Now if you'd like to follow along,
I'm in the book of Nahum, chapter one. It's near the end of the Old
Testament, before Habakkuk and Zechariah and that, and right
after Micah. I know that when I was looking
for that book, I missed my little thumb indexes, I'm telling you
that right now. I do miss them things in this
new Bible. But I wanna begin reading in Nahum chapter one
and verse one. The Burden of Nineveh. The book
of the vision of Nahum, the Elkashite. 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 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? 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. The Lord is good. A stronghold
in the day of trouble He knoweth them that trust in him and that's
where I'm gonna stop The burden of Nineveh the book
of the vision of Nahum This is a book of judgment Now there are many opinions of
when Nahum actually lived and he prophesied. But it doesn't
really matter. Because here's the point. Nahum
did live and Nahum did prophesy the word that the Lord gave him.
And we've got it documented here. It's generally agreed that this
comes after Jonah. We first heard of Nineveh actually
in Genesis when somebody founded it. But then we hear of Jonah, Nineveh being the place that
Jonah did not want to go. And he went anyway. God took him there. And Jonah
preached the message. And Nineveh repented. Now this is supposed to be around
100 years later. So pretty much everyone that
Jonah preached to and repented is mostly gone. Guess what? Nineveh went right back to the
way it was. Nineveh went right back to the way it was. And guess
what? We have another prophecy here.
Now as far as we can tell, especially by this book, Nahum didn't go
there. He wrote this vision, and actually
it says, The book of the vision of Nahum, the Elkashite. He just wrote a book about it,
he didn't go. Nineveh had gone back to doing
what they had done before. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. And Assyria had come down, invaded
Judah and Israel in the past and had took away captive Israelites. Now I'm not saying that they
did it again here, but here's the thing. God at that time used
Assyria to punish Israel. And then God holds the Assyrians
accountable for exactly what they've done. against his people, even though
it's what he wanted them to do, to teach Israelites a lesson. Nahum received the word of the
Lord and he wrote it down and he prophesied the destruction
of Nineveh and Nineveh was destroyed. They say about 115 years later, But part of Nahum's prophecy
was the Lord is slow to anger. The Lord is slow to anger. And what I have to say about
that is this. This is the title, Paul. The
Lord is good. The Lord is good. The Lord is
slow to anger. The Lord is good. Now, the world and the religious
world have a tendency to misunderstand God's slowness to anger. They think because it is a slow
anger that there is no anger. That ain't so. That's not so. The scripture is clear. They
are wrong. God is angry with the wicked
every day. But he says here, sometimes,
sometimes, not always, but sometimes, it's a slow anger. You understand,
God has his purpose, God has his timeline, and God's not concerned
with what we think about it. Don't get vexed. What was it
David said in Psalm? I was envious when I saw what?
The prosperity of the wicked. Until I considered their end. Just because God is slow to anger,
even in my sight, doesn't mean that anger is not there. It doesn't
mean, what is it? Their judgment doesn't slumber. Some people think there is no
anger and they think wrong. God is slow to anger. He's angry
with the wicked every day. Yes, our Lord is long-suffering
even with the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. Then he says this, the Lord is
great in power. The Lord is good. The Lord is
good because the Lord has all power. I wish I could lay a hold
of that. I really wish I could. Because
our Lord, Jesus Christ, in Isaiah, is called, what? The Lord of
hosts is his name. What's he called? The Holy One
of Israel. That's his name. The Redeemer,
that's his name. Now, how can he be the Lord of
hosts, the Holy One of Israel, and the Redeemer? Well, I can
tell you how. He has all power. All power. What's that mean for
us and everyone else on this world? We have absolutely no
power. We think we do. Oh, there's big
shots, you know. They think they're running countries.
They're not running anything. They have no power except for
what the Lord has given unto their hand for a finite time. He's got all the power. Our Lord
Jesus Christ said it himself. Matthew 28 and 18, I'm just gonna
read it. And Jesus came and spake unto
them saying, all power is given unto me, where? In heaven and
in earth. In heaven and in earth. What's
that? That's this world and everything above it. Now is that heaven up above or
is that just heaven in the skies? Yes. Yes. Our Lord Jesus Christ said that
as a man standing on this earth, he had all power in the heavens
and in the earth. And if Jesus Christ has all the
power, Satan has none. Except what the
Lord allows him to exercise. Any power anyone else has or
thinks they have is an illusion or a delusion on their part. Because I can tell you this.
I know a lot is made of this, okay? Pharaoh hardening his heart
doesn't stop the one who holds the king's heart in his hand
from turning it, whether so ever he will. We can't stop God. I don't want to. I'm afraid sometimes
I'm getting in the way. And I don't want to get in the
way because he will put you out of it. Yes, he might push you
down. Yes, he might knock you down.
Yes, he might let Satan tempt and test and give you boils and
you're sitting on top of a dung heap, scratching your boils with
the scraps of a pot. It's what he did to Job. The Lord turns that heart wither
so ever he will. And then this is one of the statements
that just kind of grabbed me when I was reading this. This
in verse seven. The Lord will not at all acquit. This is the wicked. And what do you say to that?
Say the Lord is good. The Lord is good. Now, I noticed
in verse three here, he says he's slow to anger and great
in power and, all three of these are connected together. But it
says, and will not at all acquit. And then those two words are
interpolated there, the wicked, okay? If you look back, if you
want, to Exodus chapter 34, we'll find almost an exact duplicate
of this. that part of it. Verse seven,
well verse six I'm gonna read. And the Lord passed by before
him, talking about Moses, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord
God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and
truth. Verse seven. keeping mercy for
thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and
that will by no means clear the guilty. And the two words there,
the guilty, are interpolated. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
unto the third and to the fourth generation. And here's the thing,
after you read something like that, if Moses saw something
like that, what happened? And Moses made haste, bowed his
head toward the earth and worshiped. Why? Because the Lord is good. In Exodus 34, seven, there's
two words, the guilty are added, and here in Nahum one and three,
the two words, the wicked are added. Now, they don't need to
be there. These words, and I look, these
two are actually worded exactly the same. I assume Nahum was
quoting Moses. But it doesn't matter, he was
quoting God. Either way. Because here's the thing, the
Lord will not at all acquit. He won't acquit. You understand? Of course he
won't acquit the wicked because they're wicked. It's sort of
like that thing, you know, all good things work together for
good to them that love God. Of course all good things do.
That's the way some people wanna interpret that. That's not the
way it is. Now yes, the Lord is good. Yes, he is. But here's the thing. Those words are added in and
I think they're added in for us. Because we forget and sometimes
don't realize that in Christ, we believers, all the saints
of God, are not wicked. Are not, from Exodus 34, guilty. And I think sometimes the religious
hate this. Because here's the thing. In
Jesus Christ, we are as righteous and as holy as he is. Now, yes, I'm a sinner. And yes,
I sin. And yes, so do you. But in Christ, ah, in Christ,
we have his righteousness imputed to each and every one of us.
And you understand, in God's sight, we don't need acquittal.
We're not wicked. We're not guilty anymore because
his son took every sin. What did it say in Exodus 34? Keeping mercy for thousands,
what? Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. And he won't clear the guilty. He
will not clear the guilty. He will not acquit the wicked.
Why? Because we're forgiven. We're
not guilty anymore. You understand? There was a debt
we owed. There was a penalty we were due. And the penalty for sin is death. And Jesus Christ paid that penalty
as a substitute for every one of his children. God's not gonna
acquit us. We're not guilty. I like, you
know why? Because the Lord is good. The
Lord is good. I'll even say it in the personal
form if you want. Because if you believe and trust
God, feel free to do the same. I don't need to be acquitted.
I have the righteousness of God in Christ in me right now. How
did that get there? Oh, but of God. Are ye in Christ Jesus? And stop there, although that's
glorious right there as it is. And that's one of the most glorious
statements in the world. Of God are ye in Christ Jesus.
Not of your will, not of your flesh, not of your running, not
of any of your deeds. Of God are ye in Christ Jesus.
And Christ Jesus who is made unto us. Wisdom. and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. If you believe and trust in Christ,
you don't need to be acquitted. You're forgiven. What? Transgressions, your iniquities,
and your sin. That's all three and everything
in between. Our sin debt is paid in full because our Lord paid it in full. He died the death that we couldn't
die and survive. We could die, we wouldn't survive. And we could die, and it wouldn't
satisfy God. That is who has to be satisfied. And there is no forgiveness of
any kind without the punishment of sin. And transgression and
iniquities. Our sin debt was paid in full
and the righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed to us by God. You know? Believers are not going about
to establish their own righteousness. Believers have been given the
righteousness of Christ. The Lord is good. And if you
want to, you can read the rest of this verse, the rest of this
whole book. He rebuketh the sea, the Lord is good. And maketh
it dry, the Lord is good. And dryeth up all the rivers,
Bashan languisheth in Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth,
the Lord is good. The mountains quake at him and
the hills melt, the earth is burned at his presence, yea,
the world and all that dwell therein, the Lord is good. The Lord is good. Who can stand
before his indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness
of his anger? The Lord is good. His fury is
poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him.
The Lord is good. And that's what he says in verse
seven. It just seems like a really strange
verse to throw right in the middle of this chapter. Right in the
middle of this beginning of harshness. Because never forget, no matter
what is going on, no matter where it is going on, the Lord is good. The Lord is good. Say how often is the Lord good?
Always, always. Because understand, the Lord
is good, just as good in Nahum one through six, verse chapter
one and one through six, as he is in chapter seven. I mean verse
seven, excuse me. He's just the same. Everything
the Lord does is good. You know why? Because if the
Lord does it, it's good. Whether you understand it or
not. whether you like it or not, whether you feel that it's good
or not. The Lord is always good. Walter's
been preaching about Joseph and through that whole thing. I love
the story of Joseph. I love that thing. It's great.
Joseph was hated by his brothers in the beginning of his account.
Why? It doesn't matter why. But I can tell you this, Joseph
spoke the truth and his brothers hated him. And guess what? The Lord is good. When your brother
hates you, the Lord is good. When your brother loves you,
the Lord is good. And Joseph went through all that.
He was dropped into a pit Now Reuben was gonna sneak back and
get him out of that pit just to sort of maybe teach him a
lesson. Guess what? Somebody else done took him out
of that pit and down toward Egypt before Reuben ever got there.
And guess what? The Lord is good. The Lord is
good. Poliphar's wife tried to seduce
him and lied about him to her husband. He's thrown in prison.
He's been a prisoner and a slave ever since his brother's thrown
him in the pit. And guess what? The Lord is good. And not only
that, he tells us at the end, Walter talked about it, you meant
it for evil, but God meant it for good. Now you understand,
God didn't turn it for good. The Lord was good all along.
And God meant it for good all along. And you'll read in there
of Joseph being the savior of Egypt and his brethren. The Hebrews. Why? Because the Lord is good. The
Lord is good. Now, was Joseph bothered by some of these things?
Did he suffer some things as a slave and as a prisoner? Yes. I'm sure he did. And he may have even thought,
why in the world am I in this mess? But here's the answer. The Lord is good. The Lord is
good. You start thinking about where
you are and what's going on in your life and with your family.
I said this years ago and I'll stick by it. If I ever sit down
and try to explain my brothers and sisters and their spouses
and ex-spouses and more spouses and whatever else and their kids
and everything else that's going on, trust me, my life would sound
like a soap opera. You know what? Through the whole
thing, the Lord is good. Whether I know it or not, whether
it bothers me or not, Walter, whether it vexes my soul, Mason,
Paul, when I think I'm up to here, trust me, I'm not even
close. The Lord is good. He's good. He is a stronghold in the day
of trouble. I'll ask you this question. When
is God a stronghold? Ah, it says right here, in the
day of trouble. That ain't right. It's partially
right, but the Lord's always a stronghold. It's just you don't
notice it until the day of trouble. Wait a minute, I'm just pointing,
I don't notice it until the day of trouble. When everything's
going fine, I'm fine. But you understand, if the Lord
is a stronghold in the day of trouble, the Lord is a stronghold
all the time. Because our God changeth not. The Lord is never weak. He's never looking the other
way while something is bothering you. That's the way a lot of people
preach it. Well brother, you'd be better if you just prayed
more. I wish I knew how to pray. Because I'd pray him away for
saying stuff like that. You understand, God never takes
his eye off the what? The apple of his eye. He's looking
at us, he's seeing his son. The sun is the apple of his eye,
and guess where we are? In him. His eye is never not
on us. That's a double negative, I suppose.
His eye is always on us. Why? Because the Lord is good. He's a stronghold in the day
of trouble, and that's when you'll realize it. But listen, folks,
there was a hedge around Job before Satan ever showed up in
heaven talking to God. He told God, you've got a hedge
around him that I can't touch him. Job wasn't in trouble. That changed. And you know what? The hedge
changed, but there was still a hedge. You know why? Because the Lord is good. The
Lord is good. The Lord never leaves his saints,
his brethren, alone, ever. Oh, we may feel alone. We may
feel undefended. We may even feel deserted. And we are wrong. We are wrong. You can't trust
your feelings. Remember, the Lord is good whether
you feel it or not. The Lord is good whether you
think so or not. And the Lord is good whether
you want him to be or not. And he never leaves a child of
his unattended. And the last statement. He knoweth
them that trust in him. You understand we've gone through
all this, God is jealous, God, the Lord revengeth, the Lord
revengeth and is furious. And he knows them that trust
him. God is good. The Lord is good. He knows them
that trust in him. And very simple thought here. The order that it's stated in.
He knows them that trust Him. It's not they trust Him and then
He knows. That's the way it's preached. That's the way it's
preached. That's wrong. He knows them before
they trust Him. You understand? Our God changes
not. What He knows now, He knew way
forever. And then what He's gonna know
in the future, He knows now. And the Lord, here's the thing,
the Lord knows them. He knows them. You understand? Every saint of God is known by God personally, personally. He knows them. He has an intimate
relationship with those that trust him. Because who the Lord knows, he
has always known. And I can tell you this as a
fact. There is no person who truly trusts God without God's
knowing them first. He chose his people in his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world.
If you got a problem with that, you got a problem with the book,
because that's what it says. I can't help you if you got a
problem with the book. If you got a problem with God's
word, guess what? It's your problem. It used to be my problem. Thank
God by his grace and hopefully his continuing grace, his word's
not a problem for me anymore. I recognize I'm the problem,
not him. What does it say? By faith, the
just live. faith, his gift by grace to those
whom he has given life by the power of his voice. Behold, there's a day coming
and now is when the dead in Christ, the dead, excuse me, shall hear
the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. And that's talking about us spiritually
dead, walking around in this world, physically alive. He deals
with the dead in the grave a couple of verses later and I'm not going
into that. He gives life and he gives faith and guess what? We trust him. He sends his word. He sends a
man some way, some shape, somehow. We have the words of men right
here in this book. Men who trusted him. Men who
trusted him enough to put down their fallacies and other people's
fallacies as well as their triumphs as people look at him. Because
he knows them that trust him because he has made them to know
him. Nobody knows God without God. I know that kinda sounds a little
silly, but that's the way it is. It's just not that that sounds,
it's just that we're silly. There's no way to know God without
God revealing himself to you. There's no way to trust God without
the power of God. So in conclusion, the Lord is
good. That's it. Just remember that. Try and keep it in your head.
I mean, this is, whatever the Lord does is good. Understand the flood came and
killed all that had breath in their nostrils. Except the eight
souls by water and whatever was in the ark. And the Lord is good. The Lord destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah with brimstone fire from the sky. And the Lord is
good. The Lord spared Lot and his two
daughters. And the Lord is good. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. The Lord is good. The Lord is good. It's not of
him that wills nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. The Lord is good. The Lord makes one vessel unto
honor and another vessel to dishonor out of the same lump. And the
Lord is good. There are certain men crept in
unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. Ungodly men, what? Turning the grace of God into
lasciviousness and they deny both God and Christ and the Lord
is good. Our thoughts, our emotions, our
feelings, our desires, our wants never change God. The Lord is good. The Lord is
good. And man doesn't get to pick and
choose what he wants from the scripture. Because the Lord is
good. I don't understand. It's okay. The Lord is good. I don't like
it. I know, I know, lots of people
don't like it. But the Lord's still good. Like
it or not. Aren't there evil acts? Yes,
there are, and the Lord is good. Aren't there evil men? Evil men
and seducers shall wax worse and worse. The Lord is good. The Lord is good. Never forget
this. It is all things that work together
for good to them that love God who are the called according
to his purpose. Trust him. Salvation is of the
Lord. The Lord is good. Trust Him. Jesus Christ saves sinners. The Lord is good. Believe Him. Praise His holy name. For the Lord is always good. Believe Him. Trust Him. and love Him. He is working everything out
the way He wants. Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. And the Lord is good. Rejoice. Take comfort in Him. Trust Him. He knows what He's doing. We
don't. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for this time, this place. And we are very thankful, Lord,
that You are good. And You have done everything
for us in your son, whose name blesses our souls. Savior, Redeemer,
Lord of hosts, the Holy One of Israel, our Lord Jesus Christ,
in whose name we pray.