Now, what I'm gonna do is just
basically go through the first chapter. There's only three chapters
in Nahum. Short book. But I'm just gonna
go through the first chapter, because it gives us the whole
plan, the whole prophecy, summarizing what God laid upon Nahum's heart. It's called in verse one of chapter
one, the burden of Nineveh. You remember Nineveh. 150 years before this, about 150
years, God sent a man named Jonah to Nineveh because it was God's
purpose to bring the nation, the king and the majority of
the people at least, to repentance. And he did that. He granted them
the gift of repentance. But 150 years later, all that
went bad. The nation returned to their
idolatry, their unbelief, their self-righteousness. And so now,
at this time, God sends Nahum to Nineveh, not to grant repentance
to them this time, but to announce judgment against them for their
sins. And there we see the sovereignty of God. You know, people say,
well, why didn't God just save everybody? Well, God says it's
His glory. He told Moses this back in Exodus.
And Paul recorded it in Romans 9. It is His glory. He says,
I will have mercy on whom I will, and I will be gracious to whom
I will. And you say, well, that doesn't seem fair to me. Well,
read Romans 9. That's the objection Paul anticipates. And the answer is what I've talked
about before. Trust in the Lord and lean not
to your own understanding. God does what God does for a
reason, for His glory. And what he does is right. So
here we have in verse one, the burden of Nineveh, the book of
the vision, a vision is the word of God, of Nahum the Elkoshite. So this is Nahum, the prophet,
sent to announce judgment on Nineveh for their sins. And so
what I was thinking of when I brought, studying this lesson and bringing
it together is where, The Apostle Paul, you remember over in Romans
11, I've got this written in your lesson. In Romans 11, 22. And he says, behold therefore
the goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity. Now those who fell are those
who were punished for their sins. And that's the severity of God.
And that severity is not just God throwing a temper tantrum,
it's not God changing in His emotion, it's His justice. And
behold it, the Bible says in Psalm 916, it says, the Lord
is known by the judgment which He executed. God reveals Himself
in judgment. But Paul went on in Romans 11.22,
he says, on them which fell severity, but toward thee goodness, that
is his elect, his people whom he chose before the foundation
of the world, whom he sent Christ to redeem, who are justified
in his sight, goodness toward thee, but that's God's judgment
too. He says, if thou continue in
his goodness, otherwise thou shalt be cut off. And so we need
to understand this thing of justice and judgment. It's part and parcel
of the Gospel. It's part and parcel of what
God reveals about Himself. God will punish sin. And He'll punish sinners to whom
sin is imputed. And that's His justice. But God
has chosen a people to save, the Scripture says. But He doesn't
do it without judgment. His goodness is operating upon
His people for our eternal well-being, but not without judgment. But
our judgment fell on Christ, our surety, our substitute, our
Redeemer. And so, this is why I called
the title Christ both the goodness and the severity of God. The
Father has delivered all judgment to the Son. And so Christ is
the judge, But Christ is also the standard of judgment. And
you hear me quote this verse all the time, Acts 17, 31, where
it talks about, God has commanded all men everywhere to repent
because he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained and
that he hath given assurance unto all men and that he hath
raised him from the dead. So Christ is the standard of
judgment. And so what does that tell us? It tells us that our
only hope of standing before God accepted, blessed, and received
eternally is to stand before him, not on our own will or our
own works, but in the Lord Jesus Christ, washed in his blood,
clothed in his righteousness imputed to us. And so he talks
about the burden of Nineveh. A burden for the prophet is a
heavy message. That's what it is. You know,
a burden is something that's heavy. This is a serious message. This is life and death. There's
no other way to see it. This is not just opinion. It's
not just a discussion. This is the pronouncement of
something that is so serious that it's a burden on the prophet. And I believe every gospel preacher
has that burden. You men, when you stand up here
in my place, you have that burden. And that burden's not easy to
bear. It's only by the grace of God that we can do it. We're
dealing with eternal matters. Think about it. This may be the
last message that some of us hear, me included. And what do you do? You step
out into eternity. You stand before God at judgment.
That's not an easy burden to bear, is it? So what do we do? I want to tell the truth. I don't
want to soft-soap it. I don't want to offend people,
but I know the gospel is offensive. And so here's Nahum carrying
this burden to Nineveh. And look at verse 2. He starts
off with, God is jealous. The Lord is a jealous God. And
the Lord revengeth. He's the avenger. The Lord revengeth
and is furious. Furious means that he hath fury,
and that's not talking about his emotions. God doesn't change.
It's talking about his justice, his just wrath. The Lord will
take vengeance on his adversaries. Vengeance belongs to God, not
us. And he reserveth wrath for his
enemies. What do you mean God is a jealous
God? Jealousy's not good, is it? Well, most of the time, it's
not good in us. Sometimes it is. Nothing wrong
with a man being jealous for his wife or a wife being jealous
for her husband because they belong to each other. That's
their right. And nobody else has any right
to infringe upon that beautiful relationship. And when they do,
you get jealous. Well, God is a jealous God, not
in the sense of, sinful envy like we sometimes have. You know,
the guy who run the, I think it was a guy in Maine who won
the lottery, we might get jealous of him because we want what he's
got. Well, that's sinful. But God is jealous over his glory. And if you think about it, and
what the Bible says, and these words are spoken in Isaiah 42
and Isaiah 48, God will never share his glory. Well, what does
that have to do with Nineveh? Well, it has to do with all unbelievers. Anytime, and we were just like
this now before God saved us, anytime an unbeliever sets out
to earn salvation by their works, That's literally trying to rob
the true and living God of His glory. And glory belongs to Him
alone. It's His. Just like a man's wife
is His and the wife, her husband is hers, God's glory belongs
to Him and nobody else has any right to it. So that when you
set forth to glorify yourself by seeking salvation based upon
your works, conditions you made, you're trying to rob God of His
glory. He's a jealous God, He will not
share His glory. Sinners who come to God seeking
salvation, self-righteously, lifting themselves up. See, that's
the opposite of humility. And that's what was happening
in Nineveh. If you read the rest of the book of Nahum, the last
two chapters, you'll see what Nineveh was doing. They were
lifting themselves up like the Pharisees. It's like false religionists
who think salvation is conditioned on themselves rather than on
Christ alone. You see, God's glory resides
in the glorious person and the finished work of Christ. And
when sinners refuse to come to God His way, based upon the righteousness
of Christ freely imputed and received by faith, they're trying
to take some glory to themselves. They're trying to say, I made
the difference. You see what I'm saying? And
they set up that sliding scale of righteousness, and that robs
God of His glory. God says this, His glory, resides
in the person and work of Christ, the righteousness of God revealed
in the gospel. And that's it. We'll look at
verse three. The Lord is slow to anger and
great in power and will not at all quit the wicked. What do
you mean he won't acquit the wicked? Doesn't the Bible say
God justifies the ungodly? Isn't that him acquitting the
wicked? Yes, but there's no contradiction. We're all wicked by nature. It's
like this. The Bible says in Psalm 5 that
God hates all workers of iniquity. Well, here's the issue then,
as God reveals himself in this judgment. The issue is this,
how then is it possible for God to take a wicked sinner and acquit
that sinner, justify that sinner, and still be glorious, still
be right, still be just. And that's the answer the gospel
gives. But in Nineveh, there was no
gospel. There was no message of grace. It was just man standing before
God in his sins. No Christ. And so God will not
at all acquit them. The Lord hath his way in the
whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his
feet. And this being slow to anger, that's like God's forbearance. Remember, Paul spoke of that
in Romans 3.25. And what he's saying is this. God, for his
purposes, holds back his just wrath upon the wicked many times
in history. If God did not forbear, you know
what would have happened when Adam fell? This whole world would
have been wiped out. You wouldn't even have been born,
neither me. But God forbears. God is long-suffering. He does not execute his wrath
upon the wicked immediately. He's slow to anger. Now why is
that? I'll tell you exactly why. And
you'll rejoice in this because it was always his purpose before
this world was ever created to save a people out of this mess
of fallen humanity. And he's not willing that any
of his elect should perish, but all should come to repentance.
So as long as God's forbearing, it tells us that there's some
sheep out there who have yet to be brought into the fold.
He's gonna save them. And that's what it's all about.
And so again, behold therefore the goodness and severity of
God on them which fail severity, but toward thee goodness, if
thou continue in his goodness. And what is it to continue in
his goodness? It's to continue clinging to
Christ for all salvation. That's what it is. Oh yeah, we
should continue trying to be better people, trying to be obedient
people, but to continue in God's goodness, to continue clinging
to Christ, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. But make no mistake about it,
don't mistake God's slowness to anger or His forbearance or
longsuffering as if God is waiting on sinners to do something. That's
not the case. God's not waiting on anybody.
The Bible says for us to wait on the Lord, not for Him to wait
on us. I've heard false preachers stand
down at the end of the aisle and say, Jesus is waiting on
you. No, He's not. No, He's not. He's not waiting
on anybody. He seeks His sheep. He finds them. He puts them on
His shoulder and brings them into the fold. Now look at verses
four through six. This shows us that God's power
is unmatched in heaven and earth. He says, he rebukes the sea,
he maketh it dry. He dryeth up all the rivers,
Bashan languisheth, Carmel and the flower of Lebanon languisheth,
all these beautiful, powerful things of earth. The mountains
quake at him, the hills melt, The earth is burned at his presence,
yea, the world and all that dwell therein, who can stand before
his indignation? No one. God sets his purpose
in mind. Who can abide in the fierceness
of his anger? No one. His fury is poured out
like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him. So the majesty of
God. Think about it. And all of this
is always according to God's truth. God's not making mistakes
here. As I said, He's not throwing
temper tantrums here. But look at verse 7 and 8. He
says, The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. And He
knoweth them that trust in Him. How does he know those who trust
in him? Because he's the one who gave them that trust. Faith
is the gift of God. Trusting God is not natural to
us. Trusting self is. By grace are you saved, through
faith that not of yourself. And what is this all about? The
Lord is good, that's Christ for a believer. The only one who
protects us from the just wrath of God is Christ. Our life is hid with God in Christ. We have His blood that's washed
away all of our sins and His righteousness imputed to us by
which God declares us righteous in His sight. And then He's given
us faith to trust Him, to rely upon Him, to submit to him. And he says in verse eight, but
with an overrunning flood, he will make an utter end of the
place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. So the same thing about, the
same goodness, or the goodness of God rather,
let's put this, does not dissuade his wrath against sinners to
whom sin is imputed. Somebody says, well, isn't God
good to everybody? Well, the Bible says every good
and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights. Even
the heathen enjoy good things in this life, but it'll be to
their destruction eventually. Look at verse nine and 10. What
do you imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end, affliction
shall not rise up the second time, For while they be folded
together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards,
they shall be devoured as stubble, fully dry." It doesn't matter
what men do, what they think, what they plan. They can gather
together in heaps. They can build walls. They can
eat, drink, and be merry. It's not going to stop the wrath
of God. flee from the wrath to come, the scripture. Where do
we flee? We flee to Christ. We flee to
God's grace. And then in verse 11, he said,
there is one come out of thee that imagine evil against the
Lord, a wicked counselor. Now, I'm not going to go into
all the history. You can read what I've written on the lesson.
But at this time, there was the king of Assyria. His name was
Sennacherib. We used to make jokes about that
all the time. We liked to snack on ribs. Sennacherib was his
name. And he was bent on conquering
Jerusalem. And he brought his empire. Now, the Assyrian empire, that's
the one who destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and scattered
it. He wanted to come into Jerusalem
and conquer it. And Hezekiah, who was the king
at that time, was afraid of it. So he sent gold and gifts to
Sennacherib. But God, through the prophet
Isaiah, told Hezekiah, said, don't be afraid of him. He's
not going to set one foot in Jerusalem. And so that changed. God changed Hezekiah's heart.
And Hezekiah said, well, let's trust in the Lord. And he told
the people. And he did. And you can read
the whole story. But all of this, when you think
about it, the northern kingdom was destroyed. The southern kingdom,
Judah, Jerusalem, that was preserved from Assyria. And that was according
to the covenant promises that God made to Judah. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah. Abraham and David. The Messiah was gonna come out
of David's line. So God preserved it. And then
later on, they were captured by Babylon, but then God brought
them back, preserved them again. And then later on, they were
destroyed in AD 70, but that was after the scepter departed
from Judah. That was after Christ came. So
God is, he's being faithful to his promise here. And then look
at verse 14. Or 12, I mean. Thus saith the
Lord, though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall
they be cut down. When he shall pass through, though
I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. In other
words, Judah's gonna be delivered. For now will I break his yoke,
this is Sennacherib, that evil counselor, from off thee, and
he will burst thy bonds and sunder. And the Lord hath given a commandment
concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown, Out of the
house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the
molten image. I will make thy grave, for thou art vile. God's
going to defeat him. And so then he concludes in this
way. Behold, upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth
good tidings. Remember when Paul quoted that
over in Romans 10? How beautiful are the feet of
them that bring good tidings. Paul, in Romans 10, He likened
it to gospel preachers spreading the good news. Isn't it great
that somebody's got some good news today? Well, we do. God saves sinners
by His grace. God has provided all that we
need for salvation and final glory in the person and the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Good news indeed. Okay.