I'll tell you, adding to what Marvin said, you're young, even as a believer. Like he's pointed out, sometimes you think you're 10 foot tall and bulletproof. Get a few years on you, you begin to see your weakness. Really weak. I'm 81, and I think Where's Tom going? I'm there. God, by his grace, has allowed me to be here this morning. I may not be here this afternoon. I tell you what, I'm gonna, one of the frailties of old age is I get hot real quick. And if I get hot, sometimes I get sick, so I'm gonna take that jacket off. I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Malachi chapter two. Malachi chapter 2. The Lord, because of Israel's sins when they were in Canaan, after he had established the kingdoms in Canaan, Because of their sins, he exiled them to the city of Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. And he said they were going to stay there for 70 years, in which they did, 70 years. And at the end of that 70 years, a small remnant, the Bible says, came back to Jerusalem. The King of Persia allowed them to come back and rebuild the town. Now the Book of Malachi was written, as far as I can tell in research, was written some 50 years after they came back. And like their fathers before them, they began to become formal and insincere in the worship of God. And Malachi points this out in several places. One of them being, you know, in the Old Testament, the Lord gave Moses the law of sacrifice. He says, you take a lamb and you pin it up for 14 days and you watch it. Make sure it's spotless. There's no blemish in it. And only then can you sacrifice it. Well, here in Malachi, they were taking the The maimed and spotted, they'd sunk to that low once again of worshiping God, formal worship, and in sincere worship. But that's not what I'm gonna talk about. This is another instance that he confronted them on in chapter two, the very last verse, 17. Malachi chapter two, verse 17. Malachi tells the Jews, he says, you have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, wherein have we wearied you? What have we done, they said? We don't know what, what are you talking about, Malachi? And he says, when you say, everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them. Or, where is the God of That's my text. Now, there's an old saying. We've all heard this. The more things change, the more they say the same. Now, this text here in Malachi was written 2,500 years ago. And they were saying then what we're saying now. what the churches, what false preachers, what is being preached across this land today. God loves everyone. He loves everyone. And why is that? Why? Why is that? Why has that lasted? Why did it happen here and why is it going on now? Well, it's all due to the spiritual nature of man. We've seen a lot of progress in the last 2,500 years. Society's changed, technology's changed, but the spiritual condition of man has never changed. Man preaches from the pulpits, and this is countrywide, this is worldwide, preaches a man-centered religion. Man is the center of the religion, his religion. He is his own god. He's not gonna have a god above him. You know, I was thinking as I was preparing this in the, you read some of the history of the Greeks and the Romans and so forth. They had all these animals. And I think, I think Paul mentions it in Romans chapter one. They had all these animals that they pretended to be gods. Why? Man will never have a God above himself. And that's a fact. He will not. Pride will not allow him to have a God Above himself, man will always be the center of his religion. Proverbs 16.2 says this, all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes. And so that's why he says God loves everybody. I'm a great guy. You should love me. I really think I'm good. So God's got to think I'm good. And I don't dare say, well, he doesn't love you. So he's got to love you too. So God loves everybody. He loves everybody. And yet man, our text says, where's the God of judgment? Man doesn't want anything to do with judgment. We see that in our country. We see that around the world. What we call judgment in this country and justice. And when I'm talking about judgment, we're just talking about justice. What we call justice, what we see justice in this country is not justice, and we're gonna see that here in a minute. Isaiah 59, four says this, none calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth, and we know that's true. They trust in vanity and speak lies, they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. I was watching yesterday, and I, You know, I watch YouTube on these false preachers because I think for me personally, I want to know what my enemy is teaching. I want to know what they believe. And to watch some of these modern day churches, I'm telling you, it's almost, well, it is. It's devil worship is what it is. Hooting and hollering and jumping and all kind of nonsense. But there's no truth to it. They made up their own religion. Now, what I'm going to look at this morning is this thing of where is the God of judgment? Where is our God of justice? Now, in our text, the word judgment means a judicial verdict rendered whether favorable or unfavorable. Now, just what is justice? What is justice as far as the Lord God goes? Well, we're going to have to go to the scriptures. We're going to have to see what the Lord himself says is justice, what he thinks of justice, not what I think. Man never sees the fullness of justice himself. We never see justice as how God sees justice. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 45. I want to read this to you. Let's read this together because I think this is very important. Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45, verse 21. Scripture says, tell ye and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient time? And who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside me. a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me." Now I want you to note the order in what he says there. He says he is a just God and a Savior. He associates the Godhead, he associates his Godhead with justice. He is a just God and a Savior. He can be a just God without being a Savior, but he cannot be a Savior without being a just God. That's the truth. In Ecclesiastes 12.14, listen to what he says. Solomon, that wise man, for God shall bring every work into judgment. with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. Psalm 99.4 says this, the king's strength also love of judgment. God loves justice. Why are these men not preaching God's justice? Simply because they don't like justice. We do not by nature like justice. That's the nature of man. The king's strength also loveth judgment. Thou dost establish equity, evenness, evenness. We use the word fairness, which it's almost there, but not quite. Equity is a better word, evenness. Thou executes judgment and righteousness in Jacob. And just how equal is Jehovah, the Lord God. How just is he? Well, what's the Old Testament say? Let's go to the Word of God. Let me read it to you. Exodus 21, 23, 25. You don't need to turn there. Here is the God of the Bible. People won't believe this. They say, well, this is not right, but it's the truth. Exodus 21, 23 through 25 says, and if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. Let me ask you a question. Marvin's pointed this out many times. Has God changed? Has God changed from that? I am God. I changed not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. God is absolutely just. How just? We can't imagine. I can't. We think what we see is justice in this world, but we don't have it. We don't have an idea of what justice is really about. Now we see God's justice in this life, tempered with mercy. We see that every day, and we thank God for it. Isaiah 145 verse nine says this, the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. And we see that. We just have to look around. We see that every day. God is good. He's merciful. He's just. But we do see his justice in this world. We do see his judgments. Men won't admit to it. They had all those floods down there in Texas that killed all those people. That was the judgment of the Lord. You won't hear anybody say that. Were those people special sinners above anybody else? No. That's what the Lord said. He said, you think the people, those people in the Tower of Siloam were worse sinners? No. But God shows justice in this life as a warning to the rest of us. We need to take heed to what we see and pay attention. We need to learn, it's set for our learning, to learn that the God of the Bible is a just God. He's a God of love, yes he is, absolutely, absolutely. But he will never show love at the expense of his justice. That's a fact. But, and Marvin mentioned it there, in his introduction. The day's coming. The day's coming. Death's coming. And the day's coming when man's spiritual account's going to be settled. The day of mercy, as we know it in this world, is going to be gone. It's going to be gone. How's that going to happen? Ezra 18.4 says this. The Lord says, Behold, all souls are mine. As the souls of the Father, so also the souls of the Son is mine. Listen to this carefully now. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Notice it doesn't say the soul that sinneth shall die. It's specific. The soul that sinneth, it. It. It, it, it, it, it, shall I. Next is 34.7, he says he tells Moses on the mount, he's no wise, I'm gonna clear the guilty. He is not gonna clear the guilty. He is absolutely just, he cannot, cannot clear the guilty. No exceptions. God's justice says all sinners, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. What's that mean? The soul that sinneth, it must die. And brothers and sisters, that means believers too. What did you say, Neil? Believers must die? And I don't mean an imaginary death either. I mean a literal death. The believer must, must die. But wait a minute, Neil, doesn't the gospel teach, doesn't the gospel teach that Christ died for us? It sure does. It says in 2 Corinthians 5 21, for he hath made him, that is the Lord Jesus, to be sin for us who knew no sin. And so we say in standing Here, and look at that, we say that Christ Jesus was our substitute. The word substitute is not found in scripture. It's not found in scripture. And I understand this word is the closest word we have in the English language to explain what took place on the cross. It's not exactly correct, and unless we fully understand what took place, we'll take this word substitute and draw the wrong impression. Even believers can think wrong on this. Now, what does substitute mean? It means this. It's a person acting or serving in place of another. Now, I want you to think about this. Is that what took place on the cross? I mean, let me give you an example. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about, and see if this doesn't make sense to you. Say a man has a son, and he commits a heinous crime that's worthy of death. And he goes to court, and the judge slams the gavel down and says, guilty. You are to be put to death. And the father goes to the judge and says, wait a minute, judge, let me, don't put him to death, let me die in his place. Let me be his substitute. Is that just? The judge is gonna laugh in your face. That's not just. The soul that sinneth, it, must die. It. So when the Lord Jesus was made sin on the cross, something took place that is beyond mere substitution. That's what I'm getting at. Again, I understand it. I get it. We have to use this word. I mean, I've thought about what other word would you use? But again, what can happen is you can think of, well, God arbitrarily took the Lord Jesus and killed him instead of you or you or me or anybody else. But that's not what took place. And I'm going to show you that. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1, verse 4. This is going to explain it somewhat, not fully. This is over my head, really. I'm getting into an area that I can't fully explain, but we can take what the scripture tells us. And certainly it's going to be a gray area. We won't see it completely, but we will get an idea of what took place on the cross. Ephesians 1, 4. Scripture says, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world." Two little words there I want you to pay particular attention to where it says, in him. According as he hath chosen us in him. What does that mean? What does in him mean? This is what it says. It's a fixed position of rest. We were chosen from eternity past. The believer was chosen from eternity past in a fixed position in Christ. What does that mean? Well, there again, you know, We're looking just through a gray area, but the closest thing I can come to explaining it, the believers, God's sheep, are called the bride of Christ. You remember what the Lord said about marriage? They twain shall become one flesh. Twain, one flesh. And that's what took place in Christ. Literally, this is not figuratively. This is not figuratively. I can't explain that. But that's what took place. The Lord Jesus Christ was made what we are. And when he died, we died, the believer died. Again, the believer died, not figuratively, But literally, Romans 6.6, the Apostle Paul says this, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. That was literal. That was literal. That was literal. Where is the God of judgment? He is seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ Jesus, our Lord, his life, his death, his burial, and his resurrection completely, completely satisfied God's demand for absolute justice for our sins. And God the Father, as the judge of the whole earth, that's what Abraham called him, his judgment verdict is found in Romans 8.1. Here it is, brethren. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. God the Father, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Slammed the gavel down. The judge slammed the gavel down. Said not guilty. No charge. Brothers and sisters, we've got God's Word on it. We have God's Word on that. That's a blessing. You know, sometimes. Oh, how little how little we appreciate. how little we appreciate what he's done. I'll tell you, I'm guilty. I'm guilty. We're looking through this dark glass and we don't see the fullness of it. We will one day, but oh, if we could just see it now, I think we'd just fall on our faces here this morning. All of us fall down there and just lay there with our face to the ground. And like I said, we have God's word on it. He says this in Titus 1-2. In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. He promised life to a chosen people. He justified them. To declare, he says in Romans 3, 26, at this time, his righteousness. That's the righteousness of God. God is declaring his righteousness that he might be just and justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Our God, in closing, our God is a good God. He is a good God. He's a loving God. But he is a just God. We don't want to ever forget that. Marvin read something Thursday night that struck me along with this message. I think it was in Second Thessalonians. It says, he was talking about his righteous judgments, Marvin. Righteous judgments for afflictions. Our afflictions are judgments. They're righteous judgments of God. And I thought, you know, How we ought to bow to that. Those are his judgments. He brings these things upon us. It's justice. But unlike those that are going to be punished in hell, those righteous judgments for us are to correct us of our sins, to prepare us, to prepare us, to wean us. How I need to be weaned from this world. David says, my soul cleaves to the dust, You know, I can testify that's true. I can testify that's true. Well, we'll close there. That was short, but I pray that the Lord would bless it to his honor and to his glory. For he alone, brothers and sisters, are the one, the only one that's worthy to be praised this morning. Amen.