Where Is The God Of Justice? - [Malachi 2:17ff]

When you look around the world, everything seems messed up. You know, if you look at the world, you might ask this question, does

God care? Is anybody in charge? Maybe God's a deist.

Maybe He wound it all up and is just letting it go. I mean, where is the God of justice? That's the question.

And you can imagine how atheists, proclaimed atheists, self -described atheists,

God must not care. He must not be concerned. Or maybe He doesn't have enough power to do anything about it.

Because why is there so much evil in the world? This is the question of theodicy. How do we reconcile a good

God, a sovereign God, a loving God, a powerful God with all the chaos we see?

Let's turn our Bibles to Malachi 2 and find out from God's word.

Where is the God of justice? Over and over and over, people ask the question.

And in Malachi, it's going to be answered with, don't forget to take care of yourself before you point to everyone else.

And Jesus will come back to make every wrong right. He is going to come with the clouds, as Revelation says, every eye will see

Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him. Even so, amen.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the

Almighty. And so, Malachi 2 .17 -3 .5,

which we'll try to look at today, is going to answer the question, does

God care? Does He just let sin go? What about all the wickedness? Why is there so much suffering in the world?

And here's why it's going to be good for us as a congregation. We are just like the people that Malachi is writing to.

In this particular sense, especially, instead of looking to the Lord for the answers to this question, why is there suffering?

Instead of looking to the word to have a proper perspective, we just look around the world and we analyze everything based on what we see, and then maybe look at the

Bible. Instead of saying, I have to interpret the world in light of what God says and who

He is. The Israelites were prone to just saying, you know,

I'm looking at current events, where's the God of justice? Instead of looking back at Scripture, God is just.

He does do just things. He does care. He's shown His faithfulness. Now, what

I love about Malachi is the preaching is, it kind of gets you awake.

It's like someone who grabs you by the shoulders and shakes you a little bit and says, okay, sleepwalker. What's the technical word for sleepwalker?

Synambulist? Yeah, that's it. You know, we just kind of sleepwalk. I mean, it's another day and we want to try to obey the

Lord in light of Christ reconciling work. But, you know, as my dad would say, it's another day, it's another dollar, and we just kind of walk around sleepwalking in a lethargy, in an apathy.

And Malachi says, no, no, wake up, make sure you know who the Lord is. And in Malachi, He's the master.

He's the Lord. He is to be feared. What's the fear of the Lord? It's like if someone walks into the room, all the attention goes to them.

You don't think about yourself anymore. You don't think about anyone else. They, with their presence, are commanding.

All the attention goes to them. God is to be feared, Malachi says.

And so what he does, Malachi, is he gives some wake -up calls. And today, we come to the fourth wake -up call.

Technically, they're called disputations. You know, does God still love us was the first one.

Why does God not accept these offerings that are kind of half -baked was the second.

What's so big of a deal about marrying unbelievers and divorcing our spouse was the third one.

But the fourth one today, the fourth disputation is God will vindicate His justice.

Where is the God of justice? Malachi is going to answer that for us.

Let's read verses 17 through chapter 3, verse 5. Horrible chapter break at the end of verse 17, but that's all right.

You can even see probably in your ESV Bible, there's a break there, so you can get the idea of the paragraph with the white spaces, even though the numbers might be wrong.

Malachi 2 .17, you have worried the Lord with your words. But you say, how have we worried

Him? By saying, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them.

Or by asking, where's the God of justice? Verse 1, 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 in 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's like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap.

He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver.

And they will bring offerings in 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 sorcerers, 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. So here's how we'll break it up for an outline. Chapter 2, verse 17, there's going to be the question, where's the

God of justice? Why are evil people prospering? And then in verses 1 through 5, the answer.

And the answer to the question is found in verses 1 to 5, which is basically Jesus is going to come back and make everything right.

So let's just take a look at this in verse 17 to start of chapter 2. As Malachi listens to the complaints of the people,

I mean, can you imagine? God, your rule isn't good. God, your sovereign hand isn't right.

I don't like the way you're managing the world. Seems off -kilter to me, and we're going to complain about it.

Of course, we would never do anything like that. I personally would never, ever complain against the sovereign hand of God.

That's what we do all the time, right? All complaining basically says, God, you could have rearranged this a different way.

I mean, this goes way back. Here's Israel. These other people are getting blessed.

They're pagans. They don't follow you. They don't worship you. They don't acknowledge you. They're getting blessed, and we're getting punished.

We're getting chastened. Where's the God of justice? And the whole time, what's not happening is this.

If God really was just only, they would get at the enemies. What about us?

Do we really want just the God of justice? What about them? Turn with me, if you would, to Romans 1 for a little deviation here, because I think you can hear the echo of Romans 1 in Malachi 2.

Romans 1. Where's the God of justice? When we say, where's the

God of justice, here's what we mean. Of course, we'd want to deny it, but this is what we mean.

I deserve blessing. Where's the God of justice for them? But we deserve grace.

We deserve blessing. Doesn't that sound weird? That's exactly what's happening.

When you look at the world, you see everything wrong with it. God, why don't you get them? Why don't you attack them?

Why don't you make everything right? And we have a bad attitude. And by the way, the bad attitude in Malachi was just described in chapter 2.

Well, let's divorce our spouse unbiblically. Let's marry pagans. We have our own issues to deal with.

And I like Romans 1 because it brings out some of those own issues. Now, Romans, if you had one word to describe

Romans, it would be what? To give me a theme of the book of Romans. Who's your pastor?

No, just kidding. Righteousness, right? You need a righteousness to stand before God.

And he, for three chapters, says, you don't have any righteousness. You need a righteousness outside of you.

You need Jesus's righteous life. And Jesus's death needs to pay for your unrighteousness.

And so, it's all about righteousness in chapter 1, 2, and 3. Paul tries to tell everybody, you have no righteousness.

You need a righteousness found in Christ Jesus. But here's how we go to Romans 1 too often.

We come to Romans 1 like we're better and we deserve grace. We come to Romans 1 like, yeah, that's everything wrong with society.

It's found in Romans chapter 1. And it is true, but our attitude is awful.

Now, Romans chapter 1, verse 18, it says, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

So, there's an end times wrath, an eschatological wrath, hell. But this wrath is right now, and God just lets everything go.

The wrath of God is seen in countries when He just goes, okay, just let her go. Let her rip. Verse 21, these people know

God. They don't honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. Everybody knows there's a God, and everybody knows they should praise

Him and worship Him and honor Him. And when your unbelieving friend says, you know, I don't believe in God, it's not true.

You could respond to them, well, the Bible told me you'd say something like that, but it's not true. Chapter 1, verse 24, so what's the cycle?

How is wrath revealed today from heaven? God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts.

Verse 26, for this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions.

Women exchange natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.

Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.

Paul is doing this. He's bringing forth the people that are the most morally repugnant and most full of disdain in a culture.

And you might recognize that when you look out there and you see the homosexual movement, and here's what we do.

We go, yes, they are wicked, they are horrible. Look what's going on. And you can feel the angry fundamentalist in you rise up and want to say, yeah, they are wicked, look at them.

I mean, you could read verse 28 this way of chapter 1, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge

God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness.

You can just hear to steal a playbook, play out of my friend Byron Yon's playbook. You can feel the congregation say amen in kind of a real angry way.

Maybe one of us should try it. They're evil, covetousness, and they're full of malice. Yeah, that's right.

They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceitfulness, maliciousness. Have you ever been an angry fundamentalist in your life?

That's why I do the NoCoTV. Steve stays behind the mic. But you can feel it, they, look at verse 29 at the end.

They're gossip, slanders, haters of God. They're insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents.

These people are so wicked. They're foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. Do you know what about these people?

They know God's decree, yet they practice these things anyway, and they give applause to the people that do it.

These people are wicked. That's what's wrong with society. And you know what? You've fallen right into the trap of what exactly what is happening with the days.

Yes, I know I'm sinful, but I'm not as sinful as they are. I know

I fall short, but they fall shorter. Because we look at homosexuality, we go, you know what?

It's like Paul knew. Of course, God knew. Paul knew that would be the sin that takes the cake, and we can easily hide in the shadow of homosexuality, because that is so awful.

We start saying, you know, instead of comparing ourselves to the righteous standard of God, to His holiness, to His perfection, to His just standards, we begin to compare ourselves to other people.

And compared to the gays, yeah, we're better. Compared to these other people, yeah, we're better.

Instead of saying, you know what? It's just me in light of God. Same thing with Malachi. If the people would say, you know what,

God, in light of who you are, we're no better. We need a righteousness from outside of us as well.

We're recipients of grace and grace alone, and we can't go looking over the pagans going, God, where's your justice?

Everything's all wrong with that. It's the same thing with homosexuality. Yeah, relative to what we do, we don't do those things.

And so they need more righteousness than we do. And Paul wants to make sure whether you're religious or not, you realize you need an external righteousness from Christ Jesus, verse 1 of chapter 2.

Therefore, now stop there for a second. What would you expect God to say? What does the angry fundamentalist want

God to say? All these gays and all these homosexuals. I mean,

I just got back from Israel, and, you know, Sodom and Gomorrah, by the way, is increasing in its popularity for tourism because gay people like to get married at Sodom now.

I mean, they're wicked, and they should have more brimstone come down on their head.

That's what you think maybe in verse 1 of chapter 2. Therefore, you have no excuse, oh man.

Every one of you who judges, for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourselves because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

What? I'm not gay. We know those things are wrong.

And if we know those things are wrong, we don't say, you know what? I'm better than you.

I have more moral righteousness than you do because really it's self -righteousness. My self -righteousness is more than you.

You need more righteousness than I do. That's what's going on here versus, you know, before you,

God, I need righteousness. And before you, God, the homosexuals need righteousness.

And all these other people, I mean, can you just imagine? You can even look at the words of Jesus. While we might not do with our hands and our bodies, we do with our minds all the time.

Our minds are just lust factories. Our hearts are just covetous factories. And here's what happens.

Malachi just kept saying, these people point to everybody else for all the issues in the world and then say,

God, where are you? And you know what? Left to ourselves, we could do the exact same thing.

We are all lawbreakers just like the homosexual. We are all lawbreakers just like these people who are covetous and evil.

We all need righteousness. I mean,

Paul, lump me in with some liars, but don't lump me in with the gays.

When you see your need for Jesus, you'll say, I'm no better than a homosexual. I'm no better than a murderer.

I'm no better than a fornicator, adulterer, or anybody else. I mean,

Paul was counting on you to go, yeah, look at them, look at them. And then he turns the table.

He goes on to say, verse 2 of Romans, we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who do such things.

But do you suppose, oh man, you who judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you're storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when

God's righteous judgment will be revealed. Verse 6, he will render to each one, religious,

Gentile, pagan, churched, self -righteous, to each one according to his works.

Now, think for a second. If you get judged based on your works, you're going to come up short because your works include sin.

So you need someone else's works that were perfect and divine credited to your account so God sees you perfectly fulfilling the law.

You need all of God's righteousness, just not some. So the church last week went to a gunkwit for the weekend.

And when you know a truth like this, that no matter what the sin is, we all need God's righteousness.

And instead of comparing myself to you because I've got more than you do, I just have to say, even for the

Christian, in light of who you are, God, I need your righteousness. I'm not better than these people. Matter of fact,

I'm probably worse. It changes the way you look at people. For instance,

I grew up in Nebraska and we just...I never did it, but we just as soon beat up gay people.

We just as soon beat up homosexuals than look at them. And, you know, nobody would say if they were or not because they probably realized you'd get beat up in Nebraska.

And there's kind of a remnant in my mind with that whole issue still. And when you know the details, it just is like, okay, that's enough.

I don't need to know anymore. And they are debased. They are sinful. I would not say that they weren't.

They are, of course. It's a grievous sin. It goes against the nature of the Lord. But I went to a gunkwit.

A gunkwit's got a lot of gay people, by the way, a lot of gay men. And they're all over and they're all holding hands and they've all got a certain kind of haircut and a certain kind of look and everything else.

And when I think about it this way, the biblical way, God, I need righteousness, all of your son's righteousness.

I'm not better than they are. My sins manifest different ways. They break the law, I break the law.

Where's the God of justice? It's the wrong question. Where's the God of grace is the right question.

And so, the old days, I would look at those people and I would think, you know, let's get out of this town. I don't want to give money to a town like this.

And, you know, it's interesting. It seems like the homosexual community has taken over all the good towns, right?

From San Francisco to P -Town to Santa Cruz. I mean, they know where the nice towns are. And so, I say to myself, these people are wicked.

They're awful. Where's the God of justice? When you realize I need righteousness and for them to be saved, they need righteousness.

I don't look on them anymore with disdain. I look on them as they need grace.

These people need the grace of God. Where's the God of justice? God, make everything right.

Come back today and just flame them. But wasn't there a time in your life, probably everything was going badly and other people said,

Lord, come. Lord Jesus, come quickly. And there's an aspect of that prayer that, of course, is wonderful.

Lord, return. There's nothing wrong with that unless it's because all these people are so wicked. They're worse than I am.

They're morally not superior at all. I'm the superior one. Go get them. Where's the

God of justice? Now, let's go back to Malachi 2 because that's exactly what was going on there.

Malachi was saying all these people prosper and these people are less than we are.

These people, we're better than these people are. Where are you, God? And instead of taking care of cleaning house with the people and having them repent and return to the

Lord and for them to live in light of the grace of the Messiah to come, they wanted

God to get them. You sick them. Where's the

God of justice should be turned into? God, you've been so gracious with us. You've kept your just law by punishing

Jesus in our place, but you've punished Jesus in our place, which is an act of gracious love. Thank you.

Where's the God of justice? He's a patient God. He's a sovereign

God. Quit focusing on other people's sins and take care of yourself.

That's the issue. I mean, isn't this everywhere in the Bible? It goes back to Adam and Eve.

Have you eaten of the tree that I commanded you not to eat? And Adam said, the woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.

Went to bed single. I woke up married. I mean, you did that. And then it keeps going to the woman.

What is this that you have done? And she said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. Both of them are saying,

God, you did it. You're the one that did it because you could have prevented the serpent, you could have prevented the wife. Blaming, blaming, blaming.

And for the book of Malachi, and sometimes for us, we blame other people for issues, and when we're not careful, that's we blame the

Lord. Friends, that is why the

Scriptures are so important because you need to see the world in light of the Scriptures, not the other way around. The liberals say we interpret

Scripture in light of culture. And Jesus, who is our model to look at Scripture and interpretation,

I see the world in light of Scripture. This is the grid. This is the screen door that I see the front yard of life through.

I mean, had not God already said to Israel in Exodus 34, the

Lord, the Lord is a merciful God and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

So, for these people, and you notice in chapter 2, verse 17, it says, they wearied the Lord. I mean, they didn't really make him tired so he has to kind of recharge his batteries at the end.

It's a figure of speech. They just keep on saying it. God, where's the God of justice? Where's the God of justice? Wait, God has revealed himself as a

God of justice and patience as well. He's patient. He's faithful. I mean, here's what this is.

God, I don't like the way you're doing things. We're the good ones. We have more righteousness than these.

You should be judging these other ones that have less righteousness than we do. And until you do, we're just not going to stop praying.

Matter of fact, we're going to serve you some court papers and we're going to sue you. God, you know, you're distant and you're not caring at all.

Well, now we move to verse 1 of chapter 3. It's a big deal now that God himself has to respond.

Oh, there's going to be a judgment, all right. God's going to answer these serious accusations. Can you imagine questioning

God in light of all that we have and forgiveness and adoption and the

Spirit of God dwelling within us? Chapter 3, verse 1, the answer is given and now

God is speaking. There's a two -step process here. First, the messenger and then the messenger of the covenant.

Behold, that's at the beginning of the sentence and at the end. Every time it's used in the Old Testament about 1 ,000 times, pay attention.

You know what's coming. There's a lot of blasphemous questions. Where's the God of justice? Here comes the answer. Behold, I will send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me.

That's John the Baptist we'll see in a second. And the Lord whom you seek, this is the second person of the

Trinity, will come suddenly to his temple in the second coming. And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the

Lord of hosts. My messenger is going to come and pave the way for the

Messiah and the Messiah is going to come back. That's the answer to the question. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all discuss the forerunner of the

Messiah as being John the Baptist. Matthew 11,

I'll just read it to you. You don't have to turn there. This is he of whom it is written, behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you.

That's John the Baptist. Now, when the Pope travels these days or the President of the

United States travels, he sends out a kind of an advance team. And that advance team does security detail and checks hotels and would this be a good place for snipers to be?

We better not be there and the list goes on. Well, back in the old day, if a king was coming to town, they'd have an advance team too.

But instead of sniper issues, they would say, you know, those roads have a lot of potholes.

I'm refraining from the Boston pothole comments right now, but there's quite a few of them, even in Worcester.

And they would clear away the rocks and twigs. You know, when I ride my bicycle on the street, there's all kinds of stuff on the road.

I mean, I've seen logs, I've seen twigs, I've seen electrical wires, I've seen dead groundhogs, dead squirrels, a dead boar that was about this big once in Germany.

I wanted to go up and touch it, but I was afraid. Clean all that stuff off while the king is coming, pick up the litter, pick up the trash.

But for John the Baptist, how did he clear the way of the Lord? By sweeping the Roman road?

No, by a spiritual repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. It was a spiritual pothole cleaning and filling with the preparation of repentance and faith.

Because Jesus is going to come back, and it says in verse 1, the second half of that, and the

Lord whom you seek, we've transferred from John the Baptist to Jesus' second coming, whom you will seek will suddenly come into his temple.

Every time that word suddenly is used in the Old Testament, with one exception, disaster is coming, judgment is coming.

Now, sometimes the Old Testament talks about Christ's first coming, this one is the second coming. There is going to be the

Lord's sudden return. He is coming, second advent discussion.

The Lord, divine Lord, second person of the Trinity. How can God the Father send a messenger who is divine?

Well, the answer is Trinitarian language, the Father sends the Son. And what's he called?

This is very, very fascinating. What is the Son called in chapter 3 verse 1?

The messenger of the what? Covenant. Wait a second, what do you mean messenger of the covenant?

That's what Jesus is called. Everything about Jesus is covenantal in his ministry.

You say, well, what about dispensationalism? I'm not talking about dispensationalism now. I'm talking about Hebrews 12.

And to Jesus, the mediator of a new what? Covenant. And to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

S. Lewis Johnson, quote, Jesus is called the messenger of the covenant because his whole ministry is a covenantal ministry.

His whole ministry comes by the virtue of the everlasting covenant to start with. And then his ministry is the fulfillment of all the messianic covenants.

Hey, this is Near Eastern covenant language. You would have a covenant between parties, our nations, our people, and then you would have a messenger of the covenant.

And that's exactly what Jesus is. He's the messenger who brings this covenant together.

Pretty fascinating, isn't it? That this is so important that it's not just another messenger.

It's not Hosea or Joel or Amos or Paul or Peter. This is the

Lord. This is the deity of Christ emphasized.

Look at the judgment described, verse 2. Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?

Notice the questions. And then two figures are used for the cleansing work of God.

He's like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap, launderer's soap.

He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the

Lord. God, where's the God of justice? Well, you're going to get your chance now.

But who can endure? Look back at verse 2. Can any endure? Who can stand?

This is language of Nahum. Who can withstand his indignation? This is language of Psalm 76.

Who can stand before you when you're angry? Psalm 130, O Lord, if you kept a record of sins, who could stand?

Psalm 147, who can withstand his icy blast? When it comes to the judgment of God, who can stand?

By the way, what's the New Testament answer to that? Who can stand? Well, let me put it this way.

When you meet God face -to -face, when you see Jesus face -to -face, what are you going to do?

The first moment you see him face -to -face, not with faith but by sight, he returns or you die and you stand before God.

What are you going to do? I always think about that. Sometimes back in the old days I would go to some function or party or something. I'm like,

I don't know what the etiquette is. I need some kind of debriefer to say when the queen hands you a square of sugar, you're to say,

I don't know, you're to put your hand like this. Why am I doing this? I mean, I just need some etiquette.

When you meet God, what's the etiquette? Do I stand? Do I praise? What do

I do? If you want to get down on your face and worship him and you want to take your glorified hair and wash his feet, you can do whatever you'd like regarding that.

But can you imagine what does the book of Jude say? I mean, who can stand before God's judgment?

No one can stand before God's judgment because we're sinful and then at the end of Jude, no wonder it's a doxology.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, standing in the presence of God.

Why? Because all your sins have been dealt with. All your sins have been covered. You have the righteousness of Christ.

Who can stand? Only those who have received Christ's righteousness could stand.

If you look at verse 2, he's like a refiner's fire and fuller soap, both just used to clean things, ritually unclean, spiritually unclean is a better way to think through it.

This is language of Zechariah, I will put this third into the fire and refine them as one refined silver and test them as gold is tested.

They will call upon my name and I will answer them. I will say, there are my people and they will say, the

Lord is my God. It's all covenant language.

Sons of Levi get purified. Verse 4, what are the consequences of Christ's return?

And then we need to wrap it up. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the

Lord as in the days of old and as in former days. There's going to be a future day of righteous worship.

There'll be offerings and righteousness is what he's saying. One writer said, looking further ahead, we know from Hebrews that the

Lord who did come as a mediator of the new covenant was of the tribe of Judah, not of Levi. He was not a

Levitical priest but a special priest directly and personally appointed by God to an eternal priesthood to offer the sacrifice of himself once for all on the cross.

Where's the God of justice? Verse 5, and we end here, then I will draw near to you for judgment. And remember, these

Israelites had sins. They were sinning. And so, look at some of these sins that he calls out that he's going to judge.

Forget other people who are worse. What about you, Israel? I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, adulterers, those who swear falsely, those who oppress hired workers, widows.

They oppress widows. They oppress fatherless, thrust aside sojourners. And maybe to summarize it, they do not fear me.

These representative sins God is going to judge. He starts off with sorcery.

By the way, why do you think sorcery is so bad? Some of you will like this.

Sorcery is so bad because any manipulation of the future of the sovereign

God who controls the future is an abomination. Oh, I'm just going to try to control

God's free will. I'll manipulate God for my own good. That's why sorcerers are always condemned.

And then you look at the end of the verse, a category of those who do not fear me. Maybe that's the climax of everything.

So, congregation, let's ask the Lord to not let us run around looking at all the unrighteousness in the world with the attitude of, we're better than they are.

They need more righteousness than we do. And God, where's the God of justice? You're not running the world like I want it to be run.

Wouldn't it be just a lot better to say, God, you could have given me justice, but you gave me mercy and grace.

And these wicked people, if they die in their sins, they're all going to go straight to hell forever.

And would you give them grace too? Would you give them mercy too? Would you apply the son's sufficient death,

Calvary, to their account as well? Because when

I was an enemy, Lord, you had your son pay for my sins. I think that's a better way to go.

God will take care of everything. And in the meantime, let's never question what he says or what he'll do.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you today for your word. I'm thankful that, yes, of course, every unjust thing will be taken care of.

But Father, help us to see this world in light of our own injustice paid for by Jesus.

Help us to see our unrighteousness in light of our son's wonderful righteousness.

We do want you to come back, but we have loved ones who we want to have saved.

We have friends, and daughters, and sons, and parents, and grandparents. We don't want them to have justice.

If you give them justice, you're to be praised. But Father, we even can see the heartbeat of Jesus as he deals with sinners, and enemies, and prostitutes, and tax collectors.

Would you use us to tell people about how God loves sinners, loves the world so much he sent his son?

And Father, if you could save us, a self -righteous, proud people, you could save anybody.

And Father, we recognize the world is yours. You do with it what you please.