Turn with me, if you will, to
Nahum, the book of Nahum. Just start at Matthew and work
your way backwards. You'll get there. The book of
Nahum. Who is God? What's he like? What can we expect from him?
Those are important questions and questions that are answered
plainly for us by God, the Holy Spirit, in this little book of
Nahum. Now, obviously not answered fully.
They're never answered fully except in the person of our Redeemer
himself. But they are answered many places.
And here in Nahum chapter 1, the questions are answered clearly.
Nahum, chapter 1, verse 1. The burden of Nineveh the book
of the vision of Nahum the Echashite. Nahum seems to give two distinct
titles to his word from God. The burden of Nineveh and the
vision of Nahum. And if you read through the prophecy
you will see clearly that it is a message that is twofold. It is a burden of woe, of burden,
of wrath, and of judgment upon those who believe not. But it
is a vision of mercy, of hope, and of grace to others. Now,
we don't know who Nahum was, what kind of man he was, who
his parents were. Don't have any idea how long
he lived, where he died, or what he did in this world other than
write this prophecy by God the Holy Spirit. But Nahum was one
of those men who served God faithfully, who was given a message from
God and delivered God's message to his people just as it was
given. And he served God with delight
and obscurity. God tells us very little about
Nahum, but Nahum tells us a great deal about our God. We're going
to look at verses two through seven this evening and see if
we can find out who God is, what he's like. and what we can expect
from him. The other night after our services
here, as is my custom, I went home and spent a good many hours
unwinding. And about 3 o'clock, 3.30 in
the morning, I was sitting in bed reading, and suddenly the
storms started coming through pretty good, things kind of rattling
a little bit. And I got up and went out to
the back, stood at the patio door for a little while, and
thought about this prophecy of Nahum particularly the words
that are given here by the prophet where he says God has his way
in the whirlwind and the clouds are the dust of his feet who
is God? let's see God is jealous first thing he says And Nahum
is going to give us here several attributes of God. When we talk
about God's attributes, remember, we're not merely speaking of
those things which are characteristic of God, those things which are
comparable to God, but rather we're speaking of those things
that are essential to God. God's attributes are his character
without which he would not be God. Take away any attribute
ascribed to God in scripture and you have destroyed divinity
altogether. Here, Nahum begins by telling
us that God is jealous. And when we think of the word
jealous, we always think of weakness. We always think of a fault, something
blameworthy. With God, jealousy is not a fault,
but an attribute because it is right for God to be jealous.
It's right for him to be jealous because he's perfect. That means
any assault upon his person, any resistance to his will, any
rebellion against his rule, any objection to his work is evil. God is jealous. He's jealous for his son. Ask those who crucified him.
He destroyed that nation. He's jealous for his own honor
and glory. Ask Moses. He required Moses
to speak to the rock and sanctify him before the people. And Moses
smoked the rock and God said, because you did not sanctify
me, you did not honor me before the people, you shall not enter
into the land. God's jealous for his worship,
his ordinances, all those things he sets before us in the book
of God. Ask Uzzah. Uzzah reached out
to steady the ark. What a strange thing for God
to kill a man for. He just wanted to keep God's
ark from falling in the ditch. But God said, don't touch it.
Because that ark represents God's salvation by Christ Jesus. And
if you put your hand to it, you declare that God needs your help.
And for that, God killed him. God's jealous for his worship.
And he's jealous for his people. The Lord is jealous for Zion's
sake. We read in Zechariah chapter
8, jealous with great fury and Pharaoh experienced it. God will
avenge himself. He will avenge his honor. He will avenge those who oppose
him. He will avenge his people and
he will avenge those who oppose his gospel. He will avenge himself
upon his enemies. Look at the second verse. God
is jealous. The Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on his adversaries and he reserveth, he holds up in store his wrath
for his enemies. Now, I know this sounds strange
in our day when God is presented as a sweet old man who has great
passion and love for everybody and wants to save everybody if
they would pretty please give him a chance. The men these days
talk about God's love as though it were a fickle, up and down,
hot and cold, changing passion like our love is. That it was
somehow isolated from everything else revealed in the book about
God. I'm not going to talk tonight about God's love, but you be
sure of this. The fact that God is love does
not in any way diminish the fact that God is jealous. The fact
that God is love does not in any way contradict anything else
written in this book about God. In fact, it is God's love that
makes him jealous. It is God's love as well as his
justice that makes him furious with all who oppose him and his
people. He's furious so that so jealous
that he reserveth wrath for his enemies. If you'll notice in
your Bible, the word wrath is supplied. It wasn't in there.
There's no word for it in the original. When I read that, I
tremble. The Lord reserveth and Nahum
seems to imply that which God reserves for his enemies is so
incomprehensibly, horribly, furiously great that it cannot be described. What God reserves for the wicked,
none can imagine. What awaits the damned in hell
None can imagine. Look at verse three. The Lord
is slow to anger. We ought to be. This great attribute of God,
whose jealousy makes him furious, is also patient, forgiving, long-suffering. Turn with me, if you will, to
2 Peter chapter 3. I want us to look at this for
a minute. God is never in a hurry to punish
sinners. God is never in a hurry to cast
men into hell. He is long-suffering. He's patient. He's forbearing. He commands
all men everywhere to repent and gives men space for repentance
That is an act of God's mercy But an act of God's mercy that
will only add to his judgment to the judgment upon the ungodly
who despise his mercy God is long-suffering 2nd Peter 3 verse
9 The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering. Now, I don't have to tell this
congregation. The emphasis here must be to us. He is long suffering
to us, a specific people. He is long suffering for the
sake of someone specific, not willing that any Not that he's
saying that God is not willing for any man to perish. If God
weren't willing for men to go to hell, they wouldn't go to
hell. You need to back that down. He's not willing that any of
these toward whom he is long suffering should perish, but
that all should come to repentance and they shall. Verse 10, but
the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. in which
the heavens shall pass away with great noise and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works
that are therein shall be burned up God's long-suffering to usward
but don't you imagine because God is long-suffering not willing
that his elect should perish that he's not going to send you
to hell don't you imagine that God will not come in judgment
at last he definitely shall verse 11 Seeing then that all these
things shall be dissolved this whole world gonna be burned up
What manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation
in godliness? verse 12 looking for and hasting
unto Live continually before God my brother my sister looking
for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God Wherein the
heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall
melt with fervent heat Lindsay takes that very thing which is
the terror of the ungodly and makes it something of hope for
you and me Looking for God to burn up this world Hastening
to the day when God shall bring it to an end Why because then
he will make another world. He will create all things new
verse 13 nevertheless we We who the very same ones mentioned
back in verse 9 these? To us word these us to whom God
is long-suffering nevertheless we according to his promise Look
for a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness
wherefore beloved seeing that you look for such things as Be
diligent that you may be found of him in peace without spot
and blameless. And consider this, account that
the long suffering of our God is salvation. The long suffering of our God
is salvation. God Almighty had been tolerating
and putting up with and bearing long with, reprobate, godless,
vile generations of men for 7,000 years to save your soul. Because there's somebody out
there yet, maybe yet thousands of somebodies, but somebody out
there yet who must and shall be called by his spirit, born
again by his grace, given life and faith in Jesus Christ because
he chose them. And he is long suffering for
their sake and not willing that they should perish. All right,
back in our text, name one, verse three. The Lord is great. In power. great in power. He is the omnipotent, almighty
God. He has all power so that he can
do everything he is pleased to do, and he always does. He is omnipotent. With God, all things are possible. God's omnipotence. Let's understand
it as I'm convinced the Spirit of God has conveyed it for this
purpose. Understand it as it relates to
the welfare of our souls distinctly. What is omnipotence? It is the ability of God to save
his own, no matter what. It is the ability of God to save
his own, no matter what. Omnipotence. You remember how
the rich young ruler went away sorrowful and the disciples,
after they heard the conversation between him and the master, said,
well, who then can be saved? And our Lord said, with men,
it's impossible. With God, all things are possible. Omnipotence is the power of God's
outstretched arm to deliver and save his people. Is anything then in jeopardy?
Is there any possibility that some shall after all perish for
whom God is determined to be gracious? Not at all. God's omnipotence
is his ability to do all his pleasure, all his word, all his
purpose and all his salvation. Turn to Isaiah 46. How often have you heard folks
talk about God trying? Or God wanting? Or God desiring? Trying to do, wanting to do,
desiring to have those things that never come to pass. because
this generation has a weak God. They may call him Jehovah. They
may call him Jesus. They may read the same Bible
you read, but the God they worship is nothing but the idolatrous
figment of their imagination, for a weak God is no God at all. Hear me. If there is any, any,
any weakness in God, he is not God. The Lord God is omnipotent. A weak God is a frustration,
a constant frustration to those who claim to worship him because
he's a frustration to himself. All my life was very strong,
had a lot of physical strength. until recent years. And I can't
tell you how frustrating it is to me to try to do things now
that I could do five years ago with ease because of weakness. How frustrating it is now to
remember things I did with great ease 20 years ago and don't even
attempt them now because I know I can't do them because of weakness. It's frustrating. It's frustrating. God Almighty is never frustrated. A weak God is as useless as a
bucket without a bottom or a well without water. He can do nothing
for you because he can do nothing for himself. But that's not God. Isaiah 46 9. Remember the former
things of old. For I am God and there is none
else. I am God. and there is none like
me. I'm God alone and you can't even
imagine anybody being like me. Declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying
my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous bird from
the east The man that executes my counsel from a far country.
Yea, I've spoken it. I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it. I will also do it. Hearken unto
me, ye stout hearted that are far from righteousness. I bring
near my righteousness. It shall not be far off and my
salvation shall not tarry. I will place salvation in Zion
for Israel. my glory. Now here is God's omnipotence. It is not physical strength,
but it is strength of his being that overcomes and rules and
directs all natural and physical strength for the accomplishment
of his purposed grace to his own. Here's God's omnipotence. He wills. He just wills. that his prophet be fed while
his prophet sitting, sulking in isolation. And he wills that
his prophet be fed by an unclean carnivorous bird. And that bird
comes and brings his prophet breakfast, lunch, and supper
every day. That's God's omnipotence. It
is the force of his will ruling everything. Read on, verse three. The Lord will not at all acquit
the wicked. Do you remember what he said
to Moses? When Moses said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. He said,
this is my glory, my name. I will by no means clear the
guilty. He will not at all acquit the
wicked. Bill, when we have an offense,
if I offend you, and I'm sure I have over the years, I wish
I didn't, but I do. If I offend you and you forgive
me, this is how you forgive me, you pretend it didn't happen.
That's not God's forgiveness. That's not God's forgiveness.
He will never something didn't happen. God Almighty will never
pretend you didn't sin. He will never pretend your heart
is not enmity against him. He will never pretend that that
is good which is evil. He won't do it. He will not at
all acquit the wicked. In other words, God is just. just. The balances of justice are always equal. Did you get that? God will give every human being
and every angel, every moral creature of his universe, he
will give them forever exactly what is due them. His wrath is
always a retribution of justice. He pours out upon men in eternal
damnation only that which they had by their own deeds fully
earned and heaped upon themselves. Proverbs 1 says, the wicked in
hell shall eat the fruit of their own ways and be filled with their
own devices. God's justice is always retribution. He will not at all acquit the
wicked. Well brother Don, if that's the
case, is there any hope for any sinner? Only one way. Only one way. God's not going
to compromise his justice. He's not going to lower his holiness. He's not going to, he's not going
to bend his character. He's not going to sully his name,
not to save you, not to save me, not even to save his own
son when his son has made sin for sinners. The only way on
this earth. God can injustice save anybody
is through the substitutionary work of an all-sufficient substitute
of infinite worth and merit. And blessed be his name, he provides
the substitute. Jesus Christ died on Calvary's
cursed tree when he was made to be sin for us because he fully
deserved it. to suffer all the fury of God's
holy wrath He was made sin for us and just
described slay the shepherd and when the shepherd was slain
justice was satisfied. Now, because of his obedience
to God as our substitute, having satisfied the justice of God
in our room and in our stead, we are made the righteousness
of God in him. And we shall forever receive
from God's hand, his hand of infinite mercy and grace, exactly
what we fully deserve in Christ our substitute. That's called substitution. And
that's called justice. If a sinner goes to glory, these
three things must be done. The sinner himself must be punished,
punished to the full satisfaction of God's furious justice. His
sin and his guilt must be totally removed, expunged altogether
from the record of heaven, and the sinner himself must become
perfectly righteous and perfectly holy. Larry Brad, you can't go to glory
otherwise. You've got to suffer God's wrath,
your sin must be removed, and you've got to be perfectly holy.
Perfectly. How is that done? Jesus Christ
died at Calvary, and I died in Him. I'm crucified with Christ. I was one with Him when He died.
Christ So fully satisfied the justice of God that God Almighty
has by the sacrifice of his son, not pretended that I never said
he won't do that. Darwin, he put away our sins. He put them away so that now
before God, we have no guilt, none, whatever. We often say
justified means just as if I'd never seen. Well, sort of, sort
of. It means more than that means
I never did. As far as God's law of justice is concerned,
never did, never did. His righteousness is imputed
to us so that we have a righteous record before God because his
obedience is our obedience. When the Lord Jesus walked on
this earth in perfect righteousness, we walked on this earth in perfect
righteousness in him. And in the new birth, he come
by his sovereign spirit. And puts a holy nature in you. It's called being born of God,
Christ in you, the hope of glory. And thus we are made fit to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. All right,
back to our text. Verse three again. The Lord hath his way in the
whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his
feet. I don't know anything that men
find more offensive than the plain declaration of God's absolute
sovereignty. Do you? Now, everybody talks
about God being sovereign. Everybody talks like that. They
just don't have any idea what sovereignty means. We believe
God's sovereign. You mean God rules everything
all the time? Controls everything absolutely
all the time? Always say, oh no! No, I believe God gave man
free will. No, I believe man has the right
to choose for himself. I believe man's not absolutely
controlled by God. Oh no! No, no, no. Let me tell
you something. Yes, you are. Absolutely. All things are under
the total rule of our God. The tornado, the whirlwind. God marks the paths. And here it comes. Next unbelievable last week,
you folks like myself, real familiar with tornadoes. How many of you
ever heard tell of a tornado sitting on the ground for an
hour? I got through watching things
out here, went back and laid down and you said tornado was
on the ground out there in Memphis for an hour. A tornado on the
ground for an hour? How come? because God took his
finger and pushed it down on the ground and held it there
for an hour. How come it took that house and
not the one next to it? Because God has his way in the
whirlwind. The illustration is given for
a purpose. That which appears to men to be most unpredictable
and most uncontrollable and most destructive is just the exercise
of God's will. He's absolutely sovereign. The
clouds, well, they're just where he walks the long stairs up in
dust. That's all. They're the dust of his feet.
Our God is in the heaven. He hath done whatsoever he pleased,
whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he, past, present, and
future, in heaven, in earth, in the sea, and in all deep places. That means there's nowhere above
you, nowhere around you, and nowhere beneath you. Nowhere
in heaven, nowhere in earth, nowhere in the sea, and nowhere
in hell where God doesn't have his way. He rules absolutely
in creation, in providence, and in grace. Oh, how we rejoice
and the glorious sovereignty of our God, knowing that our
God always exercises his sovereignty for the saving of his people.
Joseph, betrayed by his brethren and sold into slavery, goes through
one thing and then another and then another and then another
and then another. Just everything seems to be against him. Everything
seems to be against him. Who would ever have chosen such
a path? Would you choose it for yourself
or your son? Even if you knew the end result
was going to be what it was, you wouldn't choose that way.
But our God in infinite wisdom sent Joseph through all the difficulty
and at last set him on the throne in Egypt, right beside Pharaoh.
And when his brothers came down there, found out who he was,
I can imagine how they must have trembled in their boots. And
he's got us now. He's got us now. And this was
Joseph's word to them. You meant it for evil. God meant it for good. As it
has come to pass this day. to keep much people alive. That's
God's sovereignty. Oh, you mean God? Our blessed
Father totally controls evil and good. Satan, demons, angels,
and men governments, nations, the elements of the world, everything,
all the time to save my soul. That's God's sovereignty. Look at Nehemiah 4, Nehemiah
1 verse 4. He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry and dryeth
up the rivers. He opened the Red Sea, and turned
that riverbed into a eight-lane highway of paved asphalt going
one way, and led them right across the sea. They got over to go
into Cayden, and he opened the river, and he turned that thing
into an eight-lane paved highway, brand new, going right across
the river, and he's going one way. just for his people. Do you really believe that? You mean you don't? You don't? How come? I'll tell you how come. Because
you serve a weak, frustrated God. And your religion and your
God has left you weak and frustrated. Because your religion and your
God are as useless as you are. That's why. I had no difficulty
believing that. Our God has his way in the whirlwind. The clouds are the dust of his
feet. Read on. Basin languisheth. Carmel and
the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him. The
hills melt. The earth is burned at his presence.
Yea, the world and all that dwell therein Who can stand before
his indignation? Who can abide the fierceness
of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are
thrown down by him. Oh, even as the prophet describes
God's judgment, his fierce anger, his wrath. He raises a question that seems
to imply hope. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can abide the fierceness
of his anger? Not me. Not you. Oh, no, we would melt like a
snowflake in a blast furnace before him. And the only reason
the damned in hell continue to exist in whatever that second
death is, is because God Almighty sustains them in their existence
to suffer his wrath. None can abide the fierceness
of his anger, but one. And that one is Jesus Christ
the Lord, our all-glorious substitute, who with one tremendous draft
of love, drake damnation drives. Old Testament, all those sacrifices
offered on God's altar were consumed by the fire of the altar. Christ
Jesus, the sacrifice, the altar, and the fire consumed the fire
of God's wrath by the sacrifice of himself. Alright, let me show
you one more thing. Verse seven, the Lord is good. Oh, how I like that. The Lord
is good. Essentially good. Eternally good. Irreversibly good. Always good. Good in all his being. Good in
all his works. Good in all his providence. Good
in the exercise of judgment. Good in the exercise of grace.
Particularly, the Lord is good to you. The Lord is good to Israel. The Lord is good. He's good. What does that mean? It means this. Because He's good,
This God with this power, this God with this great, infinite,
majestic character, this God who rules everything in heaven,
earth, and hell, this God who controls, who sovereignly manipulates. I'm so sick of hearing preachers
try to backpedal and make God's sovereignty sound like something
men like. God doesn't manipulate. Yes, he does. There he does.
He controls the thoughts of the hearts of all men. I call that
manipulation. You don't think except God says
think that. Wow. He's good. He's good. That means it's all
right for him to do it. You and I can't begin to grasp
what I'm talking about. We can't begin to grasp it. Because
we're evil. And God, if we had that kind
of power, we'd use it for evil. He's good. He's good. It's all right. No, it's not
all right. It's good for God to be God.
That means the Lord is a stronghold in the day of trouble. The Lord is a stronghold in the
day of trouble. We do have our day of trouble,
don't we? But it's just a brief day. It
is the day he appointed. And in that day, he's a stronghold
for our souls. A stronghold, what's that? They
just hold on to God. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no. When I was a boy, everybody
scared to death of a nuclear attack from Russia. And all across
the South, folks built bomb shelters. Y'all remember those days? That's
a stronghold. What do you do with a stronghold?
You crawl in it. That's all. You crawl in it. You just, you crouch down and
get low and go through the door in that cellar under the ground
and you just wait. You just wait until the storm
of the trouble is gone. That's what Christ is. The Lord
is a stronghold in the day of trouble. The name of the Lord
is a high tower and the righteous runneth unto it and is safe. He's a stronghold. not something
we hold on to strongly, but a refuge for our souls, a comfort in the
time of storm. The Lord is good. That means he knoweth them that
trust in him. He knoweth them, he loves them,
and he approves of them. He knows everything about them.
He knows who they are, all they've been, all they've done. He knows where they are. He knows
the trouble, and he knows everything he's going to do for them. He
knows them, and he approves of them, and he cares for them. all your care on him, for he
careth for you. He really does. He really does. Now, it'd be ludicrous. It'd be worse than foolish for
me to stand here and say to you, cast your care on him, If everything
we just read in Nahum chapter 1 wasn't absolutely true. This is our God. Who is He? God over all. What's He like? Just and good
and righteous and true and omnipotent. What can we expect from him?
Just good. Just good. That's all. There
shall no evil happen to the just. Just good. Just good. What's
this year? I'll be 58 years old. Is that
right? 58 years old come June. And I've eaten a lot of bitter
pills. And I've been through a few painful
things. Let me tell you what I've experienced
for 58 years. Just good. Nothing but good. And you know what I'm going to
experience tomorrow? Mark Henson, just good. Nothing but good. Because this
is our God. Amen.