I invite you this morning to
turn to the book of Nahum, in the Old Testament, the prophet
Nahum chapter 1. Chapter 1. I'd like to read the first seven
verses of this first chapter of Nahum to you at this time. beginning with verse 1 of chapter
1, The Burden of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum,
the Ecclesiastes, 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. Basham 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." Listen to the seventh
verse. The Lord is good, a stronghold
in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him
the Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble and he
knoweth them that trust in him of all the things in this world
to be dreaded I think probably despair is is chief of all the things in
this world to be dreaded, despair is the chief. Let a man be abandoned
to despair and I think that he is ready for all sorts of sins. When fear grips a man, it unnerves
him, and it brings paralysis, I think, to his joints and his
conscience. I mean, when he is in a state
of despair, when he feels hopeless, when he feels that nothing can
ever be as it ought to be and nothing can ever work out, And
I think then the vultures hover around this individual just waiting
as they would for their prey. When an individual is without
hope and feels hopeless, I think they're in a very difficult,
dreadful position. Now as long as a man has hope
for himself, you may hope for that man. As long as a person
has hope then you can hope for that individual but when a person
gets to the point where he is hopeless and he has no hope uh... of himself then that individual
is one of satan's he has been taken captive by satan and satan
has him in bondage and i think one of the objects of satan is
to drive out of an individual the last idea of hope that they
may give themselves up to him to be his slaves forever. I think if Satan can get an individual
to feel hopeless, absolutely hopeless, then I think Satan
has him exactly where he wants him to be. Let me say today that
there are many today that are in trouble. Many of God's people
are are afflicted, many of them tested, many of them tried, many
of them feel somewhat hopeless. But I'd like for you as a Christian,
as a believer, as somebody who has tasted, maybe it's far back
in your life, but somebody that has tasted and seen that the
Lord is good, I'd like for you to repeat often in your soul
these words, there is hope. There is hope. There is indeed
hope. There's hope about your temporal
difficulties. There is hope about your afflictions. There is hope this morning, though
you may not understand where that deliverance and how deliverance
could ever come to you, there is hope. Don't ever lose hope. Keep believing. The only place
really where there should be no hope and where there is no
hope really is in hell. That's the only place. There's
not a shadow of hope ever comes to hell. There's not a ray of
hope there. And so if you're not in hell
this morning, there is hope for you. There is hope. for your
soul. Now, don't sit down then with
your elbows on your knees and cry all day and say there's no
hope for me. There's no hope for me. Yes,
my friend, you're not going to be delivered from your troubles
by doing that, by crying and saying there's no hope for me.
No, what you must do is you must begin to call upon the God who
has sent the afflictions and the trouble into your life. and
you must give him no rest. You must cry unto him day and
night. As Luke chapter 18 teaches about
the importionate widow who cried to the unjust judge, and she
would give him no rest. She cried day and night. And
the Lord said, will not, will not, I avenge mine own elect
that cry unto me day and night. The Lord said, I'll do it. I
will avenge them. I'll come to them. I will deliver
them. There is hope for the Lord's
people. It may be that he has sent your
troubles, your afflictions, and even your despair as a shepherd
would send out his sheepdog or his black dog to fetch the wandering
sheep back to him. It may be that God has sent you
your trouble, that he will not allow you to move off. of ground zero, as it were, because
you have wandered away in your heart from Him, and the Lord
would fetch you back. It may be that He has designed
in making you lose the temporal things that you have lost, in
order that He might be able to give you the true riches, and
that He might be able to trust you with eternal things. Maybe
God has emptied you that He might fill you. Don't lose hope, my
friend. Don't lose hope. Do not say there
is no hope. Other people have been in the
same position that you are, and would it surprise you if I were
to tell you this morning that on many occasions I have been
just at that place where I have felt hopeless. and where I felt
that there was nothing left or no place to go, nothing anymore
that could ever change or that situations that I was shut in
and trapped in situations and never could be delivered from
them. Well, even if it should seem
that all is gone, Yet still there is hope because you're not God. You don't know what God knows.
He knows the way. God knows how to deliver you. God knows how to change your
circumstances and do exactly that which he has purposed to
do in your life. Thomas Brooks said, the grand
design of God in all the afflictions that befall His people is to
bring them nearer and closer to Himself. That is the grand
design of God. And so whatever He's allowed
to come into your life, the design of God is to bring you nearer
and closer to Him. You see, we all, by nature, are
separated from God, we're a long ways from God, and it seems even
as after we become believers that we're constantly wandering
away, and constantly, as it were, going away backwards from the
Lord. And so the Lord would bring us
closer, nearer and closer to Himself. And Stephen Charnock
said, we often learn more under the rod of affliction than under
the staff that comforts us. And I think that's a great truth.
And then William Grinnell said, afflictions are as necessary
for our walkage to heaven as water is to carry the ship into
the port. And beloved, the Bible says that
through much tribulation we'll enter into the kingdom of God.
Jesus said, in the world you will have tribulation. You will have trouble in the
world. Now, there are no lessons that are so useful as those that
are learned in the school of affliction, J.C. Ryle said. And I think that is indeed a
blessed word. Now, the Lord is good. we read
here in our text this morning, and he is a stronghold in the
day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him. Now I
want this morning, if I can, to bring you about three things
out of this text that ought to comfort and warm your heart and
it ought to bless you, and if you are here this morning and
you're on the edge of despair and despondency and discouragement,
I believe there's a word from God in this text this morning
for your soul. And I hope that there's no one
here that has already resigned themselves, as it were, resign
themselves to hopelessness and resign themselves. Your life is a drudgery and you're
just going from day to day, just trying to get through one day
at a time and you're just in a state of despair. That's dreadful
and that's awful and I hope nobody here is in that state. But if
you would be this morning, I want you to listen to the text and
I want you to hear it well. I remember the words of the old
song that says, down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter,
feelings lie buried that grace can restore. Touched by a loving
heart, wakened by kindness, cords that are broken can vibrate once
more. God's people can be revived. I tell you, on many occasions,
the Lord has come and revived my own soul. And I'm here to
tell you this morning that you can be revived and the Lord can
strengthen you and He can come to you wherever, whatever be
your state, the Lord can come back and He will come back and
visit over and over again and revive your troubled and afflicted
heart. So do not despair. Do not be
discouraged this morning and cast down. David said on one
occasion, unto his own soul, he said, Why art thou cast down,
O my soul? And so as we examine our situation,
oftentimes we don't really have an answer to that question, but
nevertheless we are cast down. And maybe this morning the Lord
has placed you in that position just to prepare you to receive
the message this morning of our text. The Lord is good. a stronghold
in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him."
Now, if I can then, I'm to bring you three things this morning
out of this text that is to help you, to encourage you, to warm
your heart in the things of our God. Now, let us say first of
all that what we should reflect upon and notice here in the text
is it says the Lord is good. It says the Lord is good. Now I don't know what you think
about God. I don't know what is in your
heart this morning. I know many, many times we have
hard thoughts. in our hearts toward God. I know
that most of the time that people get afflicted, they have hard
thoughts toward God in their soul. They're not able. Things
cross them. It crosses their path. Troubles,
sorrows, difficulties, losses, and crosses. And they have all
so much to deal with, and they think God is not good. The Lord
is not good. But beloved, the text says the
Lord is good, and this is a blessed fact, and it ought to cheer our
hearts, it ought to revive our spirits. Nothing but good, hear
me now, nothing but good can come from God Almighty because
He is essentially good. He is absolutely good. And what our God has done in
the past, what our God is doing now, and what our God shall do
is only and always good. And we ought to remember that.
Now if you can get that well fixed in your heart this morning,
We believe here in this church that the God of the Bible is
a sovereign God. We do not believe He created
this world and then just left it and turned it over to man
and say, you do with it what you want to and whatever mess
you make out of it, you can live with it. We don't think God has
done that at all. We think that God has a purpose
for His people, and that purpose is a good purpose, and that God
has given an expected end to His people, and that is a good
and blessed end that will come to the redeemed of the Lord.
And so this morning, we want you to see this, that God is
absolutely good, and what He has done, is doing, and shall
do, will always be good. Now whatever He brings to pass,
in the lives of his children. We're told in Romans chapter
8 and verse 28 that all of it will work together for good because
God is good. Not that we're wise and can make
it work out that way. Not because there is some merit
in us that should move God to do good toward us. But no, it
is God that is good. Don't you see? We're not good,
but God is good. And He will always be good, and
He said, I'm going to make everything work out for your good. If you're
a believer, if you love God, if love has been instilled in
your soul for God Almighty by His Spirit, If you are in love
with the Lord, let me tell you this, God said, I'm going to
make it all work out for your good and for my glory. Whatever
comes to pass, it's going to be that way. And so you need
to believe that, you need to trust that. Now then, as we think
upon this, you know, I've tried to, in my own soul, chisel out
those words, and with as sharp a pen as I could find, to write
them upon my own heart, the unchangeableness of the goodness of God and how
that He cannot be better. God cannot be better than what
He is. You know, if God were to change, He wouldn't be God. He is unchangeable, and He's
unchangeably good. And He cannot be better. Somebody,
you know, we always talk about there's room for improvement
in our lives, and the biggest room in the world is the room
for improvement. Well, my friend, when it comes
to God, He cannot be better than what He is. God is essentially
unchangeably good. He is independently good. None
help Him to be good. God is good. That's His nature.
And the Lord is good unto His people. I just wish this morning
that you could go out of this room and have that penciled in
your heart and so that you would be able to think upon it and
meditate upon it. in order that it might just bless
you. All of the providences of God
have been, all we shall be good, and whatever it is that grieves
you this morning, my friend, I don't change that any at all.
God is good. God is good. Now that's the first
thing I wanted to show you out of this text here. Now the second
thing is that the Lord is a stronghold in the day of trouble. The Lord
is a stronghold in the day of trouble. Now this is what God
is to us. Now it's good to know what God
is under special circumstances. what God is under special circumstances. You know, we talk about the day
of trouble, but I really believe, and I think you would agree with
me, and this is a true statement, even if you don't agree with
it, that the entire life of a believer seems to be just one long day
of trouble. Is that right? You know, the
scripture says that old Jacob, he made this statement, he said,
my days have been few, But he said to every one of them been
packed with trouble from the early morning till late at night. He said my days have been few
and they've been full of trouble. Full of trouble. And so a believer
being in this world in this world of sin and woe, in this world
that is no friend of grace to help us unto God, in this world
wherein we find much distress on every hand and where there's
so much bereavement and sorrow and test and trial. Listen to
me, the life of the believer is just one long day of trouble. And you'll discover that. We're
in a world, listen to me now, we're in a world here that's
not friendly to the things of God. It's not friendly to holiness. It's not friendly to an individual
who's trying to walk and do that which he ought to do in his life. There's so much that is against
us today in this world and sometimes I read things out of a newspaper
or sometimes I hear things on the news and it makes me wonder
if I'm still in the world that I was born in 62 some odd years
ago. My friend, it makes you wonder.
I was reading yesterday, and I asked David and some others
that were sitting around, I said, I read this article, and I said,
am I still in the world? What's happened in this world?
There was a fellow out in New Hampshire, and he got angry with
his wife-to-be, and he murdered her, and then called his mother.
and said to her, or called her mother, and said, now I'm going
to marry the corpse, and I'm cutting off the finger with the
ring on it, and I'll send it to you. Well, what kind of a
world is that we're living in? This world is a terrible, terrible
world, and those that love God, and those that would do the will
of God, and walk with God, listen, this world drags them down, and
it's a terrible place where there seems to be a blanket that just
covers you, and you're just always trying to gasp for breath and
trying to get a breath of fresh air, a breath of the Spirit of
God in your life. And so, beloved, I say that the
entire life of a believer just seems to be just one long day
of trouble. And so it's necessary that we
find out what God is in special circumstances. And whenever we
have these days of trouble and trial and affliction, to be able
to know that there is a stronghold for the people of God, and the
Lord is that stronghold. Now, listen to me. As we think
on this, God is a rock. Listen, a stronghold is a fortress,
it's a castle, it's a tower of defense. And what this signifies
is that God's guaranteeing your safety as a believer in this
world. God is guaranteeing it. It doesn't
make any difference how difficult the way is, there is a place
of refuge for a child of God. There is a place where we can
find safety. He keeps His own people, and
He keeps them, the scripture says, and this stronghold, as
we're in that stronghold, we can defy the enemy. Stronghold
means that God abides ever the same and that God doesn't change
and that He ever is the same and that you can abide in Him.
It's wonderful to know that there's something that don't change in
this world and that God, who is the stronghold of the believer,
that He does not change. Now, listen to me. As we're faced
with many troubles and trials in this world, we have the Lord
Jesus Christ as our rock and our refuge and our strong tower
and place of defense. Even in the midst of these afflictions
and difficulties, in Him we do find safety. In Him we find safety. So whatever you're facing and
whatever you have to deal with, just go in unto the Lord. Just find a place of prayer,
pour out your heart unto God, and hide yourself away in your
refuge. And listen to me, we find safety
and provision and peace in the Lord. There's a song that the
title of it is A Mighty Fortress is Our God A Mighty Fortress
is Our God and the Lord's people run into that fortress in the
day of trouble. Now that's what God is and so
whenever you find yourself in this day of trouble then remember
there's a stronghold and the Lord is a mighty fortress and
you run into it and you run into it and don't despair and throw
up your hands and say I'm gonna quit I'm gonna give up don't
do it keep looking to God and run into this refuge and abide
there alright that brings me to the third thing and that is
this the scripture says here the Lord knoweth them that trust
in him The Lord knoweth them that trust in Him. Now before
we can apply this promise, we must ask ourselves, first of
all, if we meet the condition, do we in fact trust the Lord
Jesus Christ? Do we in fact trust the Lord
Jesus Christ? The Lord knoweth them that trust
Him. Do you trust the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we rest our poor souls upon
Him alone for eternal salvation? Do we have the witness of the
Spirit of God in our own hearts so that we can answer Him the
affirmative? Yes, I trust in the Lord. My confidence is in God. I believe
God. I am resting in the Lord. I'm
trusting Him for all things. For my soul salvation, my daily
bread, my daily sustenance in this world, I am trusting in
the Lord. Now there are many, many people
that would like to have the refuge that we're talking about. They'd
like to know that God is good, but there's a lot of people that
don't trust in the Lord. I'm telling you, friend, we must
come to the place where we trust in Him, and then we can embrace
this promise as being full of comfort and consolation to our
own hearts. Do we trust in the Lord? Now, the Lord knows us. If we trust in Him, the Lord
knows us. Now that's a tremendous consolation
to me. When I know I'm living in a world
where there's billions of people, I take great consolation in the
fact that God knows me. The Bible says that the Lord
calleth his own sheep by name and he leads them out. God knows
those that trust him. He knows his own sheep. And have
you ever felt like you were in a world where God couldn't possibly
know you? That he couldn't possibly know
you. He couldn't possibly be concerned about you. But my friend,
I want you to know this. He knows you like there was no
one else in the world but you. That's exactly right. Now you
say, well I don't hardly understand that. I don't understand it either.
But I will tell you this, the God of the Bible, we cannot understand
the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is so above
us, the scripture says that even His ways, that they're above
us as the heavens are above the earth. So high are His thoughts
and His ways above us. We can't understand the God of
the Bible, but He can know you like you're the only person that's
living on the face of His earth. And He does know you if you trust
in Him. He knows you. He knows you. Well,
my friend, even before the foundation of the world, He knew us in love
and purposed our eternal salvation in His Son, our surety, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He knew us in old time. He knew
us before the foundation of the world. He knew us. He knew us. He knew us. Isn't it marvelous
that He knows us? Now, if you can believe that
God knows you, and that God knows all about your circumstances,
He made you, you're the plant of His planting, and He watches
over you, this implies tender care, it implies, listen, those
who trust are objects of His approval, Do you know that God
will never, never, never. You say, well I trust the Lord
preacher. God's never going to blame you for that. Everything
he's taught in his word is to that end that you would trust
him. And there's nothing wrong when you trust in the Lord. Trust
God. You see, some people think I'm
a crazy preacher. I trust God. Well, my friend,
just go ahead and let them think you're crazy. God approves of
those that trust Him. You trust the Lord. You depend
on the Lord. You lean on the Lord. You cast
all of the weight of your soul and your life upon the Lord. Bring all your burden and lay
it before the Lord. You trust the Lord. Say, Preacher,
I always feel like there's something else I ought to be doing. Well,
we feel that way by nature because, you see, all of us have this
idea somehow or other that we just got to help God a little
bit. We have to help the Lord a little bit, my friend, trust
in the Lord. Trust God. One day you're going
to be so feeble that you won't be able to get off of the bed.
Someday you're going to be so feeble you won't be able maybe
to open your eyes. One of these days you're going
to get down and it's the tents coming down and you're going
to get to a place where you're not going to be able to do anything
except trust the Lord. And God will have to undertake
for you, so you trust Him. And you rely on Him while you've
got full strength. You trust the Lord. And if He
tells you to do something, you do it. Whatever He's bid you
do, you get busy and go after it, and you do it. But you trust
in the Lord. Let me tell you that. I tell
you solemnly, I tell you plainly, that what God approves of is
absolute trust, the trust of His people. And God would have
you to depend upon Him. Now the more you trust, the more
pleasing you are to God. What an opportunity that we have
to please the Lord. The scripture says without faith
it is impossible to please Him. You can't please Him any other
way. And isn't it marvelous that we
can please the Lord by trusting Him? And I want you this morning
to see that. And if I could help you just
that little bit to see that that's the way you can please God, by
trusting Him. He wants you to do that. And
the more you trust Him, the more you please Him. Now, I'm thinking
right now that when it says that the Lord knoweth them, that trust
Him, I think that means that God will own them. God will own
them. If He knows you, and you're trusting
in Him, then God will own you. Now, you know, I haven't always,
I haven't always, I have believed that God owned me for many years. I believe that God owned me.
But there was a time when the Lord told me that He owned me,
and I knew from then on without a doubt that God owned me. And
I've seen many evidences of it around me, that God owned me.
And a lot of people wouldn't agree they were evidences, but
I know that God does own me. I know that He does. Now for
a man to be able to say, well, God owns me. Now brother, sister,
I don't know if that means much to you or not, but it means a
whole lot to me. It means a whole lot to me because it means I'm
not alone in this world, and it means that God has something
for me to do, and it means that I'm going to be able to do what
God's called me to do, and it means that God's going to provide
for me while I do it. That's what it means to me. It
means that God owns me. It means that I'm not here in
this world with no purpose, just whatever comes. whatever happens
no there's a God that is decreed and ordained a purpose for my
life and it will come to pass and it will be fulfilled now
that's what it means to me if the Lord knoweth them that trust
in him it means that God owns everybody that trust him and
that relies upon him God owns you well the Bible says we've
been bought with a price And I believe that's true, that we
belong to him by his eternal choice. of our souls he chose
us in his Son and that he bought us with the precious blood of
the Lord Jesus at Calvary and then God says I'll take you on
as my servant you're my bond slave and I own you you're mine
you belong to me and you're not out here just wandering around
in this desert this world uh... without purpose well then I think
this knowledge is a loving knowledge which is not idle. It's a loving
knowledge that's not idle. I like that. I like that a great
deal. You know, it's a loving knowledge.
Many, many times, our old natures being as they are, we question
that God's love, that the love of God is, that it's a loving
knowledge, the knowledge of God, that it's a loving knowledge.
We think sometimes, you know, we feel like, well, God's out
to get us. He must be out to get us. But
if it's not so, that's not the case. We established earlier
the Lord is good. The Lord is good. And His knowledge
is a loving knowledge, which is not idle, but it's active
to supply all of our needs. It's active to defend us against
all of the enemies that come against us. It's a knowledge
and a love that it works all things as we said earlier, Romans
8, 28, for our good. It's to guide us safely to eternal
glory, and it's to make us to be like His Son. Now, I think
it is important that if we could get these three things, well,
we could look at them daily. Maybe you've written down these
three things that I've given you this morning. And if you
could get them where you could look at them every time when
you feel the onset of despair and despondency and discouragement,
and when you feel that you're just about whipped out and that
you're just about ready to throw in the towel and that it's just
about over for you, you could look these things over I don't
see how that you could be helped but to be blessed and to be encouraged
and to be revived. I think the Lord must help you
and I think he will. I don't see how you could escape
from being just helped. And it's wonderful to hear the
testimony of the Lord's people. The Lord has helped me. And there's
a poem that says, Oh love that will not let me go. O love that
will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee. And then
things future nor things that are now, not all things below
nor above can make him his purpose forego or sever my soul from
his love. Nothing. Things above, things
below. His love in times past, John
Newton said, forbids me to think he'll leave me at last in trouble
to sink. Each sweet Ebenezer I have in
review confirms his good pleasure to help me quite through. Oh
my friend, God's not going to abandon you. The Lord is good. He's a stronghold in the day
of trouble, and the Lord knoweth them that trust in Him. Saints
by the power of God are kept till the salvation come. We walk
by faith as strangers here till Christ shall call us home. I want to read the words of that
old hymn, How Firm a Foundation, before we close this morning,
because these words that we read to you out of the prophet Nahum,
verse 7, chapter 1, is part of this firm foundation that God's
people have. Pardon me if you will, I must
read these words. How firm a foundation, you saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
What more can he say than to you, he hath said, you who unto
Jesus for refuge have fled? Fear not, I am with thee, O be
not dismayed, for I am thy God and will still Give the aid. I am by God and will still give
the aid. Oh my, it's wonderful when that
word comes to you in the middle of the night, whenever it looks
like, as the fellow said, all hell's popping on your pillow
and you don't have a ray of hope for morning, that the sun will
ever come up again, and the Lord says to you, I'll still give
you aid. I'll still give you aid. Oh my soul, I got up on
that a few mornings, I will still give you aid. I'll strengthen
thee and help thee and cause thee to stand, upheld by my righteous,
omnipotent hand. When through the deep waters
I call thee to go, the rivers of grief shall not thee overflow. For
I will be with thee thy troubles to bless, and sanctify to thee
thy deepest distress. When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, my grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame
shall not hurt thee, I only design thy dross to consume and thy
gold to refine. The soul that on Jesus has leaned
for repose I will not, I cannot. desert to its foes. That soul,
though all hell should endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never,
no never forsake." That's what the Lord has told us this morning
in this text, Nahum 1 7. May the Lord own the message
and glorify himself. Let's pray. Father, for Jesus'
sake, bless these few words to the comfort and edification of
your people. The poor, afflicted people of
Zion, may they be encouraged today and blessed as they wait
upon their God, remembering that the Lord is good, remembering
that the Lord is a stronghold in the day of trouble, remembering
the Lord knoweth them that trust him. Bless us now, and as we
close out this service, and as we began this week, may you go
with us. In Jesus' name, amen.