Malachi 3
McGeeCHAPTER 3THEME: The prediction of the two messengers; the people rebuked for religious sinsChapter 3 opens with God’s answer to the question raised by the people of Israel at the end of the previous chapter.
Malachi 3:1
Here in one verse we have two messengers. The first messenger who is to go before and to prepare the way is John the Baptist. The second is “the messenger of the covenant,” the Lord Jesus Christ. The prophecy concerning the first messenger is quoted in all four of the Gospels as applying to John the Baptist; there is no guesswork here. However, the messenger of the covenant is never quoted anywhere in the Gospels, and the reason is obvious. This messenger of the covenant is the Lord Jesus, but this passage hasn’t anything to do with His first coming. This is His coming not in grace, not as a Redeemer, but as a Judge, as the One who will establish His Kingdom and put down the rebellion that is on this earth. You remember that on one occasion He even said to a man, “…who made me a judge or a divider over you?” (Luk_12:14). He hasn’t come yet to judge. He came the first time to save. He came to bring grace, not government. He came as the One who is the Savior, not the Sovereign. I would like to turn now to the Gospel passages which quote this verse in reference to John the Baptist. The first one is in Mat_11:9-10: “but what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.” Over in Mark’s Gospel we find: “As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee” (Mar_1:2). Then in the Gospel of Luke we read, “This is he, of whom it is written, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee” (Luk_7:27). Finally, Joh_1:23 records, “He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.” This is a direct quote from Isaiah, but we can see that Malachi also had this to say about John the Baptist. Therefore, this is God’s answer to the people of Israel: God will send Him first as a Savior because He is gracious and He wants to save. But that doesn’t end it all: He is coming again as the messenger of the covenant, that is, to execute justice and judgment on this earth. If you could convince me that God does not intend to judge sin and that He intends to let sinners get by with their injustice today, then I say very frankly that I would turn my back on Him. But He’s made it very clear that He does intend to judge mankind. My friend, if you will not have Him as your Savior, you’re going to have Him as your judge whether you like it or not. He said, “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (Joh_5:22). And in the Book of Revelation, we see a Great White Throne upon which He is seated. And those who are the lostboth rich and poor, high and low, great and smallare going to stand before it. It does not matter who you are, you are not going to get by with sin, my friend. When it says “the messenger of the covenant,” we need to understand which covenant is meant. A great many have thought that it is the New Covenant in the New Testament. Actually, this has no reference to the first coming of Christ but rather to the covenant which God has made with the people of Israel. This covenant is expressed in several places in the Scriptures. For instance, in Lev_26:9-13 we read: “For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.
And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.” This is the covenant which God made with the children of Israel. You will find that He confirmed it in Deuteronomy, as the Book of Deuteronomy is a confirmation of the Mosaic Law and the Israelites’ experience with it after forty years. Deu_4:23 says, “Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee.” Of course, Israel had done the very thing which He had forbidden, turning even to the occult. Therefore, Malachi tells us that the messenger of the covenant is coming someday to make good this covenant. God will dwell in their midst, and this is the reason we will also find in these first verses of Malachi 3 the cleansing and the purifying that will take place. God will not walk among them unless they are obedient unto Him, unless He has cleansed them and purified them. This is true, of course, of any Christian work today as well. “The Lord, whom ye seek.” This will be the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God manifest in the flesh. “Shall suddenly come to his temple.” This does not mean that He will soon come to His temple, but that when He comes it will be suddenly. A man once said to me, “You talk about the Rapture in which the Lord will take the church out of the world. Well, when that takes place and He removes the church and I see them leaving, then I’m going to accept Christ.” But I said, “It will be too late then because the reason that He’s taking the church out is that it is completed. So you would not be able then to be a part of the church. You could accept Christ and go through the Great Tribulation, but I think you’re a fool to wait until then.” He is called the Lord, this is His temple, and He’s the messenger of the covenantso we know this is the Lord Jesus Christ. The One whom we know in the New Testament as the Lord Jesus Christ is the angel of the covenant in the Old Testament.
Malachi 3:2
We know that Malachi refers to the second coming of Christ because it is judgment that is in view here. Note the expression: “But who may abide the day of his coming?” This is the second coming of Christ. “And who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire.” In the refining process, the metal is put over red-hot fire, and as it begins to melt, the dross can be drawn off, and the metal is finally made pure. “And like fullers’ soap.” He intends to purify, and He intends to clean. Purify and cleanthere’s not going to be any pollution when He establishes the Millennium on this earth.
Malachi 3:3
“And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi.” He is going to cleanse those who enter the Millennium. “And purge them as gold and silver.” There are two processes: cleansing and purifying. Cleansing is the use of soap as it is expressed here. And the fire is used for testingthis is another way which God has of purifying us and testing us.
Malachi 3:4
“Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD.” The Lord will take a great delight in their sacrifice because the ones who are offering it are now cleansed and purified. God is not interested in your going through rituals until your heart is right, until you have forsaken your sin and turned from it. You can get into sin, but if you stay in it, God is not accepting your religion at all. “As in the days of old, and as in former years.” In the time of Solomon, there was a period in which Israel served God in such a way that they witnessed to the entire world.
Malachi 3:5
“And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers.” Again, through these mixed marriages, through marrying heathen and pagan women who worshiped idols, their sorcery, the occult, and demon worship were brought in. And in order to fill the great spiritual vacuum that is in our country, multitudes are turning to the occult today. This is the reason the movie The Exorcist was so popular. What a reflection this is on the church, which certainly has failed to fill that void. “And against the adulterers.” This is a reference to those who had made the mixed marriages by divorcing their wives and marrying these foreign heathen women. “And against false swearers"that is, liars. “And against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.” In other words, the people were not witnessing for God. The stranger in that day, to whom they should have witnessed, actually turned from God because of the way he was treated by God’s people.
Malachi 3:6
God is a God of judgment, but He is also gracious. The reason that they had not been absolutely obliterated like the Edomites was because of His grace; it was because God is gracious. And He is still gracious because He never changes. Thank God for that. God today is still a God of judgmentthat is a terror to the wicked. But He’s also a God who never changes in reference to His graceand that is a comfort to anyone who will accept the grace of God. We come now to the sixth of these very smart-alecky retorts which these people give to God. There are eight of them in the book; we’ve seen five of them, and now we’ve come to the sixth. These people are, as it were, putting God on a quiz program. God makes a statement, and they ask Him to prove it. God brings eight incriminating accusations against the nation, and they counter by asking eight very impertinent and presumptuous questions. God answered them politely but emphatically. He is attempting to detour them from the destruction to which they are headed. To interpret these questions it might be well to pause here again to consider the generation who asked them. After the people of Israel had been in captivity for seventy years, a remnant returned to the land. Reluctantly and halfheartedly, they set about restoring the city and rebuilding the temple. They had known the rigors and suffering of slavery. Like their fathers in the brickyards of Egypt, they had certainly been groaning. And even upon returning, they endured hardships, severe persecutions, and discouragements.
Believe me, they thought that when they returned everything would be happy and nice and easy for thembut that was not the case. These were God’s methods of discipline; it was a form of correction, but it did not have the desired effect. Discipline will either soften or harden you, and these people became hardened and embittered under the yoke which galled them. They became as hard as nails. They were like a prison inmate who has been released but not reformed. They had come out of slavery but apparently had not learned the lesson. Actually, there is not much more that God could have done for them. Even God exhausted His infinite arsenal of correction. It was out of the soil of this generation that there grew up the poisonous plant of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes who were in existence at the time when the Lord Jesus came four hundred years later. What was a pimple of rebellion against God in the time of Malachi, just a scratch on the surface of the nation, became at the time of the Lord Jesus an internal cancer. God tried to stem the spread of the virus, to cauterize it, and He brought these eight charges against them. Their response reveals their attitude. They pled not guilty to every one of the charges, and they expressed surprise that God would even suspect them. They affected an injured innocence. They feigned hurt feelings. They assumed ignorance. They played the part of being highly offended, and with a wave of the hand, they dismissed the charges as unworthy of them. This now is the sixth sarcastic question that the people give to God’s penetrating charge. God is now going to call on the people to do something
Malachi 3:7
Oh, what smart alecks they were! They say to God, “You say that we should return to You. We didn’t know that we had gone away. We’ve been going up to the temple to all the services. We tithe to a certain extent. We’re doing this, that, and the other thing, but how can we return when we haven’t even left You?” They were actually so far gone that they did not realize their true condition. I would say that this is pretty much the picture of a great many folk in the church today. Ritualism has been substituted for reality. Pageantry has been substituted for power. The aesthetic has been substituted for the spiritual, and form for feeling. Even in the orthodox, conservative, and evangelical circles, they know the vocabulary, but the power of God is gone. They are satisfied with a tasteless morality, they follow a few little shibboleths, and they feel that everything is all right. But God says, “Return! You’ve departed from Me.” What does He mean by returning to Him? He means to repent. To repent is to return to Him. God has said only to those who are His people, “Repent. Return to Me.” You see, the unbeliever can’t quite fulfill the song which says, “Lord, I’m coming home.” The unbeliever hasn’t even been home; he doesn’t even have a home. The prodigal son had to leave a home before he could come back to his home. He was a son all the time. But he left home, and he had to repent and to change his mind. This is what repentance actually means. We do not get the full meaning of repentance until we come to the New Testament. Metanoia, the Greek word, means “to change your mind.” It means to be walking in one direction, realize you’re going the wrong way, and turn right around and go the opposite way. The other day Mrs. McGee and I drove over to Glendale, which is a city right next to Pasadena here in Southern California. We asked for directions for getting to a certain place, and a girl gave us the wrong directions. She said, “Turn left,” but when we turned left, we ran right up to the side of a mountain.
I said to Mrs. McGee, “I think the girl told us wrong.” So what did we do? We turned around. We had to return back to where we had turned off, and then we went the other direction and found that the other direction was the right direction. When I turned around, it was because I had found out I was wrong and I wanted to go the right waythat’s repentance. Now God speaks to His own about repentance. The interesting thing is that in the New Testament it is always believers to whom God says, “Repent.” It is to those who are supposed to have been His children that He says, “Repent.” In the Book of Revelation God had a message for each of the seven churches. To five of those churches God said, “Repent,” but to the martyr church of Smyrna He didn’t say that. They were dying for Him, and therefore He wouldn’t say that. And to the church of Philadelphia, which was holding to the Word of God, He did not say, “Repent.” But to all the rest of them, including the church at Laodicea, His message to the churches was to repent. We have the notion today of telling the unsaved that they are to repent. Well, what are they to repent of? Do they need to change their direction? Yes, but repentance is not the message to be given to the unsaved. It is my feeling that the message of repentance is being given over the heads of believers to unbelievers, and it is falling on deaf ears, naturally. The people to whom it should be given are sitting right down in front. Believers are the ones to whom you should say, “Repent.” Somebody says, “Do you mean that the unsaved person who comes to Christ should not repent?” My friend, all the repentance that he is asked to do is in the word believe. Consider Paul’s message to the Thessalonians. Paul had a very marvelous ministry there, and he said, “For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1Th_1:9). When Paul went into the city of Thessalonica, he did not preach to them against idolatry. It was running riot, but he didn’t preach against it. He didn’t preach against alcoholism or any of that type of thing.
This is the reason that I don’t follow the pattern of preaching against certain sins; only when the Word of God touches on these things do I touch on them. Our message to the lost world is what Paul gave to the Philippian jailer: “…Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved …” (Act_16:31). In the word believe is all the repentance you need. When Paul went to Thessalonica and preached, did he preach repentance? No. He preached Christ.
He said, “How ye turned to God from idols.” The Thessalonians were going in one direction, and Paul said, “I want to tell you about Jesus Christ who died for your sins.” And the Thessalonians turned to Christ. But when they turned to Him, they turned away from idols, and turning away is repentancethey turned around, you seebut it is in the word believe. You must have something to turn to, my friend. You cannot just say to a man, “Repent.” When I went down to an altar as a little boy, nobody counseled with me. I just weptthat was all. I wept because the boy next to me wept. His mother was a shoutin’ Methodist, and she wept. She started all the weeping. The fellow across from me jumped up and said, “He’s prayed through!” I don’t know what he meant by that, but whatever it was I didn’t do it. Nobody presented Christ to me. I was ready to repent because I wasn’t the best boy in the world, although my mother thought so. I could weep for my sins, but I needed Christ. And when you turn to Christ, you’ll turn from these things. However, many of God’s children, like the prodigal son, get into a far country, and He says, “Repent. Come home.” That’s the fellow who should come home. There are a lot of believers who need to come home. God is not talking about the unsaved fellow down the street. He’s talking to you, and He says, “Come home.” What are you doing in that liberal church? What are you doing committing adultery? God says, “Come on home. Turn around, and come on home.” This is a message to believers. To these in Israel who were His children He said, “Return to me, and I will return unto you.” The prodigal son didn’t get a whipping when he got home; he had gotten a whipping in the far country. If you think that pigpen was delightful, you are wrong. Any Christian who gets into sin will testify that it is not nearly as much fun as he thought it was going to bemany of us could say that. The important thing is to get out of the pigpen. My friend, there’s not but one class of living creatures that like pigpens, and that is pigs. Sons just don’t like pigpens, and they are going to get out. The people of Malachi’s day denied that they needed to return to God and repent. They acted as if they hadn’t been anywhere. They say, “The temple is crowded. We’re going through the ritual. What do You mean, ‘Repent’? What do You mean, ‘Return to You’? We’re already here. We haven’t gone anywhere!” But God says, “Yes, you have. You may be going through the ritual, but your heart is far from Me.” This is also true even in many conservative churches today. People go through the little ritual that we conservative folk have. We have a certain vocabulary. Folk know when to say, “Praise the Lord” and “Hallelujah,” but their hearts are far from Him. He’s asking us to repent, but it seems to be the most difficult thing to do, especially for Christians. I don’t know why, because it should be easier for us than for any other people in the world. I heard of a church where one of the officers got up and suggested to the boardwho was finding fault with everything, including the pastorthat he felt the officers needed to repent. Do you know that they rebuffed that man and insulted him so that it apparently brought on his death? That was the way he was treated for even suggesting to a group of church officers that they needed to repent! Israel said, “Wherein shall we return? How can we repent? We’re beautiful people. We don’t need to repent. That crowd outside needs to repent.” There are a lot of folk in our churches today who think that everybody else needs to repent and that they don’t. But we do need it, my friend. We need to return to God today. When the people respond like this, believe me, God really opens up the wound hereand this will hurt. At this juncture some readers will want to tune me out because this is not going to be pleasant. I don’t think that Malachi has been a very pleasant book, but I enjoy it because I think Malachi is talking right to me as well as to you or anybody else, and we need to be talked to like this. My cancer doctor was a very wonderful doctor, but he treated me rougher than any doctor I have ever had. I tried to get him to give me an encouraging word every now and then. He wouldn’t do it. I tried to get him to give me a prescription for easing pain, you know, but he wouldn’t do it. He just laid it right on the line. I love the man, and I love him because of the fact that he told it like it was. When you’ve had cancer and you may still have it in your system, you really want to be told the truth. And in spiritual matters that have to do with my eternal soul, I want somebody to tell me the truth even if it hurts. God doesn’t mind telling you the truth at all. We come now to the seventh sarcastic remark that these people make. Eight times in this book these people will return to God a flippant answer. Eight times they will dismiss His charges like petulant children. Eight times they will evade the fact by affecting ignorance. Eight times they will avoid answering by pretending they are pious.
Malachi 3:8
Instead of pronouncing the benediction in many of our churches, the thing that probably should be said is this: “Stop thieves! You’ve been robbing God!” The congregation would be apt to say, “You don’t mean us! We put a generous offering in the plate.” Did you, my friend? Listen to this: “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee?” And God’s answer is, “In tithes and offerings, you have robbed Me.” If you think that God is a Shylock of the sky who was trying to take something away from these people, you are wrong. What God was doing was actually blessing them and saying, “I’m going to let you have nine-tenths, and you return to Me one-tenth.” There are several rather important things that we do need to correct in our understanding at this point. To begin with, the people of Israel did not give just one tithe, as you would discover if you would examine the Scriptures carefully. I am indebted to Dr. Feinberg’s excellent book on Malachi (pp. 125-126) in which he lists the tithes given by Israel: The offerings in Israel were the first-fruits, not less than one-sixtieth of the corn, wine, and oil (Deu_18:4). There were several kinds of tithes: (1) the tenth of the remainder after the first-fruits were taken, this amount going to Levites for their livelihood (Lev_27:30-33); (2) the tenth paid by Levites to the priests (Num_18:26-28); (3) the second tenth paid by the congregation for the needs of the Levites and their own families at the tabernacle (Deu_12:18); and (4) another tithe every third year for the poor (Deu_14:28-29). I would like to look more closely at this last Scripture because this is something that I feel should be observed today. I realize that our government has done much in an effort to help the pooror maybe it’s to help the bureaucrats. There is a real question as to who gets the money which is allocated for the poor. But my feeling is that the church ought to have more of an emphasis on helping the poor. Let’s look at God’s instructions to Israel: “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 Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, 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” (Deu_14:28-29). Therefore, every third year there was this extra tithe that was given for the poor.
When you say that God required a tithe of Israel, what do you mean by it? We need to understand that there were several tithes which were given. The second thing that we need to straighten out in our thinking is that we are living in the day of grace. The giving of believers today is on an altogether different basis than Israel’s. We are to give, but on a different basis. The church is not under the tithe system as a legal system. That does not mean that some people couldn’t give a tenth to the Lordthat may be the way the Lord would lead them to give. But let’s notice the way the early church gave. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he used the Macedonians as an example: “How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality” (2Co_8:2). Though very poor, the Macedonians gave generously. “For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves” (2Co_8:3). They gave way beyond any tenththe tithe didn’t even enter into their thinking. They simply gave because of their love of the Lord. And Paul tells us another reason they gave"Praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints” (2Co_8:4). You see, giving is fellowship. It is part of the fellowship and part of the worship of the church. “And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God” (2Co_8:5). This is the reason that from time to time I make it very clear that if you are an unsaved person, if you are not a Christian, we don’t want you to give to our Bible-teaching radio ministry. To begin with, giving couldn’t be a blessing to you, and I don’t think that in the long run it would ever be a blessing to us. God asks His children to give. Have you ever noticed that the ark of the covenant was carried on the shoulders of the priests of Israel? The Lord could have called in somebody from the outside to carry it, or He could have had a cart to carry it because a cart carried some of the other things. But the ark of the covenant, which speaks of Christ, was carried on the shoulders of the priests.
If we are going to carry forth His message about what He has done for us, it has to be carried upon the shoulders of those who are priests, those who are His. He’s not asking you to give if you are not a Christian. “I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love” (2Co_8:8). Your giving proves your love for Christ. He doesn’t ask you to give. The song which says, “I gave, I gave My life for thee, What hast thou given Me?” is as unscriptural as anything can be. He never asks you that question. He says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (Joh_14:15, italics mine). “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2Co_8:9). Paul says that you should give hilariously, joyfully. When I was in Israel, I was shown several new government buildings, and one of them was their internal revenue service for the collection of taxes. My Jewish guide very wryly said, “We call that ’the new Wailing Wall.’” Let me remind you, when the offering is taken in our churches, it also is a wailing wall for some. People think, Oh my, they are going to take an offering! My friend, the offering ought to be a joyful part of the service. If you can’t give joyfully, you ought not to be giving. It won’t do you a bit of good, I can assure you of that. In chapter 8 and on into chapter 9 of 2 Corinthians, Paul continues to discuss the basis upon which Christians are to give. I think that most Christians in this affluent society ought to be giving more than a tenth. Israel gave more than a tenththere were four tithes. When I was a pastor in Texas during the Depression, an elder in my church was the only one who was in a business that was really making money. I used to hunt on his ranch and also fish in the river which went right through his property. He and I were in his boat one day fishing when he said to me, “Preacher, why don’t you preach more on the tithe?” I said, “Well, I don’t believe in it.” He did believe in the tithe and that was the way he gave. Every time he and I would get together he wanted to know why I didn’t speak on the tithe. Finally, I went through 2 Corinthians 8 with him. Then I said, “There are a lot of Christians who ought to be giving more than a tenth.
For example, I would say that you are probably making more money than any other individual in the church except the doctors.” We had five doctors in the church, and they did well financially. But the point was that this man was really making money during the Depression. I told him, “I think that you ought to give more than a tenth.” I looked him right straight in the eye when I said that, and he winced a little. He never again asked me to preach on the tithe because he was glad to give only his tenth. It eased his conscience to feel that that was all he ought to give. A lot of folk ought to be giving more than a tenth, but when I say “ought to,” that’s me speaking. Jesus says, “Don’t do it unless you are giving it because of love for Me and because you really want to get the Word out.” God says, “Will a man rob God?” What do you think? Again I say, instead of having the benediction at the end of the church service, they ought to let the people start to leave and then have somebody yell out, “Stop thieves!” There sure would be a whole lot of thieves who wouldn’t want to be caught and would take out running. Why? Because they have robbed God. How did they rob God? Well, it all belongs to Him, but to Israel He said, “You keep nine-tenths, but I want you to give Me the other tenth to recognize Me.” It is amazing how some of the great businessmen of the past were Christians who gave to God and gave to God generously. The founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company was a Christian who was very regular in giving to the Lord. William Wrigley, the founder of the Wrigley Gum Company also gave generously to the Lord. I’m talking about the founders of these companies, not about the present generations. The J. C.
Penney stores were started by a preacher’s son whose father died when he was a boy. There were no arrangements made to care for his mother, except for people to say, “The Lord bless you.” As a little boy, he had to go out and collect the clothes which his mother washed for a living, and he said, “When I grow up, I’m going to make money and see to it that no preacher’s widow has to work like this.” He made good, and he established villages where retired preachers and their wives can live. God has blessed these men in the past who have recognized Him. I believe that this is still true today, but, my friend, you will have to do it out of lovethat is the only way He will accept it.
Malachi 3:9
Under grace God wants you to give as you are able to give. For some people that would be less than the tithe, and for other people it would be more than the tithe. And I’m of the opinion that a great many in this affluent society ought to be giving more to God. Here in Southern California there are headquarters or semi-headquarters of three of the major cults. One of the things that they do is to put their people back under the Mosaic Law and insist that they keep the law, including the tithesthat’s part of the system. If you’re going to belong to their group, you’re going to give a tithe. Those three cults are very wealthy. We think that this little operation that we represent is greatwe thank God for itbut we are actually a Mickey Mouse operation if you put us down by the side of these other organizations where millions of dollars are just rolling in. Even on the tithe, the old legal system, look at how much would come in. Doesn’t that tell you that God’s people who are under grace are surely not giving to the Lord’s work as they should? This is one of the reasons that we do not see the blessing that should attend God’s work. Many churches have a minister who is teaching the Word of God, but they don’t seem to be going anywhere. God makes it clear that our giving is something that He looks at. If a church or an individual is not giving, God has not promised to bless them at all. I believe that God is going to bless any person who is devoted to Himbut not necessarily with material blessings. Paul tells us in Ephesians that we are blessed with “…all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph_1:3).
Therefore God, in a very gracious manner, will bless those who are generous with Him. This is a great principle that runs through the entire Word of God. Many churches which were Bible churches have just dried up and died on the vine, and it can all be traced to the fact that the people were not giving as they should to God. If we open our heart to Him, He’ll open His heart to us. Not for physical blessingsGod promised us spiritual blessings"all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." God made good His promises to His people. In the time of Hezekiah there was a period of revival. In 2Ch_31:10 we read: “And Azariah the chief priest of the house of Zadok answered him, and said, Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the LORD we have had enough to eat, and have left plenty: for the LORD hath blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store.” In other words, the people were giving more than enough. At the time that Israel built the tabernacle, Moses asked for offerings, and he had to stop the people from giving because they were bringing too much! That is the only case on record that I have heard of people being stopped from givingbut they did it in that day.
Malachi 3:10
Again I would remind you that we are not under the tithe system today. There are many humble believers with very little income for whom a tenth would be too much to give. There are others whom God has blessed in such a wonderful way that they could easily give even as much as the government will allow for deductions. There are those who have an income such that they could give that to the Lord, but we find very few who are giving like that. The tithe is certainly a yardstick by which you could measure yourself, but I don’t think that it is legal or binding at all. “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse.” There are many churches and some denominations which have said that the storehouse is the local church or the denomination. Frankly, just as the tithe is not for the church today, neither is the storehouse. The storehouse was a part of the temple. There were many buildings around the temple which were storerooms. When people brought their tithe, it was stored away in these storerooms. When Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem (sometime before the time of Malachi), he found Tobiah, the enemy of God, living in one of the storerooms that had been cleaned out.
It had been cleaned out because the people were not giving generously, and they had made an apartment out of it for Tobiah! But Nehemiah cleaned up the place. He took Tobiah’s things and pitched them out the window and told him to get out of town. Then the people began to bring their offerings to fill up the storeroom again (see Neh_13:4-9). There is no such thing today as that which is called “storehouse giving.” That’s not quite the way we give, because Israel’s giving was in the form of produce. In fact, if you will notice the law concerning the offerings, God gave a certain part of the animal to the priests, and He always said that they were to eat it right there. They didn’t have any refrigerators, any kind of icebox, in which to freeze the meat. In that warm climate the meat would have gone bad in a hurry, and so God told them to eat it right there. But the other produce was stored until it was needed.
Malachi 3:11
When they were generous with God, He said, “I’ll open up the heavens and pour you out a blessing, and I’ll rebuke the devourer.” “The devourer” evidently means the locust. The locust had a ravenous and insatiable appetite. He was a regular gourmet on green saladso he just took all the green stuff that was ahead of him. Many of the plagues came to Israel through the locust, but now God says, “I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes.” Even today judgment comes from God upon a nation when they reject Him. I think that this explains the fact that we are having so many shortagesnot only an energy shortage but shortages in many areas. For years the shelves of our supermarkets were groaning because they were so full. My supermarket still does pretty well, but there are some things that are absent. You cannot always get the cut of meat that you would like to have. Even if they have it, you can’t pay for it unless you mortgage your home! No one seems to be interpreting these things as a judgment or a warning from God. I think it is a warning of that which is to come in the future; in other words, I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet. “And he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.” In other words, their vineyards were to produce abundantly.
Malachi 3:12
When Israel was right with God, they became a blessing to the other nations of the world. Honesty with Godand you cannot have holiness without honestywas the thing that made them a blessing to all nations. In Zec_8:13 we read: “And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong.” This looks forward to a future day, but God said at that time that He would make them a blessing to the nations. When Israel is serving God, it becomes a blessing to the other nations. In verse Mal_3:13 we come to the eighth and last sarcastic remark which the people of Israel make to God in response to His statements.
Malachi 3:13
The people respond, “We don’t recall that we have said anything against You!” In each of His responses God puts it right on the line
Malachi 3:14
Israel says, “What good is it for us to serve God? It is an empty thing.” For them it was an empty thing because their hearts were not in it. And since their hearts were not in it, God had not blessed them. So they blamed God for the situation. They said, “It’s not worthwhile to serve God.” Well, the way they were doing it, it wasn’t worthwhile. I want to make a very strong statement right now. There are some people who attend church who, very frankly, I think would do better if they would just take a drive on Sundays. Their hearts are not in it. They go to church to criticize. As someone has said, “Some people go to eye the clothes and others to close their eyes.” Some will go to church because it’s a nice place to get a nap. If your heart is not in it, my friend, if you don’t love God, if you don’t want to praise Him and serve Him and worship Him, it is of no value. Today our worship is on a very marvelous, wonderful plane. This is what the Lord Jesus said to the woman at the well: “…Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (Joh_4:21-24). The Lord Jesus told this woman that the hour was coming when true worshipers would not worship God in that mountain; but believe me, they are still offering bloody sacrifices at that mountain. He said, “Nor yet at Jerusalem” Jerusalem is not a place to worship God. Every form of so-called Christianity is found there, and most of it is as far from the message of the Lord Jesus and the early apostles as anything possibly could be. The Lord Jesus went on to say that true worshipers are going to worship God in spirit and in truth. They are going to love the Word of God. They’ll want to serve Him. They’ll want to obey Him. They’ll want to worship and to praise Him. A man said to me one time, “Well, McGee, I guess you think that I’m going to hell because I play golf on Sunday.” I said, “No. You’re not going to hell because you play golf on Sunday. You’re going to hell because you’ve rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. Golf hasn’t anything to do with it. I know a lot of church members who I wish would go play golf on Sunday to get them out of the church because they are troublemakers. They are not worshiping God in spirit and in truth.” My friend, all of this outward religion is not good. The crucial thing is the condition of your heart and your relationship to Jesus Christ. It was vain and empty for the people in Malachi’s day to worship God, but the problem wasn’t with Himthe problem was with them. I went to see a man in the hospital many years ago. Outside the door of his room, his wife told me that the doctors said that he was dying. I went in to see him, to have prayer with him, and to say a word, not only of comfort but that his wife might have the assurance of his salvation. He said to me, “Dr. McGee, I’m about to freeze to death.
Would you get that blanket over there and put it on me?” And I did. That room was hotoh, it was hotbut that man thought he was freezing to death. He blamed it on the room and said, “They never keep these rooms warm.” But the room was overheated. There are a great many people who say that the church they attend is cold. Are you sure that the church is cold, or is it maybe you who are cold? It might be well to check up, because the problem here was with the peopleit was not with God at all. I would like to look at a good definition of real worship which is given to us in the Scriptures in Isaiah 58: “Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours” (Isa_58:3). You see, they had the same problem way back in Isaiah’s day that they had in Malachi’s day. They fasted and they afflicted their souls, and God didn’t do anything about it. “Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high” (Isa_58:4). God says, “I don’t care about your fasting, your going through all of that ritual, and your wanting to debate religion.” They just wanted to have a religious argument. Quite frequently there comes to my desk a very fat letter from someone who wants to enter into a controversy with me or to straighten me out on some doctrinal point. Generally there are fifteen to twenty pages, sometimes closely typewritten or written in such a way that I couldn’t even read it if I wanted to. I never read those letters. I’m sorrymaybe I’m missing somethingbut I just put them into the wastebasket. We won’t get anywhere by arguing, my friend.
You can differ with my interpretation if you want to. But if you believe that the Bible is the Word of God as I do, why don’t you just pray for me if you think my interpretation is wrong. And my interpretation could be wrong, by the wayyou ought to test it. Now here is our definition of real worship: “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward” (Isa_58:6-8). What Isaiah is saying is that when you come in to worship God, make sure you have a life to back it up. This is very important. God wants a life that will back up what you have to say. Here we have an Old Testament definition of real worship. The ritual itself has no value unless the heart is right before God. This is something that we need to remember and keep before us.
Malachi 3:15
It looked as if they could tempt God and get by with it, but as Habakkuk had found out in his day, God was moving in the life of the nation and was going to judge them. I am of the opinion that if we could see behind the scenes today and see the wheels of God that are moving, we would cry out to God to have mercy. He is moving, but we don’t seem to recognize it.
Malachi 3:16
“Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another.” In other words, there was a little remnant who loved God and met together, and they feared the Lord. They spoke to one anotherthey were having fellowship. “And the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.” Running all through the Scripture there is this idea that God keeps books. I do not think there is an actual book up there in which He is writing. God never forgets, and He doesn’t need that book, and He doesn’t even need a computer. This matter of the book that was written is also mentioned in the Book of Revelation, and in chapter 3 we find the suggestion that He is apt to erase a name: “Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels” (Rev_3:4-5). This is about as strong a language as you can get, and it is, very frankly, one of the most difficult passages in the Book of Revelation to understand. I do not think that God has a set of books that He is keeping in heaven. But the only way that you and I can understand this is through this figure of speech that He uses. I can understand it when He says that He puts down in the Book of Life the names of those who are saved. I can understand that He puts down in a book those who will receive a reward or some recognition. This makes it clear to me.
But I don’t believe that God has a literal book up therealthough He may have. We are also told in the last part of the Book of Revelation that when the lost are brought before the Great White Throne, the books will be opened, and there are several of them. There is also the book of those who are saved (see Rev. 20). I would like to illustrate it in this way: To me it is more or less like the report card I used to get in school. You get a report card if you are a student; all you have to do to get a report card is to enroll. You get into the Lamb’s Book of Life by accepting Christ as your Savior, and that will never be removed. You have a report card; you are in the Lamb’s Book of Life; you’re enrolled. Now you are going to start making grades. Now He’s going to put down how you are doing with your Bible study. What grade is He giving you on that? Are you making A’s these days? Or are you failing the course? How is your life for Him? How is your service for Him? He takes note of all these things, and they are recorded. Therefore I believe that when He says to the church of Sardis that names are removed from the Book of Life, that names are blotted out, it has to do with service because that is what He is talking about there. It has to do with the service that they render. There will be many of us who get a report card, but some are going to be a failure in the Christian life. Paul said in his Epistle to the Corinthians that our works are to be tested by fire (see 1Co_3:11-15). If a man’s work is all hay and stubble and it is all consumed by fire, will he be saved? Paul says, “Yes.
He’ll be saved, but so as by fire.” There are going to be a lot of people in heaven who will smell like they were bought at a fire saleand they werea brand plucked from the burning, if you please. They did nothing, and nothing was put on the report card. “A book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.” God simply doesn’t need a book to remember things because He is the One who really has a computer mindit’s all there. The record is of their works, their service, their love for Himthose are the things that are recorded. Salvation is free. It is by faith, never by works. After you have been saved, that is when your works really begin to count, and they become all-important. This book of remembrance is a very beautiful thing. We find God’s “book” mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament. In Psa_56:8 we read, “Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?” The psalmist says, “Thou tellest my wanderings.” The Lord knows exactly where you’ve been all the time. Maybe your neighbors, your fellow church members, and your pastor don’t knowbut God knows. The darkness is light to Him. He knows where you’ve been and He knows what you’ve done. “Put thou my tears into thy bottle"I think that is a very lovely thing. My friend, that godly mother who is weeping because of a wayward child, God has put those tears into a bottle.
Can you imagine that? How wonderful it is that He has taken note of them! The man who has served God but has been disappointed by how his brethren have treated him and has wept tears over itto him God says, “I’ve put those tears in a bottle.” Finally, the psalmist says, “Are they not in thy book?” There is a book that records our lives, my friend. I have always thought that it is probably going to be sort of like a movie that He will run through for us. You will see your life from birth to death, and it will all be there. It won’t be what the preacher said about you at your funeral, about how wonderful you were and what a great church member you were.
God is going to run it just like it was. I don’t want to see mine. But I guess I’ll have to take a look at it someday.
Malachi 3:17
Isn’t this a lovely way to express it? God is going to make up His jewels, and the church is going to be there. The church is the pearl of great price. Israel never valued pearls very much; Gentiles always have. And so the pearl of great price is His church purchased with His own precious blood. God is going to make up His jewels, and there will be many of them. “And I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” This speaks of the remnant of believers that there will be during this time.
Malachi 3:18
We are living in a day like the day in which Malachi lived and like it will be at the end of the age. You really won’t be able to tell the righteous from the unrighteous. However, in the day which God has appointed, the day of His judgment when He comes again, it will be evident who are the true believers and who are the make-believers.