All right, if we can, let's find
the book of Nahum. N-A-H-U-M. Nahum. It's the name of a prophet. Name of a prophet. Before we get into the first
chapter of this prophecy, let me read you a passage from the
book of Romans. This is Romans 11 and verse 22. And in that chapter, the Apostle
Paul is showing forth the necessity of looking to and resting in
Christ for salvation, and that holds true for both Jew and Gentile. There's no exceptions. If sinners
are going to be saved, they're going to be saved one way. If
sinners are going to be recipients of the eternal and spiritual
goodness of God, and not the eternal wrath and severity of
God, then they must, we must find Christ. And we must be found
in Him. That's the only way. No exceptions. Just like in that passage that
Brother Stan read in Romans 2, God is no respecter of persons. And that's difficult. That's
a difficult concept because we are respecters of persons. We'll
make allowances for a lot of people, especially our loved
ones. Now we'll do it. We'll do it. But God will not. God's judgments are always according
to truth. That's what you read. And here's
the truth. Without Christ, there's nothing
but severity and wrath from God. But in Christ, there's His grace
and mercy and goodness and blessing. So in Romans 11, 22, Paul writes
this. He says, Behold, therefore, the
goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity. He's talking about God's wrath
coming upon unbelieving, wicked, idolatrous sinners. Which is
what we all are by nature. But toward thee, speaking of
God's church, Christ's church, the people of God, the elect
of God, the redeemed of the Lord, those who are washed in his blood
and clothed in his righteousness, toward thee, goodness, if thou
continue in his goodness, otherwise thou also shall be cut off. And
so he speaks of the grace of God in salvation, not only to
save us, but to preserve us. Not only must we find Christ
and trust Him, we must rest in Him and abide in Him by the power
of God. The title of this message is
The Goodness and Severity of God. And I took it from Romans
11. But back here in Nahum chapter
1, it is so appropriate. In this first chapter, there's
just three chapters in this book, the prophecy of Nahum, And the
first eight verses show us that the issue that is brought to
the forefront concerning the goodness of God and the severity
of God, concerning whether God saves sinners or damns sinners,
and He does both now. Make no mistake about that. I
know people today want to avoid these issues of God's judgments
against sin and damnation. and reprobation and things like
that, but you, listen, the Bible doesn't hold back. The prophet
Nahum didn't hold back on this issue. None of them did. So the
main issue that's brought to the forefront in whether or not
God saves sinners according to his sovereign mercy or whether
or not he damn sinners is this, it is the character of the God
who judges. It's who God is. That's where
it's found. It's not in the eye, it's who
God is. This is how God reveals Himself. This is how God must
act because He is who He is. You see, it's just like us. We
sin because we're sinners. That's who we are. It's what
identifies us. And that's why there are only
two types of people in this world. There are sinners who are lost
in their sins, and sinners who are saved by the grace of God.
That's so. And if we ever come to a saving
understanding by the Holy Spirit of what sin is, we'll realize
it. But God must act in the way that He acts because He is who
He is, and for Him to act contrary to that would be to deny His
deity. It'd be like saying, well, He
stopped being God, and that's impossible. So when we speak
of the goodness of God and the severity of God, understand what
we're talking about, and think about this, is the glory of God. The glory of God. Can God get
any glory by his severity? Yes, he can. But his greater
glory, his Shekinah glory, you know that term Shekinah, That's
where that was represented. The old writers described the
Shekinah glory of God as resting above the mercy seat in the holiest
of all. His greatest glory is seen in
the salvation of sinners through Jesus Christ, our Lord. But he
does damn sinners. Now, he starts off here in verse
one. It says, the burden of Nineveh. You know what Nineveh is. Nineveh
was one of the main cities, the capital city of the Assyrian
Empire. Great enemies of Israel and Judah. Idolatrous, cruel enemies. They
were known for their cruelty. They were known for their idolatry.
They were a bloodthirsty nation. They were ruled by kings who
were bloodthirsty, thirsty for power, thirsty for renown. That's
Assyria. That's Nineveh. And here it starts
off with the burden of Nineveh. What is the burden here? The
burden, that's the way of describing God's judgment. This is a heavy
message, you might say. These are heavy words, a burden. This is a message you'd rather
keep to yourself because it's not pleasant to the ears, but
you can't keep it to yourself if you have any concern for the
souls of men and women. This is a message, now listen
to me, this is a message where we're tempted to keep quiet to
keep the peace. But you can't do it. And the
reason you can't do it is because it's a life and death issue.
This is an issue of eternal life and eternal death. It weighed
heavy upon the heart of this prophet named Nahum, this matter
of life and death. It's like the gospel message.
Let me read you a passage from 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Listen to the apostle Paul as
he describes in a different way, but the same message, the burden
which was laid upon his heart. He says in 2 Corinthians chapter
2 and verse 14, he says, now thanks be unto God, which always
calls us to triumph in Christ. We're always victorious in Christ.
There's no defeat in Christ. He's a victor. We sing that hymn,
victory in Jesus. That's all the time. And even
when we preach the gospel, if men and women go away without
believing, we still have the victory in Christ. His Word goes
forth. It's not going to return void.
But we want to see that victory in the hearts of sinners as they're
brought to saving faith in Christ, as they're brought to submit
to Him and His righteousness. But He says, "...who causes us
to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savor the sweet
saver of his knowledge by us in every place, for we are unto
God a sweet saver of Christ." Every time we preach Christ,
it's a sweet saver unto God. I'll tell you, if you want to
be a sweet saver unto God, just brag on his son. He said it himself. He said, this is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. Now listen to this. Hold on to this one. He says
we make the savor of Christ manifest, the knowledge of God in Christ,
how God saves sinners, how God justifies the ungodly, the preaching
of the glorious person of Christ, God and man in one person, the
preaching of his blood for the forgiveness of sins, the preaching
of his righteousness imputed for our justification, the power
of the Holy Spirit, to bring men and women sinners, dead sinners,
alive and hear that gospel and believe it and repent. We're
a sweet saver unto God, the sweet saver of Christ. To whom? He says, in them that are saved
and in them that perish. He says, to the one we are the
saver of death unto death. That's to them that perish. That's
the saver of death unto death. Think about that. Think about
that. Every time that we preach this
message of life and death in Christ, and people react to it
without faith, it's a saver of death unto death. And our prayer
is that will not continue until you go to meet the Lord. That
right? He says, and to the other, the
saver of life unto life. That's to those who believe.
And then he's asked this question, and who is sufficient for these
things? What a burden. For what a burden. No mere man is sufficient for
them. Paul wrote in another place,
he said, our sufficiency is of Christ. He's our sufficiency.
I'm not sufficient for this. People will criticize the message,
or they'll rejoice in the message, But it's God's message. It's
the message of Christ. It's not the message of the man.
We're just the message. Now you've heard it said, don't
kill the messenger. Well, they can't get at God. So Paul says in verse 17, we're
not as many which corrupt the word of God, deal deceitfully
with it, but as of sincerity, but as of God in the sight of
God speak we in Christ or of Christ. That's what Nahum is
going to do. Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel, the good news of salvation by Christ. And you
tell them, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,
but he that believeth not shall be damned. This message is a
message of judgment. That's Nahum's message, a message
of judgment to an ungodly, idolatrous, unbelieving people. And yet,
you know what Nahum's name means? It's kind of a contradiction,
it seems to us. His name means comfort. His name
means consolation. His name is another Hebrew derivative
of the name Nehemiah. Nahum, the comforter. Nehemiah means the comforter
of Jehovah. Nahum was a comforter, but not
to Nineveh. He had words of comfort, though
they be few, but they're spoken to Judah, to his own nation,
to his own nation. He spoke these words to Judah
concerning Nineveh, their great enemy. And in the destruction
of the enemies of God and the enemies of Judah, there was great
comfort for the people of God, the people of Judah. Now, it's
not that we necessarily take joy and comfort in the destruction
of anybody because we know, but for the grace of God, there go
I. Am I right? But we know God is
who he is. And that's where it all centers
right there. God must be just. And I want to tell you something.
If God were to fail to be just in the damnation of ungodly sinners,
he would also fail to be just in the salvation of elect sinners. Because in the salvation of his
people, he showed forth his justice on the cross of Calvary when
Christ took the place of his sheep and was made sin and had
our sins imputed to him. so that we might have his righteousness
imputed to us. As I said, this Nineveh, you
know about Nineveh, we read about it through the prophet Jonah.
One hundred years before this, Jonah was forced, that reluctant
prophet, he was forced to go to Nineveh and preach to them. And God in his sovereign power
and goodness brought that city of Nineveh to repentance. What
a great thing. And so Nineveh had repented under
Jonah. But apparently the next generation
of Ninevites didn't follow in repentance. They didn't follow
suit. We don't know what happened. History doesn't record it. The
Bible doesn't record it. We just know that the next time
that we're confronted with Nineveh, here it is, the burden of Nineveh,
the judgment of Nineveh. They return to the idolatry and
the cruelty of the past. That's a great testimony to the
fact that if God doesn't keep us and continue his mercy and
his sovereign will and good pleasure, where will we be? And if you
don't believe that, then you might as well just put a line
over this book and say, I'm better than the Ninevites. You're not,
and neither am I. If God saves us, it's by grace
through Christ. We're no better off than the
Ninevites by nature, but here they are. Nahum, the prophet,
he probably saw the destruction of the northern kingdom by the
Assyrians. It was a cruel destruction, already
taken place probably by this time. The northern kingdom was
gone. Samaria had been overrun by the
Ninevites. And he probably saw the siege
of Jerusalem by the Ninevites, the Assyrians, during the reign
of Hezekiah. You remember that great episode
where God came in and sent his angels out to destroy them. And
he saved. is Judah and Jerusalem. But here,
his message is one of total destruction, the judgment of God, total destruction
of Nineveh, and eventually all of Assyria, which took place
a hundred years after Nahum's prophecy. So here's a hundred
years before they repented under Jonah. Here they are in unbelief
and idolatry back to their old ways under Nahum, and then Nahum
prophesies of their destruction a hundred years later it happened.
Nahum was a prophet of God who carried in his heart the burden
of the word of the Lord and he faithfully proclaimed that message
and gave him to his generation. I thought about this when Brother
Stan was praying. One of the things he said in
his prayer is that the Lord would continue the witness of this
church in this place until he comes again. I pray that too
because you know there are some great If you read the scriptures,
read the New Testament, you know there's some great testimonies
from some of the churches, the local bodies of believer that
God raised up under the preaching of Paul and some of the other
apostles. And as you know, Stan and Sheila,
they just took a trip to Turkey. And in the Bible, that's the
place called Asia, Asia Minor, and one of the cities that you
walked in was the ruins of Ephesus. Ephesus, you know, there's a
great testimony from Ephesus in the Bible. Read the book of
Ephesus. It's a marvelous book. Someone said one time that Romans
is the king of the epistles, Ephesus is the queen. I don't
know. But it's a great book, a marvelous
book. And yet, and yet, where is the
church at Ephesus today. There's no witness there today.
And I thought about this in studying NAM. Nineveh at one time had
a great witness, though it had been by one prophet named Jonah,
and a reluctant one to boot, who didn't want to go there and
did his best to get out of that place. And yet now, a hundred
years later, there is no witness at all in Nineveh. They've gone
back, and I pray that that won't happen here. I pray that the
Lord will continue this church as a monument to Christ until
he comes again. Not a monument to me or anybody,
a monument to Christ. That's what we need. Well, as
I said, it might seem contradictory that Nahum means comfort or consolation. but that his message was one
of judgment and wrath, but it shows us three things. There's
three things that you need to keep in mind as we go through
this book. Number one, God is a just God and he must punish
sin. Look at verse three. It says,
the Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not at
all acquit the wicked. Now he may be slow to anger,
that doesn't mean God is literally slow, that means he's long-suffering.
It just means just because God's judgment, judgments against sin,
are not carried forth in the next second, don't you think
that it won't happen? Listen, the Apostle Peter said
in 2 Peter chapter 3 that God's long-suffering towards the wicked
equals salvation, because what's God doing? in preserving this
world until the second coming of Christ. He's saving his sheep. He's calling his redeemed ones
out of the world and into the fold. He's bringing them in.
So as long as this world stands, even though we know it's coming
to the end, it's judgment against sin. This world's gonna burn
up. I told somebody, I said, yes, I do believe in global warming. Because that's where this world
is headed. I know it's been raining. Somebody told me, are we building
an ark yet? No, God's not gonna destroy the world by flood again.
He said that, look at the rainbow. I know it may seem like it, but
he's not. It's gonna burn up. But it may not happen tonight.
It may, I don't know. But don't ever think, don't ever
think that God's not faithful. to his threat. That's a threat,
and he'll make good on it. God is a just God. He must punish
sin. Secondly, it shows us that salvation,
now listen to it, salvation cannot be a reality without justice. That's a message of Nahum. In
order for God to save a sinner, he must still be just. That's
the question of questions. How can a man be just with God?
How can God be just and justify a sinner? It says here, He will
not at all acquit the wicked. How's there any hope for any
of us? God must be just. And thirdly, it shows us that
the only way of comfort and consolation, the meaning of Nahum's name,
for sinners, is through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where God,
that's in whom God, based upon whom God can be both a just God
and a Savior, by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, by His
righteousness alone, God in human flesh. And I thought about this
when I saw that Nahum's name meant comfort and consolation.
I see him as a type of Christ. When Simeon raised the Christ
child in his arms and he said, He said, mine eyes have seen
thy salvation. It was revealed that he was waiting
for the consolation of Israel. There's consolation in Christ. There's comfort, eternal comfort
in Christ, but nowhere else. To reject Christ is to court
God's justice under condemnation. But there is therefore now no
condemnation in Christ. Jealous, or God is jealous of
his character, his glory. And we must, as believers, understand
these issues of God's justice, God's wrath, even condemnation.
Christ didn't come into the world to condemn the world. Why? Because
the world was already condemned. We fell in Adam. He exposed that condemnation,
and that condemnation was brought forth in light of the gospel.
Because God hath commanded all men everywhere to repent, and
that he hath given assurance unto all men. He's going to judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
Christ Jesus. Look at verse one, he says, the
burden of Nineveh, the book of the vision, that's an oracle,
that's a message, that's a message that God gave him. This is not
his own message, this is God's message through the prophet.
the vision of Nahum, the Elkoshite. We don't really know hardly anything
about Nahum other than what his name tells us. And we know he's
from a town called Elkosh. Scholars, historians can't even
tell you where that is. Some of them think it was a city
in Galilee. I don't know. But that's all we know. But now
listen to what he says here. He says this is all grounded
on the character of God. He says in verse 2, God is jealous. God is jealous. Jehovah, the
Lord, is a jealous God. And the Lord, the same Lord who's
jealous, He revenges. The Lord revenges and is furious. He hath fury. This is His anger. This is not emotionalism now.
This is justice. When it talks about revenge in
God's way, it's justice. It's not revenge like us, just
trying to get back at somebody. It's God's justice, you see. The Lord will take vengeance.
Vengeance belongs to the Lord. Not to me, not to you. It's sin
when we take vengeance, but not when God does. He will take vengeance
on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. There's
a reservation that you don't want. And it's a reservation of wrath
for his enemies. Who are his enemies? Anyone who
stands in opposition to God's way of glory and salvation. This word jealous, when it's
applied to God, you know, the word jealous, I was listening
to a message by Brother Tim James on this, and he had some really
good thoughts. He said, it means this, exacting exclusive ownership
and devotion. It's like an entitlement. When
we get jealous, it's because we think we're entitled to something
and we think it's going to be taken away from us or corrupted
in some way. But you see, we're not entitled
to anything in ourselves. We have, we who believe the gospel
are entitled to eternal life and glory, but it's not our,
it's what we have in Christ. You see, that's the difference.
But you know why God is jealous? Because God is entitled. He's
entitled to be worshipped. He's the only one who's entitled
to worship. He deserves to be worshipped.
Only God does. He's entitled to claim ownership
of His creation and especially of His church whom He redeemed
with His own precious blood. We belong to Christ. We're not
our own. And God is jealous of His glory. We don't have any reason to be
jealous of our glory because we have none. We're sinners. We're just mercy beggars. That's
all we are in the sight of God. Now we may look good and act
well before men, but we don't have any entitlement to any glory.
That's why Paul said, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross. But now God has exclusive entitlement
to all glory. He's God. He's the creator. He's
the governor. He's the redeemer of His people.
Every attribute of God is pure and perfect and holy. God is
jealous for His glory and God is jealous for His people. You
know, he told Abraham, when he chose Abraham, he said, those
that curse you, I'll curse, and those that bless you, I'll bless.
That's God's ownership of Abraham. Listen, anybody that blessed
Abraham or cursed Abraham, God took it personally. The New Covenant
equivalent of that is his church. Remember Christ said it at the
judgment. He said in the day that you, when they come before
the judgment, he'll separate the sheep from the goats. You
can read about this in Matthew 25. And he'll say to those on
his right hand, the sheep, he said, he said, I was hungry and
you fed me. I was in jail and you visited
me. I was sick and you helped me. And they said, well, when
did we ever do those things to you, Lord? He said, in that you've
done this to the least of these my brethren, you did it unto
me. You know, that's exclusive ownership. He takes it personal. Brother James said, he said,
you kick one of his children, he feels it. You talk about one
of his children badly, you're talking about him. You say, well,
I can't enter into that. Well, let somebody start talking
bad about one of your children. See how you men, let somebody
go around here talking bad about your wife, spreading stories
and tales and telling lies. What are you going to do? You're
going to put a stop to that, aren't you? Because you're jealous
of your wife, and you ought to be. You wives, let somebody talk
about your husband. You see what I'm saying? And
that's the way it is with God. He's jealous over His people.
When these Ninevites, when these Assyrians attacked the covenant
people of God, God took it personally. And there He sends the prophet
Nahum to tell them about it. He's gonna seek revenge, and
His revenge comes in the way of justice. In other words, they're
gonna get what they deserve. The Lord revenges. He's angry
with the wicked, the Scripture says. This notion, and I've said
this before, I love to talk about the love of God and the mercy
of God, but my friend, when you talk about that without the justice
of God, you're talking about an idol. You're talking about
an empty God. He reserves wrath for his enemies.
Look at verse three, the Lord is slow to anger. That's his
long-suffering, as I said. The actual destruction of Nineveh
and all of Assyria came about 100 years later from this, and
they probably mocked Nahum. They probably said, well, it
hadn't happened yet, just like they did in 2 Peter. But he says
he's great in power. Listen, God is omnipotent. He's omnipotent. he got power
to condemn and he's got the power to say he's able to do both and
he does both without hesitation i'm telling you he'll damn you
without christ he'll save you for christ's sake market there both there so and both are his
glory he says he will not at all quit the wicked do you see
that When you think about that, and
you look over in Romans chapter 4, for example, it says God justifies
the ungodly. What is that saying? God will
by no means clear the guilty, he says. What is that telling
you? What it's saying here is this. He will not at all quit
the wicked. What he's saying, in order for
a sinner to be acquitted, in order for an ungodly person to
be justified, the sin issue's gonna have to be taken care of.
It cannot be ignored, it cannot be passed by, it cannot be just
looked upon as if it's nothing. God justifies the ungodly. How
does He do that? He does it by His grace through
the Lord Jesus Christ. He does it through that exchange,
that substitutionary work of Christ. He was made sin, Christ
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. God's not going to acquit the
wicked. He's not going to absolve them. He's not going to forgive
them. But the scripture says He is just and faithful to forgive
us all our sins. How? By the blood of Christ.
That's how the wickedness and the guiltiness and the ungodliness
is removed. In and by the Lord Jesus Christ.
It says in verse 3, the Lord hath His way in the whirlwind
and in the storm. whatever whirlwind or stormy,
what's it talking about? It's talking about God's wrath.
The whirlwind. And in the storm, and the clouds
are the dust of his feet. What does that mean? It means
he's in control of it all. Don't blame it on the devil.
Devil doesn't have that kind of power. He's powerful now,
don't get me wrong. I don't want to tangle with him,
and you don't either. But he don't have the kind of
power that people give him credit for today. When you see these
disasters, now they are manifestations of God's wrath against sin upon
this ungodly world, but don't ever look at them and say, well,
they got what they deserve, but we didn't because we didn't deserve
that. Oh, no. That's what Christ said. He said, you listen, when you
see something like that, you say this, except you repent,
you shall likewise perish. Oh Lord, don't give us what we
deserve. That's the issue. Look at verse
four. He rebuketh the sea, he maketh it dry, dryeth up all
rivers. God's in control here now. Nothing
can stop God's wrath. Listen, let me tell you something.
Nothing can stop God's wrath. But let me tell you something
else. Nothing can stop or hinder God's purpose to save his people
either. Nothing can. Not even my will
or yours. Not anything. He's gonna save
his people. But now he's going to work his
purpose in condemnation too. Bashan, languisheth. Bashan was
a place known for being plush, flourishing. He's gonna languish. Carmel and the flower of Lebanon. These were places of great growth
and great prosperity. Languishes and what he's saying
there is that anything that man rest in and take comfort in the
best and the strongest the most the most flourishing cannot stop
the wrath of God and Cannot stop the purpose of God to save look
at verse 5 He says the mountains quake at him and the hills melt
the earth is burned at his presence his glory yea the world and all
that dwell therein and Verse six, who can stand before his
indignation? What is God's indignation? It's
his just wrath against sin. That's what his indignation,
God is indignant against sin. If you want to see how indignant
God is against sin, look at how God dealt with his beloved son
on the cross based on sin imputed to him. Christ's suffering. And he cried out, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? Do you think that God will not
forsake sinners in eternal damnation for their sin? Look at the cross. He forsook his only begotten
well-beloved son, all based upon guilt, imputed, charged, accounted
to him. This one who knew no sin and
did no sin, God, in a way of speaking, turned his back upon
his son. The father alienated from the
son. I don't know how to explain that
to you, and I'm not gonna try, but I'm gonna tell you what the
message is there, that without Christ, you rest assured, there's
nothing but God's indignation. Look back at the book of Micah,
turn back, we compare this to Micah chapter seven and look
at verse nine. How can I be saved from the indignation
of the Lord? How can I be assured that when
I come before God at judgment, I don't hear him say forsaken,
alienated, wicked, I never knew you. depart from me you that
work in me." Well, look at what Micah said in his prophecy, verse
9. He says, I will bear the indignation
of the Lord because I've sinned against him. What's Micah saying?
Well, that's what I deserve. If God gave me what I deserved,
I'd get his indignation, his just wrath. But here's the hope,
here's the comfort. and consolation until he plead
my cause. Like Job said, I have found a
ransom. I have a mediator. I found a,
one old writer said that the literal interpretation, I found
an umpire. One who can make proper judgments that nobody will argue
with. God who judges according to,
until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me, not upon me,
but for me. How does he do that? He executed
Christ on the cross to die for my sins. and He'll bring me forth
to the light, and as a result of that cross work of Christ,
I shall behold His righteousness." You see that? Now that's really
the message amidst all of the manifestations of God's just
wrath and indignation and power and condemnation and glory and
condemnation. That's really the main message
of the book of Nahum. That's it, you know, that in
Christ there is therefore now no condemnation. Do you realize,
do you realize that all who stand before God in Christ, upon whom
God has been merciful, that you stand before Him washed clean
from all your sins. There's no sin on the account
that has your name upon it if you're found there in Christ.
You don't owe a debt to God's law and justice. Christ paid
it off. But hold on, more than that,
you talk about comfort and consolation, do you realize that what's written
by your name is righteous in Christ? You have a righteousness
that the law of God can find no fault with. Can you take comfort? Who's it, how did I get that?
I got it by the grace of God in Christ. He charged it to me. Now that's consolation, Ed. Even
against this indignation. Even against one who will not
at all acquit the wicked. Cling to Christ. All right. Let's
sing hymn number 351 as our closing hymn. Near the cross, 351.