If you will turn with me in your
Bibles to the book of Nahum chapter 1. Nahum chapter 1. I mentioned this morning just how
short our life really is. And right before I got up to
speak just now, I couldn't help but think, what if this were
the last time? What if this were the last time
we gathered here to open God's Word, to read the things that
God hath spoken, to see what we are, to see the only hope
there is for us, If tomorrow doesn't come, how would it be
for us? Because that is a real possibility. I pray after this message we'll
know how it is for us. I pray we can walk out of here
singing in our heart and in our soul, it is well, it is well
with my soul. I pray to God. Look with me here in the book
of Nahum, chapter 1, verse 1. The Burden of Nineveh, the book
of the vision of Nahum the Elkishite. I'll just be honest with you,
I'm not very familiar with this book. And like maybe some of
you, I myself have a hard time finding this little book. But
after reading it and studying it a little bit, I'm very thankful
for this little book. You know, you hear the minor
prophets. He's a minor prophet. I'm so
thankful for this dear brother Nahum, and I'm thankful for what
God caused him to write in His Word. Now I don't know if you
know what it says here in these three short chapters, but what
Nahum wrote is actually pretty difficult to read. It's very
hard. It's not very comforting. It's very troubling. If we know
anything about ourself, reading these three chapters, it'll cause
us to shake. It'll cause us to tremble. What
Nahum wrote about was the destruction of a great city. And I couldn't
help but think, we live in a great country, don't we? But I can't help but think what's
written of Nineveh, you could just as well put the United States
of America right there. I want to show you real quick,
before we get started here, what Nahum prophesied of concerning
Nineveh. Look here in chapter 1, verse
14. It says, And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning
thee, that is concerning Nineveh, 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. As it was then, so it is now. Look at chapter 2, verse 8. It
says, But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water, yet they shall
flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry,
but none shall look back. Chapter 3, verse 1. Woe to the
bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. The prey departeth not. Chapter
3, verse 5. Behold, I am against thee, saith
the Lord of Hosts. And I will discover thy skirts
upon thy face, and I will show the nations thy nakedness, and
the kingdoms thy shame. And I will cast abominable filth
upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing
stock. And it shall come to pass that
all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say,
Nineveh is laid waste. Who will bemoan her? Whence shall
I seek comforters for thee? Now this doesn't just apply to
a country. We know God had a people whom
he chose to save out of that city. We read about it in Jonah.
He sent Jonah there to preach the gospel to them. He saved
them. But you know the whole reason this earth is still here
is because God has a people here. Every day this earth is still
spinning. God has a child. He's about to call out. That's
why it's still here. We read about the destruction
of this earth that is certain, but I don't want us to just think
about the destruction of the earth. I want this to hit home.
What we're reading here, this I'm against thee, saith the Lord,
you're going to be laid waste. No one's going to look at you.
No one's going to want anything to do with you. That's how we
are in this flesh before God. And that's why I said this little
book here is a hard book. In fact, the whole book, the
Bible, it's a hard book if God ever shows you who you are. But
here's where I'm getting. Here's what comforted me in studying
this. Nahum's name actually means comfort. Now what I just read to you wasn't
very comforting, was it? What God has to say about us
all through this Word is not very comforting, is it? That's
because there's nothing comfortable in us. The comfort's outside
of us. Here's where the comfort is.
The comfort's in God. The comfort's in Jesus Christ. Comfort ye, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. Say it to your God. Tell Him
what I've done for Him. Tell Him what I've accomplished
for Him. Nahum gave us some comfort. And
here's the comfort he gave us. The comfort Nahum gives us is
in a description. He gives us a blessed description
of who God is and what God is really like. And that's what
I want us to look at. We'll be in chapter 1. Nahum
chapter 1. I want us to see six things about
who God is, what He's like. And I pray that it might truly
comfort you as it has me. May God comfort us. The first
thing we read about God here is in Nahum 1 verse 2. It says, God is jealous. God is jealous. Honestly, I don't
know how to really put this into words. When I think of jealousy,
I think of our sinful jealousy. My jealousy is I see something
you have and I say, oh, I wish I had that. God's not jealous
in that sense. All things are His. God's jealousy
isn't out of want. It's out of His character. It's out of His holy character.
I'll give you an example. God, here's what He's jealous
for. He's not jealous for things like us. God's jealous for His
glory because He's so holy, He deserves all glory. God's jealous
for His praise. He's jealous for His honor. He's
jealous for His worship. He's jealous for His people.
And He shall have all of those things. You know that? Though
we rebel, God will be worshipped. Every knee is going to bow. Every
tongue is going to confess. God is jealous. He told Moses
in Exodus 34.14, He said, Thou shalt worship no other God. For
the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. I love that. Deuteronomy 32.16 says, "...they
provoked him to jealousy with strange gods. With abominations
provoked they him to anger." God is jealous with a holy jealousy
and God is jealous with an angry jealousy. Deuteronomy 4.24 says,
"...the Lord thy God is a consuming fire." Even a jealous God. That's why it's important that
we're worshiping the true and living God. You think of when Moses departed
for a moment and Aaron and the children of Israel, they made
a little God of their own hands and they started dancing and
having a good time. Go read about it. God did not
take that lightly. We must worship the true and
living God. He deserves it. God is to be praised and worshiped
at all times. Look at verse 2 again. 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. That's who God is. It sickens
me when I hear people talk about who they think God is. God is
not who people think He is. God's a consuming fire. God is
holy. God is angry. We're sinners in
the hands of an angry God. And we need to know it. We need
to know it. That's who we're going to go
meet. That's who we must give an account to of the things that
we've done, what we are. That's the only God there is.
God judgeth the righteous and God is angry with the wicked
every day. Every single day. At all times. I realize that's
hard. That's a hard saying. You know,
people say, well, I thought God was love. I thought God loved
everybody. I thought... That's the problem. You thought. What's God have
to say? I'm reading you verses of scripture
that are inspired of God. It's God's Word. God is love, don't be mistaken. But God loves righteousness. God hates wickedness. Simple
as that. God hates that which is wrong,
and God loves that which is right. Habakkuk 1.13 says, Thou art
of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look. God can't so much as look on
iniquity, then how is he going to look upon me? We know the
answer in Christ. It's the only way. It's the only
way God's going to have anything to do with you or me. It must
be in Christ. And as we just read here in verse
2, the result of God's jealous anger, His angry jealousy is
vengeance. He said, vengeance is mine. I
will repay. It says, God will take vengeance
on His adversaries, His enemies. We're not going to go unpunished.
All sins shall be punished. He will take vengeance. God has
reserved unimaginable wrath for His enemies. It's a sad truth,
but that's the truth that must be declared. Well, how's that
comforting? I told you, I believe I have
a message of comfort. How in the world is that comforting?
Look at verse 3. The Lord is slow to anger. God is angry. He's got unimaginable
wrath reserved for His enemies. He will take vengeance on His
adversaries. But He's slow to anger? Is that
a contradiction? How can this be? Oh no. See, God is holy. God is just. He must punish all sin. But praise
His holy name. He is also merciful. Full of
mercy. See, God is not hasty. He's not
in a hurry to execute judgment. You remember at the Passover,
He said this night, I'm going to execute judgment. I'm going
to. But what did He do? He provided
a Passover. He provided a salvation. The
blood of the Lamb, the blood of Christ. When I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Not when I see your faith in
the blood. Not when I see anything except the blood. That's why
we sing, nothing but the blood. Nothing but the blood of the
Lord Jesus. If God were in a hurry to execute judgment against all
of us, as we are in the flesh, here's where we'd be. We'd all
be in hell right now. Praise God for mercy. I love
this verse. Turn with me there. Psalm 145
verse 8. Oh, this is such a comfort to me. God is a jealous, angry, holy
God, but bless His holy name. He is a merciful God. Psalm 145
verse 8. Psalm 145 verse 8 says, The Lord
is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. And remember, mercy is not deserved.
Mercy is not getting what we deserve. I don't deserve it.
I could never deserve it. God freely shows it. He said,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. He said, this is
my glory. Some sinners are going to be
saved to the praise of My glory. They're going to behold My Son.
I'm going to glorify My Son. Praise His holy name. This is
another wonderful verse. Micah 7.18 says, Who is a God
like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the
transgression of the remnant of His heritage, He retaineth
not His anger forever, because He delighteth in mercy. Is that your hope? Oh, what a
hope. Let me show you this. Turn over
to 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3. I think we're starting to see some
comfort, aren't we? 2 Peter 3 verse 9. 2 Peter 3.9 says, "...the Lord
is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness,
but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance." Now we know this is talking about
God's people. He said, I'm not going to lose
a single one. Who am I purposed to save? Not
one. Here we read, God's not slack concerning His promise.
God made a promise. And unlike us, as we read this
about who God is, know this, God's not like us. And praise
His name. I'd have no hope if He were anything
like me. The Lord's not slack concerning His promise. God made
a promise. And when God makes a promise,
He's going to keep it. God makes a promise, He's going
to keep it. Always. And I love reading about this
promise here. It was concerning us, usward. And His promise concerning
us was that we should not perish. That we should be saved. He said,
My sheep I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.
Why? Because I saved them. They're in My hand. I'm in the
Father's hand. We're one. One together with
Him. And you just think about the
glory of this. We provoked Him to anger. By nature, we worship
other gods. We worship ourselves. And what
did God do for us? He made a promise. Cody shall
never perish. My soul. Notice there in verse 9, about
the middle of the verse, it says, He's long-suffering, long-suffering
to us. I said we have provoked Him to
anger. If we're honest with ourselves, we do that every single day still. And yet, His mercy to us is new
every morning. What a comfort. Look down a few
verses here at verse 15. It says, "...account that the
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation." Oh, praise God, he's slow to
anger. What a comfort. Look back in
our text, A.M. 1, verse 3. The Lord is slow to anger and
great in power. The Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty,
He's had all powers given unto me in heaven and earth. He's
our omnipotent, sovereign, reigning God. He has the power to send
us to hell, which is what we deserve. But here's the comfort.
He has the power to save us completely. Oh, what a comfort. Able to save
to the uttermost those that come to God by Him. None of us are
out of His reach. You know that? When you start
feeling down on yourself, think about that. He saves to the uttermost. I believe Larry Chris said, from
gutter most to the uttermost. Is that where you're at? If we're
honest, we live our life in the gutter, don't we? In the heart,
that's where we are. But not only does He have the
power to save, He's willing to save. Willing and ready to save. Let me show you this. Turn to
Zephaniah chapter 3. This blesses my heart so much.
I feel like I quoted in every message now. Zephaniah 3 verse
14. It's over just a few pages. Zephaniah 3.14 says, Sing, O
daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Be glad and
rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord hath taken
away thy judgments. He hath cast out thine enemy.
The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee.
Thou shalt not see evil any more. Verse 16, In that day it shall
be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not, and to Zion, Let not thine
hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. He will save." Praise God. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in His love. He
will joy over thee with singing. I can understand us rejoicing
in Him. I sure can't begin to understand
Him rejoicing over us. What a wonder. Our God is great
in power and mighty to save. If we've sinned against Him,
we have a hope. We have an advocate with the
Father, don't we? And that's our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Righteous One. Let's consider real quick what
took place at the cross. When I read that, the Lord thy
God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. I can't help but
picture our Lord hanging there on that cross. You know, what
people said when mocking Him, and I say people, it was us,
okay? Mockingly we hailed Him, if He be King. Let Him come down,
if God will have Him. He sat on the Son of God. Let's
see. He saved others. Himself He cannot save. That's
what we said. We didn't see any power in Him.
And we don't until He saves us and reveals His power in saving
us. But at the cross, His power was
displayed. We didn't see our Savior. It says both of those thieves, they
cast the same in His teeth when they said the words I just mentioned.
They said, Amen, that's right. He's just like us. But God did
something for one of those thieves. God opened the eyes of one of
those thieves in his dying moments. He may not have read a verse
of Scripture in his whole life, and yet he beheld his Savior
saving him from his sins right beside him. He didn't do anything. God did everything. The Lord
thy God in the midst of him was mighty and He saved him. Isn't
that amazing? I love just thinking about that.
Talk about being on death row. Talk about being a breath away
from eternity. What a gracious God. What a mighty
God. We just read in verse 15 what
happened at the cross. He hath taken away thy judgments. He hath cast out thine enemy,
our sin, forever. Thou shalt not see evil anymore. It's gone. Sounds like salvation, don't
it? Praise His name. And I thought
about this, the very thing that provokes Him, our God, to jealousy,
sin He became. We mentioned His sufferings a
little bit this morning. He suffered long. He suffered
long, but praise His name. He did not make an attempt. He
saved His people from their sins. And we can go home rejoicing
in our heart. Is that the kind of God you need? A God who can
save you? I mean, really. God doesn't need
me. He's pleased to save us. He's pleased to use me and this
means, but God doesn't need me. Praise God He chose to save the
people. All my hope. We're back in our
text. Man 1 verse 3 again. The Lord is slow to anger and
great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked. That doesn't sound like good
news, does it? That doesn't sound like comforting. Are we going
back? Is it back to judgment? Back to condemnation? Oh no. You see, what happened at the
cross, Christ took what we deserved. He took what we had come into
us. And He took it upon Himself and He gave us what was rightly
His. He traded places with us. Blessed substitution. Even if we had the ability, we'd
never do such a thing. Never. Thank God He's not like us. And
we don't have the ability. What happened at the cross? Christ
died. He really died. How can God die?
I don't know. He lives forever. And yet it says He died. And know
this, He did not die an innocent man.
And what I mean by that is God's just. The soul that sinneth it
shall die, but he never sinned. How did he die? Our sins became
his. They had to. Otherwise God would
be unjust in killing His Son, in forsaking His Son. Sin is
what separates us from God. When He said, My God, My God,
why hast thou forsaken Me? In Psalm 22 it said, For thou
art holy, you must do what's right. And if we ever understand
that God forsook His Son, if we ever understand that God killed
His Son on that tree, oh, we'll tremble before we approach Him. If He did that to His only begotten
Son, what makes you think He'd withhold His wrath from us? Sin must be punished. Sin will be punished. Praise
His holy name. When Christ became guilty, we
became innocent. And when He rose from the grave,
that told us this. Satisfaction has been made. I read a verse earlier, He'll
satisfy us early. That's satisfaction right there.
We're going to be satisfied forever, aren't we? In Isaiah 53, we read,
He shall be satisfied. He is satisfied. The grave couldn't
hold Him. He's great in power. He saved
us. It's finished. It's over. We're
saved. And we had nothing to do with it. We just sinned. We
sinned against Him. And He reached down His hand
for sinners like us. Plucked us out like a bran from
the burning. made us one with him. I thought
about our brother Barabbas. I like to think he's our brother
because that man had a substitute. You put yourself in his place.
You know whatever time of day it was, you know at this time
I'm going to be led away. I'm going to get what I earned. And then at the last minute as
he's, well here I go, he receives some good news. Barabbas, you're
free to go. What? But I deserve to be there. Yep,
you do. Or you did. Not anymore. Someone
took your place. You're free. If the sun shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed. Oh, praise His holy name. See,
when Barabbas was set free, when that one thief on the cross who
we know is in paradise with our Lord, when those two men were
set free, you know what? The wicked was not acquitted. They were set free, righteous
men. As He is, I heard it earlier, so are we in this world. That's
what God said. And that's so. That's so. Back in our text, verse 3 again.
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. God has His way. You don't need me to tell you
that. We know that. And what a powerful verse this is, in
the whirlwind and in the storm. People are scared to death right
now, all these hurricanes. Oh, well, we've got to do this.
We can stop it. No, we can't. He hath His way in the whirlwind
and in the storm. We're not going to stop storms
from coming. They're His storms. He sends
the storm. Every storm. When His disciples
were in the boat with Him and they started to sink, And our
Lord was back there sleeping in the back of the boat. Did
you know He sent that storm? You know why He sent it? To strengthen
their faith. When that was over, when they
went and woke Him up and said, Lord, we perished, save us. He
said, O ye of little faith, I sent the storm, and here's why I sent
it. So you'd come to Me and cry out
to Me. And so I'd strengthen your faith.
God sends a storm, brethren. We're not going to stop the storm.
Don't try. When He said, peace be still, think about it. Whatever
trials come our way, He's in control of it. Just like He said,
peace be still, and there was a great calm, and then His disciples
rested. We can rest. Whether He says,
peace be still or not, rest, child of God. Rest in Him. He's
in control. Always. Always. Jonah. Talk about a story we
read in the scriptures that's hard to really believe. Can you
imagine that man being thrown off a boat and swallowed by a
fish? A whale? God says it happened. It happened.
Who sent that storm? Who sent that fish? God did. Now Jonah, we read that
he did some things. He disobeyed God. That's why
God put him in the belly of that fish. God said, you go here.
He said, nope, I'm going here. God said, nope, you're going
here. Why was he in the belly of that
fish? That's where God said he needs to be. And just like our
message this morning, whatever comes our way, that's where God
says we need to be. Let's not try to be somewhere else. Let's
thank Him for it and weigh it on the Lord. He'll bring us where
we need to be. Who sent Christ to the cross? God did. He set His face like
a flint, didn't He? He said from a young age, I must
be about my Father's business. He had one thing on His mind,
mine hour. That's what was on his mind every
day he walked this earth, mine hour. Every day for 33 years,
mine hour. It wasn't come. And then finally
he said, mine hour's come. Glorify thy son that thy son
may glorify thee. He said, I finished the work
you gave me to do. Brethren, God's in control of all things.
He's certainly in control of our salvation, isn't he? Wouldn't
want it any other way. Verse 3, the end of that verse
says, the clouds are the dust of his feet. I just love thinking
about that. I love being in an airplane.
I haven't been in one for a while. But it blesses my heart every
time I have that opportunity because I'm way down here and
then somehow the Lord has given me the mind and the ability to
allow us to do this. But in just a matter of minutes
I'm flying above the clouds, above the clouds. Isn't that
something? Just the fact that God would
let us sinful men ride above the clouds that He says are the
dust of His feet? Amazing! That's amazing! I hope you think
about that next time you're on an airplane. Oh, I can't wait
to get on one. The clouds are the dust of His
feet. You know, we think the clouds are high, don't we? That's
nothing to Him. He said this whole earth is just
His footstool. Heaven's His throne. He said the heavens aren't even
cleaning his sight. That's who God is. What a God. And you know where we're going
to spend eternity, don't you? At His feet. Praising His name. Saying, well I'm going to give
it away. I'll go ahead. Here's what we're
going to say for all eternity. God is good. God is so good. That's our last point. Verse
4, He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and dryeth up all the
rivers. Bashan languisheth, and Carmel,
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? Who can abide in the fierceness
of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are thrown down by him. That sounds pretty hard,
doesn't it? That's what was coming for Nineveh
and that's what's coming for this world. And that's what's
coming for us outside of Christ. And look at verse 7. The Lord
is good. The Lord is good. A stronghold
in the day of trouble. And He knoweth them that trust
in Him. God is good. If you don't get anything else
out of this, may we go home with this thought, God is good. God
is holy. God is jealous. God will not
at all acquit the wicked, but God is so good. God is good. Verse 6, let's read that again.
It says, Who can stand before His indignation? And who can
abide in the fierceness of His anger? Who's going to stand in
that day, in that great day, the day of the judgment? Who's
going to stand before Him? Who's He going to say, come on
in, inherit the kingdom prepared for you? Who's going to stand?
Psalm 130 verse 3 says, If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities,
O Lord, who shall stand? We need to ask ourselves that
question. This world needs to ask itself this question. Who's
going to stand? This is who God is. Who's going
to stand before His presence? I'll tell you who's going to
stand. Those who have a stronghold. Verse 7. The Lord is good a stronghold
in the day of trouble. And it says, and he knoweth them
that trust in him. The Lord knows them that are
his. The foundation of God standeth sure. Christ consumed the full
wrath of God for us, brethren. It's finished. The battle's over. There'll be
no more war. It is finished. It's finished. Finished. We're accepted in Him. Righteous,
complete in Him, Christ is all and in all. We're going to stand
before Him. We're going to enter in. He's
going to say, Albert, come on in. Come on in. This is the place I went to prepare
for you. Come and dine. Come with me.
Are you trusting in Him? Oh, I pray we're trusting in
Him. He knows them that trust in Him,
brethren, because He made us to trust in Him. And He'll keep
us trusting in Him. Our mind and memory may flee,
but He won't forget His people. Mother may forget her second
child, but God's not going to forget one of His sheep. Praise
God. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in Him. Amen. find the number, it is well with
my soul. What's the number? 256. 256.