Living Hope

Pastor Philip Miller: See, friends, there is a kind of religiosity that is full of resentful obligation that does all the right things on the outside, but the heart is totally messed up. And God sees all the way underneath. He sees right through it. He discerns our hearts, the bad and the good.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: Welcome to Living Hope with Pastor Philip Miller. I'm Pastor Larry McCarthy. We're glad you're with us today in our series in Malachi. Pastor Philip, we get to delve into the human heart today. And what can we say? There's just not much hope in trying to hide our hearts from God, is there?

Pastor Philip Miller: No. He sees our hearts all the way down, doesn't He? Malachi is talking about how God hears our words—every single one, even the careless ones—and He also sees all the way into our hearts and the deep motivations of our hearts. Jesus says, "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."

The reality is that God can see through us, even if we're using the right words and we're showing up and putting on the mask and doing all the right things on the outside. If our hearts are far from the Lord, He actually sees that, and He knows the motivation of why we're doing all the good things we're doing.

What God is after at the end of the day is not to beat us up, but ultimately to redeem and transform our hearts all the way down. He wants to bring life into our hearts, into the innermost parts of our being. And so the word of God pierces through. It's like a double-edged sword that pierces through joint and marrow and discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

We need the word of God to pierce into our hearts and to help us see what's going on on the inside of our being so that we can learn to walk in holiness and righteousness before the Lord. And that's where we're going today.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: Well, let's go now to the pulpit of the Moody Church as we explore God's discernment of our hearts. This is part two of the sermon, Faltering Faith. Grab your Bibles; our text is Malachi chapter three, verses 13 through 18.

Pastor Philip Miller: Friends, the Bible says that one day every single one of us will stand before God and all the secrets of our hearts will be laid bare. Everything will be brought into the light, and in that day, nothing will escape the Judge's notice—every careless word, all the secrets of men. How will that day be for you? How will it be?

Now, a lot of late modern people are pretty skeptical about this idea of judgment day. It seems a bit primitive—the idea that a God would come and judge the living and the dead, a final reckoning at the end of time. Do we even need that? What difference would it make if that were true? Well, I'd like to suggest it makes an enormous difference. We need a God of final judgment more than we realize.

Let me just give you two big ideas for this. The first one is the final justice of God gives life meaning. Arthur Miller, the renowned 20th-century American playwright who wrote *All My Sons*, *Death of a Salesman*, and *The Crucible*, has a lesser-known play called *After the Fall*. In this play, there's a character named Quentin.

This is a line that he delivers in the play: "More and more I think that for many years I looked at life like a case at law—a series of proofs. When you're young, you prove how brave you are or smart; then what a good lover; then a good father; finally, how wise or powerful or whatever. But underlying it all, I see now there was a presumption that I was moving on an upward path toward some elevation where God knows what—I would be justified or even condemned—a verdict, anyway. I think now that my disaster really began when I looked up one day and the bench was empty."

The bench was empty. No judge in sight. And all that remained was this endless argument with oneself, this pointless litigation of existence before an empty bench, which, of course, is another way of saying despair. Do you see what he's saying? He's saying if the bench is empty, if there's no judge in sight, if there's no God of final judgment presiding, then what's the point of my life?

I'm always arguing, litigating, trying to build a case that my life really matters, that I'm a good person, that my choices make a difference, that choosing love is better than choosing hate, that goodness actually wins out over evil. But if the bench is empty, if there's no judge on the dais, then there's no such thing as good and evil in life. There's no standard against which my life is actually being measured, and all that remains is the endless argument with oneself, this pointless litigation of existence before an empty bench, which is another way of saying despair.

Without a God of final justice, life becomes whatever you can get away with. That's all it is. And that might feel liberating at one level, to get away from some sort of cosmic accountability, but it comes at the cost of a devastating loss of meaning. He says, "My disaster, crisis, demise, it really began when I looked up one day and the bench was empty." And if the bench is empty, friends, then life is emptied of meaning. The final justice of God gives life meaning.

The second reason we need a God of final justice more than we realize is that the final justice of God is the grounds of nonviolence. Miroslav Volf, who is a Croatian philosopher and theologian who teaches at Yale University, wrote a book a number of years ago called *Exclusion and Embrace*. This is what he writes: "My thesis is that the practice of nonviolence requires a belief in divine vengeance."

"My thesis will be unpopular in the West, but imagine speaking to people as I have, whose cities and villages have been first plundered, then burned, leveled to the ground; whose daughters and sisters have been raped; whose fathers and brothers have had their throats slit. Your point to them is we should not retaliate? Why not? I say the only means of prohibiting violence by us is to insist that violence is only legitimate when it comes from God."

Violence thrives today, secretly nourished by the belief that God refuses to take up the sword. It takes the quiet of a suburb for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence is a result of a God who refuses to judge. In a scorched land soaked in the blood of the innocent, this idea will inevitably, invariably die like all other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind. If God were not angry at injustice and deception and did not make a final end of violence, that God would not be worthy of our worship.

Do you see what he's saying? He's saying we all want to see the cycle of violence end. The only way it can actually come to an end is if people stop retaliating and engage in nonviolent responses. And he's saying the only way nonviolence is actually possible is if there is a God who will come and settle the score in the final judgment. If final judgment is coming, then I can lay down my retaliation against my enemies, knowing that it is God who will take up my cause.

Isn't that what Jesus did in First Peter chapter two, verse 23? This is what Peter writes: "When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly." How did Jesus not retaliate? He entrusted himself to the Judge who will make all things right. Real atrocities demand real justice. And if the bench is empty, then nonviolence is an empty dream. The final justice of God is the grounds of nonviolence.

And this goes all the way down, even to the level of our words. Jesus says in Matthew 5:22, "Whoever says 'Raca,' 'You fool,' contempt, disdain, curses, will be liable to the fires of hell." Every careless word, every secret in the heart. God hears our words, doesn't He? Secondly, He discerns our hearts. In verse 14, they say, "It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of keeping his charge or walking in mourning before the Lord of hosts? We now call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper, but they put God to the test and escape."

Notice, these are not irreligious people. They are not leading reckless, sinful lives. They're coming into the temple, they're serving God, they're offering sacrifices, they're keeping his charge, doing what He said. They're walking in mourning before the Lord, so they're going through the motions of confession and repentance before the Lord in His temple, while at the same time muttering about how vain it is and how pointless it is and how jealous they are of the evildoers.

All of that's happening at once. As Jesus says in Matthew 15:8, quoting from Isaiah, "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." And God sees right through all their religious performance. He sees right to their hearts. None of this fools Him because as First Samuel 16:7 says, "The people look at the outside appearance, but it is the Lord who looks at the heart."

Here you have the people of God who are serving Him out of resentful obligation. They had to, they thought, to placate God, to earn just enough acceptance to keep Him off their backs so they could get back to living life for themselves. It reminds me of the older brother in Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son, who says to the father, "Look, all these many years I've been slaving for you, and I never disobeyed your commands, and yet you never gave me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends."

There is a kind of religiosity that is full of resentful obligation that does all the right things on the outside, but the heart is totally messed up. And God sees all the way underneath. He sees right through it. He discerns our hearts, the bad and the good, which is the point of verses 16 to 17. Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another, and the Lord paid attention and heard them.

And a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed His name. "They shall be mine," says the Lord of hosts, "in the day that I take up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him." Not only does God discern the hearts of those who are filled with resentful obligation, but He also discerns the hearts of those who fear the Lord, who are filled with reverential awe, who esteem His name.

They see Him as holy and worthy of their devotion—those sons who serve Him as sons, giving of themselves gladly in love for a father who loved them to himself. This is the love of the younger brother in Luke 15 once he came home. Having been forgiven and welcomed home by the father, he begins to serve the father as a son, not for acceptance, but from acceptance—not full of resentful obligation, but joyous surrender.

When it comes to God, our true motives are laid bare. The Apostle Paul says in First Corinthians 4:5, "The Lord will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart." All the good things that we do for the wrong reasons, because it makes us look good or because it helps us win friends or because we thought we could obligate God to bless us—all of our motivations and intentions will be laid bare in that day. Not just the things we said and did, but why we said and did them all. God discerns our hearts.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: This is Living Hope with Pastor Philip Miller. I'm Pastor Larry McCarthy. We're glad you've joined us today as we dig deeper into God's judgment of our hearts. Pastor Philip, I love this discussion because I'm sure some of our listeners are even saying, "Does it really matter what my motive is if I'm doing a good thing? If the outcome is good, what does it matter what my motive is?"

Pastor Philip Miller: Yeah. As long as the outcome's good, who cares why I'm doing it, right? That's the kind of thing we think. Here's the reality: what God cares most about is the people we are and the people we're becoming and what's deeply going on in our heart and in our character. We can do good things, but for the wrong reason, and it taints them.

If, for example, I'll be good because everyone will think well of me. If I'm a good person, then everyone will be like, "They're a good person. I think they're a worthy person," right? In other words, I'm doing good not for goodness' sake or for God's sake, but I'm doing good for my sake in order to bolster my image.

What's happening is the moral behavior I'm doing is actually motivated out of pride and selfishness and ego. I'm not doing good in order to love others and care for them and worship God, but I'm doing it because it's good for me. In other words, the moral thing has become tainted and corrupted by this deeply selfish motivation.

Or if I'm being good because I don't want to get caught. Getting caught means I'll be in trouble and that will be a painful thing. And so it's a self-preservation motivation, which is still selfish. It's still ego-driven underneath all the good things I'm doing. Or if I think I'll love because love comes back to you, then I'm not actually loving; I'm actually just trying to get love for myself.

And so it's a transaction and I'm really just doing this because it feeds back for me. What happens is you can do the right things, but it's actually corrupting the very heart of your character. You're not becoming a person of love; you're not growing in Christlikeness. You're actually doing this out of pride and fear and selfishness.

You're becoming more prideful, more fearful, and more selfish the more good you do when your motives are disconnected from holy behaviors in this way. Because God cares about your heart and He cares about your transformation and He cares about the person you are and are becoming, He cares tremendously about the motives that are driving all the things that we do. God does care about our hearts. And actually, we do too.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: That's so practical, and I appreciate that because we're no longer serving to please God. We're doing it because we want to please man. Like, "I sure hope somebody sees me being kind here or opening this door." But the fact that we will be judged and that we will stand before Him really gives meaning to our service, doesn't it?

Pastor Philip Miller: Yeah, because all of a sudden every bit of our life matters. If we're going to stand before God and He's going to see all, know all, and give account, then it matters tremendously how I live in this life. Everything matters. If God is not on the bench, if He's not there at the end to judge and to give out accountability, then life becomes whatever you can get away with.

If I don't get caught, if I can get away with it, I'm going to get away with it. And that doesn't actually change us; it doesn't make us people of love. And so God's accountability at the end provides tremendous meaning and purpose for every facet of our lives and it helps us live in ways that matter. This life matters. That's what judgment day brings to us.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: I'm so glad you mentioned that about what people can get away with because a lot of times that's how it feels. They're getting away with this. Did you see what they said to me? Do you see how they wronged me? Do you see that they came in here and somebody ate up all the donuts?

Pastor Philip Miller: So common.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: But this business of vengeance and God—help our listeners with that.

Pastor Philip Miller: Well, if God is going to hold everyone to account, and He will, then what that allows us to do as followers of Christ is to do what Jesus did. He entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. So when we're wronged, we can say, "I don't actually have to exact payment for the way that person hurt me. I can give this over to God."

I can say, "I'm going to love my enemies, I'm going to forgive those who have hurt me, I'm going to respond with grace in this moment, knowing that God sees all, knows all, and will hold all people accountable for what they've done, either in final judgment or through the blood of Christ, but it will be paid for."

I can entrust this into the hands of God, which means we can forgive, we can end the cycle of violence. This is so powerful when we realize what final judgment actually informs in our ability to live and to bring healing into this world. It's tremendous, the connections here. We need God to hold us all to account. We can't live otherwise.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: Amen. There's another element that we need here. As we all seek to purify our motives for our service and everything that we do, in order for that heart transformation to take place, we need the enabling of the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Philip Miller: That's right. Because the reality is the heart is hopelessly wicked. The Bible says our hearts are deeply flawed; our motives are tainted. It's a mess down deep inside. And so this is where the beautiful promises of the new covenant that has come to us in Jesus Christ through His blood are so powerful. A new heart full of a new spirit that is tender and will lead you to start obeying my word and following all that I've commanded you.

These are the promises of the new covenant, and Jesus has brought this to our life. He's filled us with the Holy Spirit, and so we have the Spirit of Christ abiding in us, bearing witness that we are children of God and that we belong to Him. That's our deep identity. And He's there convicting and drawing us forward, teaching us. We can feel it. You can feel the Holy Spirit inside of you calling you toward obedience and righteousness.

When you sin, He's grieving and you can feel that too. You can sense the weight and disappointment of the Spirit as He calls us into righteousness and He's teaching us to live in a way that is motivated with purity from the heart and addressing all these conflicting things and false motives. He's starting to change us from the inside out.

Honestly, that's the only way we're ever going to have anything close to a pure motive this side of glory: when we're led by the Spirit and we're walking in the Spirit and we're being conformed to the image of Christ and imitating God as our hearts are being transformed and renewed from the inside out so that we learn to walk in the Spirit and do things for the right reasons.

That's the prayer: "Here's my heart, Lord. Take it in all of its conflictedness, purify my motives, help me to worship in spirit and truth, help me to walk in obedience, change me and make me new, O Lord." That's the prayer.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: Amen. The enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Now you can't have the Holy Spirit unless you're saved, and beloved, you can't be saved without Jesus. The truth is, God's judgment was poured out on Jesus, and beloved, that is our deepest comfort. Now to help you rest in that security today is the last day to request Pastor Lutzer's book, *How You Can Be Sure You Will Spend Eternity with God*.

Don't settle for an uncertain future. Get the clarity you need to know you are held firmly in His hands. This is it—the last day to get your copy of *How You Can Be Sure You'll Spend Eternity with God* for a donation of any amount. To request your copy, simply go to livinghopeoffer.com or call us at 1-800-215-5001.

You can also write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Now next time, we'll talk about God's two books in heaven. Thanks for joining us for Living Hope, where you'll always find gospel truth for the journey of a lifetime. Living Hope is a production of Moody Church Media and is sponsored by the Moody Church.