Do I Trust You?

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a great privilege to share the Word of God with the saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist Church this morning.

Illusions can be a lot of fun. In the realm of entertainment, illusions are a source of joy and fascination. A magician’s sleight of hand or a movie’s special effects can transport us to a world where the laws of physics are bent and our imaginations run wild. These experiences are crafted to delight and surprise, allowing us to temporarily suspend disbelief and enjoy the thrill of the impossible. The artistry behind these illusions is celebrated, as it takes immense skill and creativity to convincingly present the unreal as real.

Yet, the fun and games of illusions are not without their risks. When illusions are not recognized for what they are, they can lead to dangerous misunderstandings. In the physical world, optical illusions on roads can cause accidents, as drivers misjudge distances or fail to notice hazards. In the digital realm, deepfakes and manipulated images can spread misinformation, leading to serious social and political ramifications. The line between harmless trickery and harmful deceit is thin, and crossing it can have severe consequences.

Further there are dangerous consequences when we begin to believe an illusion to be a reality. For instance, it is well and fine to enjoy a fictional movie or video game, but there are times in which people become so enthralled with a made up world that they claim it for their own. Spending more time in make-believe than in reality. Our culture is becoming increasingly subjective with the way we view reality. From Disney adults, to Therians who believe they are animals stuck in a human body, to men believing they are women, our society is consistently rejecting objective reality for the false comfort of living in an illusion.

The problem with illusions is that they are not real! They may be fun for a moment, but they have no lasting value. If we aren’t careful we can find ourselves in a metaphorical desert, chasing the mirage. We trick ourselves into believing the we’ve found the “water” we need to make it through our blight, but the “water” we’ve found is a figment of our imagination.

The reality is that we all thirst for something in this life. I’ve shared this before, but I believe it bears repeating, CS Lewis, on humanities’ desire for more than this world has to offer: “Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise [...] If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

Lewis continues, "Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.”

Lewis had come to understand that only thing that will satisfy the thirst in the Human Soul is Jesus Christ! The One who reconciles sinners to the Holy God! There are many good things in creation, all around us, but they only point us to the goodness of God, they are not replacements for Him! Fiction is good, not so that we try to shoehorn our world into a false fantasy, but because it tantalizes our senses and gives us categories to praise a God that is beyond comprehension. Animals are good, not because we should want to become them, but because they point to God being a creative Creator, and we care for them as He cares for them. Gender is good, not because we should switch between the one we were born in, but because God has designed men and women for His purposes and together we accomplish the plan He has for creation, complimenting one another along the way.

When we elevate the good creation to something it is never intended to be, we creating a mirage that is out of sync with reality. We try to make things fill a void they were never designed to fill.

Jesus said in John 7:37–38 “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”

We are designed to have the thirst in our lives met by Jesus. Everything else just points to Him. If we get that off track, we begin living in a false reality. We are putting our trust in something that is not worthy of it. While simultaneously shifting our trust away from the One who truly deserves it, God.

With that in mind, turn if you have not already to Malachi 2. Today we are picking up in the last verse of chapter 2 and then looking at the first 5 verses of chapter 3. This is one of the instances where I want to remind you that the Word of God is inspired and inerrant, however the divisions of chapter and verse are not. In the original writing of this book, there would not have been chapters or verses, they were added hundreds of years later. This contextual link between the last verse of chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3 is recognized by most scholars. However, because the chapters and verses have been divided this way for centuries, and it does not change the content of the text, there is no need to try to change it now. We will simply read the section beginning at the end of chapter two. Let’s begin with that verse now:

Malachi 2:17 ESV

17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

For the past four weeks we have been walking through the book of Malachi. In the totality of this series we will look at 7 primary charges the Lord makes against His people. Thus far in chapters one and two God has charged the Israelites with doubting His love, profaning His Worship, and disregarding His design for relationships.

This morning we come to the fourth charge God makes against Israel. The charge is that they have wearied the Lord.

In our look at this verse this morning, we will see what it means to weary the Lord, what happens when we are living out of step with reality, and address the problem of evil in the world. Then in the first 5 verses we will see how God has always planned to address the problem of evil, execute perfect justice, and is worthy of our full trust.

So first, what does it mean to weary the Lord?

Wearied in the Hebrew, primarily means to work until someone is tired or exhausted, like in the sense of physical exhaustion. But God is spirit. We will also see next time in chapter three verse 6, that God is immutable, unchanging. Isaiah 40:28 “28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.”

So if God does not grow weary according to Isaiah, what does it mean that Malachi says that the Lord is wearied by the people of Israel? Well, the weariness described in our text in Malachi is what is called in the literary world, an anthropomorphism. I know that’s a big long word. It comes from the greek word for “man” anthropos and the greek word for “form” morphe. “In theological terms, anthropomorphism is making God in some way into the form of man. Mostly, it is the process of assigning human characteristics to God. … [they] can be helpful in enabling us to at least partially comprehend the incomprehensible, know the unknowable, and fathom the unfathomable.”

So when we read that Israel has caused the Lord to be wearied, we read this as God showing us that their conduct was burdensome towards Him. It’s not that He would run out of energy and break as you and I would if we became too wearied, its that their behavior was displeasing. Its like the Holy Spirit being grieved by our sins. It’s not that the Spirit is surprised or caught off guard, it’s that our sin is taxing and contrary to the Holy nature of God.

We will see in just a second the specific ways in which the Israelite people were wearying God, but first as a point of practical application, have you ever thought about the fact that your own sin might be something that wearies the almighty God? We carry in us the same sin nature, passed from generation to generation since the Fall of Adam in the garden of Eden. So we must ask ourselves in this very moment, “Have I wearied the Lord with my persistent sins? The sins I’m unwilling to let go of, the sins that so easily trips me up, yet I go right back? Am I enjoying or allowing something to hinder me in running this race of life for His glory?”

If you are able to recognize that sin that you are holding onto this morning, while it may be frightful in this moment, I hope that by the end of this sermon, you will actually be able to praise God and see what a grace it is that your sin would be exposed! Praise God for the Cross of Christ and the the blood of Christ which offers assurance of pardon when we fall short! Praise God for the privilege of daily confessing your “wearisome” sins before Him. Praise God that that He will reveal your shortcomings, granting you the opportunity for repentance, the Spirit to actually do it, and then the ability to glorify Him all the more through living a repentant lifestyle! To God be the glory!

But often times, in our flesh, when we are confronted with the reality that our sin is an offense to God, instead of coming to repentance, we become defensive. That is what is shown to us as the response of the Israelites here is verse 17. They say how have we wearied the Lord? The Lord then responds with a list of reasons. And what’s interesting is that the weariness stems not directly from the pathetic worship, nor the grievous state of their marital relationships.

No, their wearisome sin is in their view of God. They say either in their hearts or in their discourse amongst one another, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, He delights in them. Where is the God of Justice?”

These are three detestable lies about God that are out of sorts with reality and have expose a lack of trust in the Lord.

First, They say that Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of God. The Israelites were at least somewhat familiar with God’s Law. They knew what His standards. They looked at their condition and the perceived dominance of the pagans around them and think that God must certainly be blessing them. They viewed their affections towards God as dependent on the the blessings they received.

At first we may think this is an issue particular to the conditions of the Israelites lives, but I think that we can all succumb to such a view. How many of us see the celebrity culture bringing in lots of money, getting lots of attentions, having everything at their beck and call and in the back of our minds, we think “they have it made! Now that’s what being blessed looks like!” We, like the Israelites in Malachi’s day forget Proverbs 11:4 “4 Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.” But when we base our views of blessings on material needs, then we are tempted to believe that if God is sovereign over all than He must surely be calling that lifestyle good! They’ve been blessed! We see that person “succeeding” without any evident need for God in their life and we begin to lose trust in God ourselves! When in reality, we shouldn’t base our trust in God based on material blessing because the riches we see in others may actually be a curse! Proverbs 11:28 “28 Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf.”

Not only do the Israelites believe that God blesses evil, the second detestable lie they have begun to believe about God is that He *delights* in it. Not only do they think that God is blessing the evil around them, they believe that He is enjoying it. This is a gross mischaracterization of God. When we really begin to grasp on what this means, we can see just how bad it is! They have not only begun to mistrust God, but they have re- characterized Him as a villain! Think about it! Only someone truly evil would delight in evil being done. It’s one thing to be a passive observer of something, though it can still be bad if you should intervene, but it is a whole other level of super-villainy to DELIGHT in evil.

Now, you may not make this same accusation or believe this lie against God, but I can tell you with all certainty that it is the prevailing opinion of the unbelieving world that has called evil good and good evil. There is so much chatter online about the wicked ways of the church or the evilness of Christians. Don’t get me wrong, neither churches nor Christians are perfect. We certainly have faults that need to should be exposed and repented of, but that’s not everything we’re accused with being evil over. We’re accused as being wicked for believing in complementarian relationship, or following the Billy Graham rule in meeting with the opposite gender, or believing a life in the womb should be protected, or telling others of the exclusive salvation found in Christ alone. The World calls those things evil. They call God evil for issuing judgment through the flood though they don’t believe that even happened. They call His Word outdated and despicable. To call the source of good and the standard of righteousness Evil is a detestable thing.

All of this culminates in the third detestable lie they believed about God, that God is not just! They ask at the end of verse 17, “Where is the God of Justice?” They are implying that the moral government of the world is out of joint. “When evil seems to flourish unrestrained, when good men feel no apparent worth in worship and are content to offer less than their very best to God, the reality of God’s judgment is always questioned.” They are questioning the character of God, doubting His justice.

In the microcosm of our lives, we can be pretty quick to challenge the justice of God. We all like to view ourselves as the hero of our story, surrounded by all of these undeserved challenges and assaults. It is so easy to slip into a “Woe is Me” mindset. We can be tempted by our circumstances to believe that God is indifferent, does not care, or worse, is unjust in His dealings with us. This false thought process can be fueled more when we survey the world around us and see all the decay, all the sin, all the rampant violence and hurt. Many people begin to doubt the existence of God, or at least the Justice of God if He does exist. Leading them to reject Him or actively work against Him.

All three of these false beliefs about God find their root in what the scholarly world calls “The problem of Evil.” One website defines the problem of evil as this, “the seeming contradiction between an all-powerful, all-loving God and the human experience of suffering and evil in the world. Critics claim that the existence of evil is proof that the omnipotent, omnibenevolent God of the Bible cannot exist. Since “bad things happen to good people,” critics say, God is either nonexistent or less good or less powerful than Scripture suggests.”

The Israelites have taken the problem of evil and allowed it to shape their view of God more than the revealed will of God in His Word and the Mighty acts of grace and power He has displayed time and time again throughout their history.

Right now in the evangelical world, the same thing is going on. People call it deconstruction. They look at the problems going on in the world, conclude that the God they learned about in Sunday School is incompatible with the problems they perceive and they leave the faith. In essence they ask the same rhetorical question, “where is the God of Justice?”

This doubt, this lack of trust in God, is detestable. As we have learned this morning, it is wearisome to God to disrespect His name and character which such false beliefs.

But why do I call it false? We can all look at the world around us and see injustice. We all know the pain of sin either in the consequences of our actions or in the sting of sins committed against us. It’s not very hard to get into a place where we might begin asking where is the God of justice this Bible supposedly talks about so much?

Well fortunately for us, God’s Word is not silent on the problem of Evil. All throughout the pages of Scripture you can see God’s sovereign hand weaving even great pains together for the good of His people and His ultimate glory. If this is a topic that interests you, come find me afterwards and I can point you to a website full of great verses and resources on this topic. But for our time this morning, I want to focus on God’s response to the problem of evil as recorded in the first five verse of chapter 3 in the book of Malachi. Read those with me now, if you would:

Malachi 3:1–5 ESV

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. 2 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 fullers’ soap. 3 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 Lord. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. 5 “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.

God’s response to the Israelites doubts and lack of trust was a promise of what He was going to do in the future. The Israelites doubted God’s justice but God says, don’t you worry because justice is coming and here is how its gonna play out.

In verse one we see that God will send His messenger to prepare the way. Then we see the Lord, Adonai, coming to His temple, the messenger of the covenant. God tells His people that when the Lord appears, no one will be able to endure the day of His coming, no one will be able stand. The dirty deeds will be refined away. Fuller’s soap was used to whiten clothing in the cleaning process. Sin will be vanquished. Offerings will be made pure and holy. Israel will have its acts together and will no longer profane their worship! Then judgment will come and all the evil that they think is prospering around them, the evil that they accused their God of delighting in, will be thrust aside. Judgment will come. It will be swift and harsh.

The point of this passage is to remind the Israelite people that the God of Justice IS here! He is working out His plan of redemption. Anything that looks like evil is winning is simply a mirage, a temporary illusion. He does not delight in Evil, He simply tarries in applying final judgment because the time has not yet come for Him to execute final judgment. For our good and His glory, He still has more to do. He still has a purpose to work out within this sinful.

The intention is for Israel to look forward to the execution of God’s justice, trusting fully in Him to work out His plan in his perfect timing. And oh how needed this message was. The Israelites would not have known it at the time, but remember that Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. This is the last inspired word of God given to His people for four hundred years. For FOUR CENTURIES, God would no longer speak to His people through the prophets. For 400 years, the Israelites were expected to look forward to the hope that God would execute His perfect judgement. They were to look forward expectantly for the messenger preparing the way, for the Lord to come to His temple. Waiting. Longing. Expecting. Silence. … 400 years and then:

John 1:6–9 ESV

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

After 400 years of silence, in the perfect fullness of time, in accordance with the will of God, God sent first the messenger to prepare the way, John the baptist, Followed by the sending of the Lord Himself Jesus Christ!

The Israelites were to look forward to the moment and have full trust in the justice, power, and love of God. For us today, we look back but still we see the full justice, power, and love of God!

The Israelite’s trust in God should’ve been rooted in seeing what He had done for them in delivering them from Egypt and what He will do in sending His messenger and the Lord.

Our trust in God is rooted in seeing what He has done for us in sending His messenger and the Lord Jesus Christ and what He will do in the final judgment at the second coming of Christ! The easiest way to wrap our minds around the Malachi 3:1-5 is to see verse 1 as what God has already done through the sending of John the Baptist and the first advent of Christ and verses 2-5 as what is coming in the final judgment. And we can have full confidence that God is just even when it seems as if evil is abounding around us, because God has been true thus far and will continue to be true. He said He’d send the messenger, John the Baptist showed up! He said the Lord would come, Christ appeared. So when He says that evil will be purified and judgment will be swift against sorcerers and oppressors, we can know that those will certainly happen as well!

Church, the one of the greatest Lies Satan would ever have you believe is that God is not just. Or that He is not working things out for good. Or that He cannot be trusted. God is good and worthy of all honor and praise. He is worthy of our trust.

As we are concluding this morning, I want to ask, what are you trusting in? Are you trusting in God? Or have you begun to believe lies about Him and placed your trust in something else? Have you begun to think that something other than God can fill the void in your heart? I can promise you that anything else you try to satisfy your life with will prove to be nothing more than a mirage. In the day of judgment, it will burn away in the refining fire. In that moment, all that will remain in our lives is Christ. The messenger of the covenant of grace. the everlasting covenant of which our Lord Jesus is not only the surety and mediator, but called here the messenger. He is called the messenger of that everlasting covenant of grace because it is revealed, made known, and manifested in and through him. As our king he reigns, as our priest he perfects us, and as our prophet he reveals the mysteries of God's covenant. What is the covenant of Grace we asked our children? The promise God makes with His people to save them from their sins. What did Christ undertake in the Covenant of Grace? To keep the whole law for his people, and to suffer the punishment due to their sins.

As verse 1 of Chapter 3 implies, may we delight in Christ, the messenger of the covenant, the Lord, the one who lived and died and rose again to save us from our sins. He is worthy of our trust. If you want to know more of what it means to trust in him, come forward in this hymn of response.

Let’s pray.