I know anyone who knows anything
about God's grace can't get over it. But truly, the most astounding
thing of God's grace is He reached way down from me. That's good. Open your Bibles
again to the book of Nahum. I have enjoyed spending some
time this week with our brother, Nahum. who tells us of the character
of God. That's the title of the message
this morning, The Character of God. Now, you know, there are
so many false religions that declare many false ways of salvation
to men. And the reason that man makes
up so many false religions, so many false ways of salvation,
is they don't know God. They make these things up because
they don't know the character of God. Now they know there is
a God, but they don't know his character. They don't know what
he's like. So they invent these false gods, idols, and false
ways for sinners to be saved. And the Lord gave Nahum a vision.
He gave him a prophecy. And the first thing that Nahum
tells us is what is God like? This is God. This is his character.
And that's an important thing for us to understand. If we'll
understand, God gives us an understanding of the character of God, then
we'll understand how it is that God saves sinners in justice
and mercy, and why God damns men and women in justice. You
see, everything that God does, everything, it's just. When God saves a sinner, he's
just. And when God damns a sinner,
he's just, because everything God does is just. And this is
the God with whom we have to do. And if we'll understand the
character of God, we'll be like Moses in the scripture I read
to open the surface. If we understand the character
of God, we'll bow to him and we'll beg him for mercy. And
this also comforts and encourages the hearts of the believer. This
is God our Savior. And we understand, God gives
us that understanding of the character of God, there's comfort
and assurance for our souls. So let's look here, see if we
might learn something. Verse one, the burden of Nineveh, the
book of the vision of Nahum, the Elkoshite. Now, Nahum's name
means comfort or consolation, but God gave Nahum a message
that he calls a burden of Nineveh. God gave Nahum a message of judgment
to Nineveh. And Nahum said, it's a burden.
What God has put on me is a burden. Now I know that sounds strange,
that a man whose name means comfort is sent with a message of judgment.
But we understand that. If we understand the character
of God, that God is both just and merciful. He's a just God
and a Savior. Now just a hundred years prior
to this time, God had sent Jonah to Nineveh. Very famous preacher
to Nineveh. Everybody knows the story of
Jonah. He came and he preached to Nineveh. He warned them of
God's judgment that was coming. And Nineveh repented. The king
said, everybody put on sackcloth and ashes, don't eat, don't drink.
Who knows? Maybe, maybe God will be merciful. And he was. They repented and
God spared the city. The people worshiped God. But
over the next hundred years, things got out of hand. Nineveh
returned to their idolatry. They seriously afflicted Israel.
They turned against Israel. And God now says, I'm coming
to destroy the city so severely, it'll never be rebuilt. And it
never was. The city Nineveh does not exist
today, even under a different name. It never was rebuilt. Now
here is Nahum's message. And this is the message of the
gospel in a nutshell. This is the character of God.
God's merciful. God's gracious to sinners. God
forgives sinners. God is love and God is holy. God is just. God must punish
sin. That's the character of God.
So don't ever presume on the mercy and love of God. If you
despise God's mercy, your courting is right. Now here begins in
verse two, the character of God, the name reveals to us. First
of all, God is jealous. It says there, verse two, God
is jealous. Now, you know, it's wrong for
you and me to be jealous. You know, that green-eyed monster,
you know, it's wrong for us to be jealous. And the reason for
that is, is when we're jealous, we're wanting something that
doesn't belong to us. We're wanting some blessing or something else
somebody else has, and that's wrong. You know, socialism, it's
all based on jealousy. You know, somebody's rich and
they got what I don't, so they ought to have to give it to me.
You know, it's just jealousy. It's wrong. That's all it is.
But when God's jealous, it's right. God should be jealous
because there's none like him. God is majestic. He's so majestic. Look at verse
five. The mountains quake at him. The
hills melt, and the earth is burned in His presence. Yea,
the world and all that dwell therein, that's God's majesty. Now look back at Exodus 34. God's
jealousy centers on this. God will not share His glory
with another. And He ought not, because all
glory belongs to Him. His jealousy centers that He
will not share His glory with another. Exodus 34, verse 12. Take heed to thyself, lest thou
make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest,
lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. But ye shall destroy
their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves, for
thou shalt worship no other god. For the Lord, whose name is Jealous,
is a jealous God. Lest thou make a covenant with
the inhabitants of the land, And they go a-whoring after their
gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods. And one called thee, and
thou eat of his sacrifice. And thou take of their daughters
unto thy sons, and their daughters go a-whoring after their gods,
and make thy sons go a-whoring after their gods. Thou shalt
make thee no molten god. You have no other god beside
me." God is jealous of his glory as God. He's jealous that only
He is to be worshipped. Only God should be worshipped.
He alone is God. No one else should be worshipped
but Him. So it's right when God is jealous of His worship, isn't
it? Because worship belongs to Him. And God's right to be jealous
of His glory. You know, men, when they give
credit to something other than God, they say it was luck or
they say it was my hard work or whatever. They're taking the
glory and credit away from God and He's jealous of His glory.
That's the problem with free will religion. They take God's
glory away from Him. They take God the credit for
salvation when they say they were saved because they made
a decision, because they walked on, because they did something.
And even if it contributed the smallest amount to it, they're
taking some credit from God and He's Jealous of his credit. He's
jealous of his glory. Uzzah found that out. Now God's
serious about this. Remember when Uzzah touched the
ark? All Uzzah wanted was to keep that ark, the ark of God,
the ark of the covenant. He just wanted to keep it on
the cart. He didn't want it to fall into the mud. That's all
he wanted. What's wrong with that? Because when Uzzah touched the
ark, he violated God's appointed way he's to be worshiped. And
God killed Uzzah for it in his jealousy, being jealous of his
glory, being jealous of his worship. God is jealous, that's his character. Moses said that's his name. Secondly,
Nahum tells us, God isn't just God. Verse two, God is jealous
and the Lord revenges. The Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. Now God
is holy. And because of that, God's angry
with sin. All sin. God's angry with all
sin. He doesn't overlook the sin of
his people. He's angry with all sin. You know, we can overlook
our children's faults, can't we? God doesn't. He's angry with
sin. And God will punish every sin
without exception. God will kill every sinner. He said he will by no means clear
the guilty. Verse three says he will not
at all acquit the wicked. He won't do it because he's holy. Now in our day, when people talk
about God, all men talk about today is that God is love. God
is love. God is love. What's true? God is love. But just because
God is love, don't be fooled into thinking that God will overlook
sin, because He won't do it. God is just. Nahum says God has
a fury against sin, a white-hot, holy anger against sin, and He
will take vengeance on it. He will revenge Himself of sin,
because all sin is against Him. Now, this is just like jealousy.
You and I ought not try to seek revenge. Don't do it. It's wrong when we do it. Because
when we try to take revenge, you know what we're doing? We're
not trying to settle the score. We're trying to make ourselves
feel better. You know, people get into a feud and they say,
well, he took one from me, I'll take two from him. Well, I know
that makes us feel better, but that's not justice. And that's
why God looked at Romans chapter 12. This is why he told us, now
don't seek revenge. It doesn't belong to you. It's just like being jealous.
You want something that doesn't belong to you. Romans chapter 12, verse 17. Recompense to no man evil for
evil. Provide things honest in the
sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as
life in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, Avenge
not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it's written,
vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.
Therefore, since that's true, if thine enemy hunger, feed him.
If he thirsts, give him drink. For in so doing, thou shalt heap
coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome with evil, but
overcome evil with good. Vengeance belongs to God. And
unlike us, when God takes vengeance, He settles the score exactly,
exactly. The word vengeance, it means
punish. When God punishes sin, it's an
absolute justice. When God punishes a sinner, he
gives that sinner exactly what he deserves. No more, no less,
exactly what he deserves. And what Nahum is telling us
in picture, you know, with what God's gonna do to the city Nineveh,
is what the sinner deserves is complete destruction. And that's
what God's promising here to Nineveh, that's what he promises
to those who sin against him, complete destruction. Notice
here at the end of verse two, the word wrath is in italics,
for he reserveth wrath for his enemies. That word is in italics,
it's been added by the translators. When Nahum was writing this,
he got to that. I can see him writing, and he
reserveth And there was a pause because
Nahum didn't know what to write. He couldn't, the word didn't
come to him. The wrath of God is so great. He didn't even know a word for
it. God's wrath against sin is just unspeakable. That's why
he says here in verse six, who can stand before his indignation
and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured
out like fire. and rocks are thrown down by
him. Now look at verse 8. But with
an overrunning flood, he will make an utter end of the place
thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. Why do you imagine
against the Lord? He will make an utter end. Affliction
shall not rise up the second time. Now, men know about God's
fury against sin, God's judgments coming. And men tried to build
many false refuges to hide him. But you know, God will use those
very false refuges that they're hiding in. He'll use those very
things to destroy them. That's what happened to Nineveh.
When he talks here about the flood, overrunning flood, that's
what he's talking about. Nineveh always felt like that
if an enemy came to him, the enemy could never take them because
the city was protected by the Tigris River. and you couldn't
cross the river, the river always for hundreds and hundreds and
hundreds of years protected them. Well, depending on who you read,
because when the city was destroyed, it was destroyed so completely,
we don't know exactly when it was destroyed, but depending
on who you read, somewhere between 20 and 100 years after Nahum
wrote this prophecy, the city of Nineveh came to be under siege
by the Persians. Sure enough, they couldn't take
the city. I mean, it was under siege, they couldn't do anything
with it, because the Tigris River was protecting them. And then,
while the Persians are waiting around, you know, in the siege,
the Tigris River, which had always protected Nineveh, suddenly it
flooded. And it flooded so severely, it
washed a huge section of the wall away, and the enemy just
walked in, and they completely destroyed Nineveh and it was
never rebuilt. I read this that the foundations
of that city weren't even discovered by archaeologists until 1820
and it took them 20 years to kind of figure out what they
found. 2400 years later was the first
time anybody found the foundations of that city, completely destroyed. Now that's what historically
happened And in picture, that gives us a picture of what God
will do to every sinner. They will be completely destroyed. He doesn't have to afflict them
the second time, because the first time is going to destroy
him. They'll be completely destroyed. And that's what God will do,
because that's what every sin deserves. And that judgment will
be so complete, God doesn't have to put them down again. You know,
there's no such thing as purgatory. You know, God puts them down
and, you know, lets them out after a while. When God puts
them down, it's not gonna have to happen again. When God casts
people into hell, he's not gonna be sad about it. He'll be satisfied. Satisfied because sin was given
exactly what it deserved. That's God's vengeance. He's
just. Thirdly, this is God's character. He's slow to anger. Verse three,
the Lord is slow to anger. Now this is part of the majesty
of who God is. God who's jealous of his glory,
God who is just, God who will take vengeance upon sin, who
will punish every sin with a holy fury, is slow to anger and he
forgives sin. God's not in a hurry to cast
men into hell. God always gives sinners time
to repent. God commands all men to repent
and come to Christ, doesn't He? Look here at Acts 17. You think
about these enemies. These are sworn enemies against
Christ. Yet, He commands those enemies
to repent and to seek mercy from them. And if they do, God will
forgive them. He's slow to anger. Acts 17 verse
30. Paul here is speaking about all
this idolatry and he says, In the times of this ignorance,
God winked at, but now He commandeth. You know, this is not just a
good idea. He's certainly not begging anybody to do it. He
commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because He hath appointed
a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance
unto all men, and that He raised him from the dead. Now, God's
slow to anger, and He commands us to repent. I tell you this
often, then if we go to hell, it's our own fault, isn't it?
Because God's commanded us to repent. He didn't quickly throw
us into hell. He's slow to anger. Now look
at 2 Peter 3. And this is what you can just
count on. Sinners are saved because God's slow to anger. 2 Peter
3 verse 15. an account that the long-suffering
of our Lord is salvation. Even as our beloved brother Paul
also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto
you that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation. Sinners
are saved because the Lord is long-suffering. Okay, now how
can you reconcile this? How can you reconcile God's jealous
of His glory. He will not share His glory with
another. God is just. He will take vengeance on every
sin. Then how can you reconcile that
with God's slow anger? How can you reconcile that? Well,
here's the fourth thing. This is the character of God.
God is a just God and a Savior. Look at verse 7, name one. The
Lord is good and a stronghold in the day of trouble. and he
knoweth them that trust in him." Now, the Lord is good. God is
good in his character. Everything God does is good.
Everything God made is good. Remember the story of creation?
God said, let there be, you know, all these things. And what happened
after every time? God looked and saw it was good.
Everything he created is good. God's goodness is his greatest
glory. Moses asked to see his glory.
God said, all right, I'll make my goodness to pass before you. The Lord's good. And how good
is the Lord to forgive the sin of his people who've sinned against
him? Oh, the Lord's good. Now listen
to me carefully. This is the heart of the message.
I want you to get this, take this home with you. This is how
God saves sinners. God does not forgive sin by overlooking
sin. If God simply ignored sin, He'd
have to give up His glory, wouldn't He? And He's jealous of His glory.
He's not going to give up His glory. So He's not going to overlook
sin. He's not going to violate His holiness. And it wouldn't
be just. It wouldn't be right for God
to overlook sin, would it? It wouldn't be right. It wouldn't
be just. And God's not going to do that because He's just.
Now God's slow to anger. But his anger still must be appeased,
right? He's slow to anger, but at some
point it's got to be appeased and he can't appease that anger
if he ignores sin. Then how can God be just and
still justify the ungodly sinner? How can God be just and still
save those who trust in him? Well, there's only one way. Just
one way. It's substitution. Now look here
at Romans chapter three. The only way God can save sinners
and not violate His character is through substitution, through
the sacrifice of the substitute. Romans 3 verse 24. See, here's how we're justified.
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation,
a sin covering, through faith in His blood. to declare not
our righteousness but His righteousness for the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, His righteousness, that He might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. That's how God can
save sinners and not violate His character. It's through substitution. Now in order for God, in order
for God The God of the Bible, not the God of our imagination.
In order for the God of the Bible to save sinners, He's got to
do three things. First, the sinner must be punished
for a sin. God's justice must be satisfied,
right? Second, the sinner, the sins
of the sinner must be completely removed. He's got to be made
white as snow. God's holiness has to be satisfied.
And thirdly, that sinner has got to become perfectly righteous
or God can never accept him. And all three of those things
are only accomplished in Christ our substitute. The first, in
order for a sinner to be saved, his sin must be punished. He must be punished for his sin.
Well, that's accomplished through our substitute. Christ became
the substitute and he was punished for the sins of his people. If
you believe Christ, you've been punished. in the person of your
substitute. Second, in order for God to save
a sinner, the sins of that sinner have to be completely removed,
completely taken away. Well, how did God do that? Well,
through the substitute. The sins of God's elect were
completely removed from them when the Father imputed those
sins to His Son at Calvary. The sins of God's elect were
completely removed from them and were put upon Christ our
substitute, and he became the sacrifice for our sin. Back in
our text in verse three, when it says that God will not at
all acquit the wicked, you know, he meant that. The father didn't
even acquit his own son when his son was made sin. When his
son was made sin as our substitute, the father didn't acquit him.
The father didn't take it easy on him. He put his son to death.
And by the shedding of his precious blood, Christ, our substitute,
completely removed the sin of His people. Thirdly, in order
for a sinner to be saved, that sinner must be made perfectly
righteous. Well, God's people, they're sinful
people, but they're made perfectly righteous. When the Father imputed
the sins of His people to His Son, He imputed the righteousness
of His Son to His people. Christ traded His perfect righteousness
for the sins of His people and made them righteous right now. Not someday, right now. Now God's
satisfied. All His character, all His attributes
are satisfied and God can show mercy and justice because God
gave Christ what His people deserve and He gives His people what
Christ deserves. That's so simple. Yet man in
his so-called wisdom could never come up with it. Only God in
his wisdom could provide such a salvation. If you look at 2
Corinthians chapter 5, this is the whole message of the gospel. It's the message of the gospel
that God has given to us to preach. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 18. and all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ
our substitute. And he's given to us this ministry
of reconciliation. Our gospel is the ministry of
reconciliation, how God has reconciled the sinners and how the sinners
reconciled to God. And namely, to wit, this is our
message, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we're ambassadors for
Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's name." This is what the Lord
Jesus Christ would say to you if he's standing here this morning.
You be reconciled to God. Well, why would I be reconciled
to God? Why would a sinful man like me
be reconciled to God? Verse 21, 4, here's why. He,
God the Father, hath made Him, God the Son, to be sin for us. Him who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's the character
of God Himself. That's how God can save a sinner
and not violate his character. You see why it's important that
we understand the character of God. God's jealous. He's just. He must punish sin, even when
His purpose is to save the sinner. He does it through a substitute.
Charles Spurgeon said this, I think this is just outstanding. He
who does not believe that God will punish sin will not believe
that he'll pardon it through the blood of his son. That's
how he pardons it, by punishing sin in the person of our substitute.
And any true salvation cannot violate the character of God.
God can only save in a way that not only does not violate his
character, his attributes, but magnifies all of his attributes
at the same time. Mercy and justice both have to
be magnified at the same time if God's going to save a sinner.
Now that's hard to do. That's hard. And no man-made
religion has ever come up with an answer to that question. Never.
That takes the wisdom and power of God. And that's my fifth point. God's sovereign. That's his character. He's sovereign. And he has the
power to both save and damn. Now, God is sovereign. He has
all power over everything. And if that's not so, God's not
God. In order to be God, he's got
to have all power. God, if he does not have the power to both
save and to damn, he's not God. And he does. He does have the
power to damn. That's what Nahum said. Who can
stand before his indignation? Who can resist and say, no, I
won't be? Nobody. He's got the power to damn. And
he got the power to save. Now, you listen to me. This thing I hear, I see it on
TV sometimes, I shouldn't stop and watch. Nahum says, why don't
you stop and watch that for? It's like a car wreck, I guess. You've
got to stop and rubberneck. God is not this weak, frustrated,
mamby-pamby, just, oh, won't you please let me do something?
Won't you please let me save you? Won't you please let me
into your heart? God's not a beggar. He's the king. He's sovereign. He's not frustrated. He will
save His people from their sins. To not do so would violate His
character. It violated justice, wouldn't
it? If Christ died for someone, say Christ died for you, and
God sends you to hell, he violated his justice. Not only did he
violate his mercy, he violated his justice. He punished your
sins twice. And the substitute ain't in you? That's not just. God's not going
to do that. God has all power. to save his
people from their sin. Now either that's so, or God's
not God, we may as well close up this book and never read it
again and go on home and watch football. One or the other. Now when we look at ourselves, we start getting in problems
when we start looking at ourselves. Because when we look at ourselves,
we seem like a lost cause. It just seems like when I look
at myself, there's no hope. There's no way somebody as sinful
as me can be brought to God. There's no way somebody as sinful
as me can have all my sin taken away and be made as righteous
as God's own Son. There's just no way. Well, I
know when you look at yourself, that's what you think. But child
of God, you take comfort. You take comfort in the character
of God our Savior. God is God Almighty. He's got the power to do what
seems impossible to us. And didn't He demonstrate that
power when He delivered Israel from Egypt? Verse 4 in our text,
it says, He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry and dryeth
up the rivers. That's talking about Him parting
the Red Sea and Israel going over on dry ground. That's God's
power. And I want you to look at this
phrase at the end of verse 3. The Lord hath His way in the
whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His
feet. Now this whirlwind, he's talking about a tornado or a
hurricane. Now I've never been in a tornado,
thankfully. I have been in a hurricane. And
a hurricane seems like chaos. I mean, it just seems like utter
chaos. The power of that wind and the
waves and the rain. It's just, it's overwhelming.
Stuff blowing everywhere. Stuff that's secured, fastened
to the ground and blowing around in the air. I mean, it seems
like chaos. The hurricane I was in, it was
chaos. Nobody can even predict where
the thing is going to make landfall. Sitting in the Gulf of Mexico
and it starts to come onto the coast of Florida here and it
backs up. And we had backed up and started
to make landfall in Florida at three different places. And then
you know what it did? Something not one meteorologist
predicted. It made a U-turn and went to New Orleans. What chaos. I've seen a video of tornadoes,
and nothing looks more chaotic to me than a tornado. That wind
is just twisting and blowing everything. I mean, cars blowing
up in the air. Chaos! Everything looks so random,
but the damage of a tornado is not chaos. Brethren, it's under
the direct control of our God. I've seen pictures of a brick
house, what looked to me like must have been a nice brick house,
in complete rubble. I mean, not one stone stacked
upon another, just flat on the ground. And the house next to
it doesn't even have a shingle blown off of it. How random is
that? It's not random at all. That's
God's hand directing the whirlwind to accomplish His purpose. And
the Holy Spirit inspired Nahum to use this whirlwind to give
us an example, to tell us, to teach us that this chaos, what
looks like chaos to us, is no more than the eternal purpose
of God playing out. We can't make sense of it. But
God is directing every detail of that whirlwind, every blowing
particle to accomplish His purpose. And out of what seems like the
chaos of our world, God saves His people. Not one's lost. Everything we think is chaos
always is working together to accomplish the salvation of God's
You need two examples. Remember the man born blind in
John chapter 9? Turn over there, John chapter
9. He was born blind. And that seemed like chaos to
his parents. The child was born and he was
born blind. They weren't expecting that.
As he grew, He couldn't go to school like the other children.
They couldn't send him out and play. You know how you moms in
the summertime, the kids are driving you stark raving mad
and you tell them go out and play? His mom couldn't do that. He couldn't go do that. He's
blind. Now he's grown. His parents are older and they're
worried about his future. How is he going to survive when
we're gone? He's helpless. His whole life seems like chaos.
Why'd that happen? Why was that man born blind and
lived to adulthood in such chaos? John 9, verse 1. And as Jesus
passed by, he saw a man. That man didn't
see him, but he saw a man, which was blind from his birth. And
his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man
or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, neither,
had this man sinned or his parents. He had born blind that the works
of God should be made manifest in him. He was born blind so
that the Lord could get glory in healing this poor blind man. So the Lord, out of all this
chaos, healed this man, gave him sight. And you know what
happened next? The Pharisees excommunicated
him. His parents, who'd spent all this time worrying what's
going to happen to our poor son after we're gone, threw him under
the bus, you know. More chaos. I mean, he's got
a sight, but now he's more alone seems like than ever. What's
going on? Verse 35. And Jesus heard that they cast
him out. And when he found him, he said unto him, Do you believe
on the son of God? And he answered and said, Who
is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? I'll believe whatever
you tell me. Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both. I love this. You've seen him. I gave you sight,
you've seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee." And
he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. Salvation
out of chaos. One more example. The thief on
the cross. That man lived a life of chaos,
I'm sure of it. Now, it wouldn't surprise me
at one time, he's a sweet little boy. Look at this sweet boy.
Oh, it's just this sweet little This little boy. But for long
his nature was set loose and he became a terror to society. His poor mother was heartbroken,
cried herself to sleep every night. What has happened? Where did we go wrong? Now I
bet you many nights that thief lay there in some hideout somewhere,
you know, with all his other band of brothers and wondered, I get here. What happened? I remember being a happy little
boy. What has happened to my life?
And going out and living a life of crime and robbing people and
killing people and making insurrection. It's just chaos to run up and
knock people on the head and take their money, you know. break
into people's houses and take their stuff and constantly be
on the run from the law, constantly fear of being caught. Every time
there's a knock on the door, you're full of fear. Life is
chaos. And then one day he was caught
and they sentenced him to death. They sentenced him to a slow,
painful death. He's laying there in prison.
The leader of the bunch gets set free. What chaos is this? And here he goes. They take the
leader out. Well, he did more than anybody,
set him free. And here this poor fellow is,
taken out, nailed to a cross. What chaos. And lo and behold, they put his
cross in a hole right next to the cross the Son of God hung
on. The Lord brought that thief through all that chaos to bring
him to that point. Lord, would you remember me when
you come into your kingdom? The Lord brought him to faith
in Christ. I tell you, no case is too hard for God. God will
save his people. He will bring them to Christ.
He'll give them faith, and just like that blind man, they'll
see and they'll hear. Now, we were supposed to have
a baptismal service this morning, but I'm gonna use this as an
example anyway. Our sister, Wendy Rodriguez, came to me Wednesday,
or was it Sunday? Anyway, she came to me. She said,
I'd like to be baptized, confess the Savior. It's another example
of not only God's grace, but His power to save. Wendy heard
the gospel many years ago from Brother Henry. And then she left,
wandered off, gone all over the place for a while. And somehow,
How she doesn't even understand the Lord brought her back here.
And she came to this little building on Hurricane Road and heard the
gospel again. And the Lord revealed himself
to her. When it seemed like chaos, every step was worth it. I wish
we had hot water. It'd be a few more steps. Every
step would be worth it. God's gonna save his people.
And whatever it is he brings you through, to bring you to
him will be the best thing that ever happened to you. God make
it so. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we humbly bow for your throne,
knowing we bow before the throne of Almighty God, the God who's
jealous of his glory. A God who's just, who will take
vengeance on sin. And we bow before you, fear and
trembling. We're a sinful people. But Father,
how thankful we are that you're slow to anger, that you're great
in mercy, that you're both a just God and a Savior. So that in
the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can come before your
awesome throne, accept it, and call you our Father. What a great
Savior. that you've revealed to us in
your word. What a great salvation that you've reserved for your
people. Yes, you've reserved great wrath
for those who rebel against you, who will not repent, who will
not bow. But what great mercy, salvation that you've reserved
for your people in and through and because of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, I pray that in your power
to do what only you're able to do, that you would reveal your
son to our hearts this morning, that you would cause us to see
Christ, to hear him, and to believe him, to run to him, to cling
to him, and to follow him. Father, we ask this, we do ask
this for our good. Oh, how we need your mercy, how
we need your salvation. But Father, would you do it for
your glory? Save your people for your glory, we pray. Reveal
your glory in this place through the preaching of your gospel,
we pray. For it's the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. For his
glory, we pray.