Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 45 – August 1980

 

The Great Glory Robbery!

 

Sermon by Rev. J. Cahill on Malachi 3:8

Scripture Reading: Mal. 3:6–18

Psalter Hymnal: 14:1,2,3; 95:1,3,4; 230:1,4,5; 482:1,2,5; 462:1,2,4,5,

 

One of the great interest catchers of the entertainment world is the bank robbery, the jewel theft or the great train robbery. Newspapers make millions because of the interest people have in robberies.

I guess the first sign of man’s’ robbery of God is the lack of concern people show in the continual haul people pull in from their robbery of God. Who cares if no one gives thanks to the Creator? Who cares if no one gives praise to the Redeemer? Not too many really care. And in that lack of care God is robbed of His proper defense.

Men will read about a few thousand dollars that was robbed. They will draw their weapons to defend their worldly treasures. Policemen will die to defend the bank. But when the Lord is robbed of His glory in industry, in justice, in worship, in the family… who will risk their neck then?

And yet I tell you the robbery of God’s glory carries with it the greatest of penalties. Our problem is that we who are reputed to be believers are not convinced. We see common crime as the greater reality and ‘religious’ coolness as a lesser reality. In fact the Word of God turns this right around. The crimes we see daily in society are only little symptoms of the basic crime of all humanity, the real big one, man’s robbery of God’s due honour and glory.

1. The Whip and the Reward.

Malachi is writing for God’s covenant people, those who have experienced something special – His redemption. And Malachi uses two devices to spur the Church on to obedience. He is a realistic prophet knowing that the people of God fall into sloppy ways too easily. He is therefore not afraid, to treat God’s people as mules when they are stubborn and slow to give to God what is His due.

So He uses the whip of the law to beat them and to warn them. He also reminds the church of the gracious reward for obedience. These tools are not contrary to God’s Fatherly way with His children. Sometimes we need a good whipping to bring us to our senses.

Besides sometimes we behave more like mules than mules are said to behave. Certainly there are times when God’s children do not show any outward indication that they are in fact His children.

God’s complaint through Isaiah was: “Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: ‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’” (Is.1:2,3)

And again in this very book Malachi (1:6) “A son honours his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is my honour? If I am a master, where is the respect due to me? says the Lord Almighty.”

2. Outdone by the heathen and atheist.

In Old Testament days the nations who worshipped idols sacrificed their children to the gods who could not speak, move nor deliver. Even the people of God turned to these vain gods who are no gods and burned their little ones in their honour. And today we see covenant fathers spend little time in communication with the children and their wives. They serve the god of this twentieth century world: money, business, leisure, anything but the only Saviour and True source of eternal joy the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why even those who deny the existence of God will give their lives and no meager tenth but all their wealth to the Communist atheist cause.

And we not only know the True God who daily sustains us, but we know the same God who has redeemed us with the blood of His Son. And would we continue to rob Him of His glory?

3. Men think twice because of security cameras.

It is also a wonder that men are so foolish in their robbery of God while they are so careful in their robbery of a bank these days. They fear the eye of the modern security camera and disguise their image with a balaclava and a stocking; But they walk openly in the light of day and refuse to pay homage to the all seeing Almighty God.

And if they had any shame at all and tended to hide their theft in a cloak of religious observance, they are equally foolish since God discerns even the thoughts and intentions of the heart’ and will certainly expose every last one of them.

How foolish they are then to expect not to be seen and to expect not to be punished. As someone has said in a more positive frame of mind: “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your right hand shall guide me” (Psalm 139:7-10). To the saint this is a comfort. But to the unrepentant let this move you to fear..! You cannot escape the eye or the penalty of Almighty God.

4. Let God Be Father

Man’s choice to withhold from God what is His in terms of property is a choice to become ones own father. Somehow we feel that we can handle our money and property better than God. When God says, “Honour me with the first-fruits of your substance”, man says, “I have my own things to look after first. There is my house, my car and my holiday. If there is anything left I will see what I can do then”,

This is not the way of faith. It is choosing to be a father to oneself. It is choosing to turn ones back on the Father who gives us our daily bread, who orders the drought-breaking rain, who blesses a “faithful nation” with prosperity and curses the crops of the glory-robbers with locusts and the vines with dropsy. Better to honour the Father and trust Him with your property and wealth, for your bank and your investments are on very shaky grounds when you become your own master.

5. But You Ask, ‘How have we robbed You’

a) What about worship, gratitude and obedience. You owe Him these by virtue of the fact that He is your Creator who daily sustains you in life. You may not even pray: or give thanks for your daily bread but who is it that gives it to you but ‘Our Father who art in Heaven”? As Paul has said to those who brag about the great things they have accumulated for themselves: What have you that you have not been given?

You rob God when you complain of your circumstances excessively and make Him appear to be an unconcerned public servant rather than the all wise Father. Job had it right both ways, “THE LORD giveth and THE LORD taketh away, Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

b) Of great concern is the robbing of God through the modern perversions of doctrine. We twist and are not disturbed when others twist the truth of God. He says, My glory will I share with no other. But so much understanding of the faith today is a robbing God of His glory.

We see this especially in the way we share the glory of salvation between Him, other god’s and ourselves. We credit the religions of the world with having some value in the salvation of men when the Word of God says, ‘there is no other name in heaven and earth by which men must be saved’. ‘It doesn’t matter which religion,’ we say, ‘they all lead to the same God…!’ But the Lord says, ‘I am a jealous God, My glory will I give to no other, Thou shalt have no other God’s before me’. ‘I am your Saviour, besides Me there is no Saviour’.

We refuse to acknowledge God as judge with the right to judge and punish the sinner. We struggle with the truth of His right to do with creation and the creature what He will. ‘Does not the potter have the right over the clay’. But we would reduce Him to the level of the clay and deny Him His freedom to rule for His own glory.

We rob Him of His glory in our talk about our salvation when we say we are not good enough. Do we want to be able to say we were good enough after we are saved? That would be to rob Him of the glory. You are not good enough and never will be. Glorify God by acknowledging that He saves the ungodly with mercy – to the praise of His glorious grace.

c) Meeting with the brethren on the Lord’s day. We rob God in our poor attendance at the appointed services even on the one day which is particularly set aside for public and united thanksgiving.

Lip service is the greatest insult to the Lord whose courts we trample with clean shoes but muddy hearts. We rob God by attributing to the preacher the credit for our attendance. For when one preacher is on the attendance is better, when another comes it is shamefully low. Neither preacher is honoured under the circumstances.

They are both forced into a frightening position. For the message relayed by this attitude is that it is not the Lord we come to hear and honour but the preacher who performs the best.

I know of nothing more cruel to God’s church and the servant of the Lord than His peoples’ attendance being determined by a man. Parents with so much influence, elders who are to set an example, do you not rob God and your children’s generation when you by your deeds consider it of a little consequence to spend the Lord’s day at worship with His people.

d) Relationships.

Would you rob God of your undivided loyalty in a marriage or even a serious relationship that is not with one who also seeks His glory. ‘Do not be unequally yoked’. You are a holy possession to the Lord and the first reason for marriage is that man might serve God all the more efficiently.

You cannot serve God and Mammon, and a mixed marriage is bound to mean divided loyalties. Don’t place yourself in the position where you rob Him in the wedding service – for that sort of robbery sets you up to continue throughout life to rob him of your whole hearted service. What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? And do not rob Him of the holiness of His temple which is your body, Glorify God in your body. Present your body to Him as a living sacrifice.

e) Your tithes and offerings.

I am convinced that the substance of Malachi three is that the church of God and the glory of God in Israel is not being fully realized because of the with holding of God’s money. Yes, the great glory robbery is measurable in dollars and cents.

I am sure that whatever ministries God calls us to He will provide the wherewithal for us to do it. Is it the Christian School… Evangelistic Mission… in Inala, more ministers of the Word? God will supply our needs.

But it is evident from this passage that the people of God deny themselves the blessing of His abundance by faithlessly and grudgingly handing out their one percent. I was greatly moved as a child to see a minister of the Word weeping as he preached that the people gave so little that he was not able to draw even his very minimal stipend. I am greatly concerned when I hear that a Christian School struggles inordinately to raise funds for this essential ministry.

Let me affirm that God is no beggar. He is no mans’ debtor. All the wealth of the world is His. He doesn’t need you. His treasury is full, heaven is bursting at the seam with all manner of blessings for the faithful. The loss is yours. The loss is ours as a church when we express our lack of faith by giving a few percent rather than the full tithe.

Do you say, “give us this day our daily bread”, but refuse to listen when He says, ‘Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house’. There are a dozen and one ways of rationalizing this measurable tithe away. ‘Oh but that’s Old Testament teaching’ we say. Christ has fulfilled all that for us. Christ has not fulfilled the law that we might live to ourselves. Christ has fulfilled the law that we might live to God. To the heart touched by grace the tithe is minimal but it is sufficient. It is not the means and cause of blessing in the church. God’s grace is that. But it is significant of the state of our faith and our faithfulness.

Tithing is not a business proposition. Verses 10 and 11 are not to be approached in a carnal manner whereby we give that we might merely receive. Oral Roberts tests God in this false manner. ‘Plant a seed for God now with your money that you may draw on the bank of God with interest later’ he says.

No. Let our giving be with love, faith and no strings attached.

Conclusion.

There are two types of robbers here this morning. First there are those who are related to God as creatures are related to the Creator. They owe Him their very existence their life and give Him nothing. They are missing out on His salvation.

Then there are those who are related to God as their Redeemer. They owe Him their redemption, their salvation which was won at the expense of the birth, life and crucifixion of the Only Son of God. He has given His Beloved Son for them. What an offence it is for them to consider doing anything but say, ‘Take my all…. use every bit as Thou wilt choose’.

These deny themselves the joy of their Salvation. I urge you this morning to make restitution to God this morning. Give Him what you owe, for this crime carries with it the severest penalty. Confess your robbery. Plead the mercy of the judge who has abundant grace to grant release to the great Glory Robber.

Present yourself as a living sacrifice to Your Creator and Redeemer and cease from robbing yourself of the glory He offers to His faithful and obedient children.

Amen.