Turn with me this morning, fifth chapter of the Book of Jeremiah. I got to thinking about the global warming. I believe it. Global warming. It's been warming locally, too. My thermometer said 105 yesterday evening, up in the evening, yeah. So, I mean, that's pretty correct. I got in the car and it said the same thing, so it must have been pretty close. I was just thinking about the pollution. global warming. What I have this morning again is related to vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I guess what even got me thinking along with these terms again, you can't hardly not read the scripture I can't think along those terms, but it come by church. That's what they claim to be. Just two or three weeks ago, and out front of it, there's a rack built. They got a bunch of little wooden crosses stacked on it and a sign up there, you can help yourself. I got thinking about crucifixion of our Lord. That old wooden cross was a cruel thing. Now, when I look at it, I see one thing. Some other people may see something else. It was the cruelest thing that the Roman army could come up with was a cross. And then I got thinking about the vengeance of God, I will repay, saith the Lord." But generally speaking, the people, and it seems like especially religious people, have lost sight of the vengeance of God. We see it over and over and over. We can have a bad shooting like we had out here in Texas. And we see it. People wonder, why do these things happen? And we've got the storm comes and tears up the islands out there and other things, and they begin to wonder again, why do these things happen? And it's quite simple to go back to the book of Genesis and look. When sin came into the world, so did the storm. and the shootings, the murders, and on and on and on. And it doesn't go on. Sin doesn't increase without punishment. If God the Father laid the sins of the world upon Jesus Christ up on that wooden cross, Certainly, he's going to have revenge upon those that brought it on. In verse 1 of chapter 5, it said, Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man, if there be any, that execute his judgment. I think that's pretty much where we are at. There's not much judgment. If it is, it's awful slow. Another thing that I took into account, I said last week about chastisement and about punishment. There is some difference because punishment is continual. It doesn't have an end, but chastisement does have an end when correction comes. But when I search through Scripture, I don't find where punishment has an end, except in Jesus Christ. But then it becomes not punishment, but chastisement. Then when there's a turning away from sin unto the Lord, the chastisement is over. But when sin continues on in the world, punishment has no end to it. It continues on. And the storms come, and the murders come, and on and on and on, but there's no end to it. Because men are un- repentant outside of the gift of God. Unless God gives repentance to man, it will not come. There's no judgment. They don't execute judgment. They seek the truth. Now, I will pardon you. And though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely. O Lord, art not thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return. We used to have in our prison system, we had what we call correctional institutions. They had changed that, so they couldn't correct Same old thing, over and over, let him out and he'd be right back. Now we've got, say, criminal justice system. Well, that's just as bad. Same thing. There isn't any good judgment because they base it up on the wrong law. Law of man. Law of God is swept in its punishment. The 28th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. Well, the whole book for that matter, but it tells you about the end of man if he doesn't do what God asks him to do. He said, therefore, I said, surely these are poor. They are foolish. For they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God. That's what I'm just talking about. They just don't understand these things. Why in the world would God take a good man out of the world? A lady with a shooting where she was on TV and she was enraged. You know about or at who? At God. Why did you let this thing happen? And they're saying, if God is a God of love, why does He do these things? Kills all these people. But it's because of sin in the world. And I'm convinced that as far as the storms and the murder and all that stuff, it's going to increase in time. There's going to be seed time and harvest until the end. And man's not going to have anything to do with the end. But also the judgment of God is coming upon this world, and it is not lingering in the way man would think of it. I will get me unto the great men, and I will speak unto them, for they have known the way of the Lord. and the judgment of their God. But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds. Wherefore, a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evening shall spoil them. A leopard shall watch over their cities. Everyone that go without fence shall be torn in pieces, because their transgression for many. Now you can't put it much plainer than that. And their backslidings are increased. How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that they are no gods. And I believe people are fully persuaded that it's It is so. There isn't any God. So we must find some pleasure somewhere else. And when God takes it away, we'll curse Him. And they then committed adultery and assembled themselves by truth. in the harlot's houses. They were as fed horses in the morning, every one laying after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit? For these things saith the Lord. And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" That question has totally been lost. especially among the religious of this world. They don't have any earthly idea that God is taking vengeance upon sin and the sinner. It's just all by accident. It's global warming that's causing it. If not, that's something else. They're laying everything in the world upon something. besides God. I tried to listen to something coming down here by myself this morning on the radio, but I couldn't find nothing. A fellow said, well, let's stand aside and let God be Lord. And I said, my goodness, I've got to get on something else. I'd rather watch some, listen to some kind of old music or something. My, my. He is Lord. That's their problem. They've laid that down. They say it over and over and over. That's what we just read. But they don't believe a word of it. They don't believe there is a God. Can't be. It just can't be. We'll reason this thing out. We'll figure it out. We'll get ahead of things. Jeremiah, the 17th chapter, in verse 1, and said, And the sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond. Now, where is it written? It's engraved up on the table of your heart. and up on the horns of your altars, Judah, whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills." Well, like father, like son, Daddy was a Baptist, and I'm a Baptist. Yeah, we've been teaching them that for a long time. Then we wondered, what is wrong? A good deal of it is the fault of the church. Because they have failed to teach the judgment of God. He said, O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasuries to the Spaw, and thy high places for sin throughout all thy borders, and thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee, and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not, for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever." And it's written in their hearts. Just as an adamant stone, what we just read a while ago. It's hard. It will not listen. unless the Lord would turn it around. It's not in some decision. Man cannot decide to be righteous. It is beside him to do so. He said, Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth thin men. and make it flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, and in the salt land, and not inhabit it. Blessed is the man who trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when he cometh." It sounds like he's making good judgment. It's not going to be heat upon him, but it's going to be heat upon those that trust in anything besides the Lord. But her leaf shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." In the midst of all that, the Lord Church is still making good judgment because they have been taught in the book of Isaiah, the 59th chapter, Yeah, when did the Lord do it? I guess in verse 15, yeah. Truth, faith. And he that departed from evil maketh himself a prey and the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no judgment. And he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercession. But therefore His arm brought salvation unto Him, and His righteousness, it sustained Him. For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head. And He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and He was clad with a zeal as a cloak. according to their deeds. Accordingly, he will repay. Fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. That's what I was thinking about when I was thinking about that little old wood cross, come get you one. To me, it doesn't represent the same thing. It wasn't that wood cross. It was a cross in the heart that man must bear, not that wood one. There's a guy, I've seen him several times, maybe more than one of them, got a big old wood cross of some kind, but it's got some wheels on it back in it. Got it on his shoulder and he's walking around over the country. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies, to the islands he will repay, recompense. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up. a standard against him. That's what this word is that we have is a standard against sin and sinner. And it's always held up high. And there it is. But man will not. God's standard of judgment is His law, which is Him. It's the same thing. And He upholds that law, and He cherishes it, and He will defend it in the book at the back of the second chapter. said, I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and we'll watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when I'm reproved. And the Lord answered me and said, write the vision and make it plain upon the tablets that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time. I come here because people think because the Lord is slow to anger that it's not going to have vengeance. But in its appointed time, it will come. And I'm going to tell you, it's going to slip up on the people. It's coming. The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end of it, it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come. it will not carry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith." So we live by faith and not by sight. So we make good judgment if we stay in the scopes of the law. of the Lord, for it is truth. Man cannot conceive of sin as God perceives it. Not even we ourselves. But we do see sin as God sees it as we observe Christ on the cross. Not in a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense. when we see the vengeance of God meted out upon his righteous and holy son. But then people wonder, yes, why all these bad things happen. I guess I will never forget, and I'm sure my wife and Joel will never forget, that man that came and was beating on the door of the church when we were over on Student Airline Road. He was a Vietnam veteran, Brother Dale, and he was tormented by what he saw happening especially to the children in Vietnam during that war. And I tried to explain to them, and his question was there, why? If there is a God, why did he allow these things to happen? I tried to explain to them this thing about sin and the holiness of God Whether he ever understood a word of it, I don't know. But that man was tormented. And again, Dorothy and Joel can attest to some of that. Anyhow, Joel let him in. I wasn't there at the time, and she called me, and I came back to the church and talked to him, but I found him. He was actually laying in one of the pews up behind the pulpit of the church. But anyway, that's all neither here nor there, but he just, he was tormented. I've never seen a person that was as tormented as he was and simply because he could not understand how God sees sin. But we need to see sin as God sees it and understand that he will punish sin. And if they think that that punishment that they're seeing now, is it bad? Yes, it's bad to behold. I don't know what you experienced in Vietnam, Brother Dale, But we see these bad things all the time. I've been watching, Dorothy and I have kind of been watching a series of the worst disasters. And it's bad. When 240,000 people are killed, 500,000 people are killed by storms and floods and whatever. We can't help but have sympathy towards them. But if we think that this is bad, it's absolutely nothing as compared to hell. And as J.T. said a while ago, punishment never stops. So why do we say these things? It's a warning to all of us. Do not be presumptuous with God. And yet, how often is that so?