We are in Nahum chapter one.
Now, Nahum is a message of destruction for Nineveh. We looked at this
Wednesday night. Now, when the Lord declares judgment,
when the Lord declares destruction, it is utter destruction. The
Lord doesn't judge partially. He judges absolute, and everything
that he does is absolute, as we've seen recently. But this
judgment that he's bringing forth on Nineveh is utter destruction.
And once it came to pass, once the armies came and besieged
Nineveh and they destroyed it and they burnt it down and it
was utterly desolate, then the Lord causes the river to come
in and wash it away. And they didn't find the wreckage,
the rubble, the ruins of this place until 1845. Some English
archaeologists stumbled upon it and they said, hey, that's
Nineveh. Well, they had to find that information from the Bible.
They had to know that that happened. This is not only the Lord's word,
but it's a history book too. And it's beautiful history of
what the Lord's done for the salvation of his people. He destroyed
Nineveh for his people. And that's exactly what he tells
us here in Nahum. He gives us insight to why the Lord destroyed
them. And it was how that Nineveh,
the Assyrians had treated Israel. He also reveals to us why no
mercy was found for Nineveh. No mercy was found. This hour,
I'm hoping that we're able to see nine attributes, nine attributes
that it gives us in Nahum chapter one, verse one through nine.
Now I did the math, and if I preach for 30 minutes, that means I
speak on each one for three minutes. And if I speak for 45 minutes,
that means I got five minutes for each one. So the clock's
already ticking to try to get it all in. This morning I hope
I'm not concerned so much about time as I am delivering the message
and I hope that the Lord will cause me to get out of the way
so that you can hear Him. You can hear Him. Nahum chapter
1, let's read this, verse 1 through 9. The burden of Nineveh, the
book and the vision of Nahum, the Elkashite. God is jealous
and the Lord revengeth. The Lord revengeth and is furious.
The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth
wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and
great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord
hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm and the clouds
of the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea and maketh
it dry and dryeth up all the rivers. Bashan languisheth and
Carmel and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. 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? Who can abide in the fierceness
of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire
and the rocks are thrown down by him. The Lord is good, the
Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. And he knoweth
them that trust in him But with an overrunning flood, he will
make an utter end of the place thereof. The darkness shall pursue
his enemies. What do you imagine against the
Lord? He will make an utter end. Affliction
shall not rise up the second time. First attribute we see of the
Lord is found in verse two, and it says, God is jealous. God
is jealous. We saw Wednesday night that this
attribute of the Lord has three definitions in the Merriam-Webster
dictionary. Only one of them define that
can try to describe him. The other two, the other two
can't be his description. The one that does describe him
is fiercely protective or vigilant of one's rights or possession.
And I looked up that word fiercely. I was curious at what it would
mean. And it says, with heartfelt and
powerful intensity. With heartfelt and powerful intensity,
he is protective of his rights and his possessions. God is a
jealous God. Jealous is his name, according
to Exodus chapter 14, as we saw. And we see this word furious
in the same verse, verse two. The Lord revengeth and is furious.
That word means, it's the word Baha'u'llah, which means he's
the owner, he's the husband, he's the Lord. It doesn't just
mean furious, there are several possible translations that they
could have put there and every one of them is fitting, isn't
it? Every one of them, he's the owner, he's the husband, he's the Lord.
And with a heartfelt, powerful intensity, he is protective and
vigilant of his rights and his possession. The word vigilant,
the word, The word vigilant means to protect from death, to be
on the lookout for, to watch over, to observe, to keep. And I'm so thankful that 1 Corinthians
tells us you are not your own, but you've been bought with a
price. What was the price? It was his own blood. You've
not been redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold,
but by the precious blood of Christ Jesus. Isaiah 43, we looked at that
Wednesday as well, it says, Jacob, Israel, my peoples, who he's
talking to, he said, I formed thee, I've created thee, fear
not, for I have redeemed thee. I have bought you. I have called
thee by thy name. Thou art mine. See, his jealousy
accomplished something. His jealousy is not like your
and I jealousy, where I'll see, well, it's not like us in any
way. It's just how it is. His jealousy is perfect. His
jealousy is perfect, and it accomplished something. accomplished salvation. He protected his people from
death by dying in their place. He died for his bride in her
place, took her sin and made her the righteousness of God
in him. This is what his jealousy accomplished
by his love. Now, you can't disconnect any
of these attributes. These are all God's attributes
that I'm speaking of this morning, and not one of them contradict
the other. They all are harmonious and complete as one, as being
the Lord's. It's perfect. It's good. And
if you take, diminish one of the attributes of God, you've
diminished his truth. You've diminished who he is.
We can't do that. We have to take it at full value. His jealousy
accomplished something. The second thing we notice because
he's poured out his wrath upon the Lord Jesus Christ for the
salvation of his people. The second thing we notice is
now in verse one at the last part of it, he reserveth wrath
for his enemies. Now I want you to notice. I want
you to notice the word wrath is in italics. The word wrath
is in italics. What does that mean? Well, the
translators added that in. They didn't have a word in the
English language that could describe what the Hebrew word was that
was trying to be translated. It's the word wrath is the best
they come up with, but understand something, what the Lord is reserving
as what he's calling the wrath here, it's unspeakable. It's
unutterable. There's not words to describe
what's going to come to those who are not the Lord's. And yet
on the opposite side of that, that's exactly what the Lord
had to endure on the cross of Calvary so that you and I can
have joy unspeakable and full of glory. Paul went to the third
heaven and couldn't utter the things that he heard. And it's
not yet been revealed what the Lord hath in store for them that
love him, his people. So we see in one aspect of it,
you have this that cannot be uttered that's reserved for the
enemies of God, but yet how shall we How shall we utter the goodness
that we have in Christ? How shall we utter the things
that's laid up for us in glory? We can't enter into that, can
we? We look through a glass darkly. It's unspeakable. The Lord went through, the Lord
endured the unspeakable torment for his people to be redeemed.
And you know when he did it? When we were yet sinners, Christ
died for the ungodly. He endured this wrath of his
father, this unspeakable torment on the cross of Calvary so that
his people could be set free. And now wrath can no longer come
to the believer. Wrath can no longer be initiated
or executed again a second time. It's already been satisfied.
Justice has been satisfied. So this wrath, the Lord will
not send forth his wrath upon his people. It would be unjust
to do so. Justice has been satisfied. Christ's offering was so sufficient,
so efficient, that there is now therefore no condemnation to
the child of God. No more wrath. No more wrath.
Just declare it as perfect. Declare it as righteous. Declare
it as good. Declare it as good. Romans 8 tells us, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God elect? It's God that justifies.
God's the one that did it. God gets all the glory for it.
Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God,
who also maketh intercession for us. God charged his son with
our sin and put them away by his own blood. Now his wrath
has been assuaged for his elect. But for those left for themselves,
those that he's chose to pass by, those that he has chose to
not call, not save, not shed his blood for those whom he does
not love. He's reserved his wrath for them. We must be found in Christ. I
wrote an article that, and I think I told the minute kind of piggybacks
off of Hawker. I italicized the part that Hawker
wrote. I'm not claiming that, but it
is good to think about the way that he approached the destruction
and the desolation that we see throughout even this book. Where's
our hope in that? Well, There's nothing that makes
the believer flee to Christ quite as much as seeing your own sin
and the desolation and destruction you deserve because of your sin,
because of my sin. As soon as you see that, you
flee to him. That's what, that's what it does.
And the good news is, is his wrath has been executed. It won't be executed a second
time. It's, it's finished for his people. We must be found
in Christ. Third thing we see in verse two,
or verse three, I'm sorry. He's
slow to anger. What a glorious truth to know
that our Lord is slow to anger. How many times do we read, how
long, how many years passed by when the Lord was wooing Israel
to him and telling them to return unto him and telling them you
There's wrath coming. There's judgment coming. He's
slow to anger. Why is he slow to anger? Why does he let it
rain on the just and the unjust? I had somebody message me recently
and they said, well, I don't understand why the Lord lets
this world keep spinning. I don't understand why this and
that. He should just burn it. Go ahead and burn it up. But
he can't enact wrath upon his people because their sin has
been put away. He lets it rain on the just and the unjust because
Christ put away the sin of his people. That's why it rains for
everyone. It's for the elect's sake. It's
for the Lord Jesus Christ, his sake. That's why it rains, not
just on our property, but our neighbor's property. Not just
on us, but the heathen lands, the heathen nations that know
not God. He lets it rain on everyone,
doesn't he? According to his will, according to his purpose,
so that everyone is without excuse. Everyone is without excuse. He
does this for his son's sake. Good news for the believer is,
in 2 Peter 3, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise,
as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering. That's what that slow to anger
means. He's long-suffering. How patient is he with us? How
often do we turn away from Him, turn aside to our own self and
look to our own wants and not look to Him, and yet He's long-suffering,
not willing that any of His elect should perish, but all should
come to repentance. And is that a one-time thing,
coming to repentance? No. No, we repent every day,
don't we? Every day. How often every day?
Oh, Lord, I was wrong. I thought of myself again. I
thought of My circumstances again, I'm not looking to Christ. Turn
me and I shall be turned. Oh, he's slow to anger. And there
is no anger for his people. Isn't that glorious? The Lord
has no anger towards his people. What is it? He says, I know my
thoughts. I know what I think of you. It's love. Oh, it's love
and it's peace and it's good. All good. Joy. Unspeakable and
full of glory. When the Lord said he's not willing
that any should perish, you must understand that God's will is
sovereign. If he's not willing that any without exception shall
not perish, there's nobody going to perish. But no, he begins
that book, second Peter, by speaking to the beloved of God, doesn't
he? The ones that Lord loved. He's not willing that any of
the beloved should perish. God's will is sovereign. It can't be
threatened. And yet he is slow to anger. and he is full of grace and he
is full of mercy because of the finished work of his son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. The fourth thing we see is in
verse two. He says, the Lord revengeth and
is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on his adversaries. He reserveth rest for his enemies.
And then verse three says, the Lord is slow to anger. and he
is great in power. I wrote down verse two, but I
should've wrote down verse three. I made a mistake there. He is
great in power. What does that mean? There is
nothing that can challenge him. He's not challenged by anything.
He's not threatened by anything. He's not concerned. He's not alarmed. He doesn't
feel fear like you and I feel fear. There was one time that
the Lord Jesus Christ chose to become a man On the cross of
Calvary, he says, your terrors have compassed me about, talking
about the Lord. He felt fear that day, but in
full faith and assurance of his father and without sin. Now we
don't understand that. There's no way we can, because
everything that he did was holy and true and sinless. But yet
seated in the heavenlies, he feels no fear whatsoever. He's
not threatened. He is great in power. Speaking of Pharaoh, he says,
for this cause, have I raised thee up? For to show in thee
my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the
earth." He literally raised up Pharaoh for one purpose. Pharaoh
had no hope in salvation. Pharaoh was raised up, Judas
was raised up to be the son of perdition. He had no hope that
anything that he would do could change God's mind. That's why
they were raised up, to show forth the Lord's power. Isaiah 50 verse 2, the Lord says,
is my hand shortened at all? Is there anything that shortens
the Lord hand? If he wants to reach to something, is there
anything that can shorten his hand that won't allow it, that
could prevent it? Is there anything that could constrain him or refrain
him in any way? No, he's great in power. Is my
hand shortened at all that I cannot redeem or have no power to deliver?
Behold, at my rebuke, I dry up the sea. I make the rivers a
wilderness. Understand this extending of
his arm. We see his power here. We see the description and a
little bit of insight to his power as far as my pea brain
can. But he only extends his arm in one
of two ways. Understand this. He only extends
his arm in one of two ways. It's either in judgment, in wrath
to execute justice, or it's in mercy. It's in mercy. Why would
it be in mercy? Why would it be of grace? Because
Christ Jesus endured the wrath of God, the power of God on the
cross. What greater display do we see
of the Lord's power than in the bringing of salvation of his
people on the cross of Calvary? The strength of the Lord enduring
the wrath of God until it was finished. What greater example
do we have? There is none. There is none.
He redeemed his people successfully and now is just and the justifier. Now, whether he extends his arm
in judgment or he extends his arm in mercy unto salvation,
neither one is an offer. Neither one is an offer. He's
all powerful. He's not going to try to do anything.
If he extends it in mercy, it will be unto salvation. And if
he sends it in judgment, it will be unto destruction of the soul.
He doesn't try to do anything. The good news is he says with
a strong arm, I have redeemed thee. I have bought you, you
are mine. He saved his people from their
sin. Jesus was speaking in Matthew 28 and said, all power is given
unto me in heaven and in earth, all power. What does all mean? What does all mean? Every single
bit of it. We have no power. If he has all,
how much does that leave for us? Zero. There is none. None whatsoever. No power at
all. All power is Christ's. He's not just great in power.
He is all powerful. All powerful. Do you know the glorious part
of his power? That's how we're kept. By the
power of God through faith unto salvation. All the power that
he has, both in heaven and earth, he keeps. His people with that
power. Jeremiah 50 tells us their Redeemer
is strong. Israel's Redeemer is strong.
The Lord's people, the Lord of hosts is His name. He shall thoroughly
plead their cause. What a thought that the Lord
is seated pleading our cause. What is it you're afraid of?
What is it you're fretting over? Is it your circumstances, your
sin? Flee to Christ. Confess Christ
is all. and take heart and comfort in
knowing that He is thoroughly pleading our cause. He did and
it's finished. He's pleaded the cause of His
people and redeemed them by putting away their sin. He did this that
He may give us rest. He may give us rest and that
He may disquiet the inhabitants of the land. Well, that's what
He's doing in Nahum, isn't it? Is He's disquieting the inhabitants. Do you know why he's disquieting
the inhabitants? Well, the fifth reason we find,
the fifth attribute of the Lord is the reason. Verse three, Lord
is slow to anger and he's great in power and will not at all
acquit the wicked. The Lord is a righteous judge.
If you or I have one sin, just one, of white lie, the smallest
of sin, if we, and our skill is so, wrong in regards of thinking
that there's little sins and big sins. God just sees the sin
and one sin makes us utterly sinful from the top of our head
to the bottom of our feet. One sin. We're made to see that
it's not just the one sin, but that's all that we are is sin,
isn't it? But if there's just one, God's a righteous judge
and he will not excuse it. He will not excuse it. He will
judge that sin and the wages of sin is, has, and always will
be death, death, eternal death, eternal damnation, being lost
forever without hope whatsoever. So what is the hope? That the
Lord put away our sin. He took the wickedness that we
are so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
He gave us a new name, Jehovah-Sitkin-Yu, the Lord our righteousness, and
we're no longer seen as wicked. The Lord will not acquit the
wicked. The Lord shall judge the world in righteousness, Psalm
9 says. He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.
His scale is sure. His covenant, His covenant is
sure. He will not excuse one sin. The
man will excuse themselves. by saying, I'm not as bad as
this person, or I'm not as bad as this person, or they'll accuse.
They'll accuse others and say, well, you're bad for this, and
you're bad for that. That's what men, that's all that men can
do is excuse and accuse, not the believer. No, the believer
that the Lord has called by his grace looks at their self and
says, Lord, I'm the chief of sinners. I don't have any hope
outside of Christ. You're not gonna acquit any sin
whatsoever. You're not gonna acquit the guilty.
I'm guilty. The Lord says, no, you're not. I put away your sin." There's
the gospel. There's our hope. They're made
to see, Lord, if you don't purge me with hyssop, I'll never be
clean. If you don't wash me, I'll never be made whiter than
snow. The good news is the Lord hath put away the sin of his
people. That's what he told David. David said, I've sinned against
the Lord. What'd Nathan say? The Lord hath
put away thy sin. You shall not die. There's no
sweeter words that a man or a woman could ever hear. The Lord hath
put away your sin. You shall not die. Sixth thing that we see, Lord
hath his way. Look at verse three again. Lord
is slow to anger, great in power, and will not at all acquit the
wicked. The Lord hath his way. Where? in the whirlwind, and
in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He
rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry, he dryeth up the rivers.
Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him, and
the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea,
the world and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before
his indignation, and who can abide in the fierceness of his
anger? His fury is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are thrown down by him. When you read that, does
that cause you to, when he says the Lord hath his way, does that
cause us to realize whatever he wants is going to happen? Whatever his purpose is going
to happen? That takes the thought, let Jesus,
just right out of the equation, doesn't it? I've been talking
about that quite a bit lately to you because there's been people
approaching me and I'm having conversations with non-believers
about that subject, let Jesus. But he didn't say that we let
him have his way. He said, the Lord hath his way. That's what he said. And where
does he have it? He just told us in the heavens,
in the earth, all power is given to Christ. This is what he's
speaking of here. He has his way. He hath his way. Now we can't make him Lord, he's
already Lord. He is the Lord that hath his way. He hath his
way. Isaiah 45 tells us, I form the
light, God speaking. He says, I form the light. I
create darkness. I make peace and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. He creates darkness. He makes
peace. He creates evil. How does he
create evil? Well, if he removes his presence,
the absence thereof, and we're left to ourself, evil will be
created. He leaves us just for a moment. We have no hope. We're utter
evil, aren't we? Our heart's deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked. The Lord hath his way in all
things. The earth is the Lord and the
fullness thereof. Everything that is, that ever
was, that ever will be, it's God's. and God will do with it
whatever he will. Do you bow to that? Is that your
hope? Because if he doesn't have his
way, what is your hope? What is my hope in that? No,
him having his way is our only hope, isn't it? His way. As for
God, his way is perfect, David said. The word of the Lord is
tried. He is a buckler to all those
that trust in him. His way is perfect. Only believers
believe that. God's way is perfect. How many
times in a day, how many times in a day do you get frustrated
at circumstances? Do I get frustrated at circumstances?
But yet what is the resolve at the end of the day? What is the
resolve when we hear the gospel? Oh, the Lord's way is perfect.
His way is better than my way. His way is the only way. Christ
is the way. I don't even have a way anymore,
do we? We don't have a way, do we? Christ is the way. Oh, His
way is perfect. Only believers rejoice that the
Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. He's God. He's seated and has
his way. By his grace, his elect have
been made to say the Lord is righteous in all his ways and
holy in all his works. Only the gospel can reveal this.
Only the gospel gives full glory to the Lord Jesus Christ and
shows that his way is perfect and that his judgments are righteous,
that everything he does is good. Romans 11 says, oh, the depths
and riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable
are his judgments and his ways past finding out. We can't come
to a knowledge of the truth on our own, can we? We can't gain
more information and calculate and compute to attain the truth.
It doesn't work that way. His ways are past finding out. The good news of the gospel is
Christ is the way. and he reveals it by his gospel.
He has his way in heaven and in earth. The seventh thing that we see
that brings us comfort is in verse seven, the Lord is good. The Lord is good. Now it doesn't
matter whether I think he's good. It doesn't matter whether I believe
he's good. What matters is, is what he said,
God is good. Lord, make me believe that you're
good. Teach me thy precepts. Cause
me to see thy face. Make me walk in thy understanding. Give me your light, Lord. Show
me that good and upright is the Lord. Therefore will he teach
sinners in the way. That's our hope, isn't it? Lord,
I'm a sinner. Teach me in the way, the way that I should go.
Leave me not to myself. It's the goodness of God that
leads men to repentance. It's his way of doing it. You know why he doesn't send
every one of us to hell right now? Because the Lord is good. Because his mercy endureth forever. His mercy is everlasting and
his truth endureth to all generations. Psalm 86 tells us, for thou,
Lord, are good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all
them that call upon thee. We are false. We are full of
sin, but he is good. He is good, ready to forgive,
ready to hear. His ear is not heavy, neither
is his arm short. He's ready to forgive. Do you
feel the weight of your sin? Do you see the ugly that we are
by nature, what we are? Flee to Christ, he's ready to
forgive. He's ready to forgive. The Lord tells us there's only
one that's good. A rich man came to him and said,
good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? The Lord
said, there is none good. Why do you call me good? There's
none good but God. He always give glory to his father,
didn't he? There's none good but God. What does that mean? Well, if the Lord said it, that
means the only one that's good is God. Well, what is my hope? That when he died, I died in
him. That he gave me his goodness and took my badness. He gave
me his righteousness and took our sin. Do we see that? That's our only hope. He's good.
I'm not. No, we're not good, but he is.
He's good unto his people. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. And it's by
his mercy we're not consumed. That's what he tells us. By his
mercy we're not consumed, by his grace we are saved through
faith. The Lord's good to his people, isn't he? The Lord's
good. It's by his goodness we've been
redeemed. Now the eighth thing we see, verse seven again, the
Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. And he knoweth
them that trusteth in him. But with an overrunning flood,
he will make utter end of the place thereof, the darkness shall
pursue his enemies. What do you imagine against the
Lord? He will make an utter end. Affliction shall not rise up
the second time. The second thing we see is that
he's a stronghold in the day of trouble. The second, it's
the eighth thing we see. He's a stronghold in the day
of trouble. What is the day of trouble? Well,
there's coming a day of judgment. The scripture says every deed
will be brought into account, whether it be good or whether
it be evil. I've heard men in religion preach on that saying,
how are you living? And they would use that as lawmongering.
And they would use that to frighten people and make them live better
lives and say, you better be living good because every deed
is going to be brought up, whether it's good or whether it's evil.
If our hope is that whenever the Lord says, bring forth your
record unto him, as in the judgment seat of the Lord, as in the court
of law, And if our hope is something that we have done, there will
be no goodness unto us. We will not have a stronghold.
But our hope is that when the Lord says, bring forth your account,
that the Lord stands in our place. And when the, when the day, when
the day of trouble comes, the Lord is our refuge. The Lord
is our hiding place. The Lord is our stronghold. The
Lord is the place of safety. Protection. The Lord's our refuge. That's what stronghold means.
The Lord stands in our stead and gives an account of himself.
And the Lord looks at us and says, enter in thou good and
faithful servant. Thou have been faithful over a few things. I'll
make you ruler over many. There's our hope. Lord, be my
stronghold in the day of trouble. See, in order for him to be our
stronghold in the day of trouble, he had to endure the day of trouble
himself for us. God will not acquit the guilty.
Christ Jesus became guilty for his people, didn't he? He wore
their sin in his own body and put them away in the day of trouble.
Christ was troubled by the father with the wrath that came down
and the justice that was executed upon his darling son. And now
you and I, we have a stronghold when the day of trouble comes
because Christ put away our sin. We have a hiding place, an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast. We have a city of refuge to flee
to, When the avenger of blood comes, it says, we're guilty.
We have a place to hide. He says, no, you're not. You're
innocent. You can't come in here. I will
protect you. I am your stronghold. We have
a cleft of the rock where we can see the glory of God to hide
in. We have an ark, just as Noah's
ark. We have an ark to be safe in
when the fire of God's wrath falls. We'll have a place. We have a place of security because
Christ Jesus put away our sin. Everyone in that ark was perfectly
safe, weren't they? Every single one of them are brought to safety.
That's what we have is a stronghold. Christ is our stronghold in the
day of trouble. Now, I told you I had to go quickly,
so we're on our last one. And in verse seven, we do see
the last one. Lord is a stronghold in the day
of trouble. This may be of all of these, they're all precious,
but this may be one of the most precious of all of them. He knoweth
them that trust in Him. He knoweth them. When Adam and
Eve, after they had sinned in the garden and they had fallen,
and the Lord had given them a covering, it said, Adam knew his wife and
she conceived and bare sons. Bare son, Cain, and again, and
bare Abel. This word new, it's an intimate thing. It's, it's
the love that the Lord has towards his people. He knows his people
that trust in him. Why do we trust in him? Because
he's made us to see that he's the only stronghold we have.
He's made us to see that he's a jealous God. He's made us to
see all of these attributes that he has, and yet he's given us
a place to hide. And then he says, I know you.
I know you by name, I've called you, I've formed you, I've redeemed
you, you are mine. That's the glorious news of the
gospel, isn't it? He makes his people willing in
the day of his power, makes us to trust in him in all things.
Proverbs 3 tells us, trust in the Lord with all thine heart.
Lean not to thine own understanding, but in all thy ways acknowledge
him, and he shall direct your path." Well, what's going to
be the path? Paul said, I press towards the
mark. The path is the Lord guiding us unto Christ. We're already
in him, but yet we're still on a journey, aren't we? We're still
pilgrims. I used to think that life was a sprint, especially
younger. The older I get, I keep saying
that, and everybody smiles when I say it. I know I'm young. I've
learned a few things along the way. And one thing I've definitely
learned is, is life is definitely not a sprint. It's a marathon
and it's up a mountain. They used to say, I remember
older men would talk and they say, well, you have it easy.
We used to have to walk to school 10 miles uphill both ways in
the snow. And it was just silly, but that's what life is like,
isn't it really? And it's one foot at a time. And what are
you pressing? What are we pressing toward? Oh, I want to be found
in Him. I want to see Him. He's the finish
line. He's the reward. Lord, give me
Christ lest I die. We start out as trailblazers. As a young man, I was ready to
do new things and see new things and go new places. And we end
up just being survivors, don't we? Just trying to get through
it. Just surviving. Lord, give me Christ. Lord, He's
the treasure. He's the treasure of the Lord's
people. Lean not to your own understanding.
Trust Christ. Trust is the result of faith.
Trust is the result of faith. If you can trust Christ with
your salvation, you will, because he's given you faith to do so.
If I am trusting in Christ as all in my salvation, it's because
God has made me do so. Because he chose to sow mercy.
God is love the thought. He knows his people. He watches
over them. If he sees the sparrows falling
to the ground, if they don't fall to the ground and notice,
how much more is he going to take notice of you and I when we have needs?
Trust not your own understanding. Look to Christ. He knoweth his
people. He knoweth his people. Faith cannot be gotten by experience. It cannot be gotten by education,
and it cannot be attained by knowledge that we come to on
our own. It's all by God. If we've been
given faith, we will trust God. And if we're trusting in him,
he knoweth us. At this hour, we've looked at
nine attributes, and I want to recap those. First, we saw God
as a jealous God. God is a jealous God. Not jealous. Of anything, he's jealous for
his elect. Jealous for. He's extremely protective,
isn't it? Severely protective. Fervently,
with all of his heart, he defended her unto death and died in her
stead. He's jealous for her. He reserves his wrath for his
enemies because Christ Jesus put away the wrath of his people,
put away their sin on the cross of a Calvary, endearing the wrath
of God. The Lord extinguished that wrath for his people. And
now there's only wrath for his enemies. He is slow to anger. He is long suffering for his
people. Slow to anger. He takes, he, he's, uh, he's
not quick. You and I are quick sometimes
to anger, aren't we? I always use driving as an example because
people are crazy on the roads and I know I am too, but I get
cut off. I get angry. Not the Lord. He's slow to anger.
He's slow to anger, purposing all things and everything does
whatsoever he wills. He's great in power. He has all
power in heaven and on earth and he will not acquit the wicked.
The Lord hath his way in heaven and in earth and in everything
that's happening. The Lord is good. He is good
to his people and he is the stronghold of his people in the day of trouble.
He knoweth them that trust him. This is who he is and this is
what he's done. I didn't give you the title of
this message, and I realize that now. Title was the distinct attributes
of God. We can't take one attribute.
Out of the equation. It's all him. It's infinite,
isn't it? We can't even. We can't even
calculate the equation. It's all him. It's all his attributes
and he gets all the glory, doesn't he? And he saved his people.
That's the glorious news of the gospel. He did it all by not. contradicting one attribute whatsoever.