Is God Truly Righteous?

Grace Fellowship Church

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

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If you haven't already, please turn with me in your Bibles to Malachi chapter 2 and verse 17.

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This afternoon we're going to be looking at Malachi 2 and verse 17 through Malachi chapter 3 and verse 5.

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This afternoon we're returning to our study in this prophetic book of Malachi.

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And I'm going to refresh our memory a little bit because I know it's been stop and start for us, but we find ourselves this afternoon in the fourth disputation, the

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Lord's fourth disputation with the newly restored nation of Israel. And because it's been stop and start, we'll start with a bit of review.

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You might recall that Malachi was a prophet around 440 BC, when the nation of Israel was just getting re -established, just returning from decades of exile in Babylon.

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And up to this point in Malachi's book, we have looked at already three out of six disputations that God has raised with the nation.

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This kind of question and answer format of disputation that was meant to address both the moral and the theological deficiencies of the people.

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In the opening verses of chapter 1, just before Christmas, you'll remember we looked at God's first disputation, which dealt with the rejection of God's love toward the people, or the people's rejection, their repudiation of God's love.

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And we heard how even in the midst of that, as they repudiated God's love, God told his people,

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I have loved you. And we looked at how that is true of our relationship with God today, of his love for us today, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we come to this church, to this sermon, to this worship, not as those who are trying to earn

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God's love, but as those who have received God's love, are loved now, and will be loved in the future.

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Then at the second half of the first chapter, in the beginning of the second chapter, we looked at God's second disputation, how

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Israel despised God's name by offering polluted offerings. The Levitical priests and the people were not giving

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God their best, but in fact giving him their very worst in their worship. And we considered how we are to worship

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God in a way that pleases him, wholeheartedly, sacrificially, joyfully.

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And then, our brother Sam, a couple weeks ago, in the first half of Malachi chapter 2, or I guess that the most, no, it would be the second half of Malachi chapter 2, up to verse 17, we looked at God's third disputation, how the nation had defiled their covenant relationship with God.

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And we looked at how this covenant relationship with God was mirrored by the covenant relationship of a man between a woman in marriage.

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And how they were departing not only in their relationship with one another, men leaving their wives and marrying foreign spouses, but how they had violated their covenant with God.

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And now, as we approach Malachi chapter 2 and verse 17, and looking at verse 17 through 3 and verse 5, we're going to encounter

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God's fourth disputation. A disputation concerning his righteousness.

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I want you to see this with me, we'll frame it this way and then we're going to see it in the text.

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That since that disastrous moment when Satan first tempted Eve in the garden, when he whispered doubt into her ear, man has always questioned the goodness and the righteousness of God.

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You have come through that door this afternoon, whether you realize it or not, questioning the goodness and the righteousness of God.

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And we can trace this all the way through our Bibles. From the fall of Eve, to Cain's murder of his brother

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Abel, to the deaths of an entire generation of grumbling Israelites in the

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Exodus, to the vile idolatry in the exile of the nation. Both the enemies of God, taunting

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God and his people from outside the city walls, and the people within the walls themselves, the very people of God, had a long history of questioning the righteousness and the goodness of God.

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In their minds, God was good. If we were to say that today in their midst, or back there in their midst,

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God is good. They would say, yes, amen, absolutely. But when we see through their actions, it was in fact, yes, amen, absolutely,

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God is good. But he was never good enough. At least never good enough for the knowledge of that righteousness, of the goodness, of the perfections of God, to travel the eight inches from the mind to the heart.

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And not only can this theme be found, traced through the pages of Scripture, but if we were to take the mirror of God's word for a moment, and hold it up to our hearts, to see what it reflects, what we would see is that this same history of questioning

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God's goodness, of questioning the righteousness of God, is not a phenomenon found only in the

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Bible. It's not a phenomenon found only in unbelievers, those outside today.

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It's not a phenomenon found only in other believers in this room. But if you were to hold that mirror of God's word to your own heart, you would see that in its own insidious way, this doubting of God's righteousness is alive and well in your own heart as well.

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We all, at some point in our lives, if not allowed, certainly in our hearts, we must confess it before God, have asked the question, where is the

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God of justice? If God is good, and if he is sovereign, then why is this happening?

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In this midst of difficulty, can I trust that in fact God is good?

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And in our passage today, I have loved this passage. We find the answers to these questions.

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That the Lord himself, he will answer us when we ask the question, is

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God truly righteous? And arising from our study of the text, we'll look today at four facets of God's righteousness.

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Four facets of God's immutable, perfect goodness.

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And I trust that it will be very helpful for you, as it was for me. And so I will do the strenuous work of the preacher for today, and I understand that our study in Malachi, it's a difficult one.

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It's not like reading some of the epistles, it's not like looking at some of the narrative of the

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Gospels, it requires work. And so I will do the strenuous work of the preacher, if you will do the demanding work of the listener.

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And I trust that together we'll be helped. And so, with that in mind, with our Bibles open to Malachi 2 and verse 17,

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I'll read verse 17 and we'll look at this first facet. Malachi writes,

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You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, how have we wearied him?

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

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Or by asking, where is the God of justice? The first facet that I want to highlight this afternoon is this.

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Number one, God's righteousness doubted. That God's righteousness is always doubted.

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The very first facet of God's righteousness that we must understand is that in this fallen world,

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God's righteousness will always be misunderstood. It is a truth that transcends time and culture and geography and generation.

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It is a trustworthy statement. You can take this statement to the bank. God's righteousness will always be called into question as long as there is sin in the world.

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My hope in this first point is to say that may it not be so in us. In Malachi's day, this is what was happening.

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This is what was happening leading up to verse 17. The nations we know had just been allowed to return back to their homeland by Cyrus, the king of Persia.

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As we've heard, it was not the kind of glorious return that one would have hoped for, that they would have hoped for, that they would have wanted for themselves.

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Of the two million, some two million Israelites who went into exile, both from Israel, the nation of Israel proper, and then the nation of Judah proper, of the two million people that went into exile, only 50 ,000 returned.

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And when they returned, they didn't come back to the celebrated, the fortified city of David, but they came back to a city in ruins.

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As a matter of fact, if we were to look in Nehemiah chapter 1, in verses 3 and 4, when Nehemiah gets the report of the state of the city when people made it back, we're told that all

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Nehemiah could do was sit down and weep. Nevertheless, under the godly leadership of men like Ezra the priest and Nehemiah, and others, the people began to rebuild the city, and its walls, and its ruins, and its houses.

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And they rebuilt their paneled houses, and the prophet Haggai came around and relayed to the people that they needed to rebuild the temple, and so they did.

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In Haggai chapter 2 in verse 9, we get a sense of the great expectation that the people had as they rebuilt the city, as modest as their efforts were.

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In Haggai 2 .9 it says, The latter glory of this house, the temple, shall be greater than the former, says the

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Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.

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And so they rebuilt their cities, they rebuilt Jerusalem, they rebuilt the temple, expecting that just as God had visibly,

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His visible presence had entered the tabernacle in the days of Moses, or the temple in the days of Solomon, so God's presence would again inhabit the restored temple.

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They held out hope that God would once again dwell amongst His people. But as far as the people were concerned, by the time we get to Malachi chapter 2 in verse 17, none of this had taken place.

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They were not enjoying greater peace and glory than the former, but they were subjugated, they were oppressed, they were still being financially, materially deprived.

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And so the whole atmosphere of the lives of the nation up to this point could be summarized,

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I think, in the confession that we find in Nehemiah chapter 9 in verse 36. If you would, let's turn there together,

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Nehemiah 9 .36. In Nehemiah 9 .36,

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we see all the people coming together to confess their sins.

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And in 9 .36, this is what the nation of Israel was like, this is what it was like in Malachi's day.

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They said, Behold, we are slaves this day.

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Think about what the nation was created for, what it was created to be like. They said, Behold, we are slaves this day in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruits and its good gifts.

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Behold, we are slaves. Imagine for a moment what it would be like to buy a home, to live in it, and then at some point to be removed from your home, and then you come back to your home, no longer as a resident of the home, but as a slave in that home.

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You no longer sleep in the master bedroom, you sleep in the boot closet. And you wake up several hours before your master to prepare the meals, to get the day ready.

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This is how the nation felt. They were back home, but slaves.

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And so with a sense of profound and utter disappointment under the heavy weight of their oppressors, and all of this as a result of their own sin, the people became cynical and began to question

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God's righteousness. They would sarcastically ask, that's what we see in verse 17, sarcastically ask the question, or say to one another, you could say,

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Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the

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Lord. As if to say that God was only in the business of blessing the wicked, while he left his people to fend for themselves.

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And they would ask themselves the question, where is the God of justice?

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Now looking at the scenario, in its context, I think we need to come to terms with something here.

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Now I don't know myself perfectly, but I know myself well enough to acknowledge that if I were in that exact same situation,

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I too would offer up complaints concerning God's justice.

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If not aloud, at least in my heart, that I would see from where I had come to where I am, and the injustices that are around me and say,

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God, where are you in all of this? And I will make a bold statement.

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I would suggest that you would too. That you would ask, where is the

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God of justice? And how can I make that bold statement? How can I assert that with any confidence?

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It is because, as I said at the beginning of this point, as long as there is sin in this world, as long as there is sin in your heart, we will always, at least at the very least, be tempted to question the goodness of God.

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It is hardwired, as it were, in our flesh. And so let's be real for a moment, if we can.

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Just to remove some of the veil. You and I, brethren, we complain about almost everything.

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Maybe you found yourself today complaining about the weather. If you don't complain about the weather, for certain you've complained about inflation.

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We complain about illness. We complain about our jobs. We complain about our spouses or the lack thereof.

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We can go for a perfectly good meal at a nice restaurant and complain about the food.

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Perhaps even worst of all, we can come into the church of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, the household of the living God, and we can complain about one another.

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We can complain about the singing, how the songs could be better, how the preaching could be improved.

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We even complain about the carpets. Whatever it is, brethren, see this with me.

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This is a serious charge that the Lord has against this people, and we cannot look down our noses as if we are any better, but we must come to terms with the fact that we are, most of us, if not all of us, we are compulsive and habitual complainers.

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Perhaps more so in this generation than in any other. And every time, see this with me, every time we offer up a complaint or some grievance, are we not calling the wise providence of God, of our sovereign and righteous

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God into question? At the root of every complaint, think about the last time you complained for a moment.

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At the root of every complaint is a heart dissatisfied with God Himself.

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At the root of every complaint is a heart dissatisfied with God Himself. And what does

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God think of this attitude? In the beginning of verse 17, He says, You have wearied the

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Lord. We have wearied the Lord with our complaints. Every time we grumble and complain, we're not wandering into some gray area.

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We're not engaging in a respectable sin. Oh no! You are expressing discontentment with God Himself.

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You are saying with Malachi's contemporaries, God, you are good, but not good enough.

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And in so doing, you not only grieve God, but you weary God.

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You exhaust His patience. You, I say on biblical grounds, tempt

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God Himself. Do not think for a moment that the sins of grumbling and complaining are light sins.

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I often tell my children that God did not send serpents to the nation of Israel because they were murderers and thieves.

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But God sent serpents to bite and to kill the Israelites because they grumbled and complained about their food.

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So eat what dad made you. I never have to say that when mom cooks. Does that sound too harsh?

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It's because you don't fully understand. 1 Corinthians 10, I saw a few puzzled looks when

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I said, you tempt God in your complaints. 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 9 and 10.

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We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents.

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Nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer.

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So in this first point, I want us to see we must then understand our own propensity. Not just in the world, but in our own hearts.

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Our own propensity to question the goodness of God. A few weeks ago, I preached a sermon on resolutions.

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Resolve this. To trust in God with all of your heart.

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Trust in His righteousness and in His goodness even when it does not make sense. When faced with the problem of evil or suffering or pain or oppression.

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Say with Augustine, he said God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist.

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Our long since departed brother in Christ Job after all of his suffering he said this

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God thunders wondrously with His voice. Job 37 .5

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God thunders wondrously with His voice. He does great things that we cannot comprehend.

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If you're going through a hardship whether it's in finances or health or whatever it might be.

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Oh God is doing wonders in your life. Great things that you cannot comprehend.

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Do not then complain about the goodness and the righteousness of God.

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When bad things happen don't attribute injustice or unrighteousness to God but conforming your mind to scripture.

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Say with our brother Job again at least the first half of this phrase Though he slay me yet I will hope in him.

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What words of comfort. A number of years ago we lost a dear brother in Christ who lived in our home and right around the time that we lost him he went to be with the

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Lord I trust. I came across that song from Shane and Shane Though he slay me yet I will praise him.

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And so many days I would sing that song just thinking of the loss and yet though God might slay even me yet I will trust in him.

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Might that be our hearts Christian believer? The second facet of God's righteousness that I want us to see in this passage is

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God's righteousness embodied. It's a strange way of putting it perhaps but God's righteousness embodied.

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In Malachi 3 in verses 1 -3 Behold I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me and the

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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

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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 a 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 in righteousness to the

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Lord. Perhaps if this is the first time you've read this text or the first time you've read this text in a long time you might ask the question what in the world does verse 17 have to do with verses 1 -3?

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Where is the connection between this God of justice this God of righteousness and then this messenger who is coming?

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I would suggest it is because we see here God's righteousness embodied.

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You see during this time it was customary for kings in the near east to send messengers, emissaries before them to announce the king's coming.

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Think about it this way when the president goes to visit if he were to visit India next month you can bet your life savings on it.

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There are already people with the secret service and other government organizations that are there that are scoping the place out that are making preparations.

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In some ways it's still a practice that we see today. But when a king in the near east would go somewhere they would send a messenger ahead of them to announce the king's coming.

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And the messenger's role was to prepare the people to remove obstacles to pave the way as it were for a successful visit.

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And in fact it would have been unheard of for a king to come without first sending a messenger to announce his coming.

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If a messenger did not precede you you are not a king in the near east. But this was more than just a cultural reference.

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700 years before Christ 250 years before Malachi. The prophet

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Isaiah had also foretold about a messenger who was to come before the long awaited

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Messiah. And in Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3 to 5

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I'll just read verse 3 for today we read A voice cries in the wilderness prepare the way of the

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Lord make straight the desert a highway for our

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God. And we see how this messenger was to lift up every valley to make low every mountain and hill to smooth out every rough place that the glory of the

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Lord shall be revealed. And says all flesh in verse 5 shall see it together for the mouth of the

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Lord has spoken. It was understood that this referred to the coming of the

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Messiah. But few details beyond that were truly understood. But here

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Malachi begins to fill in the details of this messenger. This is one crying in the wilderness.

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This one crying in the wilderness was to be a messenger who would go ahead of the Messiah. Like that messenger before an exalted king.

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If you flip the page to Malachi chapter 4 and verse 5 for a second. If you have to flip the page.

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We read there Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the

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Lord comes. Now we can see all of this. And we can look back with 20 -20 vision.

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And in verse 1A we see one messenger. And then in verse 1B we see another messenger.

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And it's important to distinguish between the two. In verse 1A the first half of verse 1 we find this messenger who was to come in the spirit of Elijah.

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Was none other than John the Baptist. Matthew tells us that.

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Luke tells us that. And then in verse 1B the second half of verse 1 we find another messenger who is described as the

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Lord. The Hebrew word Adon. A shortened form of Adonai. One of the names of God.

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And this messenger, the Lord was coming not to the temple of God. But he was coming to his temple.

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So in answer to Israel's complaints. This is dense. Just track with me for a little bit.

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I promise it gets lighter again. In answer to Israel's complaints God was not going to simply demonstrate his righteousness by judging the oppressors.

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Their oppressors. But rather he was going to show his people righteousness embodied.

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You want to see a God of justice? He will come as king after his messenger.

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God himself was going to come to his temple. Not just his glorious presence.

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If we remember back to when the tabernacle was consecrated under Moses and God's triumphant, his glorious presence came into the tabernacle visible to the nation.

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Not just as his glorious presence entered into the temple after Solomon had built it.

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But no. God himself. Adonai. The king of kings.

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The Lord of lords. Was going to leave his throne. And like every king on a journey he was going to send his messenger ahead of him.

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To prepare the way. And then God himself was going to come incarnate in the flesh to meet with his people.

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And when he came perhaps to the dismay of Malachi's contemporaries he was not going to come just to render judgment to the surrounding nations.

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But he was going to come as a refining fire. Like a refiner of gold or silver.

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Would heat the gold. Heat the silver. And then scoop off the dross.

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That it might be pure. God was going to come and remove the dross and the defilements from his people.

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I like what John Piper said here. He said that notice it is a refining fire and not a forest fire.

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That it is specific. It is particular. It is meant to perfect and not to destroy.

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It is careful and thorough to deal then with the indwelling sin of God's people until they are pure.

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He tells us that he will purify Levi in verse 3. The sons of Levi. And then the remaining people.

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Jerusalem and Judea in verse 4. God was going to come to bring justice.

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But not just to bring justice to those around him. But justice had to first start in the household of God.

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In the people of God. But more than that. There's two sides to this coin.

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Not just a refiner. But he was going to come like a fuller. Kids, what is a fuller?

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Does anyone know? A fuller. Ezra doesn't know yet. But I'm sure his mom feels like a fuller sometimes.

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A fuller washes garments. They would wash wool clean.

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One who cleanses wool garments. And God is going to come like a fuller to wash his people.

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And interestingly enough, when we wash our clothing today, even the busy moms would appreciate this advancement in technology.

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When we wash our clothing today, we throw it into a washing machine. Or maybe we hand wash it under a tap with a good soap and then lay it out to dry.

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But when a fuller washed clothing, it took a great deal of effort. A great deal of pain to make a garment white.

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And so what they would do is a special kind of alkali soap had to be harvested from the ice plant in Babylon.

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And then transported to Israel. And then in Israel, the fuller would mix that alkali and water and scrub the garment.

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And then lay it on the rocks. And then beat the garment with sticks to break loose every stain.

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To remove every stain. And when that process was done well, a dirty garment would be made perfectly white.

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As white as fresh wool cleaned and bleached. And what was the result was a bright, white, spotless, stainless garment.

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And at the end of verse 3, these refined ones were to bring offerings in righteousness to the

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Lord. So to summarize this refinement, John MacArthur, he writes this, he says, the fire will burn off the dross of the iniquities and the soap will wash off the stain of every sin.

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Matthew Henry, on this passage, said, Christ, by his gospel, shall purify and reform his church.

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And by his spirit, working with it, shall regenerate and cleanse souls.

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What could be better than that? To regenerate and cleanse souls.

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And so then what verses 1 through 3 amount to then? If you've been able to track with me.

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This is a comprehensive, but not an exhaustive description of the gospel some 400 years before Christ's coming.

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God was going to come and he was going to deal with sin and he was going to deal with injustice and to do it.

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He wasn't going to wipe both man and beast off the face of the earth. But he would send his messenger before him.

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He would come as a king who condescends off his throne and he would carry out the most righteous plan of salvation that the world has or will ever see.

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He would cleanse his people from every stain of their sin and make them altogether new that in everything they might be righteous before the

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Lord. This week I was speaking to a dear brother and we were talking about the life of Leonard Ravenhill.

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It was a fascinating conversation. He allowed me to record it. In fact, if you want to listen to it

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I can forward you the audio from it. But he shared a quote from Leonard Ravenhill that Ravenhill used to say this was the greatest miracle that the world has or will ever see.

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And this is what God has done in Christ as foretold by Malachi.

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Ravenhill says the greatest miracle is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world and make him holy and then put him back in an unholy world and keep him holy.

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And that is what God has done for you dear saint in Christ as foretold by Malachi.

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And yet there is something we know obviously missing from Malachi's description.

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That is the price that had to be paid in order for God to do that.

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To remain a righteous and a holy judge and yet to refine us.

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And that price was the cross. To maintain his justice.

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To come as a precise refining fire and not a raging forest fire.

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The second messenger. The Lord. Adonai. Jesus Christ. He had to come and tabernacle among us.

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And on that cross endure the proverbial fire of God's wrath on our behalf.

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Romans 3 says we are justified by his grace as a gift.

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What a blessing. What a comforting thought. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

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And this is here. This is the meat on the bone. Whom God put forward as a propitiation and atoning sacrifice by his blood to be received by faith.

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This was to show God's righteousness. How? Oh how does

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Christ coming to the world? How does righteousness embodied demonstrate

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God's righteousness? This was to show God's righteousness. Because in God's divine forbearance he passed over former sins.

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So forbearing he passed over the sins of the nation of Israel in Malachi's day.

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The sins of Noah. The sins of Adam. The sins of every righteous man of God in the

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Old Testament. Righteous woman in the Old Testament. He passed over former sins.

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This was to show his righteousness at the present time. That he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

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So even as Israel was crying out for God's justice. They had no idea that they were crying out for their own destruction.

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Where is the God of justice? Let me ask you. Who among us knowing our own record our own guilty record before the

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Lord would ask the God of justice Oh God give me justice. If God were to give you justice he would strike you down dead at that very moment.

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But what God did was this. God gave you and I and the believers in Malachi's day he gave us grace.

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But at this cost that he gave his son our justice.

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We sang that song a couple weeks ago. Christ with burdens bowed thy head. This is the price that God paid to be just.

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Both just and the justifier of you brother and sister in Christ.

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Death and the curse were in our cup. Oh Christ it was full for thee but thou hast drained the last dark drop it is empty now for me.

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Jehovah bade his sword awake. Oh Christ it woke against thee.

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The blood, the flaming blade must slake satisfy. Thy blood, the flaming blade must satisfy.

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Thy heart, its sheath must be. All for my sake my peace to make now sleeps that sword for me.

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Anytime you think a discontented thought about God and his justice.

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Anytime you think a discontented thought about the righteousness of God you call it into question.

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Turn your mind to righteousness embodied in Jesus Christ.

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That you are alive and that you will be alive forever because of that righteousness embodied in Jesus Christ.

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That's why I love that answer when people say how are you doing? Often times we say

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I'm good, I'm well I'm not bad. How often do we say that? What does that even mean?

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I'm not bad. But that answer how are you doing? Better than I deserve brother.

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Better than I deserve sister. Because of righteousness embodied in Christ.

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The third facet of God's righteousness that we'll look at in verse 4 is

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God's righteousness reciprocated. Malachi 3 and verse 4

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Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old, as in former years.

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The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the

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Lord. There are many many views on this passage. I'm not going to survey them all.

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I'm just going to skip like a rock on top of a lake over some of these views but we'll go through a few of them because no doubt you will encounter them.

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If you were to ask a Roman Catholic theologian, what does Malachi 3, 3 and 4 mean?

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They would say, well that itself that teaches the sacrifice of the mass.

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That even after Christ comes we're going to have our altar and we're going to sacrifice

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Christ every single day as a perpetual sacrifice until he comes.

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Brethren, that is dead wrong. There is no place in this passage that teaches that here the people of God in Jerusalem and Judea and beyond are going to sacrifice

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Christ again and again anew as a perpetual sacrifice. It is just wrong.

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It's eisegesis. It's reading something into the text that isn't there. Other brothers and sisters in Christ and I want to be certain that I differentiate between the

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Roman Catholic view and this view. Brothers and sisters in Christ from dispensational circles will point to this verse and demonstrate that the sacrificial system will again be renewed during the millennium and that during the millennium

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Levites and Jews will sacrifice to the Lord in the rebuilt temple.

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And if you look at this, I will grant that it could mean that.

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This could be true. I'm not fully persuaded and I'll explain why in a moment but they might view it that way.

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A common view especially amongst modern and historical theologians, the view that I am going to put forward is this.

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Here we see God's righteousness reciprocated through faithful and obedient worship offered up to God in all places and in all ages.

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That we do not have to wait until the millennium to make our offerings to God.

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Nor do we have to be in Jerusalem to do it but as the Lord said there is a day coming when you will not worship on this mountain or in Jerusalem but you will worship

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God implying anywhere in spirit and in truth. Hebrews 13 .15

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says through Him then through Christ let us continually offer up, what?

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A sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge

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His name. So what do we make in verse 4 with the comment that this is for those in Jerusalem and Judah?

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Take us back to the book of Acts when the gospel were told was to go to Jerusalem and then

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Judea and then to Samaria and then to the ends of the age.

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And John Calvin says there is here it's an interesting way of putting it but try to capture it if you can there is here a part a part stated for the whole.

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So we're seeing a part but not the whole, a part stated for the whole for this promise belongs to the whole church.

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So good example, I see some puzzled looks. We can talk and say that Steve was at the party last week.

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I don't think we had a party last week but Steve was at the party last week. That does not mean that Amy was not at the party last week.

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That we can state a part and there can still be a whole behind that part. And so this promise belongs to the whole church.

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And so as the church expanded from Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria to the ends of the world so will this righteous worship of God be offered by all the peoples of God beginning in Jerusalem and going to the ends of the earth and I would say if there is a millennial kingdom including and to the end of the millennial kingdom and then beyond.

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And so we should not wait for the millennium to bring a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving as our offerings brought in righteousness to the

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Lord. But we should see today in Edmonton, Alberta we should see his righteousness.

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We should experience this refining that is alone found in Christ's gospel.

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And then we should reciprocate with continual offerings of praise to God.

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That we should see the righteousness of God in this passage and that it would move our whole beings to fall down before him and to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him.

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In fact, in his commentary a man, Matthew Poole, who is a Puritan theologian, he said this speaking of this verse he said, this is how we make this offering today.

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He said, we can make this offering to God by fervent prayers.

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How many of us pray just cold, lackluster prayers, before dinner prayers, following the same old path every day, all the time.

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We can offer up to God fervent prayers, fresh prayers. He said fervent prayers, lively praises, thankful memorials of the death of Christ in the sacraments or we might say the ordinances of the

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Lord's Supper and Baptism. This is interesting. How often do you think of this as an act of worship to God?

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Attentive hearing the word. Attentive hearing of the word. To listen when the word is preached.

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And I don't just say this because I'm preaching. But to listen when the word is preached. Have you ever thought of that as an act of worship to God?

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That I'm going to love God with all of my mind by paying attention, following along, listening, hearing, understanding, accepting, applying and giving up, he says, ourselves, soul and body.

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A living sacrifice to God. How many of us are reciprocating in our worship, in our view of God's righteousness to see and to say that God is righteous and I am going to in righteousness respond as an offering, making an offering of praise.

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There's an old story about an Indian man named Dhandaba. He was a

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Brahmin in India in the 1800's and there's a story about how he was baptized and he was converted and then he was baptized and living as a

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Christian in India in the 1800's. Can you imagine what that would be like?

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He lost his house. He lost his fields. He lost his wells. Think about that for a moment.

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What is it to lose a well? Imagine for a moment if I said, you don't get water anymore. No clean water for you.

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No life for you, essentially. He lost his wife. His children departed from him and when he was asked how he bore the sorrows of all of these losses, he replied,

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I am often asked that but I am never asked how I bear my joys for I have joys within with which a stranger knows not.

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The Lord sought me and found me a poor, strayed sheep in the jungles and he brought me to his fold and he will never leave me.

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And this Indian Brahmin turned worshipper of God and offered everything he had.

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Everything he had in praise to God. Are you reciprocating when you see

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God's righteousness? And then this fourth facet. God's righteousness sated not stated but God's righteousness sated, satisfied, fully.

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This is a short passage here but in verse 5 you read

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I should say a short point. 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

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Lord of hosts. Here we have a sin list of seven specific sins and probably without diving into each one the way we can summarize it is a broad cross section.

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A broad cross section of all that God has commanded his people.

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And the root I would suggest others have suggested the root is the last one listed.

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They do not fear me says the Lord of hosts. How impoverished a culture is.

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How impoverished a church is. How impoverished a Christian is who has no fear of God.

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Matthew Henry said, where there is no fear of God, no good is to be expected.

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And amongst those who do not fear God, you might be in this room. They might be in the world.

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Down the street. At home. At work. Amongst those who do not fear God and who will not repent and who will not look to righteousness embodied the

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Lord Jesus Christ by faith that they might be just in him. Israel's cry for justice.

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It will be answered. God's righteousness will be fully and finally satisfied.

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His justice will be quenched. His righteousness will be vindicated. It is an absolute certainty

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God will have his final day in court. And that righteousness of God demands an eternal justice.

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To sin against. To rebel against. To persist in rebellion against a good.

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Oh, hear this with me. Please. I'm not talking about rebelling against an evil

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God. To rebel against an evil God would be a good thing. But to rebel against a good

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God. To rebel against such a God demands eternal justice.

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An eternal God. Eternal justice. And so this does away with the annihilationism of the

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Jehovah's Witnesses. It does away with the love wins fairy tale of the rob bells of universalists.

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Those who persist in rebellion against God. Who want nothing of God will get an eternity without God.

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And notice who it is that is going to bring about that justice.

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In the beginning of verse 5. Then I will draw near to you for judgment.

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Oftentimes people think of Jesus as Jesus the meek and mild one.

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Of the nice guy of the Trinity. Who will wink at your sins. Who understands.

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And you know what? You can rebel against. Don't rebel against the father. Don't grieve the spirit.

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But Jesus he's got you covered. John 5 .22

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says for the father judges no one. But he has given all judgment to the son.

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That same one. That righteousness embodied. The one who came to die for sin is the same one who will render judgment for sin.

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And those who do not turn to him. It says in Mark 9

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It will be better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to be thrown out into hell where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

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There is no death in hell. There is no quenching of the fire. It burns forever. Matthew Henry says evil pursues sinners.

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Though the sentence against evil works be not executed speedily yet it will be executed.

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The Lord is as much an enemy of sin as ever before. God is still in the business of judging sin and he will.

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I would direct you this week if you have the opportunity. It is always good brothers and sisters to hear a sermon and then don't put it out of your mind as soon as you leave.

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But let it ruminate for the week. And as you let it ruminate, read

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Revelation 19 and 20 this week. And read what that looks like when the great white throne is there and the presence of the earth and the sky flee away.

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And the dead, great and small, are made to stand before the throne and the books are opened.

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And all those whose names are not written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire.

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And brothers and sisters as perhaps concerning as this sounds, in that day, when

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God's righteousness is sated, when his justice is vindicated, you and I, we will cry out with joy to the living

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God. You might not feel it now, but we will rejoice. While we are here on this earth, we will strive, we will pray, we will seek people's salvation.

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But when that door has closed and the mercy seat, on the mercy seat there is no more room, we will say, as it says in Revelation 19 .1,

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a great multitude in heaven cried out, Hallelujah! Salvation belongs, salvation and glory and power belong to our

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God, for his judgments are true and just. And they will come.

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I hope there is not one person here who is content to be in the line of fire.

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D .L. Moody, when he went through the great Chicago fire, one of the things that he said observing is that the fires were indiscriminating, that the fires rolled down the streets and they burnt down the houses of the wealthy, they burnt down the shanties of the poor, the honorable and the great, the learned and the wise, he said, fleeing before the fire with the beggar and the thief and the harlot.

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All were alike as the flames swept through the city. He said they were all on level then and many who were worth hundreds of thousands were like paupers that night.

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When the day of judgment comes there will be no difference. All sinners will suffer.

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So brothers and sisters, is God righteous? He is more righteous than you and I will ever know.

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In the eternity of eternities we will stand before God and we will still say,

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Lord, you are good, you do good, now teach me your ways. But until then, believe it, trust in it, reciprocate it now and learn to say with the psalmist, the

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Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

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He fulfills the desires of those who fear him. He also hears their cries and saves them.

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The Lord is righteous. Let's pray. Thank you for listening to another sermon from Grace Fellowship Church.

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If you would like to keep up with us, you can find us at Facebook at Grace Fellowship Church or our

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Instagram at Grace Church Y -E -G, all one word. Finally, you can visit us at our website, graceedmonton .ca