Return before Jesus returns
Malachi 3:1-15 06/25/06
I am so glad that the Bible teaches the return of Jesus coming back to this earth one of these days. Not only was His return told by the prophets of old but Jesus Himself said that He would return to this earth one day. So the return of Jesus isn’t something that I accept only with my head but also with my heart because His return is something that all believers look forward too. I want to tell you something; knowing that our Lord is coming back and not knowing when, is a call on our lives to live a life of purity and anticipation. We need to be ready when He comes.
Now as we look at this chapter in Malachi and these verses, we find that the prophet is telling them and us we want to be ready when the Lord returns. Now it was obvious that some people who claimed to be believers were not ready for the Lord to come. I cannot help but believe that is true today. I don’t believe that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord is ready for His return. I wonder what the Lord will find you doing when He returns.
Now in this chapter is three points and they are calling for them and to us to return to the Lord before He returns. Wouldn’t it be a terrible thing for the Lord to return and find His children not doing what we should be doing?
Now in the opening six verses I call your attention to what we will call THE COMING OF THE LORD. We have already alluded to this point from the beginning of the introduction but I want us to see a couple of other things.
There are around 350 prophecies in the Old Testament that tell of the first coming of the Lord. Every one of them was fulfilled in the man and person of Jesus. For all those prophecies to be fulfilled exactly as the Bible said they would is mathematically astronomical. I think I have said this before but the chances of all the prophecies in the Old Testament talking about the Lord coming to earth is like placing dimes a foot deep in Texas and mark an x on one and then you going to Texas and turning over one of those dimes and it being the one with the x. The chance of that happening is something even beyond the imagination. Yet every prophecy that was given of Jesus coming as the Messiah in the Old Testament was fulfilled in one man and He was Jesus.
Now we need to keep in mind when the Old Testament characters made mention of the coming of the Lord, they would talk about His first coming and also His second coming. That is what you see in our text this morning.
In verse 1 Malachi is referring to the forerunner of Jesus and of course we know that was John the Baptist. Now when John came on the scene and started his ministry, he preached repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. It is repentance that prepares the way of the coming of the Lord. It is repentance that prepares the sinner to receive Jesus as their personal Savior. It will have to be repentance on the part of the believer for this nation to turn to God. I do believe that it is late for this nation to return to God but it isn’t too late for you. Repentance prepares the believer for the coming of the Lord.
We see in our text this morning Malachi talking about the coming of the Lord and also THE COMMAND OF THE LORD. Look at verses 7-12. Verse 7 reads, “Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances.” They had departed from the ways of the Lord. God is calling His children to come back to Him.
You know God never changes but you and I do. That is what repentance is all about. The word repentance means to change ones mind. When we repent we change our mind about the Lord. We change our mind about our sin. God says if you will return unto me I will return unto you. God is calling His children to return unto His commands.
Now when you look into verse 8, you will see where many of the children of God needed to return. God ask an amazing question in that verse. Look at what God says; “Will a man rob God?”
Now I want you to think with me a moment. Now they ask a smart aleck question. They ask, how have we robbed you God. It has to do with how you look at your paycheck. If you look at it as being yours then you will probably rob God. But if you look at your paycheck as it being God’s then you are looking at it the right way and you will not be one who robs God. Actually, giving God at least a tenth of the income that comes into your house is one of the first acts of obedience to God.
Let me tell you something about the tithe. In the book of Genesis you find that Abraham commenced giving the tithe. It was a special commitment to the Lord. Again is Genesis you find that Jacob consecrated the tithe. Jacob consecrated a tenth of what he had to the Lord. Moses codified it in Leviticus 27. The tithe was given by the Jew as a part of the law. Malachi commands it as we read in this text. And when you come to the New Testament you find in Matthew That Jesus commended it. Jesus said about the tithe, “This you ought to do.” Then when you come to 1st Corinthians you find that Paul continued it. He said upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him.
Now folks when you read the Old Testament you find that the Jew gave a tenth of his possessions to the Lord. They were then under the law. It is hard for me to believe that people under the law will give and people like you and me under grace will rob God. The Lord says put me to the test. Give God a tenth and see if all of your needs aren’t met. I don’t know right off hand that God calls us to put Him to the test except in the matter of giving.
Now we have been talking about the coming of the Lord and the command of the Lord and now our text closes with THE COMPLAINT OF THE LORD. In verse 14 you find that the people had hostile words to say about the Lord. They were saying it doesn’t pay to serve the Lord. The people who are doing the best are the ones that have nothing to do with God and His church. They were saying the ungodly around us are doing the best.
That is the way it seems today when we see how the ungodly live and seem to have all they want never supporting God’s church and having anything to do with God. But ladies and gentlemen, they have not read the final chapter. We are told in Psalm 73 that the ungodly are set in slippery places. They are brought to destruction in a moment.
What God wants for all of us is to return to Him before He returns.
