MARCH RADIO MESSAGE
Dr. Walter L Wilson
ROBBING GOD
O UR NEWSPAPERS ARE FILLED with reports on lawlessness. The Bible, however, tells about one crime which will probably never appear in print or headlines. Our five-word sentence ser mon for this message is taken from Malaohi 3:8. This asks the interesting and certainly pertinent question, “Will a man rob God?” The Lord Himself is asking this. If you are saved by grace you be long to Him. In addition, everything you have belongs to Him. Is the Lord first with us? Do we recognize His sovereign Lordship over everything we possess? All the gold and silver belongs to Him for He made it. One of the many fallacies of evolu tion is that none of those who believe it can explain to us how all the more than one hundred chemical elements started and where they came from originally. The Bible tells us, “In the beginning God created all things.” With this realization, why should we be interested in robbing Him? But is it possible for us, on the other hand, to enrich Him in any way? Perhaps not. What He desires, however, is our love and relationship to Him. When the word “rob” is injected, we are not just to think of money. A man came to me once about a problem he was experiencing with his wife. He told me, “I can’t stand it any longer. Three angels couldn’t live with that woman. I’m going to get a di vorce.” Then, a few days later, she came to see me. She said, “I can’t live with that man! Three angels couldn’t stand him! He is just impossible. I have to leave him.” This seemed like something I could fix up, so I had them both come to my office on the following Saturday afternoon. I had each one tell the other his or her feel ings. I told them, “Don’t hold a thing back; just spit it out.” This is exactly what they did. The husband said, ’“Dr. Wilson, if she asks me for anything I
get it for her. It doesn’t matter what it is. If she expresses a little desire that’s what I get.” The wife agreed and injected, “Yes, you do give me everything I ask for except yourself. Don’t you see, it’s you I want, not your gifts and presents.” The tears were streaming down her cheeks! Her husband was stunned. He went around where she was sitting and put his arm around her. Then he told her how sorry he was. That was the sweetest “make-up” of a domestic feud I have ever seen. You see, the man had been robbing his wife of himself. In my own case I remember when I came home and immediately started going through my mail. My sweet heart came in and said, “Wlfen are you going to love me more than those letters?” I said, “Right now, sweet heart. Don’t you see, I’m paying your bills.” “I know,” she responded, “but I want you more than I want your financial support or gifts.” It didn’t take me long to rectify the problem. This is what this message from Malachi really means. God is not first interested in your pocketbook; He wants, you! This is the first and great commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” Do we fulfill this exhortation ? He wants the love of our hearts. “My son, give me thine heart,” the Scrip ture states. He hasn’t said a thing about money or any other posses sions. When He has our hearts then everything else will come along: time, talents, money. He tells us to come to Him. We are not told to go to the church, to the altar, to any other place but to Him. Seven times that invitation is extended to us in love and grace. When a man loves his wife he doesn’t squeeze the dollars until the feathers come off the eagles. He can’t 9
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