 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:34.720 That is, because God does not change, in his resolute desire to bless his covenant people, the people of Israel, have not been treated as their actions deserve. 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:36.639 That's the contrast here. 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:39.279 God declares, I do not change. 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:44.160 And of course, in context here, his unchanging nature is in reference to his promises. 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:52.240 He made a covenant with Abraham and the descendants of Abraham that he would constitute them a nation in their land and through them bring a blessing to all the nations. 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:53.759 He'd established them as a kingdom. 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:58.240 They would be the heart of a global kingdom in which all the peoples of the earth worship the God of Israel. 00:06:58.319 --> 00:07:04.879 And God says, I am going to fulfill my promises, and because I am loyal to my word, you haven't been consumed. 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:10.000 In other words, because God doesn't change, you can trust him. 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:14.800 So you see, the nature of what God is doing in this text is this. 00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:23.439 And he's going to say, I have commands for you, I have expectations for you, I have requirements of the way you need to respond to me. 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:30.959 But our obedience to God and our response to God have to be grounded in a response to the character of God. 00:07:31.279 --> 00:07:34.079 And so God begins with this declaration of who he is. 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:36.639 He is an unchanging, faithful God. 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:40.959 And based on that reality, you can respond to him appropriately. 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:47.759 You know, we could go everywhere in the Bible, couldn't we, to see that God fleshes out this reality that he is an unchanging God? 00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:56.240 One of the texts where God asserts this is a Psalm 102 that says, Of old you, O God, laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. 00:07:56.399 --> 00:07:58.959 They will perish, but you will remain. 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:00.560 They all wear out like a garment. 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:07.920 You'll change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end. 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:10.480 This is the God of the Bible. 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:12.319 He doesn't change. 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:21.519 God is pure self-existent reality, dependent on no one, from eternity to eternity, self-existent in and of himself. 00:08:23.279 --> 00:08:29.199 Effulgent in his glory, a fountain of life, who himself gives life to everything that has it. 00:08:29.439 --> 00:08:31.600 And he never changes. 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:37.120 His perfections are pristine. 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:39.519 There's no room for improvement with this God. 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:50.320 And he can't decrease, he can't be corrupted, so if he can't increase, decrease, move left or right, then we can say that what God is, God always is, always will be. 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:54.399 The God of the Bible never changes. 00:08:54.879 --> 00:09:03.279 And I think it is helpful for us as we think about this declaration that God gives us about his unchanging nature, just to contrast it with everything else that exists. 00:09:03.919 --> 00:09:08.399 There is God who never changes, and there's everything else that is in constant flux. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:11.759 You know this from your own experience. 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:15.519 Everything in life changes. 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:22.159 But I think not just from our own spirit experience, but when we look in the scriptures, we see that the nature of humanity is that we change. 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:25.360 I think one good illustration of this is in the life of King David. 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:37.759 Before he was king, in 1 Samuel chapter 21, when he was on the run from Saul, who was the king of Israel at that time, he decided it would be a good idea to flee to Gath, which, if you don't remember, was the city of Goliath, who David slew. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:41.279 I don't know why David thought that was a good idea, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:49.679 And so off he skedaddled to hide in Gath, and naturally it became known to the king of Gath that David, hey, the guy who chopped Goliath's head off, he's here. 00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:52.639 And the king of Gath said, I don't think I like that. 00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:54.080 I'm gonna deal with this guy. 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:57.039 And David realized that was a bad idea to come here. 00:09:57.200 --> 00:10:00.240 And the text says he changed his behavior. 00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:04.320 And he began to let his drool run down his chin, and he was scratching the walls. 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:05.440 He feigned insanity. 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:07.440 Basically, it looked like Los Angeles. 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:14.240 Because he recognized bad idea, better change course. 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:16.559 You know God never does that. 00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:21.600 What God decrees, he declares decrees from eternity past to eternity future. 00:10:21.919 --> 00:10:31.600 Isaiah 46 says, He declares the end from the beginning, from ancient times to things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose. 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:34.159 I have spoken and I will bring it to pass. 00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:36.799 I have purposed and I will do it. 00:10:37.039 --> 00:10:40.399 You can trust the word of an unchanging God. 00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:48.879 You can anchor your life in the unflinching reality that God is what he is and he always will be. 00:10:53.759 --> 00:10:58.720 From a few years ago in 2017, when Hurricane Harvey hit the coast of Texas. 00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:01.759 There were a lot of reports that came out of the destruction. 00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:05.360 It was it was significant. 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:11.279 But in particular when this hurricane happened, there was uh a photo that went around the internet that's stuck in my mind. 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:16.320 It was a photo of what is a fairly famous tree called the Big Tree in south of Texas. 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:18.879 It is a thousand-year-old oak tree. 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:26.000 And the Texas Park Association released a photo after the damage to let us all know that the big tree was still going strong. 00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:34.159 And then in this picture, the big tree was standing tall and proud with the destruction of all of his younger brother trees strewn on the ground all around him. 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:42.720 And in quintessential Texas fashion, they had a caption with the photo that says, You don't get old by being weak. 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:48.720 God is the God of age to age. 00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:55.279 God is not a God of change, he's not a god of flux, he's not a fickle God, God is an unchanging God. 00:11:55.759 --> 00:12:02.799 Everything else in the universe that has any sense of solidity gets its solidity because it has roots like this tree. 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:08.000 And ultimately, if that real if that thing is going to last, it's because they have roots in God. 00:12:08.159 --> 00:12:10.720 But God doesn't need roots, he just is. 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:12.879 So you can put your roots in him. 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:19.279 You can ground your life in the unchanging reality that God is who he is. 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:29.200 That's where God begins this text with this declaration of his unchanging nature, and that's the groundwork on which he's going to move forward and invite us to respond to him. 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:33.600 And the way he invites us to respond is found in the next verse, in the second half of verse 7. 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:36.000 Look down in your Bibles in verse 7. 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:41.679 God says, Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:45.360 Here's his invitation is to turn from your sin and flee to him. 00:12:45.679 --> 00:12:51.679 Part of God's unchanging decree is that he has decreed from eternity past to eternity future, he will receive repentant sinners. 00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:55.039 God says, All who come to me I will in no wise cast out. 00:12:55.200 --> 00:12:57.120 He will receive the repentant. 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:01.200 But look at the way the people respond at the very end of verse 7. 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:03.840 They say, How shall we return? 00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:11.440 And I think the way to understand their response is they're saying to God, Okay, you want us to come back to you, but how exactly are we supposed to do that? 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:12.799 Because we never left. 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:14.080 We're right here. 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:21.600 I think in their mind, they felt like we are the people who have rebuilt the temple and we're keeping the temple service going. 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:26.559 Yeah, maybe our offerings aren't all according to your perfect liking, but at least we're making the offerings. 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:27.840 We're trying to keep Sabbath. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:29.679 We're trying to be faithful here. 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:32.159 So how are we supposed to repent? 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:33.120 Where are we supposed to go to? 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:34.320 We never left you. 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:59.759 I don't think that's all that different from a new covenant attitude in the church that naturally tends to rise up in our hearts in which we think, yeah, maybe there's ways in which I could be more faithful to the Lord, maybe I could be more generous, maybe I could be more evangelistic, maybe my affection for the Lord could be hotter, maybe my seriousness with the besetting sins in my life could be more strident. 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:05.279 But I mean, I'm at church, here I am, I'm here, aren't I? 00:14:08.159 --> 00:14:12.559 And yet the Lord speaks to that kind of person and says, Return to me. 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:19.039 We have to recognize this reality that it doesn't matter physically where our feet are, what matters is our life. 00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:21.440 And God is saying there's a gap between us. 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:24.960 Your sins have made a separation between you and me, and I want you to return. 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:29.120 And look how he gets very specific about the way in which to return in verse 8 and following. 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:30.799 Look down in your Bibles at verse 8. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:33.039 God says, Will a man rob God? 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:34.879 Yet you are robbing me. 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:36.879 But you say, How have we robbed you? 00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:38.639 In your tithes and contributions. 00:14:38.799 --> 00:14:43.120 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:48.320 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. 00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:49.919 That's God's requirement. 00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:52.799 His requirement is not, well, we're here, aren't we? 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:54.320 His requirement is verse 10. 00:14:54.399 --> 00:15:00.480 His invitation in verse 10 is bring all of it, the full tithe, bring all of yourself. 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:02.720 That's what I require from you. 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:07.600 I'm the unchanging, absolutely, infinitely glorious God of the universe. 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:09.200 I want all of you. 00:15:11.039 --> 00:15:20.080 Now, as soon as we're in the Old Testament and we're looking at a text that's talking about tithes, we need to discuss tithes just for a moment so we're on the same page and know what the text is actually speaking about. 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:24.639 Tithes are part of the Mosaic covenant, the law that God gave through Moses to the people of Israel. 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:32.480 They're part of the stipulations of the Mosaic covenant, in which God allotted the land to eleven of the twelve tribes, but not to the Levites. 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:34.080 The Levites got no apportionment. 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:36.639 And so the Levites were dedicated to temple service. 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:39.440 They were supposed to focus their time and their energy on temple service. 00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:40.879 So what are they going to eat? 00:15:41.039 --> 00:15:42.639 That's where the tithe comes in. 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:54.399 The other eleven tribes were required to give a tenth of their income, essentially, their produce and their livestock, to the Levites, so they could subsist on the tithe and be devoted to temple service and not farming. 00:15:54.559 --> 00:15:58.799 And then in addition to the tithe, you'll notice in verse 8, there's supposed to be a contribution. 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:02.240 The contribution was of the tithe that came from the tribes to the Levites. 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:08.320 The Levites then took a tenth of the tithe and gave it as a contribution directly to the Lord that even they didn't eat of. 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:13.120 And God says that contribution is supposed to be the best of the best, given straight to the Lord. 00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:15.279 You see this in Numbers chapter 18. 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:22.559 Out of this is Moses, out of all the gifts that to you, the Levites, you shall present every contribution due to the Lord. 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:24.799 From each its best part is to be dedicated. 00:16:24.879 --> 00:16:32.559 Therefore you shall say to them, to the Levites, when you have offered from it the best of it, then the rest shall be counted to the Levites. 00:16:32.720 --> 00:16:34.799 So this is the requirement that the Lord has. 00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:54.559 Now, if we're talking about tithes, we do have to just say one word about the New Covenant believers' relationship to tithes. 00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:59.519 The new covenant doesn't give a stipulation to tithe 10% of your income. 00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:01.840 The Mosaic Covenant is fulfilled in Christ. 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:07.440 If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you relate to God not through the Mosaic Covenant but through the New Covenant. 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:11.599 And God doesn't lay a strict 10% requirement upon your income. 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:15.759 But he does require generosity in your giving to the work of the Lord. 00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:21.839 1 Corinthians 16, verse 2 speaks of a weekly offering at the gathering of the saints on the Lord's Day. 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:38.880 And the basic attitude of the New Testament when it comes to giving and generosity is 2 Corinthians 9, verse 7, where Paul says, each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:42.160 This is our requirement to the Lord in the New Covenant. 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:46.079 In other words, just look back up at the language that God uses in the text. 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:51.920 Verse 8 Will a man rob God? 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:53.920 Yet you are robbing me. 00:17:54.480 --> 00:18:00.400 You recognize that fundamentally all that you are and all that you have belongs to God. 00:18:01.279 --> 00:18:03.200 Your money ultimately belongs to Him. 00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:04.559 You're just an investment manager. 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:06.000 It's not your money. 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:13.279 Your possessions, your time, your intellect, your abilities, your family, everything that you have belongs to the Lord. 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:17.440 And what does God want? 00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:20.880 Well, verse 10 says He wants all of it. 00:18:21.519 --> 00:18:22.880 The full tithe. 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:41.039 Everything that you have belongs to the Lord. 00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:48.160 Your time, your goals, your family, your intellect, your words, everything is to be done to the glory of the Lord. 00:18:48.240 --> 00:18:52.880 So you ought to ask yourself, Am I bringing the full tithe to the Lord? 00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:56.160 Is my entire life at the Lord's disposal? 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:02.079 Am I genuinely open to full, devoted commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ? 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:10.559 And the Lord wants to then up the ante a little bit with this question that He's putting to us to us, with this invitation that He's offering. 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:12.160 Look at the rest of verse 10. 00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:21.119 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house, and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts. 00:19:21.279 --> 00:19:28.319 If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:31.119 That's a wild verse, isn't it? 00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:39.599 But one of the questions that we ought to ask about this text is I'm pretty sure in the Bible it says, don't test the Lord, right? 00:19:39.920 --> 00:19:41.599 I'm pretty sure I've read that. 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:43.279 In fact, I've read it a lot. 00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:54.240 It begins in Exodus chapter 17, when God redeems the people of Israel out of Egypt, and they come into the desert, and they start to get thirsty, and they complain and say, God, did you bring us out here just to kill us of thirst? 00:19:54.400 --> 00:19:56.400 And God says they were putting him to the test. 00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:03.039 And so Deuteronomy 6 summarizes that account by saying, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:04.799 As you tested him at Messiah. 00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:17.200 And that verse will be familiar to you if you've read the New Testament, because in Matthew chapter 4, when Jesus is tempted by the devil in the wilderness, he quotes this verse to the devil and says, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. 00:20:17.279 --> 00:20:20.000 So apparently, God doesn't want to be tested. 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:22.160 Don't test the Lord. 00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:26.799 But this verse, God explicitly says, test me. 00:20:27.279 --> 00:20:29.440 So what's the deal? 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.160 And I think it becomes pretty clear when you look at the text closely, look at the language God uses. 00:20:34.559 --> 00:20:38.640 Now I have to confess, I'm so disappointed in the ESV at this point. 00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:44.559 Every other English Bible, I think, gets captures the sense of the Hebrew perfectly. 00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:51.279 The English Bible, uh, ESV says in verse 10, and thereby put me to the test. 00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:58.240 Now, I like to think that I speak English pretty good, but I don't know what thereby means. 00:20:58.880 --> 00:20:59.920 I don't know what that means. 00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:05.599 Every other English Bible, if you're reading the NIV or whatever, will say, Test me in this. 00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:10.720 The idea is that God is restricting the kind of test that He'll permit Himself to be subjected to. 00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:15.680 There's a specific kind of test that He not only is open to, but He wants you to put Him to. 00:21:15.839 --> 00:21:18.400 What is that test that He wants you to put Him to? 00:21:18.559 --> 00:21:22.000 Well, look at what will result from it in verses 11 and following. 00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:35.359 God says, I'll rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts, and all the nations will call you blessed, for you'll be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts. 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:40.559 And if you've read the Old Covenant, if you've read Deuteronomy and other texts in the Old Testament, that will sound familiar. 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:42.000 That's covenantal language, isn't it? 00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:46.960 God's saying, I'm going to bless your land, I'm going to bless your supply, all the nations are going to call you blessed. 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:48.400 That's exactly what this is. 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:49.519 This is covenant language. 00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:56.559 In other words, God is saying, I promised in the old covenant through Moses that if you obeyed me, Israel, these blessings would fall upon you. 00:21:56.720 --> 00:21:58.880 Test and see if I won't keep my word. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:03.920 I'll just show you one particular passage in Deuteronomy chapter 28. 00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:11.920 That's the text where the people of Israel and Deuteronomy are instructed when you cross the Jordan into the land, you are to announce all the blessings and the curses of the covenant. 00:22:12.079 --> 00:22:14.960 If you obey God, all of these curses will run upon you. 00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:16.799 They'll overtake you, the language says. 00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:18.480 They'll chase you down and find you. 00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:22.720 But if you disobey and break the covenant, all these curses will hunt you down. 00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:28.480 And I just want to show you two verses that will sound a lot like Malachi in this covenant section of Deuteronomy. 00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:46.960 The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hands, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down if you obey the commands of the Lord your God. 00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:49.839 You see the echoes from Deuteronomy to Malachi? 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:55.039 This is reaffirming the covenant promises that God gave to his people on Mount Sinai. 00:22:55.519 --> 00:22:57.599 God is saying, I made a promise. 00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:00.880 Just test and see if I will do exactly what I said. 00:23:01.039 --> 00:23:08.720 And now you can see so clearly the connection between God beginning with this declaration that he doesn't change, and then this invitation to test and see. 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:12.960 Test and see if I will do exactly what I said, see if I'll change. 00:23:13.359 --> 00:23:14.880 I promised I would do this. 00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:16.400 Now come and see if I will. 00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:18.559 That's the invitation that God is giving to us. 00:23:18.640 --> 00:23:29.200 In other words, what God is inviting us to do is to test and see if he will be absolutely, unswervingly loyal to his covenant, to his promises to us. 00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:31.519 See if God will keep his word to you. 00:23:31.759 --> 00:23:33.359 That's what God is inviting you to do. 00:23:33.440 --> 00:23:42.240 So then the big question becomes Well, in the old covenant, under the stipulations through Moses, this was the relationship between the Israel and God. 00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:44.240 But we are new covenant believers. 00:23:44.480 --> 00:23:47.200 What is the word that we can test God on? 00:23:47.440 --> 00:23:49.920 Well, I think it's pretty clear in the language. 00:23:50.160 --> 00:23:52.079 Looked at verse 10 again. 00:23:54.640 --> 00:24:10.000 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house, and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:14.960 It's an overwhelming blessing that supersedes anything that you could hope or think or imagine. 00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:18.319 And in fact, I want to make one final critique of the ESV at this point. 00:24:18.400 --> 00:24:24.160 In verse 10, this word that is rendered pour out really would be better rendered to empty out. 00:24:24.319 --> 00:24:26.960 There's a number of more common words that would be used for pouring. 00:24:27.119 --> 00:24:29.279 This word is used for emptying something. 00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:32.160 In other words, what God is saying is even more radical. 00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:35.680 He's saying, I'm going to open up the heavens, I'm going to shake them and empty them out. 00:24:35.759 --> 00:24:40.559 And everything that heaven could possibly offer you, I will not restrain even a drop. 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:42.640 I'm going to empty them out upon you. 00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:50.960 Now, if you are a new covenant believer, is that out exactly what God has done for you? 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:57.279 He has opened the heavens, and he gave himself when he gave Christ. 00:24:57.839 --> 00:25:01.359 What is heaven if not the glory of God? 00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:07.119 And in Christ, the fullness of the glory of God in bodily form is given for you. 00:25:07.440 --> 00:25:09.359 God has emptied the heavens. 00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:11.359 He's given everything that there was. 00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:24.240 He restrained nothing when he gave himself, and his incarnation to live a life on your behalf, in his crucifixion to die a death on your behalf, in his ascension and his interceding for you to secure your eternal salvation. 00:25:24.559 --> 00:25:28.720 God has emptied the heavens and has given you more than enough. 00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:30.720 And now he's inviting you. 00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:40.079 Test me and see if I won't fulfill my promise that I'll finish the good work I started in you, that all of myself will be given to you. 00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:44.799 One of the ways you could think about this is if you need kind of a diagram here. 00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:53.200 Old Testament, covenant obedience resulted in spiritual and physical blessings in the now. 00:25:53.759 --> 00:25:54.319 Right? 00:25:54.960 --> 00:25:58.079 The rain is going to open up, your crops are going to be growing. 00:25:58.240 --> 00:26:01.680 The new covenant offers spiritual and physical blessings. 00:26:01.759 --> 00:26:03.279 The only thing that's different is the timing. 00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:12.720 You get the spiritual blessings of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, of knowing Christ face to face, of having a foretaste of glory. 00:26:13.599 --> 00:26:20.640 And you have all of the physical things God could possibly offer you forever stored up for you in heaven. 00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:23.119 Not quite yet. 00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:35.440 So this text should not be understood as it is so commonly twisted to mean in modern American Christianity that if you just give God a little bit more on the offering plate, your bills will be paid. 00:26:35.519 --> 00:26:37.920 That is not the covenant that God has made with you. 00:26:42.400 --> 00:26:47.839 But God has made a promise concerning your physical blessings right now. 00:26:48.240 --> 00:26:50.240 You're going to inherit the entire earth. 00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:54.880 You're going to judge the nations, you're going to judge the angels, you're going to sit at God's right hand on his own throne. 00:26:54.960 --> 00:26:56.160 That's what he's promised to you. 00:26:56.319 --> 00:26:58.160 New heavens and new earth. 00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:02.640 But in the now, there is a word for you. 00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:13.920 You know, in the New Covenant, the scripture says that the only reason that you are on this planet, if you have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, sealed by his spirit, you no longer belong to this world. 00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:15.440 You're a citizen of heaven. 00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:18.880 This is a strange world, and you are on a pilgrimage to get home. 00:27:19.119 --> 00:27:25.759 The only reason you are here is because God has work for you to do while you're here, to glorify God and to make disciples of all the nations. 00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:29.920 You're here on a temporary journey to achieve something for the home team. 00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:37.680 And as long as you are here, God will give you everything that you need to achieve your mission, and then he'll take you home. 00:27:38.400 --> 00:27:46.000 This is why George Whitfield, the 18th-century evangelist, used to say, Until God is done with me, I'm invincible on this world. 00:27:47.599 --> 00:27:57.200 Because Hebrews chapter 13, verse 5 says, Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because he has promised, I will never leave you or forsake you. 00:27:57.440 --> 00:28:03.519 And he grounds that then in verse 8, in this reality, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:18.000 You have an unchanging God who has sworn a covenant to keep your soul safe, to provide for your needs now, and to usher you into untold, unimaginable glory forever in his presence, will you put him to the test and let him prove that it's true? 00:28:18.799 --> 00:28:21.039 That's what God's inviting us to do. 00:28:25.359 --> 00:28:29.680 You know, I think you could even bring this down to kind of everyday mundane levels. 00:28:31.119 --> 00:28:46.880 And just ask yourself the question: in the way that I conduct my life, in the way that I make decisions about my time and my money and how I use my intellect and the goals that I set for myself, am I intending to glorify God and put him to the test and let him show his faithfulness to me? 00:28:47.200 --> 00:28:51.759 Or am I primarily trying to look out for myself? 00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:55.359 Do I think I am a better keeper than the Lord? 00:28:57.680 --> 00:29:07.680 Do I believe that if I act in faith and do what I believe is right, I have convictions of what I've seen in the scriptures of the way that God wants me to think and to speak and to act? 00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:10.960 I have convictions that this is what God wants me to do. 00:29:11.200 --> 00:29:15.519 Do you have the follow-up conviction that God's going to take care of you if you do that? 00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:18.079 Will you put the Lord to the test in your life? 00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:20.079 Will you bring him the full tithe? 00:29:20.240 --> 00:29:22.319 Will you bring him all that you have? 00:29:22.640 --> 00:29:25.039 Because that's what the Lord requires of you. 00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:27.200 And isn't this a sweet deal? 00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:31.680 He says, Bring all of yourself, and I'll give you all of myself. 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:33.759 Who wins in that deal? 00:29:37.440 --> 00:29:43.920 Well, the Lord has invited us to come and give all of ourself to him, but I want us to not just stop there because the Lord doesn't stop there. 00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:50.880 He wants us to take this extraordinarily seriously because in the following text, he says, There is coming a day when there's going to be a termination. 00:29:51.039 --> 00:29:58.799 A determination between those who fear the Lord and take him at his word and those who will their words prevail against him. 00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:01.839 Look at that in the following text in verse 13. 00:30:02.079 --> 00:30:07.039 In verse 13, the Lord says, Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. 00:30:07.359 --> 00:30:09.279 Your words have been hard against me. 00:30:09.440 --> 00:30:10.000 What does that mean? 00:30:10.079 --> 00:30:13.680 Now there's an expression in English, we have an idiom where we say, Oh, those are hard words. 00:30:13.920 --> 00:30:19.680 But there doesn't seem to be such an idiom in Hebrew text, at least not with the verb that is used in this passage. 00:30:20.319 --> 00:30:26.720 Rather, what the this passage is saying is there's one other passage in the Old Testament where this exact turn of phrase is used. 00:30:26.880 --> 00:30:30.799 It's when King David, who's now king, is speaking to his general Joab. 00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:32.640 And Joab wants David to do something. 00:30:32.720 --> 00:30:33.440 He has some counsel. 00:30:33.599 --> 00:30:34.319 David do this. 00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:36.720 And David says, no, we're going to do this other thing. 00:30:36.799 --> 00:30:39.599 And David's words were strong against Joab. 00:30:39.759 --> 00:30:41.680 In other words, David's words prevailed. 00:30:41.839 --> 00:30:43.039 David got his way. 00:30:43.279 --> 00:30:44.319 That's what God is saying. 00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:49.839 He's saying, what's been happening in your life is that I've been giving you my word, but you've been having it your own way. 00:30:50.079 --> 00:30:52.319 Your words are prevailing against mine. 00:30:52.480 --> 00:30:55.359 You are having it your own way in your life. 00:30:55.759 --> 00:30:57.119 You think you know better. 00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:01.839 You think you have a better plan for what to do with your money and your family and your ambitions. 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:04.960 You have a better plan for your life than God does. 00:31:05.599 --> 00:31:07.440 And you say, Well, how have we done that? 00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:09.759 Well, then God answers the question in verse 14. 00:31:09.920 --> 00:31:11.680 You have said it is vain to serve God. 00:31:11.839 --> 00:31:15.759 What's the profit of keeping his charge or walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? 00:31:15.920 --> 00:31:17.759 We call those who are arrogant, blessed. 00:31:17.920 --> 00:31:19.759 Evildoers, prosper. 00:31:19.920 --> 00:31:22.480 They put God to the test and they escape. 00:31:23.920 --> 00:31:28.000 They look at the world and they say, I would be better off running my own life. 00:31:28.160 --> 00:31:29.759 I can do this better than God. 00:31:29.920 --> 00:31:37.200 It would be uncomfortable, it would be painful, it would be intolerable to let the word of the Lord prevail in my life. 00:31:37.359 --> 00:31:49.359 And do you see this is the key distinction in this determination that God is going to make between the righteous and the unrighteous, between those who are in a covenant with God and those who are outside of a covenant with God, is what you do with his word. 00:31:50.960 --> 00:32:02.319 When the word of God comes into your life and it comes into conflict with your own natural desires, with what you think is right and proper and best, with what you think will bring you most satisfaction and reward in life. 00:32:02.480 --> 00:32:06.079 When the word of God and your own heart comes into conflict, who wins? 00:32:06.240 --> 00:32:09.039 That's the fundamental question in your life. 00:32:09.759 --> 00:32:18.079 Christian people are people who fundamentally, the default of their life is that when God's word comes into conflict with my heart, God wins, not me. 00:32:18.400 --> 00:32:19.680 That's the difference. 00:32:19.920 --> 00:32:23.440 God's word has become bigger inside of me than my own desires. 00:32:23.519 --> 00:32:26.319 And when God's word comes into my life, he wins. 00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:31.599 That's what we see in the next section if you look down at verse 16. 00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:35.119 Those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. 00:32:35.359 --> 00:32:37.759 That is, there's two ways to respond to God. 00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:48.799 There's the response of, uh, that just doesn't seem right, or there's the response of those who fear the Lord, who are compelled by him, who find him magnificent and glorious and tremendous and to be loved and honored and adored. 00:32:48.880 --> 00:32:51.039 And they spoke to one another and they said, The Lord's right. 00:32:51.200 --> 00:32:51.920 We've been wrong. 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:53.839 The problem's not with him, the problem's with us. 00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:55.039 I'm the problem. 00:32:55.279 --> 00:32:56.640 Let's put him to the test. 00:32:56.799 --> 00:32:58.240 Let's bring the full tithe. 00:32:58.319 --> 00:33:00.079 Let's put our whole lives at his disposal. 00:33:00.240 --> 00:33:01.440 Let's let him prove himself. 00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:03.839 Let's put the Lord to the test. 00:33:05.200 --> 00:33:08.160 And look at the way the Lord responds to that attitude. 00:33:08.480 --> 00:33:19.440 And the rest of verse 16, look at your text, it says, The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. 00:33:19.680 --> 00:33:28.480 They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:32.559 The Lord draws near, he hears them, and he even writes a book of their names. 00:33:32.720 --> 00:33:35.839 And just one word on the book that's written here in verse 16, 17. 00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:42.559