Nahum chapter one, let's look
in verse nine. What do you imagine against the
Lord? He will make another end. Affliction shall not rise up
the second time. Now, as I mentioned the first
hour, nothing causes a believer to flee to Christ more than seeing
the destruction, desolation. And what he just said was, is
affliction shall not rise up a second time. That means once
the first time is enacted, once the first time is initiated or
it's executed, there'll be nothing left. There'll be nothing left.
You remember in the Old Testament when they would offer up sacrifice
and they said that it had to be consumed by fire, completely
consumed by fire. That's what we see whenever the
Lord calls the fire to fall on Mount Carmel with Elijah. The
prophets of Baal and Elijah gathered and said, let the God that answers
by fire, him be God. And so they gathered together
and we see that the prophets of Baal cried aloud and they
cut themselves, but nothing happened and Elijah mocked them. But then
it was his turn and he builds a altar unto the Lord. And he
takes water and he pours water upon the sacrifice and it ran
down the altar. And then he calls upon God and
God answers with fire and it consumed the sacrifice. and it licked up the water. What
is that a picture of? Well, it's the Lord Jesus Christ
and being our substitute on the cross of Calvary. Whenever the
fire of God's wrath fell, it consumed the Lord Jesus Christ
and he absorbed every bit of it into himself so that now there
is no more wrath to be given to the Lord's people. And the
Lord's people hear that that is what we deserve, is that wrath.
And we do see our sin, don't we? When we see that sin, there's
nothing greater that causes us to flee to Christ. causes us
to run into him. In the book of Nahum, we see
this destruction very clearly. And I would remind us they didn't
find the rubble. They didn't find the remains.
There was no remains. It was all just stone and whatever
else was left there until 1845. I do find it interesting, though,
that the name of Nahum means comfort or consolation. You find
that interesting? Nahum's message is completely
about judgment, and yet he continually says, as we saw the last hour,
that the Lord knows them that are his. The Lord is a strong
tower in the day of trouble. He gives us all these definitions
of the Lord that we heard the first hour, but then he says
because of all this, because of who he is, destruction is
going to come, and yet his name means comfort or consolation.
How can that be? Well, it wasn't for Nineveh that
he was bringing comfort. We have comfort knowing that
this destruction was not for the Lord's people. And that's
what we're going to see here in this chapter. It wasn't for
who the Lord had elected, who the Lord had called by his own
word, by his own choice, by his own purpose. It was those that
he had left to themselves. That's the only way that we can
have comfort is knowing that the Lord's wrath has been put
away. There is good news in knowing
that the Lord always keeps those that are his. He never leaves
us to ourself. He's constantly bringing us back
to him. He's constantly keeping us. There's never a time where
the Lord doesn't keep his people. Now we see the Lord's saving
grace and the character of God and his attributes in verse one
through nine. And that's what the true comfort is to the Lord's
people. Only the Lord's people rejoice in God being God, God
being seated, Him being who He is. We truly rejoice in who He
is completely. His sovereign right of choice
and salvation, His salvation that He accomplished by His blood
alone, His grace and His mercy, this is what we rejoice in. Not
in what we are, but we rejoice in His right and His choice.
Now let's read the rest of this chapter, starting with verse
nine. What do you imagine against the Lord? He puts a question
mark there, and we can answer that question by saying, it doesn't
matter what you feel in after that, period. It doesn't matter. What do you imagine against the
Lord? He will make an utter end. Affliction shall not rise up
the second time. For while they be folded together
as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall
be devoured as stubble, fully dry. That word stubble, it's
the same if you get a straw or you get a hay and you start burning
that. It's just, it burns fast, doesn't
it? Fast and hot, just a little fire
and it, oof, it's gone. That's exactly what he's saying.
It will be devoured as stubble, fully dry. There is one that
cometh out against thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord,
a wicked counselor. Thus saith the Lord, though they
be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down.
When he shall pass through, though I have afflicted thee, I will
afflict thee no more. For now will I break his yoke
from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder. And the
Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more
of thy name be sown. Out of thy house of thy gods
will I cut off the graven image and the molten image. I will
make thy grave for thou art vile. Behold upon the mountains the
feet of him, the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that
publisheth peace. O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts,
perform thy vows, for the wicked shall no more pass through thee. He is utterly cast off. I've titled this message, Utterly
Cast Off. That is the greatest fear of
God's people, the greatest fear that we have. But do you know
that if we're in Christ, that is the most impossible thing? It is. It's the most impossible
thing to be cut off because God cannot deny himself. That's what
the scripture tells us. There's good news in that, isn't
there? Even though we're so afraid of being cast off, even though
we're afraid of being utterly cut off from him, our greatest
concern is not possible if we're in Christ. It's not possible. Only those who are in Christ
actually fear being utterly cut off. Everybody going around the
world believe they've done enough. In religion, I remember men coming
to me asking me that question, have I done enough? Or how do
I know that I'm saved? And men will say things such
as, are you a hundred percent sure if you died right now, you
would go to heaven? And they'll say, yes, because I've done this
and I've done this. And that's what they will say.
But that's the most useless comfort to the believer, because it's
not what we have done. Are you 100% sure if you died
right now and you go to heaven, if it's completely based upon
Christ, if He did the choosing, if He did the saving, and if
I'm in Him, yes, I am confident in His work. I'm confident in
His finished work. But if it's up to me at all,
then no, I have no confidence at all. Only those who are in the Lord
actually fear that they're not in the Lord. Isn't that interesting?
Only those who are in Christ fear not being in Christ. Now this book is a representation
of the wrath of our God against the people that he has not chosen,
that he chose to pass by, that he chose not to have mercy upon,
he left them to themselves. Salvation is God's choice and
it's truly all by grace. I'm reminded of The maniac of
Gadara, when the Lord came to him, what hope did he have of
coming to Christ? He was on the other side of the
sea. He didn't know who God was. The demons in him knew who he
was, but they had no hope of coming to Christ at all, did
he? He couldn't take the first step. He couldn't do anything. He was completely possessed,
controlled, influenced in every way. Boy, we are too by nature,
aren't we? This old flesh, the world and the devil. Yet the
Lord came to him. And what does the maniac do immediately?
He worships God. And that's the authority that
Christ has. That's what he demands is this worship, this bowing
unto him in complete obeisance, 100% with our face in the dirt.
And he has a conversation with Legion and you know how it goes. The Lord cast the demons out
and they run into the hogs. The hogs run violently down the
hill and they drown themselves. Why? Why? Because that's what
the influence of religion will do. That's what Satan's painted
a beautiful picture in false religion that Jesus loves everybody
and God died for everybody. And it's not true. And men will
drive headlong the hogs that are not the elect of God will
run straight down and drown themselves in the pit of hell, never knowing
until they meet God face to face. It's an act of mercy. It's an
act of grace by God himself. He has to come to where we are
and cast out the strong man that we are, the strong man that has
a hold of us. And he does so by his grace so
that we're not utterly, so that we're not utterly cut off. Our
hope here in this book is the remnant, the word remnant. The
Lord leaves a remnant. What does that mean? Well, we
don't know the number, but John said, it's a number that no man
can number. No man can number. That's who the Lord left as his
heritage, as his portion, as his people. And that's who he
redeemed. Everyone else he passed by. It's not amazing that he
would pass by Esau. We've talked about that recently,
hadn't we? It's not amazing that he would pass by you or me. It's
amazing that he would stop in mercy and in grace and extend
his arm of mercy and bring us under his bosom and said, I bought
you, you are mine. That's the, that's the mystery. Lord, why would you do that for
my son's sake, for my glory's sake, for my honor? Not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy,
according to his grace, according to the love he has for her. That's
why he purchased us. Now this hour, I want to ask
us three questions and I hope to answer those three questions.
Number one is. Why has wrath come upon Nineveh
a hundred years after Jonah? Why has wrath come upon Nineveh? Jonah had preached to them and
they repented and the Lord spared them and it's been a hundred
years since then. Why is it now, 100 years later, come upon Nineveh? Second one is why were they not
given repentance this time as they were the first time? And
the third question is what is our hope in Nahum? What is our
hope? First question, why has wrath
come to Nineveh. We'll look in verse 11 with me.
There is one come out of thee that imagineth evil against the
Lord, a wicked counselor. This is a reference to Rav Shaka. Rav Shaka was a messenger that
came from Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians. He came forth
from the army of the king of the Assyrians. Rav Shaka goes
up and they take Israel by force. Now at this time we know that
there's two kingdoms, the northern kingdom called Israel and the
southern kingdom called Judah. Rabshakka goes as the leader,
the representative, unto Israel and they take Israel by force
and they bring them into captivity as found in 2nd Kings 18. And
he tells us exactly why in 2 Kings 18, he says, Now I find it interesting,
and we see the divine providence of God knowing in his purpose,
knowing that Israel was going to turn away from God, even back
whenever he spared Nineveh the first time, he knew that Nineveh
would be the reason that Israel would go into captivity, but
he knew that Israel would forsake him.
And so he's raised up the Assyrians. That's one reason why Nineveh
was spared to begin with, for his wrath's sake later on. We're
going to see that. We see the captivity of Israel
bringing them in. Now, once they had completely
and successfully devastated Israel, they lay eyes on Judah and they
head towards Judah. And Reb Shaka comes to the capital
of Judah. It comes to Jerusalem. He says,
what trust is it that you have? What is different about your
God? You'll remember I preached a
message from this exact passage. What confidence is this is what
I titled it. I had trouble remembering it on, uh, Wednesday night, but
I looked it up, I remember, but what confidence is this? That
was the title. And it's the same exact account. And I find it
interesting as we went through this, so many times we're going
back and forth and we see that it all just comes together. And
we see the picture of the one hope that we have is that the
Lord don't leave us to ourself. Don't leave us to Rabshakeh.
He says, I'm going to destroy you. That's what he tells Judah. He says, the king's come. Who's
going to stop his hand? What confidence do you have?
What's different of your God than these other gods that we've
destroyed? What makes him so special? And he was mocking God. You remember what he says to
them. He tells them that their drink will be their urine and
their meat will be their feces. That's what he tells them. Your
dung, that's what you're going to eat. That's going to be your portion. Your
God can't save you from me. That's a picture of men in false
religion thinking that God is their portion, but that will
be the end. That's all that we can produce, isn't it? We can
only produce dung and we can only produce urine. That's it.
Nothing good about us whatsoever. That's the picture there. Hezekiah
gets word of Reb Shaka and his blasphemies against God and his
judgment against Israel and their declaration of war and what they're
planning on doing. And they've surrounded the place
of it. So they're there. They're at
the forefront. He sees the army. It's impossible
to defeat. He knows that. Where does he
do? What does he do? Runs to God. Runs to Christ. If you ever
find yourself up against an army of your sin, flee to Christ.
Fall upon your face before him. Cry out for mercy. He delights
in mercy. He delights in mercy. We see Hezekiah beg God for mercy
and the Lord said, I'm gonna send a rumor among them that
their nation's in trouble. You won't have to fight them.
I'll protect you. I'll fight the battle for you.
And he does, he sends a rumor. That's all he has to do is send
a rumor and the whole army flees Judah. They didn't have to do
anything. Isn't that glorious? That's just what the Lord's done
for us, isn't it? He's done everything necessary for our salvation.
We didn't have to raise a sword. We didn't have to draw swords.
We didn't have to, we just rest in Christ's finished work. That's
the picture there. Well, Rabshakeh sends another message to Hezekiah
as they're leaving. He gets down to Libna. He finds the king of Assyria
is actually fighting in Libna. And we see Sennacherib is fighting
against Libna, but he remembers his word and to Hezekiah. And
so he sends a letter back to Hezekiah. And he says these words,
let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee. Let not thy God, in whom thou
trustest, deceive thee. Think about those words. Think
about that. He said, you're trusting in the
wrong God, is what he said. Your God's not going to save
you from my hand. I'll come back there when I'm done helping the
king, and we're going to wipe you off the face of the earth.
That was their goal. They wanted to kill Judah. Let not thy God,
in whom thou trustest, deceive thee. Now, if we ever have fear
that grips us, we have comfort this morning. And I want to show
you that in 2 Kings 19, if you'd like to turn there. Hezekiah fell on his face before
the Lord again, and the Lord sent word by Isaiah. And he says in 2 Kings 19 verse
28, Because thy rage against me,
and this is God speaking on behalf, this is Isaiah speaking on behalf
of God. This is God's word by Isaiah. Because thy rage has
come against me, and thy tumult is coming to my ears, therefore
I will put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips, and
I will turn thee back by the way which thou camest. I love
the thought. You know what that hook in the
nose represents, right? I mean, you can think of It represents
a couple of things, but one thing in particular it represents is
total control. If you ever had an animal, they
would put a ring in the nose and you could lead that animal
wherever you want to lead. That hurts. It's tender. He says, I'm going
to put a hook in your nose. You can't do anything unless
I let you do it. I'm going to lead you where I want you to
go. I'm going to make you do what I want you to do. I love the
power of our Lord, his authority. I love that. I'm going to put
my hook in your nose and my bridle in my mouth. Now you're not going
to be able to talk either. That's what he's saying. I'm gonna close
your lips. I will turn thee back by the
way thou camest. And this shall be a sign unto thee, ye shall
eat this year such things as grow of themselves. And in the
second year, that which springeth out the same. In the third year
sow ye and reap and plant vineyards and eat the fruits thereof. And
the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah, shall you
again take root downward, shall yet again take root downward
and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go
forth a remnant. I love that, don't you? For out
of Jerusalem, shall go forth a remnant. And they that escape
out of Mount Zion, the zeal of the Lord of hosts, shall do this.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria,
he shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor
come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the
way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not
come into this city, saith the Lord. And here's the reason why.
Here is your comfort in time of fear, child of God, for I
will defend this city to save it, and here's why, for mine
own sake and for my servant David's sake. And it shall come to pass,
and it came, now here's, that's the end of the thought. This
is a new paragraph, and this is what happens. It came to pass
that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in
the camp of the Assyrians 104 score and 5,000 And when they arose early in
the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib
king of Assyria departed and went and returned. And where
did he dwell? At Nineveh. At Nineveh. The Lord says, because of your
rage against me, I'm gonna put a hook in your nose and turn
you back the way that you came from. I'm gonna put a brattle
in your lips and I'm gonna show you that I am God. It's a picture
of his, demanded obedience. See, when the Lord speaks, it's
not to try it. He does it, doesn't he? He made
them do what he wanted them to do. It's his right. None can
stay his hand or say, what doest thou? He chooses. Our hope is
that he chooses. I'll say it this way. There's
two ways. God chooses one of two things for every person.
He's already chosen. He's already done it. He's either
chose to utterly cut a man off, or a woman, or he's chose to
have mercy upon them. That's the only two. He does
all the choosing. He does all the saving, and he
gets all the glory. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even this same purpose have I raised thee, that I might
show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout
the earth. Therefore he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy,
and whom he will, he hardeneth. He hardeneth. He will not have
anything, all the glory and salvation. Now, the same God that said this
about Pharaoh says to the Assyrians, I'm going to destroy you. You
thought you come in here and you would take my possession,
my people, my bride, my love. You can't have her. I'm going
to put a hook in your nose and turn you about. I'm going to
make you go back the way you came from. And in the process,
I'm going to kill 185,000 of you. And he does that night.
That night, the angel of the Lord You know, anytime the scripture
speaks of the angel of the Lord, we know who that is. That's Christ.
Christ is the judge of the world. Christ came and destroyed 185,000.
You can't have her. He said, she's mine. Go back
to where you came from. That's the protection that the
Lord gives for his people. He will not acquit the wicked.
Judgment must be dealt with. God does not love everybody.
Oh, he loves her. and he will defend her because
of his jealousy. Do you love that? The thought
that the Lord would defend you or the thought that the Lord
would defend me. If he's done it one time, he'll always do
it forever. It's an eternal, everything God does is eternal.
The law demands death for trespass. Justice must be satisfied. This
is why wrath has come upon Nineveh. That's the answer to the first
question. Why did wrath come upon Nineveh? This is why. because
of their treatment of Israel, because they said, what confidence
is this that you have? Don't listen to the lies of your
God. He can't protect you. He's deceiving
you. They were saying, we're God,
is what they're saying. We're God, we're gonna do it our way.
And Lord says, no, you're not. You're not even gonna fly one
arrow into this city. I'm gonna send you back to where
you came from. And that's what he does. And back to Nahum chapter
one, we'll be bouncing around, so I should have told you to
hold your place, but just keep it there from now on. And notice verse nine, this is
important. I mentioned this before. What do you imagine against the
Lord? It doesn't matter what you imagine. No matter what it
is, here's the answer. He will make an utter end. But
Lord, I cast out demons in your name. I've done this and I've
done that. It doesn't matter. You've, you've imagined against
the Lord. Anything that offers up self is literally standing
in the place of Christ. It's literally saying I'm good
enough or I am better. That's what it's saying. I'm
better than Christ. I can do it better myself than what he
done. That's what he, what will you
imagine? Don't imagine that. There's no hope in that. It doesn't
matter what you have done. It matters what he has done.
We need a substitute in this day of trouble, this wrath that
he's talking about. No matter what you imagine against
the Lord, he will make an utter end. Affliction shall not rise
up the second time. The reason that there is not
a second time is because when the Lord does something, he doesn't
try to do it. He doesn't try to do it. He gets
it right the first time. And when judgment comes, when
judgment is executed, when destruction comes from his hand, it's complete
destruction. It's utter destruction. There's
nothing left. That's why it doesn't have to
be executed a second time. Utterly cut off, not just partially,
completely destroyed. Well, we see that the king goes
back to Nineveh. He says, well, if I can't attack
Judah, I'll go to the safety of my city. It was a big city,
wasn't it? Remember during the time of Jonah
had to walk three days through there. And what was it, 160,000
people, I believe he says, at the end of Jonah that was in
the city at that time? How many were there now 100 years
later? If there were that many, you see the population growing
no matter where it's at. If there's a city, the city continues
to grow and annex and whatever else, you know what I'm talking
about. How big was it now? Well, the king said, I have safety
in numbers. I'm going to go back with my people. I'm going to
go back with my gods. I'm going to go back and do what
I want to do. You would think that seeing 185,000 of your soldiers
Dead when you woke up in the morning would be enough to lead
a man to repentance, but it's not, is it? It's not. Even the
fires of hell are not enough to cause a man to repent. The
rich man said, I want a drink of water, not the fountain of
living water. I don't, I'm not asking for Christ.
I'm not asking for mercy. I'm not asking for grace. I deserve
water. I need a drink. I'm hot. That's what hell will
do. It takes an act of God to give man repentance. It takes
an act of God to come into the heart and take out, rip out this
stony one and put it in a heart of flesh. It takes God to do
it. Thank God he's done it for his
people. He had to do it and he did. He successfully redeemed
them and successfully gives them this new heart by calling them
according to his gospel. Judgment has come to Nineveh
and judgment is what's deserved. Judgment is what you deserve
and judgment is what I deserve. Judgment is what every man, woman,
boy, and girl deserved based upon themselves and their sin.
But to the child of God, judgment is no longer deserved. Do you
know why? Christ took our judgment. Christ took our wrath. Hell is
what we deserve, but not anymore. Because Christ took our hell,
endearing the fires of hell on the cross of Calvary. Hell represents
the wrath of God. He took it all on the cross of
Calvary. There's no more for the child of God, the elect of
God. Oh, that he would show us mercy
and give us Christ. Show us that Christ put away
my sin. Give me rest in that, Lord. Cause
me to see your finished work is for me. Most imagine that they can endure
God's judgment. That's a false hiding place,
isn't it? They're hiding in themselves. They're hiding in their works.
They're hiding in their own gods. We can't endure God's judgment.
We can't endure God's wrath, but Christ did. Christ did, and
he successfully redeemed his people. Most men try to find common ground
with what we believe in. Everybody I've talked to since
being your pastor has tried to find a common ground with me.
They ask, what do we, and it's a difficult set of questions
that I'm sure you've been asked too by some people. What is your
bylaws? What is your articles of faith?
What is your beliefs and practices? What denomination are you? And
they're trying to find out what we believe so that they can say,
okay, well, I agree with this back here. This is what I agree
with, or I agree with this over here. They say, what's your denomination? I say, we're non-denominational.
What do you believe? Christ is all in salvation. He only died
for his people. He successfully redeemed them. Well, okay. They have a hard time with that
one. There's no common ground there. See, it's totally not.
The woman told me this week, she said, well, at least we're
all God's children. At least we're all God's children.
Now what's implied by that is that Jesus loves everybody and
Jesus died for everybody and everybody will have a chance
to be saved if they make the right decision. And that's not
biblical. That's man-made works religion.
It's not true. If they're implying that everyone
is God's children because he created all things, I can understand
that logic, but that's not what they mean. We're not all God's
children. God has a children, a particular people, a purchased
possession, a royal priesthood. He has his elect, he has his
Jacob, his Israel of old, that's the spiritual people. And that's
who he redeemed and he successfully did it. We're not all God's children
and God doesn't love everybody. Somebody said, well, that's harsh.
I'm telling you what God said. It's his right to love or not
love. It's his right to choose or pass by. What we cry out when
we see our sin that we deserve this hell and this wrath that
Nineveh God is Lord have mercy on me, the sinner. Because if
you don't love me, I have no hope. If you don't save me, I
have no hope. If you don't call me and you
leave me to myself, I will be like Nineveh and they won't be
able to find the remains whenever you're done with me. They won't
be able to find them because they'll be in outer darkness
forever. there'll be no recovering it. The Lord said, no, you're not,
you're not my children. You're of your father, the devil.
That's what he told the Sadducees and Pharisees. That's the truth
of the gospel. Either we're the Lord's children or the devil's
children. The devil has plenty of children, but the Lord's children
can't be numbered. I love that. It doesn't say anything
about the number of the, of the devil's children. You know, it,
It's written, this precious book is written to the Lord's people,
and it's not limited in of its power. The Lord successfully
redeemed those that he, as he offered up himself, as he saying
it was an attempt is foolish because he doesn't attempt anything.
But you understand what I'm saying. Whenever he was going through
the motions of getting salvation for his people, it was, he was
successful. Every, every aspect of it. Now
we are the sons of God, he says. Here's the reason why. Here's
the reason why the Lord did not give Nineveh repentance. They
were of their father, the devil. The Lord chose not to have mercy.
Repentance is not something we can acquire, not something we
attain by what we do, not something that we can come to a knowledge
of by learning. Scripture says ever learning, but never able
to come to the knowledge of the truth. Repentance is given by
God as a gift unto eternal life. He gives repentance and faith.
The good news of the gospel is He really gives repentance and
faith. He don't just show us that we
can't attain it, we can't come to a knowledge of it, we can't
do anything for it. He really gives repentance and faith. That
gives me hope. He's not a respecter of person.
He doesn't look at the outward in what we do. If there's one
sin, it must be punished. So flee to Christ. He didn't
excuse his darling son with one sin upon him. He's not going
to excuse you and I. Flee to Christ. He gives repentance and
he gives faith to his people. Now, understand something. He
didn't give repentance, so they did not believe. And they didn't
believe because they weren't given repentance. It's both.
It's repentance and faith, isn't it? They didn't believe the Lord. We must be found in Christ. Now
we have good news. What is the good news? I've told
you all the destruction and I've told you the good news of the
gospel already, but what is the good news here in Nahum? Where
is it at in this chapter? Well, let's look. Not only is
it in verse 1 through 9, but it's here in verse 12. Let's read verse 12 through the
remainder. Thus saith the Lord, though they
be quiet, likewise, yet thus shall they be cut down when he
shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee,
I will afflict thee no more. For now will I break his yoke
off thee and will burst thy bonds in sunder. And the Lord hath
given commandment concerning thee that no more of thy name
be sown out of the house of thy gods. Will I cut off the graven
image and the molten image? I will make thy grave for thou
art vile, but hold upon the mountains, the feet that bringeth good tidings
and publish peace. He says, I will break this yoke
that you are in bondage to, the yoke of sin. I'll break this
yoke. You can't break it. I can't break
it. But he says, I will break it. He says, I will break this bondage
you have to the law that you can't keep. I'll break this bondage
of you trying to please me that you think, he says, I'll change
your way of thinking. I'm going to give you repentance.
I'm going to break every single one of these yokes that you're
holding yourself into that you can't get out of. And I'm going
to give you a new yoke, a finished work, a finished work. And he
says, he tells us how, because of the good tidings that comes
from the one on the mountain. Behold upon the mountains the
feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publish peace. Who
else can this be but Christ? And what mountain can this be
but Zion? This is the good news. This is
the good tidings to his people. Turn with me to Psalm 121. Psalm 121, I will lift up mine
eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh
from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer
thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber
nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy
right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon
by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall
preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy goings
out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forevermore."
There's not a bit about that that doesn't glorify the Lord,
does it? It's the Lord that's going to do it. Why is he going
to lift up his eyes into the hills? Because the Lord is his
help. The Lord is his help. This is a cause and effect. No
man will look up into the hills unless the Lord has been made
their help. The Lord shall. The Lord is. That's what we kept
reading over and over there. This is the mountain. This is
the good news of the gospel. It's we have no hope. And I will,
me, I will, I chose, or I shall. We don't have power. He has all
the power, doesn't he? No, it's his will and his choice.
Left to ourself, we'll be yoked up to the yoke of unbelief. We'll
be left to ourself utterly. Be in bondage to sin and the
law. But the scripture tells us clearly Christ is the end
of the law to righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now
I want to say something and I want to be very clear. We preach a
whosoever will salvation. Whosoever will let him come take
of the water life freely. Everyone that believeth. Whosoever
will let him believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whosoever
will. We know that all the power is given to Christ and we've
been made to know that only those whom he purposed to believe and
call will come and call and believe. Only the thirsty need a drink.
Only the hungry need food. Only the lost need to be saved.
Come, if you can, come, come to Christ. We preach a whosoever
will salvation, but it's by his will he begat us. It's not our
will. His yoke is easy and his burden
is light because of this. because his work's finished.
Now in closing, I want to look at one more place, Galatians
chapter five. Our hope in Nahum is the man
that was on the mountain proclaiming the good tidings, declaring the
only gospel that saves sinners. Galatians five. Now I want to
read the first 11 verses. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Now understand, everything that's
not Christ's yoke, there's only one, one yoke of rest, one yoke
of hope, one yoke of truth. Everything else that is not the
yoke of Christ, when he spoke of coming to me, all you that
labor and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me. Everything that's not Christ's
yoke is a yoke of bondage. That's all that it is. Be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold I, Paul, say
unto thee, unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you nothing." The issue that Paul's dealing with here
is circumcision. And understand that it's not just circumcision,
but it's anything that we would have confidence in the flesh
for, anything that sets us apart from other people. It's the taste
not, touch not, handle not. It's the do and live mentality.
It's works religion. He's saying, no, that's the yoke
of bondage. You've been set free. Stand fast in the liberty Christ
has given you. It's by grace alone. That's the
liberty. That's liberating, isn't it?
That's the only rest that we have. And he says in verse three,
for I testify against to every man that is circumcised that
he is a debtor to the whole law. Christ has become of no effect
unto you. Whosoever of you are justified by the law, you're
fallen from grace. For we through the spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ,
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but faith, which worketh by love. You did run well. You did who? What did hinder you? Who did
hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion
cometh not of him that calleth you, a little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump. I have confidence in you through
the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded, but he that
troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. And
I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer
persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. Do we understand what he's saying
there? If we preach works, there is no offense of the cross. There
is no offense. If we make it a work in any way,
shape or form, we are a debtor to the whole law and there is
no offense of the gospel anymore. But that also means we've fallen
from grace. We've fallen from grace. We're
looking to ourselves, not unto the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
He said, who persuaded you? Are we persuaded of man or are
we persuaded of God? I liked what Greg Elmquist said
one time, he said, if a man can talk you into it, another man
can talk you out of it. And that's so true, isn't it?
But if we're fully persuaded of God, no one can convince us
otherwise. We just believe God. We have
to. It's his faith and it cannot
fail. We no longer trust or glory in this flesh whatsoever. God's
elect have no confidence in this flesh. Nothing that we do, we
don't see it as good. It doesn't matter what it is.
Anything that we do, we don't see it as good. There is nothing
good that we do. No, but Christ did everything good, didn't he?
We're confident in his flesh, aren't we? We're confident in
his body, aren't we? His work. It's no wonder David
said, search me, O God, and see if there be any evil in me. There be any unrighteousness
in me. If there be any self-righteousness in me. See, the lie is that you
can have self-righteousness to fix the problem of sin, and that's
not true. That's unrighteousness. It's
iniquity in and of itself. We can't fix it. We need a substitute. Only the believer sees that God
took that yoke. And he broke it, bearing our
sin, and we rest in his finished work. The good news of this glad tidings
that's mentioned in our texts. You know, that's what the gospel
by definition is, is good news. That's the definition of the
gospel, good news. This glad tidings, this good
news is that everything we deserved, all the wrath that Nineveh faced,
Christ endured for his people. Christ took our sin and God would
not acquit the sin that he saw upon his son, and he executed
his son. That's the good news of Nehemiah.
He did it for his people. He did it for his people, and
because of that, their sin hath been put away. And he can't do
it twice. He can't do it twice. He's already
done it, and justice was satisfied. He said, I won't do it a second
time. He can't. Lord Jesus Christ endured the wrath of God for
his people. Let us ask ourselves, Let us ask ourselves, what fountain
are we drinking from? The fountain of living water?
What bread are we eating? Is it the manna? The Lord himself? Is that the only thing that slakes
our desire now, our need? Is that the only thing that satisfy
our taste now is the Lord Jesus Christ? Yes. Yes, Lord, don't
leave me utterly cut off. Cause me to see that I'm attached
to the vine, the true vine. I'm reminded of a a tree or a
vine that comes out of the ground. Christ said, I am the true vine.
And he said, you're the branches. That means all the sustenance
that we need come from the trunk, comes up from the roots. Christ
Jesus is that vine. And those who are his branches
are feeding off of him. He's supplying everything needed.
And he gets all the glory for the fruit produced, doesn't he?
It's his fruit. And that's what the Lord sees,
is he sees this perfect tree, this perfect vine with this perfect
fruit upon it. We're part of him. We're in Christ
Jesus, feeding off of him, living off of him. No, we can't eat yesterday's manna,
it's full of worms. We need the manna for today.
Lord, I need to know I'm, I need to be in Christ today. I need
to see you today. Now, because we're going to be
observing one of the Lord's ordinances this morning, I want to make
this quickly as I can, but I want to tell us something. What we
are eating and what we are drinking in the Lord is when we take the
Lord's table is we're confessing His body and His blood alone. His body as our righteousness,
His blood is our sanctification to what made us holy, His shedding
of blood. Nothing, no other hope that the believer has other than
his body and his blood alone as their righteousness and his
sanctification. Now in first Corinthians 11, he says, for
he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, unworthily eateth and drinketh
damnation. Do you know, men will say, are
you worthy to come to Christ? Are you worthy to to take of
this, and men will say, yes, yes, I'm good enough for God. But you know what that word unworthily
means is literally saying that you're good enough, saying that
I'm good enough. That's what makes us unworthy.
We're not looking to it as all our righteousness, as all our
sanctification. We're not seeing that we're the
chief of sinners. Those are the ones that are worthy. Christ
came not to call the righteous, but sinner to repentance. This
is the good news of Nahum. I'm still speaking about the
glad tidings. And it's the exact same in baptism.
You're baptized looking to yourself in any way. You're looking to
yourself. If you have hope in anything
other than the Lord Jesus Christ, life, death, burial and resurrection
as your salvation, being baptized is being baptized unworthily.
It's just getting wet. It's just getting dunked, going
for a swim. That's all it is. But no, if
you have been call of the Lord unto His righteousness, unto
His truth, wanting to confess Him as all of your righteousness,
all of your sanctification, all of your wisdom, all of your redemption,
everything before the Father. And the water is waiting, brethren,
the water is waiting. We're ever dependent upon Him.
And because of what He has done, His people will never be utterly
cut off. We will feast upon Him forever
and ever. Amen.