Where is Justice?

Amen. You guys have heard the phrase

be careful what you wish for, right?

Well, years ago, one of my children who will remain

nameless was in need of some discipline from mom.

Dad's at work and mom is disciplining said child.

And the child did not like that at all, and in fact was very

resistant to the discipline that mom was dishing out.

And so said some things that the child shouldn't have said about

mom and towards mom. And then, you know, I want

daddy. Where's Daddy?

And so eventually I came home from work and was informed by my

wife about what happened and then talked to my child.

And the child that was hoping for dad to come and rescue them

from what was happening with mom turned out to not get what they

thought they might because they got discipline from mom.

And then dad came home and said, now you're going to get

disciplined because you do not treat your mom that way.

I will not let you talk to her that way.

And so now there is more discipline for you.

They thought Dad would come and bring mercy and kindness, and

turns out Dad came to administer justice.

Sometimes we have to be careful what we wish for.

Sometimes we want something, but we actually aren't seeing it

with a full and a clear picture. And we're going to be seeing

some of that in the book of Malachi today, in the verses

that I'm going to be preaching. I'm go ahead and open up to

Malachi chapter 2. If you don't have a Bible, grab

Malachi 2 · chapter mention

one from under the seat in front of you and open up there.

I want you to follow along with me and read along with me as I'm

teaching. But today we're going to see the

people of Israel are crying out to God kind of like that.

God, where are you? God come, where's your, where's

the God of justice, right? They're crying out to him, but

in their own lives, they're not living for God.

And So what they're asking for actually is maybe not what they

want. We'll get into that more here in

a moment. We're going to see today that

the God of justice will come again.

The God of justice will come again.

He will come in both refine his people, but he will also judge

evil. What kind of people are we going

to be as we wait for the God of justice to come again?

We've been preaching through the book of Malachi.

Malachi was an Old Testament prophet about 450 years or so

before Jesus, and he is calling out unfaithful living among the

Israelites as they had returned from exile.

And so he does that in the form of a bunch of disputes.

And so we are in dispute #4 of 6 and, and, and we see really

throughout the whole book, the kind of main message of Malachi

is he's calling weary people to come back to God, to honor God

through their faithful living. Let me give us a few moments of

silence. This is the time just to turn

and reflect to God. You might close your eyes.

You can even open your hands up and just reflect and pray.

Ask God what He has for you this morning.

Turn your hearts and your minds to Him.

I'm going to do the same. Take a little bit of time to do

that and then I'll read the text and teach through it.

All right, let's look at what the prophet Malachi says on

behalf of God, verse 17 of chapter 2, and I'm going to read

through verse 5 of chapter 3. You have wearied the Lord with

your words, but you say, how have we wearied him?

By saying, Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the

Lord, and he delights in them. Or by asking, Where is the God

of justice? Behold, I send my messenger, and

he will prepare the way before me.

And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.

And the messenger of the covenant and whom you delight,

behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand

when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire,

and like fuller's soap. He will sit as a refiner and

purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and

refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring

offerings and righteousness to the Lord.

Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to

the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

Then I will draw near to you for judgment.

I will be a swift witness against the sorcerer's, against

the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those

who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the

fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner.

And do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

All right, let's jump back up to the top and start with verse 17.

This is the beginning. This is the beginning of this

dispute where we see God is being wearied, as the text says,

by the people's accusations against his injustice.

So verse 17 starts off, you have wearied the Lord with your

words. So let's figure out why is God

being wearied by the people? Well, mainly if I could sum it

up, I would say they're cynical complaints and they're false

accusations. Here's what they say in verse

17. Everyone who does evil is good

in the sight of the Lord and he delights in them.

So they're saying evil is prospering and, and, and it's

good to you, isn't it? God you, you like the evil that

these people are doing. God delights in evil, right?

Do you hear that? The cynicism in their voice and

they're complaining. And then they just outright ask

where is the God of justice, right.

And they're not asking it in like a kind of a pleading sense,

but you can tell in a, in an accusation like he's not here,

maybe he's not even real. They're complaining.

And, and I think there's a couple reasons why they're

complaining. One, probably because things

aren't really going according to plan, and we tend to do that

when things aren't going as we expected.

See that God's people had been exiled and then they got they

returned. And then about 80 years before

this, there was a guy named Haggai, one of the prophets, and

he prophesied some really promising things.

He promised that there would be treasures returned to the temple

and God's glory would come again and there'd be peace, right?

Things that sound really good now.

He used the phrase in a little while.

So you didn't exactly say when. But of course, they're probably

thinking, oh, man, that's coming.

When's it coming? And they're trying to do all the

right things to make that happen.

But it's not happened. Actually.

They're still being persecuted. There's still trouble and so

expectations. So they start complaining.

But also, it seems like to them there's no consequences for

evil. There's people getting away with

murder and adultery and taking advantage of people oppressing

others, right? And says, well, God must just

delight in them. He must say, well, that's fine.

So I'm going to let that happen. The bad guys are getting away

with it, right? Evil is prospering.

There's no justice. And so what's their conclusion?

The God of justice has gone missing.

Where is he? I know now, why is this so

wearying to God? I think this is an important

question for us to answer. It's so wearying because it is

so ridiculously and utterly untrue.

God is the God of justice. Justice is a part of who he is.

We could probably define justice something like this.

It's it's upholding or doing what is morally right or fair.

It is being impartial. It is not showing prejudice and

God is a God of justice. Let me drive this home with a

few different verses. So the first one is from Isaiah

Isaiah 30 · chapter mention

chapter 30. Now just some quick context to

this verses. Isaiah is before these verses.

He's rebuking God's people because they're being faithless

and rebellious and they are lying and they are not listening

to God's instructions. And so he's been rebuking them.

But then he then he says, therefore the Lord waits to be

gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy

to you. For the Lord is a God of

justice. Blessed are all those who wait

for him. Could say a lot about this

verse, but focus in on the Lord is a God of justice in the book

of Deuteronomy chapter 10. As God is giving instructions to

Deuteronomy 10 · chapter mention

his people, here's what he says about himself.

Deuteronomy chapter 10 verses 17 and 18.

Deuteronomy 10:17

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of Lords, the

great, the mighty, the awesome God who is not partial and takes

no bribe, he executes justice for the fatherless and the widow

and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing and love

the sojourner. Therefore, for you or sojourners

in the land of Egypt, that's going to come up later in our

text. But key in on this God is not

partial. He takes no bribe.

He executes justice, especially for those who need justice,

those who were most likely to be taken advantage of, those who

needed help. God says no, no, no, no, I will

protect them and I don't show any partiality to them.

OK, one more. This is from Deuteronomy 16, so

a little bit later. And this one is God talking to

the people about how they should act justly, again in response to

who He is and His character. It says this in Deuteronomy 16.

You shall not pervert justice, you shall not show partiality,

you shall not accept a bribe. All the same things that he just

said he doesn't do. He says now you should do.

Why do you not accept a bribe? For a bribe blinds the eyes of

the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous.

Verse 20 Justice and only justice shall you follow, that

you may live and inherit the Lamb that the Lord is giving

you. God is a God of justice, and so

for them to be laying it on him and accusing him of all these

things, he that he is being wearied by it.

It is not right for them to be complaining the way that they

are with their cynicism and doubt of God, especially because

they are forgetful of their own injustices.

God is a God of justice, but they are wearying him with their

words and they ask the question, where is the God of justice and

and the rest of our verses is God essentially responding to

them And what does he say? Well, he says, I will come back.

You want to know where I am? I am coming back.

Look at verses verse one with me.

God's response. He says, behold, which just

means it's look, see, pay attention.

When you see that it kind of makes you pay attention and be

prepared for what's next. He says, behold, I send my

messenger and he will prepare the way before me.

So God is sending a messenger to prepare the way right to pave

the road, to make the path straight for what?

For God's coming rest of verse one says the Lord whom you seek

will suddenly come to his temple.

And the messenger of the covenant and whom you delight,

behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

So the Lord will come suddenly, right?

Unexpected, unanticipated, but a very clear way he's going to

come. And when he does, look what it

says in the beginning of verse 2.

Who can endure the day of his coming?

Who can stand when he appears? So when God comes, he's going to

send a messenger, then he's going to show up.

It's going to become the suddenly, and then it's going to

be intense. Nobody can stand, nobody can

endure. They're going to get what they

asked for when they said where is God?

But like that story I told the beginning, for some of them,

it's not a good thing when God is going to show up.

Now. It's comical to me the irony in

there. As God says, the Lord whom you

seek, right, the one in whom you delight, you're asking for me,

but are you really going to be happy when I get there?

They want justice, and that's a good thing to want justice to

see evil's prospering and it shouldn't be.

And God, Israel's not doing well and we don't want to be, but

they're neglecting their own injustice.

And we've been covering that in the last four weeks.

If you've been with us, where the last week we talked about

divorce and faithless marriages and, and marrying women who, who

worship other gods and are idolaters of other gods.

In the previous weeks we've talked about their offerings

being impure and dishonouring, kind of half hearted and casual.

The leaders, the Israel, the priests themselves are causing

people to stumble, right? So they're they're guilty and

yet they're asking for justice. And God says, I will come back

and I will both purify and judge.

God's going to bring these two complementary works, you might

say, of purification and judgement.

And so let's look at those two things now.

We'll start with God drawing near to refine them and purify

them. And then we'll see in verse 5

him drawing a year near to judge the unrepentant.

So look back at verse 2. God's going to tell us what he's

like. It says midway through verse 2,

he is like a refiner's fire and a fuller's soap.

I think, oh, the fuller's soap. That's a good analogy, right?

So let's unpack what this means because it's going to it's going

to help us understand what it's what God is like when he comes

back with his justice. And part of it is he is a

refining fire in fuller soap. So refiners fire, this is a fire

that you would purify metals in gold and silver we see in the

text. And so to purify gold or silver,

you had to heat it up until it liquefied.

And when it liquefied and it's on this intense fire, it burns

off some of the impurities, the stuff that's just not supposed

to be in there, and others of it would rise to the top.

And then you would you would skim it off and you would purify

the metal in that way. Just under 2000°F is, is the

melting point for gold. So you'd have a fire of about

2000°. That's the refiner's fire.

It's hot, but it's hot with an intention and with a purpose,

right? It's hot to purify, to take

these beautiful substances, gold and silver, and make them

better, to purify them. God is going to come and how's

he going to come? Like a refiner's fire, hot but

intentional to purify his people.

He's also like a fuller soap. I rely on the commentary to try

to figure out what that means, because I try to figure out what

a what's a fuller? And it said one who fulls.

So like, OK, I guess it's the person that does the laundry in

ancient Israel. So the fuller soap.

But what they would do, how they would clean their their clothes,

They would use this strong Lye soap Lye that they would clean

their clothes. Then they would hang them up on

the rocks and they would beat their clothes with a stick.

All right, Old, old fashioned washing machine.

You just beat your clothes clean, right?

The fuller soap, there's this strong soap that help cleanses,

that helps cleanse the clothes, right?

And this kind of an intense scene, beating your clothes,

beating them clean, it's intense with a purpose to cleanse your

clothes, to purify them, right. This isn't this isn't like the

fire of a candle at your dinner table.

And this isn't washing your clothes and the washing machine

on the gentle cycle. But this is an intense cleaning.

That's why he says, who can stand?

Who can endure the day of his coming?

God's going to come back. And it's not going to be like,

oh man, like meeting some friends that you haven't seen in

a while. It's intense because of sin,

because we are impure, because when we compare ourselves to the

holy, pure, righteous God, we cannot stand against Him.

And fire purifies. It also burns.

It also judges. You might say we'll see that

next. But here it's purifying and we

need purified because of our sin.

None is righteous. No one is holy.

All have offended God, all have fallen short, and without God's

purification, none will stand before Him.

God's like a refining fire, a fuller soap to purify and to

cleanse. Now in the text he says he is

going to do this to the sons of Levi.

Now. Now, if you've been with us,

then you'll be familiar with this.

The sons of Levi, these were the chosen group of God's people of

Israel, one of the 12 tribes to, to, to lead the people to be the

priests, to be the ones that help the people get to God.

So he says he's going to purify them.

So he's not doing this to everybody, but the Levites are

going to be purified, he says his priests.

And then what are they going to do?

They're going to be able to bring offerings in righteousness

to the Lord, verse 3. And then all of Judah and

Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old.

So this cleansing is going to bring purity and they're now

able to actually bring offerings of righteousness.

Now notice they can't do that before that they haven't been

able to. You cannot bring pure, right,

good, true offerings to God as he deserves unless he first

brings cleansing and purity to you.

And we, we saw this last week, they were trying to bring him

offerings. And what did it say in the text?

It said God had no regard for them.

He turned his nose up. He rejected their offerings.

Why? Well, because they're trying to

give these offerings with with being faithless to their wives

of their youth and divorcing them.

And they're trying to bring these offerings while they're

also bringing in these other gods into the temple.

And God is like, this is profane.

So they need to be purified, but God does want pure worship.

This was from earlier in the series.

If you flip back to verse 11 from chapter 1, God says from

the rising of the sun to its setting, My name will be great

among the nations and in every place incense will be offered to

my name, and a pure offering for my name will be great among the

nations, says the Lord of hosts. God wants pure worship, but He

cannot have pure worship until He has pure people.

He needs to purify. He will come and he will purify.

Now, we probably should ask, OK, when, when is this happening?

Has this already happening? Well, there's been a partial

fulfillment. And a lot of the Old Testament,

especially the prophets, as we read it, it comes in layers or

horizons, as in its fulfillment. And sometimes it's clear to us

and sometimes it's not. And so we see there has been a

partial fulfillment and we can look to John the Baptist.

If you're familiar with John the Baptist, he came as a forerunner

to Jesus. He is the messenger that

prepared the way. So Malachi, which this word

messenger actually means Malachi.

So there's a little play on words.

Malachi is a messenger himself, but he's talking about one who

come. It's John the Baptist.

And all, all the gospel counts of John say that he was coming

to prepare the way for Jesus. And John came and his message

was this repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Repent because 1 is coming who is amazing.

He's incredible. He's the Christ, he's the one

after John came then Jesus and Jesus is the Lord who we see in

these verses. So John came to prayer away.

Jesus comes to refine with the Spirit and with fire, both then

but also when he comes again. So John the Baptist said of

Jesus in Matthew chapter 3. He who is coming after me,

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

remember John's the messenger. Prepare the way.

He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I

am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the

Holy Spirit and fire. So Jesus did bring some partial

fulfillment of this. Through Jesus, we can be

purified through Jesus, through his Holy Spirit cleansing our

sinful hearts and making us new, we can have a relationship with

God again. This is what Jesus came to do.

John came before him. By repenting of your sins and

trusting in Jesus, you receive the Holy Spirit.

He gives you a new heart and you can say you've been refined with

fire. Now we're not perfect, are we?

Even though we've been refined. So we're still being refined.

That's what the Bible calls sanctification.

When Jesus comes back again, we will be purified once and for

all and, and, and all of the impurities that are still in US.

Or you might think of us as gold, but gold still mixed with

lots of impure metals and dirt, and whatever gets mixed into

gold to make it impure, we still need to be purified completely.

But by trusting in Jesus, we become a piece of this gold or

this silver that He is refining with fire so that we can bring

pleasing offerings again to God. You cannot bring a pleasing

offering to God unless you come with Jesus, right?

It is by Jesus that we can now live for God and please Him and

make right offerings to Him. Now, not all people will be

purified. Some will still face

condemnation for their evil. So the Lord is drawing near to

refine and purify his children, but he's also drawing near to

judge the unrepentant. Let's look at verse 5.

It's the first part of it, Malachi writes.

He says, and speaking on behalf of God.

So the I here is God the Lord, and then I will draw near to you

for judgement. I will be a swift witness.

Pause there. God's coming for judgement.

God will come to judge. It is in his character to be a

God of justice, and he cannot stand by and not properly take

care of all injustices in the world.

And so he's just said, I'm coming again and I'm going to

refine and I'm coming again and I'm going to judge.

And you might say these are two sides of the same coin.

They're both judgment. One is to purify and one will

bring condemnation. He says he will carry it out

swiftly against evil doers. He will be a swift witness.

So you might think he's the judge in the courtroom.

Now let's look at some of the injustices in Malachi's day.

I assume that is what is going on here.

That's why he lists some of these things that he sees

injustices maybe probably in the in the ungodly people around

them, the non Israelites around them.

But I think what he's talking about, he's addressing God's

people who are living in these ways.

And so here is what he says, some of the things that God is

going to judge and you'll see the word against.

And then he lists all these. Let's rifle through some of

these. He says, first, I will be a

swift witness against the sorcerers.

All right? Those that deal with other gods,

other spiritual beings, and you toy around with them and you

seek power from them or you seek to try to please them.

You're conjuring up evil spirits, whatever it might be,

that that is offensive to God. He is the one true God and he is

the only God that you need. God will be a swift witness

against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, right?

The unfaithful, the sexually immoral.

And that is a big broad category.

He says adulterers, and it is certainly included includes

that, but we can we see elsewhere in the Bible the

sexually immoral, those that do not live according to God's

standards for sexual purity. Sex is for a man and a woman in

marriage for life. That's the covenant.

That's the way God designed it to be.

God will come against the adulterers, the sexually

immoral, He says He will come against those who swear falsely,

are who swear falsely. You just say these liars.

This is why it's so important to tell the truth.

And if you're a parent, teach your kids to tell the truth.

And if you never got taught that, then learn to tell the

truth yourself. God's going to come against

those who swear falsely. If you think about this in kind

of a courtroom sense, these are people making false statements

in court, right? Perverting justice or

miscarrying justice. This is an offense against God,

and those that do it will not stand.

He will come as a swift witness against them.

Then he talks about these oppressors against those who

oppress, and they list 33 categories of people under this

the hired worker in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless.

God is going to come against any and all who oppress other

people. 1st the he talked about those that, that the hired hand,

right? This kind of a day laborer, they

need their money so they can go home and eat.

But people are not paying their wages.

They're not paying people what they owe.

It's evil. They're taking advantage of

vulnerable people, the widows and this day, and they were some

of the most vulnerable people in that community.

And the fatherless, right? Maybe it's orphans, maybe just

their dad. Their dad is not alive.

And so again, some vulnerable people that were being taken

advantage of. People are using their positions

of power to dominate, to make money and to disadvantage

others. And God says I am coming against

all who oppress. And then we probably could add

this last one in the same category of people who are, you

might say, easily oppressed, he says.

Against those who thrust aside the sojourner, the sojourner,

the traveler, you might think the refugee, someone from

another country, they don't belong, but they're seeking

refuge in a safe place and a safe haven.

And they are being thrust aside. Doesn't say exactly what.

They're not being welcomed, that's for sure.

Probably being mistreated and rejected.

People who are vulnerable and being taken advantage of.

This makes me think about immigration, right?

There's a hot button issue that we could talk about, but what

about you? And maybe you're not oppressing

people, but God loves the sojourners.

You remember that verse that was on the screen?

He loves the sojourners. And he says you Israelites love

the sojourner because you were sojourners, you were foreigners,

you were outsiders. And I rescued you and I brought

you into my family and you had nothing to offer and nothing to

bring except your dirty rags. But I loved you and I want you

to love the other people that come into your communities like

that too. And if you are a disciple of

Jesus, you got that way because God welcomed you into his

family, because you are an orphan, you are an outsider.

You are not a part of God's people.

I was not a part of God's people and he welcomed me.

And I was a stranger and an alien, an outsider and a

sojourner. And God says I am going to come

against the people who live like that.

Now the intention is these are the people who live this way.

If, if you have sinned in this way and then you need to repent.

If you live this, if you live this lifestyle, if you approve

of this lifestyle, be warned, God is coming again in judgment

and He will be a swift witness and you do not know when that

day is coming. He is coming back for this.

And if you die before he comes back, then you will just get

straight to the front of the line to meet Him for judgment.

And he's warning. Now why would people act like

that? Well, we are sinful and broken.

But I think he points at it at the very end of verse 5.

Look at verse 5. Then he says these these people

that he's against do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

So here's what happened. They stopped fearing God along

the way. Why would somebody act this

evil? Why would somebody oppress

people like this? And this isn't even half the

list, right? This is not an exhaustive list.

So you're like, OK, great. Well, I've not done any of those

things. What about this?

Are you, have you been greedy? Have you ever been violent?

Are you an idolater? Are you a drunkard, A thief, A

thief? A reviler?

Because there's plenty of other lists in the Bible that talk

about the sins of people that will not inherit the Kingdom of

God. So don't think.

Well, I didn't make the list. No.

Why? If you don't fear judgment, if

you don't fear consequence for your evil, then of course you're

going to act this way. Let's say that the, the, the

Florida State Troopers Association went on strike.

How fast would you go on the Interstate if you didn't have

the threat of getting a ticket, right?

There's No Fear, right? If you don't fear God, then

great. Act however you want, do

whatever you want to do. And you might start saying,

well, God's not even real, is he?

You might be like these people. Well, I haven't seen him in a

while. God's probably he's not holding

these people accountable. He's not going to hold us

accountable. We might as well do what we

want. The pride and the arrogance, the

forgetfulness that God cares about justice.

God cares about people being violated and abused and taken

advantage of. Do not put that filth in your

mouth that accuses him of thinking otherwise.

God says I will come back and I will judge evil.

And, and we cannot see clearly. He can't.

We cannot see impartially. He can and He will care for the

oppressed, He will right the wrongs and He will uphold the

truth. Now for those of you that suffer

injustice and you have in your life and maybe you are right

now, it's painful and we ask the question, OK, when God, when are

you coming back? Because it doesn't feel like it.

It's OK to ask these questions and take them to God.

Just try to keep the cynicism and the accusation out of it.

Take them to God. He will come back.

It's when Jesus comes back again.

There will be a final day of judgement.

Jesus is alive, He is in heaven, and he is awaiting his time to

come back. When it's time, he will come and

he will purify and he will judge.

Malachi is issuing this warning to the people, a rebuke to them,

and a way to kind of call them back to God.

Come back to God. He's coming back again in

justice. Which kind of fire are you going

to face, the refining fire or the judging fire?

And I know most of you in this room are, are probably disciples

of Jesus. You have experienced the the

beginning of the refining fire in your heart as the Holy Spirit

has changed you and given you a new heart and you live for God.

And you are growing as painfully and slow as it feels like in

sanctification and in holiness. But others of you, you have not

put your trust in Jesus. You are still awaiting this

judgement with fire. You must repent.

Repent of not fearing God. Repent of your ways.

Repent of saying it's OK, there's no consequences, He's

not coming back. Is God even real?

Turn away from that, turn to Jesus.

There is no other way you. There's no other way to offer

acceptable, pleasing offerings to God except through the holy

pure Son of God, Jesus. If you do not trust Jesus, if

you are unsure about that, then please don't leave today without

talking to someone. And there's lots of people you

could talk to. You could say, well, we need to

talk to the pastor. Sure, come talk to me.

Talk to one of our other pastors or talk to your friend or talk

to the person you met. Talk to somebody and tell them,

I'm not sure where I'm at with Jesus.

I want to know more about this refining fire because I don't

want God to be against me anymore.

And I say that in all the negative sense, right?

Feels like OK. Is it just out of fear?

There should be some fear. If you come to God out of fear

of judgment, great. And know that coming to him is

brings you hope, it brings you life, it brings you forgiveness.

It is the greatest thing you could ever do in all of life,

and it will lead into eternity to turn and trust Jesus.

So we're waiting because he's not back yet.

Partial fulfillment, John the Baptist, Jesus.

But Jesus has not come back a second time yet.

So what do we do? What do we do in the meanwhile?

How do we live now? What about the injustice that we

face now and the difficulties and the troubles as we wait?

I want to finish with just three things to try to send you home

with, with all this on your mind.

The God of justice is coming again, both to refine his people

and to judge evil. And so as one of his people, how

should we live? So I've got three kind of don'ts

and do's. Don't doubt God's justice like

the people we're doing in Malachi's day.

Instead, cry out to God for justice.

Cry out to him in prayer. Seek his mercy and his help.

Cry out to God for justice. Jesus teaches us to pray in Luke

18 and he shares this parable. I don't have time to get into

the parable, but essentially here's what he says about the

parable. At the beginning of it he says

the parable is that you ought to always pray and not lose heart.

OK then he tells us a little bit parable about justice.

So go read it Luke 18 one to 8. But look at verse 7 and 8 how

Jesus complete concludes this parable.

He says, and will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to

him day and night? Will he delay long over them?

I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on

the earth? We are to cry out to Jesus,

we're to cry out to God. Give us Justice Lord, night and

day. Do not lose heart and prayer and

crying out and he says, will he delay along over them?

He says, no, it's coming speedily.

And we think man, God, your timing and your speed is a lot

different than mine. It's true.

That's what Peter says one day is like 1000 for God and 1000

like for one, our God's timing and ours is just a little

different, but he will bring it. Right now Jesus question is what

will he find faith on earth when he comes back?

Because that's when he's bringing his justice.

Will you be faithful to him? In the meanwhile, cry out to God

for mercy and help. Secondly, don't slip into

faithless and unholy living again.

That's what these people in Malachi's day were doing.

Jesus hasn't come back yet, OK, He's not back.

Let me just OK, it's probably not that big of a deal, right?

No, rather live your life as an offering to God.

Be holy and pleasing to the Lord.

So secondly, bring a pleasing offering to Him.

I thought about just making this the whole end of the teaching,

just talking about holiness and holy living, but I think it's

going to come up in the next few weeks to the rest of the verses,

so I'll leave you with this. Romans 12/1 says this.

It should be on the screen as well.

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God

to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and

acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Paul is, is telling us we are the pleasing offering now, right

The the, the priests are going to come.

They're going to be bring an offering and it's an offering in

righteousness. He says that it's acceptable to

God. Well, we are that offering now.

Our bodies are the living sacrifices.

Our lives are to be lived for God, holy and acceptable to Him.

Live a holy life for God, fear the Lord and live for Him.

Let your life be an offering to Him and so examine your life.

Pursue holiness and godliness and righteous living as an act

of offering to God. Thirdly, don't get discouraged

by the suffering and the injustice that we see in the

world and don't shrink back in fear of more of it happening.

Rather, we are to entrust ourselves to the one who judges

justly. Or remember who your judge is.

And if you're a disciple of Jesus, you remember Jesus was

judged in your place. That's why you can be purified.

That's why you are now righteous, because Jesus was

judged in your place. And So what do you need to do?

And trust yourself to the one who judges justly.

Last verses, first Peter 2, verses 19 and 20, Peter writes

1 Peter 2:19

this is a gracious thing when mindful of God, one endures

sorrows while suffering unjustly.

What credit is it when you sin and you're beaten for it and you

endure, But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure.

This is a gracious thing in the sight of God.

So if sometimes, sometimes you get a beating and you deserve a

beating, he's like, don't that not something I'm talking about.

He's like, But when you do good, when you do right, it's a

gracious thing in God's sight for you to endure unjust

suffering. You know why Jesus endured

unjust suffering. Jesus did it.

That's why in a few verses later, verse 23, he writes this.

When Jesus was reviled, he did not revile in return.

When Jesus suffered, he did not threaten, but he continued

entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

If Jesus could entrust himself to God while he went through the

path to Calvary, we can do the same.

We can try. We follow in Jesus footsteps.

He's our model, He's our example.

And trust yourself to him who judges justly.

The God of justice will come again his people and to judge

evil. So let us be a people who live

faithfully now and trusting ourselves to the just judge.