Transcript

Let’s take our Bibles and I want you to go to Malachi 3, that’s the last book in the old part of the book, the Old Testament. Go to Matthew and turn back to the left one book and you come to Malachi. Malachi 3. While you’re turning there, I want to set the stage by reading another text to you from Ezekiel 11:19. You go to Malachi and I’ll be in Ezekiel for just a moment. Ezekiel 11:19, the prophet says, “ And I will give them one heart.” What he means, “There is no longer will Israel be just this great nation with a few remnants here and there that really love me from their heart. There is coming a day when I will make all of Israel a godly remnant that genuinely loves me from the heart.” And he sadi, “I will put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.” Israel was so prone to eternalism; Israel was full of legalism. The spirit of the day in Israel was, “What are the rules, what are the laws, give me the rites, the rituals, the hoop jumps and I’ll go through the motions and get the stuff done so I can be pleasing to God.” It reminds me of the older gentleman that was being witnessed to one day and someone was sharing the gospel with him and he said, “Now Preacher, I’ve done that.” That’s not a good answer. Maybe he could say, “Preacher, I’ve become that,” that would be a little different but what he meant by “I’ve done that,” is “Well, I’ve jumped through that hoop. I did that thing. I did the religious ritual so I’m okay.” That’s where Israel was and Ezekiel prophesies that had a day coming when he is going to gather together a true nation that where every single person will have a true work of God performed in their hearts where from the heart they will serve God and love God and honor God. Yes, keep his laws, yes, they’ll do his ordinances but from the heart.

Now go to Malachi 3, beginning in verse 7 and we’ll go down through verse 18.

“7 ‘From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘But you say, “How shall we return?”’

“8 ‘Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. 11 Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,’ says the LORD of hosts. 12 ‘All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,’ says the LORD of hosts. 13 ‘Your words have been arrogant against Me,’ says the LORD. ‘Yet you say, “What have we spoken against You?” 14 You have said, “It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the LORD of hosts? 15 So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up but they also test God and escape.”’

“16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name. 17 ‘They will be Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’ 18 So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.”

I’ve entitled this “A New Heart and an Old Tithe.” You’ve heard it said, “Pastor, now that thing of tithing, that’s old. That’s Old Testament. That’s under the old law.” Yes, it is and it’s under the New Covenant. Tithing is a principle given to us by God but God doesn’t want you just to go through the rote motions, he doesn’t want hollow external obedience, he wants folks who bring tithes and offerings from a heart that loves him, that is grateful to hi