May God be pleased to bless us
together as we meditate in his word this evening. Let's turn
to the prophecy of Nahum and the first chapter and we'll read
verse 7. The book of Nahum, chapter 1
and verse 7. The Lord is good. a stronghold in the day of trouble,
and he knoweth them that trust in him. It's interesting to note that
in the beginning of this book we're told the Bird of Nineveh,
the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkishite. So it seems very
clear that in actual fact Nahum didn't go there and prophesy
in a physical sense but he wrote the prophecy in a book. It's
the only occasion that we have, I think, in the Word of God that
gives us this picture. So here was this vision written
by Nahum for the people and especially before the people of Nineveh
and again, we remember I'm sure the account of Jonah and And
Jonah was called to go to Nineveh and first off he refused but
second time when the word of God came to him he did go and
he did preach repentance and the Ninevites did repent of their
sin and God had mercy upon them. And now we come probably another
hundred years on from that time. And we find again Nineveh in
a similar situation and needing the Word of God to be proclaimed
to them. And I believe that God came and
blessed them on this occasion and after another 150 or so years
they were overrun. as a nation. Well Nahum then
in this little prophecy he gives us some wonderful statements
and tells us that 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. Often we might think, well, the
Lord is very gracious and long-suffering, and so He is. But He's also a
righteous God, and we should not forget that. He's a righteous
God and a God of judgment. And here we have a statement
like this. He's 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
and the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea. and maketh
it dry and we know of course that was true in the case of
the Red Sea when Israel went across it the Lord rebuked it
through God's servant Moses and Israel went across on dry land
we have some little clue then don't we of the greatness and
the power of Almighty God and then he says 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. Well, we know there have been
those raging fires. We know there have been those
sealy dry periods which have allowed that to occur. So we
see that the Lord is still the same God in charge today. 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. Well we have that, don't we,
when we see volcanoes and we see the power of that which no
man can actually manage to stop or hinder. Well this is the great
God that we have to deal with still today and we should not
think that God has changed him because we're told I am the Lord,
I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. God is the same, he doesn't change. And therefore we come to this
seventh verse, and it's a wonderful statement really. It tells us
the Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of trouble, and he knoweth
them that trust in him. I believe that every believer
will come to this position and be able to say, the Lord is good. Sometimes in our lives it appears
things are going against us. We wonder why things come into
our lives. Well, we're just poor sinners
on the earth and we don't always realise. But the Lord doesn't
make any mistakes. And as this word tells us here,
the Lord is good, how good it is. And I often quote, and I'll
quote again now, our brother Philip Mercer, who was pastor
of Station Road Chapel in Red Hill. And he didn't have an easy
life, but every time you met him, he would always say, without
any failure, the Lord is good. It was an excellent testimony
and it's something that you and I should remember because whatever
our pathway is and sometimes we may think well our path is
exceedingly difficult and we may even grumble and we may even
think that it's not fair but God knows how to deal with us
and we should realize that Almighty God is dealing with us for this
divine purpose to fit and prepare us for our eternal home in glory. It's good to ponder that. It's
good to have sung our second hymn, 850. We don't often sing
that, but it is a very good hymn about the glory of heaven. Surely
that should be our aim and that should be the prospect that we're
looking forwards to, to go home to that place of glory. And therefore,
as we journey on through our life, we should observe the Lord's
goodness to us. And if we just look at it in
a broad way, we're here tonight. Why? Because of God's goodness. Because of God's goodness. So
many people do not want to worship God. They do not want to read
the Bible. They do not want to consider
their life. But what a blessing if we have a God who is dealing
with us in love to our souls. And that's the reality. God deals
with his children, his family, in love to their souls. So that
when we do come down to die, and all of us will, that we are
ready to pass out of time into eternity and join with the heavenly
throng. And that should be our meditation
and that should be our consideration as you and I journey along. Well,
says Nahum, this great statement, the Lord is good. Well, it's
worth pondering. We need to think about it. We
need to understand what it means. And therefore we need to also
be able to join with such a statement as we look at our lives, as we
think what they could have been, what they could have been. And
then it brings us surely to this situation, the Lord is good.
We're here tonight, why? Because the Lord is good. That's the reason. Otherwise
we could just be wandering around the streets of Redhill or Ryngate
or wherever it is. Just wandering around aimlessly
with no thought of God, no thought with regard to the eternal state
of our soul. What a blessing if God has caused
us to consider Consider our way. Consider where we stand before
God in our spiritual life. And it's not something just to
think it's irrelevant. It's very relevant. It's the
most relevant thing really that we have to consider is how our
soul stands before God. Whether we are amongst those
who are born again in the Spirit of God, remember those words
that Jesus spoke when he was on the earth. And he said, didn't
he, so very clearly, thou must be born again. And he said it
again, very, very clear, as Nicodemus had come to him with questions
and the Lord ignored the question. And he honed in directly on that
situation and that need You must be born again. Every one of us
here tonight must be born again. And it's good, therefore, if
you and I look into our hearts where the Spirit of God works
and are able to discern his love to us in causing us to consider
where we stand and whether we are born again and whether we
do have that new life within, that God-given life. And if we
find it, surely we can rejoice. Surely we can come in then with
Nahum and say from the bottom of our heart, the Lord is good. The Lord's looked upon me. The
hymn writer said, he saw me ruined in the fall and yet loved me
notwithstanding all. What a mercy, what a blessing
to think that almighty God, the ruler, the creator of the universe
has looked upon us in infinite love and compassion and redeemed
our soul. What cause to say the Lord is
good? Well, I wonder whether we can
say that, whether we do say that. The Lord knows whether we do
or whether we do not. There are many encouraging words
in the Lamentations. We read a very similar statement
in the third chapter. The third chapter is a very interesting
chapter. in the third of Lamentations
I refer to it quite often and preach from it and as you probably
know it's Jeremiah's lamentation Jeremiah describes his spiritual
life in those early verses in that third chapter and it describes
to us how distressed he was because of his situation. I won't refer
to it now, you can go home and read it. The third chapter in
the Lamentations. And what does he tell us? In
the 25th verse, he tells us this. The Lord is good unto them that
wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. Well, what a question
that is. How important it is for you and
me to be able to answer it. as to whether we are those who
have sought the Lord. We sought Him. We cried to Him
for mercy. We desired that He will reveal
Himself unto us as He does not unto the world, as our great
and glorious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, my friends,
these are great truths, aren't they? They're very important. relevant to each one of us. And
we shouldn't think, well, I don't have to worry about that. I'm
only young. You young people may think, you
haven't got to worry about these things. Well, as you know, there
have been those cases which we are knowledgeable of who were
young people who lost their lives. Never assume. you or I are going
to live for a long time or live very much more God knows but
he tells us this in his word be ye don't look around be ye
also ready because we know not what a day or an hour may bring
forth and how important it is that each one of us has that
wonderful evidence that God's Holy Spirit and how amazing and
how humbling that is to think that God's Holy Spirit has entered
into our heart and caused us to pray and caused us to consider
our way and produced in our heart that desire to know that it is
well with our soul. It's the most important thing
in our lives. How few people realise that.
They think the things of time are most important, or their
success in this world. But Jesus tells us, one thing
is needful, One thing, and that is to know the Lord Jesus Christ
as our Lord and Master. Well, if God has graciously come
and shown us these things, you and I can say with a humble confidence,
and I think that's a good expression, a humble confidence, humble because
we never deserved it, and confidence because God has given it to us.
that the Lord is good. And nay, him goes on. in this vein and speaks and says,
the Lord is good, and then he says, a stronghold in the day
of trouble. Well, there's a very clear picture
there that you and I will have days of trouble. Don't think
that somehow we're going to escape. We tend to think, of course,
that such situations belong to everybody else apart from ourselves,
but no, The Lord Jesus said when he was on the earth, speaking
to his disciples, it is through much tribulation that we shall
enter the kingdom, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the
world. So as you and I enter into times
of trouble, what are we to do? We're to look to the Savior,
look unto me and be saved of the ends of the earth for I am
God and there's none else. We have a great and glorious
Saviour, a God who hears and answers prayer. And so as we
have this statement here, He is a stronghold in the day of
trouble. And it's good if you and I can
testify, can tell of the truth and agree, yes this word is true,
I've proved it. because the word of God is to
be proved by his people and it's written so that we should be
encouraged to believe that it is true a stronghold in the day
of trouble that means he holds us up with his strong arm we
might think we're going to collapse we might think we're going to
give up my friends God is a stronghold and he has a an almighty hold
upon us as individuals walking along through life oh what a
great blessing it is to realize God doesn't pass us by he doesn't
say well you're of no value I'm not going to do anything for
you no God is a stronghold or what a great blessing it is.
And that makes us surely understand that He is good and He's a stronghold
in the day of trouble. So that when we find ourselves
in times of trouble, and God knows what that means in each
of our lives, can be very different, but nonetheless the Lord does
ordain, and by that I mean He does plan these things in our
lives because what does it do to us? It causes us to pray,
it causes us to cry unto God. If you and I had no trouble in
our life, we wouldn't pray. We'd just carry on and think
everything was okay. The Lord brings things into our
lives. Difficulties, trials, temptations,
oppositions, hardships. sometimes we may feel to be very
unjustly dealt with and it may feel to be a great time of trouble
well in that situation to remember that our God is a stronghold
to support us, to hold us up so that we don't fall, we don't
collapse, we don't give up He stands by us. He takes us by
our hand. He leads us on safely. How kind
and how gracious God is, isn't it? And I often think how amazingly
humbling it is to think that almighty God comes to us in our
lowest state and looks upon us and takes us
by our hand and leads us on. He doesn't forsake us, does he? I always think that word in the
107th Psalm is such a wonderful encouragement to us. He led them
forth by the right way. It's the 7th verse. And perhaps
we might say, well, previous to that, he explains the situation. about Israel and about the Church
of God, they wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. You may feel lonely sometimes. They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul
fainted in them. What do they do? Do they just
sit down and give up? No. Then they cried unto the
Lord in their trouble. God brings you and me into trouble. If we are a believer, we will
cry unto God. We will pray unto God. We will
seek for his help. We will seek for his mercy. Then
they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. Did God fail them? No. And he delivered them out
of their distresses. This is the great and glorious
God that we have. Not surprising, is it, that Nahum
makes this statement a stronghold in the day of trouble. And the
seventh verse of this 107th Psalm tells us, He, Almighty God, led
them forth by the right way that they might go to a city of habitation. You see, he directs the Church
of God to that which is to come, a city of habitation. And then he says, oh that men
would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful
works to the children of men. Oh my friends, how important
it is that you and I today As God comes and encourages us and
strengthens us and helps us, that we should praise Him for
His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. He satisfies the longing soul
and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. How good is God, isn't
He, to unworthy sinners? Under that, he satisfies the
longing soul. Well, if we're not longing for
God's blessing, then we won't be satisfied. But what a blessing
if God puts in our heart that desire to be fed spiritually. And he filleth the hungry soul
with goodness. And then he says, such as sit
in darkness, And in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction
of iron. That's a pretty tough position,
isn't it? Yes, first of all to sit in darkness
is most unpleasant. And in the shadow of death, also
very trying if we feel that death's around the corner and we're likely
to die. Well, he explains that. Them
being bound in affliction and iron. Yes, we may be ill. We may have various illnesses. We may be bound up and not be
able to free ourselves. Well, what a God we have. And
we're told the reason, and this is good to know, you know, because
they rebelled. against the words of God and
contend the counsel of the Most High. Sometimes we do read the
word of God and we don't like it. It doesn't suit what we want. And what do we do? We rebel against
it. And we ignore it perhaps. Or
perhaps go in a different direction. And we're guilty. And we're guilty
and yet God is still very kind and very gracious And we're told,
therefore, God deals with us. What a mercy. Therefore, he brought
down their heart with labor. They fell down and there was
none to help. No man is able to deliver us
from such situations. And then we're told, and this
is the good news, then, Not before. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness
and the shadow of death and break their bands in sunder. Does not that echo this word
here? A stronghold in the day of trouble. That was trouble, wasn't it?
Big trouble. And yet God graciously delivered
them. And therefore he comes then with
this statement, and this is something relevant and important for us
today. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness. Do we say the Lord is good? I
hope we do. Do we praise Him for His goodness? Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children
of men. And my friends, those wonderful
works are, if He's put in our heart a desire to seek His face,
a true living desire to be found healthy, in our soul, profiting
in the things of God, putting the things of God first, not
second or not even last, but putting them first. What a wonderful
favour it is then to be blessed with that desire, that blessed
influence by the great and glorious power of the Spirit of God. Well, the Lord is good, a stronghold
in the day of trouble. And so as you and I find ourselves
in these times of trouble, my friends, just read through the
word of God. You'll find many occasions when
God's people were in trouble and they prayed unto the Lord
and he delivered them. He came and strengthened them.
He encouraged them so they were able to hold on their way. And
our God, this is a great blessing. Our God doesn't diminish in His
power. He doesn't diminish in the things
that He will do. He does tell us He will be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do these things for them. And
we shouldn't think that we can just carry on aimlessly and everything
will work out all right. We are to pray. We are to cry
unto our God that He will appear, and when He does, we are to praise
Him and thank Him for His goodness and mercy toward us. Well then,
we have this grand statement, a stronghold in the day of trouble. You know, the psalmist tells
us in the 46th Psalm, God is our refuge and strength. a very present help in trouble. God is a place where you and
I can flee to, a refuge. And he is, as we have here, our
strength, a stronghold in the day of trouble. The Lord brings
us into these situations to really alert us to the reality of true
religion, so that we do go on our way, praying to God and praising
God for His mercy, for His deliverances, for His loving kindness toward
us, so I'm worthy of any favor. Well, the Lord knows the way
of the righteous. The Lord knows. He knows every
detail in our little lives. Yes, and what a mercy, therefore,
to be a true follower of a despised and crucified man. As I often
say, and I don't weary of saying it, we're on this earth. His
people are on this earth for one reason, and that's to honour,
bring honour and glory to his name. to bring honour and glory
to his name and also then of course to be prepared for our
eternal home. Well says Nahum in this little
prophecy, it's very interesting isn't it, in these what we term
minor prophets, only called minor because they're small by comparison,
there is a lot of teaching And don't think, well, I'm not going
to read them. It's very worthwhile reading
what we term the minor prophets. Read them and be encouraged by
them. You may think, well, they're
not very easy. Well, they may not be very easy. You may have to
read them a bit carefully. That won't hurt. Just read them
carefully and study them to see what the word means to your soul
and my soul. Don't pass it off to other people.
We need it personally. Real religion is personal with
Almighty God. And what a blessing if we have
the evidence therefore that that Almighty God is dealing in love
with our souls. Not leaving us to just wander
aimlessly through this poor old sinful world and then perish
in our sins. But He takes hold of us. He takes
us by the hand. He leads us on safely to the
promised land. What a glorious Savior we've
got. The Lord is good, is He not?
He is. The Lord is good, a stronghold
in the day of trouble. And then He says, and He knoweth
them that trust in him. Well, my friends, this evening,
do we trust in the Lord? You know, it's a question which
we might pass over quite simply and think, well, that's easy
to answer. But if we just examine ourselves
whether in our lives we are truly trusting the Lord for everything
in our lives. You young people, do you trust
in the Lord when you're taking examinations. Do you trust in
the Lord when you go on holiday that he'll be with you and guide
and direct you? Do you trust in the Lord that
he will continue to be your guide and your comforter and that he
will bless your souls and grant that you may grow in grace and
in the knowledge of your Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ? The true Christian desires to
grow, to grow spiritually, to grow in that knowledge of our
great and glorious Saviour, and not to just stand still. Oh, what a blessed God we have,
who is a wonderful teacher. And my friends, we have to pray
that he will teach us, that he will instruct us, and that he
will make us more like himself. That really is the ultimate favour,
isn't it? To be like Jesus. We have a wonderful
example in his life, don't we? A wonderful example of what he
did. And the central point really
is that Jesus pleased not himself. And that's for you and me today.
We're not to please ourselves. Our position on this world is
to do God's will. and to please our Heavenly Father
as you and I walk on this earth. And that often means what we
would term crucifixion of the flesh. That means we have to
turn away from the things that our flesh would value, realizing
that they don't lead us nearer to God, but they lead us away
from God. and we use that phrase crucifixion
because crucifixion is the most painful form of death and therefore
if we are to crucify our flesh it means that it's a painful
process we may not want to do it and we may wish we didn't
have to but the benefit is if we do crucify our flesh what
does it do? it brings us nearer to the saviour
And that's well worth it, because that's a wonderful favour and
a wonderful blessing. So may we understand the great
and glorious statements. And here we have this word, and
he knoweth them that trust in him. Well, I hope that we may
be amongst those who truly trust in the Lord. We're encouraged
to trust in the Lord at all times. Ye people, pour out your heart
unto me. Not just when things get a bit
difficult, but when things are going well, to also trust the
Lord that he won't leave us, that he won't forsake us, that
he continue to guide and direct us and to go with us so that
we are able to confirm those words that we we had here with
them in the 107th Psalm and he led them forth by the right way
that they might go indeed to a city of habitation. It's looking forward isn't it
to our eternal home and we should be encouraged that the Lord doesn't
leave us. We're told Jesus said In the
10th chapter of John, he says this, my sheep, and if we are
a believer, we are one of God's sheep, my sheep, hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me. Good, isn't it? It's a lovely sequence, isn't
it? We hear God's voice, we know it's God's voice, and we follow
His voice as it directs us. Well God, may God indeed come
and bless us indeed and strengthen us as you and I travel and He
knoweth them that trust in Him or may we be amongst those who
are trusting God for everything. Sometimes we perhaps think we're
trusting Him for the big things, well that's right, but we also
need to trust Him for the small things. In everything We're told,
give thanks. Everything, give thanks. It's
easy, isn't it, to give thanks when some big thing happens.
But you should give thanks for the little things which occur
in our life. We have a great God, a kind God,
a merciful God. I know it brings honour and glory
to his name as you and I come and give thanks. Well, then may
we bless God tonight for such a statement as this and be able
to say from our heart, not just a theory, but from our heart,
the Lord is good, a stronghold, in the day of trouble, and he
knoweth them that trust in him. Amen.