Well it's good to see you this
evening and once again how thankful we are that we have the privilege
to be able to meet together. That the Lord would allow us
this blessed honor to come together and hear his gospel. I want you
to take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Nahum. Find Malachi, the last book of
the Old Testament, and start going back toward Genesis about
five books, if my memory serves me correctly. And you should
find the book of Nahum. I would like to read the first
seven verses of the first chapter. Nahum chapter 1, verse 1. The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum,
the El-Kashite. God is jealous and the Lord revengeth. The Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger, and
great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord hath his way in the
whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his
feet. He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry, and dryeth up
all the rivers. Bashan languisheth in caramel,
and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him, and
the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence. Yea,
the world and all that dwell therein, who can stand before
his indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness
of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are thrown down by him. The Lord is good and
a stronghold in the day of trouble. And he knoweth them that trust
in him. Let's pray together. Our Father, this evening we call
upon you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you
all for the blessed privilege that we have to be able to assemble
ourselves together. We pray that you would bless
the word, bless our hearing, bless the preaching, help us,
Lord, to worship. We are needy people, frail, Lord,
forgive us for Christ's sake. Amen. In our Lord Jesus Christ high
priestly prayer in the book of John chapter 17, our Lord praying
unto His Father said this, and this is life eternal, that they,
that is all that the Father gave the Son, in electing grace. The Father chose a people before
the foundation of the world and gave them to the Son, and the
Son is praying for them. This is life eternal that they
might know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom Thou
hast sent. Now this evening I'd like for
us, just for a few minutes, to hear what God Almighty has to
say concerning Himself, who He is, who He has set forth Himself
to be. Now listen, we're going to stand
before God. I was thinking this afternoon
on this message and I thought to myself, I know I see through a glass
darkly. I know that I know in part, I
know I prophesy in part, I don't know all things and you don't
either. But if I knew what was on the
other side in fullness. I'm sure it would be more than
I could handle. I know that it would absolutely
cause the seriousness of what we're doing here tonight to be
so elevated. If men and women knew what they
faced without a substitute, without the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord help
us this evening. Seven verses, first seven verses,
Nahum chapter 1. This is a book that was written. The scripture begins and it says
in verse 1, the burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum
the El-Kishite. Now, Nahum means consolation. Consolation. Almighty God is
getting ready to set forth himself as being the just and holy God. He's going to set forth his attributes
in absolute justice. And the Spirit of God moved upon
Nahum to begin this book by saying, the burden of Nineveh. This prophecy, like every calling
of God's preachers, and the Lord calls preachers to preach the
gospel, and every preacher that God calls Every preacher that
God calls preaches the message of God's sovereign grace. Every
preacher that God calls preaches the gospel of electing, particular,
redeeming, irresistible grace and calling and preserving of
God's elect. And it's a burden, the burden
of Nineveh. This is a heavy calling. God Almighty gives a man a heart
to preach a message. And I know this, Nahum was sent
to preach to Nineveh 150 years before this time right here,
according to the commentaries that I read. 150 years before
this, Jonah had come to this place, had preached to Nineveh,
and Scripture says, and they repented for a while. And now, God's going
to send another prophet because they've fallen back into the
same, if not worse, acts of rebellion before the Lord. And so Nahum
knows that he's going to be preaching to some people that God's going
to judge. I look out and week in, week
out. There's many people that I have
some confidence in. Some I don't know. The Lord does. God knows His people. He knows
those that He's everlastingly loved. He knows His elect in
mercy and grace. But there's some, the scripture
says, there's tares among the wheat. And I know that I'm going
to be preaching to some people that very possibly don't know
God. And they're going to leave this
world. Unless Almighty God is pleased to show mercy to them
and give them a new heart and call them out of darkness by
grace and power, according to His everlasting covenant mercy,
they're going to leave this world without a mediator. And that's
a burden. The burden of Nineveh. Who's
sufficient for these things? Paul the Apostle. The one that
the Spirit of God used to pin so much of the New Testament.
Paul the Apostle who wrote, under the inspiration of God's Spirit,
the book of Ephesians. That blessed book that we've
been looking at over the last few Wednesdays. That precious
book that sets forth so clearly God's sovereign, electing, predestinating
grace. Paul the apostle that was taught
God Almighty is going to have mercy on whom he's going to have
mercy. He's going to have compassion
on whom he's going to have compassion. And Paul was taught that by the
Spirit of God. And you, many of you know that.
You know that. But listen to these words. Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. People say, well, you know, you
people that believe sovereign grace, you know, you just, you
know, you've got just a certain amount that you say can be saved
and you exclude everybody else. My friend, we don't exclude anybody. We proclaim that God Almighty
is going to have mercy and compassion on whomsoever He will. And I
know this, this is the gospel that He's going to bless to the
salvation calling out of His elect. I know that. I got some folks I preach to,
I got people in my family that I'm convinced don't know God.
I pray God have mercy. If he's pleased to do so, he
will. But if he's pleased to leave them to themselves, he's
right. Right. Those that Paul preached to,
he hated. They hated him. He preached to
people that hated him because of what he preached, and he prayed
for him, and prayed that God have mercy on him. Nahum says in verse 2, God is
jealous. Now that word jealous there,
it means jealous, lovingly jealous. Or it also means angry. And in
this case right here, it very surely means angry. It says, God is jealous and the
Lord revengeth. Almighty God is jealous. He's
jealous of His honor, of His glory, of His worship. And He's
not going to give that honor and glory to another. Man tries
to usurp The honor that's due to Almighty God by claiming that
He Himself has the right, that man thinks that He has the last
say in salvation. And God is jealous, jealous of His honor. He's a merciful God. And I'll
tell you concerning the mercy of Almighty God, He's not going
to allow His elect to perish. The Lord said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. You know what God's going to
do? He said, I'm going to give you a new heart. All that He's
everlastingly loved in Christ, He's going to give them a new
heart. He's going to reveal Himself
to them. And they're going to be willing
in the day of His power. willing to love, willing to come,
willing to hear, willing to bow. You that know Him, you love willingly
our precious Savior. But you know that He was the
one that gave you the will to love Him. You called on Him because He
called on you first. You love Him because He loved
you first. You come to Him because He came to you in mercy, caused
you to be under the gospel. But all left to themselves. All that want to give all the
glory and honor to themselves in salvation. Scripture says,
the Lord God is jealous. And the Lord revengeth. The Lord
revenges and is furious. Now that word furious there is
a very revealing word concerning God's power, His omnipotence. Actually what it means is, which
says that He revenges and is furious. He is the master of
wrath. Meaning he controls it. He controls
his wrath. I can't. You can't either. I don't have any control. You
know, people might say, well, I can control my emotions. No,
you can't. No, you don't. I'm telling you,
somebody crossed your path and aggravates you and I'm telling
you your emotions will flare up. I don't have any restraint. on myself. God does. He is furious. He's a master of wrath. He restrains wrath. He longs suffering to us, His
people. Not willing that any of His people
should perish. Longs suffering. How long did
Almighty God restrain wrath? to your family,
to your ancestors, on and on and on. How long did he withhold
his wrath and anger and fury that you might be born, brought
you into the world? Almighty God is furious master. We're creatures of passion. But
the Lord, the scripture says, verse 2, latter part, will take
vengeance. Notice that? He will. He will
take vengeance on his adversaries. And reserveth wrath for his enemies. I want you to notice something.
If your Bible has got the italicized word there on that, he reserveth,
and you notice the word wrath is in italics there. Okay, it means it was added.
There's really no word to describe what God Almighty is going to
do to his adversaries. It reads like this, the Lord
will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger, not
in haste. Not in haste to execute it. Slow
to anger and great in power. The great in power is what gives
credit to him being slow in anger. And imagine that almighty God,
who reserves wrath for the day of judgment. Beholding all of
the rebellion against him, the disrespect, the claims of men, you know,
for honor that's due only him, slow to anger, great in power. But the scripture says forth,
He will not at all acquit the wicked. Write this down. He's not going
to clear the guilty. This is the blessed truth that
was set forth in 2 Corinthians 5 21. He, the Father, hath made
Him, the Son, sin for us. He who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. As I've said before,
I know, I know this side of glory, we will not be able to enter
into the depth of that thought. But hanging upon that tree, was
our precious Holy Savior. He who knew no sin personally
made sin. And God Almighty dealt with Him
in the stead of His elect. He laid down His life for the
sheep. So God Almighty did not at all
acquit. He dealt with the substitute
He dealt with sin, he dealt with the sin of his people in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He did not clear, he didn't sweep
it under the rug. The latter part of verse 3 says,
The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind. In the storm, in the
clouds of the dust of His feet. Now I know that that, where we're
talking about the clouds of the dust of His feet, that's a metaphor.
Speaking of His omnipotence, omnipresence. You see the clouds,
you think about this scripture, dust of His feet. He just, He
does as He will in the army of heaven among the inhabitants
of the earth. No man stays His hand. As His way in the world
went in the storm, Every once in a while, you watch the news,
talk about maybe a tornado alley. And, you know, we got a, you
know, Category 2, Category 4 tornado, and it just cuts a path, you
know, and it may lift up. I had one experience, actually,
with a tornado. And it was a horrendous storm. hail, hail just beating down,
but I mean, I could actually, I'd always heard people talking
about a tornado sounding like a freight train. And I had a
whoo kind of sound in my mind, and it wasn't, that wasn't the
sound I heard. It was a whoo, that kind of sound. And I could hear it, and it was
louder and louder and louder, and I knew, I knew what it was. And all of a sudden, it quit.
It just stopped. And I went out the next morning,
and we lived in a trailer. We were in a trailer court. And
I'm telling you, that trailer right there was hit. And that one right there was
hit. And it just lifted for a moment. The Lord has His way in the world
when in storm. It's not haphazard. Almighty
God rules everything that moves, moves at His command. He rebuketh
the sea. When his people came out of Egypt
and they came to the Red Sea, it was the passageway. There's
a picture. I told you this. There's a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that Red Sea. And scripture says that a mighty
wind blew all night and parted that sea. And the nation of Israel
walked across on dry ground. Egyptians followed and God closed
in. and had vengeance on the Egyptians,
but his people were delivered through that Red Sea. He rebuketh
the sea and maketh it dry, dryeth up the rivers. When the nation
of Israel came to the River Jordan, when the feet of those priests
touched that river, that water just backed up. There it is. They walked across. The priest
stayed right there. Everybody went across, when the priest
got out, when their feet got out of the water, the water came
back. He maketh it dry, dryeth up the
rivers. Bashan languisheth in Carmel,
the flower of Lebanon, languisheth. Bashan was a place I found of
rich pastures, just lush. pastures and caramel great vineyards
great mighty vineyards and the flower of Lebanon known for the
great cedars of Lebanon they languish it that is the fertility
of this world is absolutely consumed by his presence if he withholds
life if he withholds mercy even to the earth It's nothing you
think, well it just, you know, it'll always grow. I'm telling
you, coming into another season right here, the only reason those
trees are budding out there is because God Almighty has permitted
it. God spoke. God moved. God keeps, sustains. The mountains
quake at Him. The hills melt, the earth is
burned at His presence. Gee, the world and all that dwell
therein, all nature trembles beneath Him. This world has respect
for God Almighty that a dead sinner, a spiritually dead sinner
has no respect for, no fear for. This earth moves at his presence,
his look. Listen to this, Psalm 104, 32,
he looketh on the earth and he trembleth. He toucheth the hills and they
smoke. You know, I read a passage like
this and I think, who is a God liking to you? We think so far
below that which we ought to think concerning Him. Who can
stand, verse 6, before His indignation? Who can abide in the fierceness
of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire
and the rocks are thrown down by Him. Who possibly could stand
before fury Like this. I mean, when you think about
it, look at Psalm 2. Psalm 2. We've read this before concerning
the arrogance of man, the arrogance of fallen creatures. Psalm 2, verses 2 to 5. Well, let's just read 1 to 5.
Why do the heathen rage? The people imagine a vain thing,
empty, just empty thing. The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, against his
anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast
away their cords from us. And he that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision, then shall
he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Almighty God rules. He's jealous. He's fierce. He's angry with
the wicked every day. Psalm 33.8 says, let all the
earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of Him. God's just and He's going to
do right. Psalm 119.137 says, righteousness
art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments. Now all of
these truths concerning God's judgment, God's anger, God's
jealousy, God's fierceness against sin, God Almighty is going to deal
with man's rebellion. And knowing the one that is jealous
and long-suffering and omnipotent and just and sovereign, knowing
that he has satisfied all the demands for justice against his
people in the Lord Jesus Christ, the scripture says in verse 7,
the Lord is good. a stronghold in the day of trouble. And he knoweth them that trust
in him." I used part of this illustration a few weeks ago. I was telling you about my buddy in Franklin, Tennessee that went
to the courtroom. Remember that? I'll never forget
the demeanor of a judge All of those people, I stopped in my
illustration with you last time. I was talking about that woman
that was, she was pregnant. She had 15 counts of hot checks. She'd been there before. Tried
to tell the judge, you know, she'd had problems with the baby.
And the judge says, 5 o'clock, if all 15 checks are not picked
up at 5 o'clock, you'll be in my jail tonight. Well, the rest
of the story, my buddy, and everybody else, not one person, not one
person before my buddy, Jay Bird Beasley, not one person before
his name was called on that docket had a lawyer, not one. Everybody
was going to represent themselves. And I think the judge got madder
and madder because they all thought that they were going to be able
to answer for themselves before her. And I mean to tell you,
I'm telling you, I was scared. And I wasn't even there. I was
just with him. And my buddy, his name was called. And there was an attorney that
told him he would answer for him. Jay had told him, he said,
I can't pay you. I don't have anything to pay.
Guy said, don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. And I mean,
when they called his name, I felt my neck, I felt my heart in my
neck beating. And I thought, oh no. And that
attorney stood up and he said, judge, I represent him and I'll
speak to you. And I'm telling you, that judge,
that moments before, had just told a woman, I'm going to put
you in jail tonight. She smiled at that attorney and
she said, that's fine. That'll be fine. OK, next. And
I thought, almighty God is jealous. He revenges. He's furious. He's going to take vengeance
on his adversary. He reserves wrath for his enemies. Slow to anger, but he will not
at all acquit the wicked. Has his way in the whirlwind.
He rebukes the sea and makes it dry and dries up the river.
And the Lord is good. The Lord is good. Almighty God is good. Goodness is His character. Now let me tell you something.
You see this jealousy? It's good jealousy. It's right. It's perfect. God Almighty is
good, but to His people, He is good in mercy. He is good in
compassion. And His goodness gives us some
hope in the midst of trials. David said in Psalm 27, 13, I
had fainted. Well, he said, I would have quit. I'd
have quit. I had fainted lest I had believed
to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Until
Almighty God called us out of darkness, we didn't even know.
We didn't know anything. We didn't know anything. We didn't
even know the depth. We still don't know the depth
of our rebellion, but we had no idea. We didn't care. But
now that he's given us some hope, given us light, given us a new
heart, taught us something of himself, something of ourselves,
David said, I'd quit unless I had believed to see the goodness
of the Lord. Nahum, that burden that he had
for Nineveh, going to preach to a people that God Almighty
is going to judge. And the Lord teaches him something
of his goodness. Almighty God for his people.
overrules evil for the good of His elect. All things work together for good, for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. He afflicts His people in chastening
mercy Why? Because He loves them. Because
He loves them. You know why you're going through,
you know why I'm going through, you know why any of us go through
what we go through? Those that know Him, that He
knows in mercy. You know why? Love. Whom the
Lord loveth. The Lord is good and His goodness
never changes because He never changes. The Lord is good. Romans 2.4 says, the goodness
of God leadeth thee to repentance. The Lord is good. That which
he does is good. That which he does is right.
And he's a stronghold in the day of trouble. That day right there means that
it's a certain amount of time. It's going to end. It's just
a day. This life is just a vapor. And the day of our trouble is
this life that we're in right now. The Lord is the strength
of my life. Whom shall I be afraid? We're
going to leave this world. One of these days, we're going
to leave this world. But I'm telling you right now, our stronghold
in the day of our trouble is the Lord who is good. We've been put by the power and
grace of God in the cleft of the rock. And I'll tell you this,
if he doesn't release us from the trial, Paul the apostle,
The messenger of Satan was given him, and what Scripture says,
he said, I besought the Lord thrice to remove it. And here was the answer. My grace
is sufficient. Why? Because the Lord is good.
If he doesn't release us, he'll sustain us and comfort us in
the midst of that trial. And lastly, he knoweth them that
trust in him. Let me ask you this, is His Word, is this gospel,
is the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, He that has put
away the sin of His people, is His faithfulness Is His work,
I finished the work that thou gavest me to do, is His finished
work, is Christ enough? Then you trust Him. And the Lord
knows. Do you believe, and I know, dear
friends, I know, oh, how we struggle. We struggle with this. What I'm
about to say, we struggle with it. I know we do, but we still
believe it. Those that know Him believe it.
Do you truly believe that He will never leave you and never
forsake you? Lord, I believe. Help my non-belief.
I believe that. The Lord knows them that trust
in Him. Do you truly trust that sin has been put away by the
blood? Be of good cheer. The Lord knoweth
them that trust him. The Lord knoweth, and this is
a sweet definition in closing, knoweth. It's not just that he's
just aware. It means to observe, to care,
and to recognize. who you are in Christ, because
He put you there. He knoweth. He knoweth them that
trust in Him, as opposed to those that will stand before Him in
that day, claiming all of their merits. Lord, we prophesied in
your name, we cast out devils in your name, we did mighty work. I never knew you. The Lord knoweth
them. that trust in Him. Lord bless
these words to our heart for Christ's sake.