Nahum 1:10 & 11 Thorns and Wicked Counselors Pt. 2

All right, so as you guys know, we're in the book of Nahum right bearing straight here there we go, okay, and We're gonna read verses 1 chapter 1 verses 3 through 11

Just gonna quickly review verse 10 and get into verse 11. We're gonna spend the whole time on that So here now the inspired

Word of God Nahum chapter 1 verse 3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and the

Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished In whirlwind and storm is his way and clouds are the dust beneath his feet

He rebukes the sea and makes it dry He dries up all the rivers Bashin and Carmel wither the blossoms of Lebanon wither

Mountains quake because of him and the hills dissolve Indeed the earth is upheaved by his presence the world and all its inhabitants in it who can stand before his indignation

Who can endure the burning of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire And the rocks are broken up by him

The Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knows those who take refuge in him

But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of its sight and will pursue his enemies into darkness

Whatever you devise against the Lord, he will make a complete end of it Distress will not rise up twice like tangled thorns and like those who are drunken with their drink

They are consumed as stubble completely withered From you has gone forth one who plotted evil against the

Lord a wicked counselor Amen Again, so we're gonna just briefly cover verse 10 like tangled thorns and those who are drunken with their drink

They are consumed as stubble completely withered and we had said That the metaphor of consuming is used ironically at first Nineveh has been the consuming force for many years

Consuming the Israelites and the other nations around them eating its fruit consuming the bars of many city gates in fire

Nineveh is the lion that has devoured the ancient near east The consuming practices of Nineveh as a lion and as a cloud of locusts are further developed in Nahum chapter 2 and 3

We'll get to that in the future The prophecy that Nineveh itself will now be consumed is almost unbelievable to the peoples of the ancient world

Again, Nineveh Assyria is that is the world power? You would look at Nineveh and say no one could defeat them and now because of what they've done with Israel God is going to use

Babylon to come in and conquer Assyria, which would have been unthinkable for the people at that time

The judgment of God shall come in a manner appropriate to the stubbornness of the sinner the phrase as thorns twisted

Figuratively describes the hard -headed Hard -hearted resistant characteristic of the Assyrian to the authority of the one true living

God They have made taught rigid their stubborn wills So that any and all approaches even from God will be met by prickly resistance as with their drink

They are drunk depicts the dead and stupor into which they have sunk willingly Okay, it's their persistent

Rebellion against God. Okay that Nahum is described. I'm going to go through that real quick here to also

This stubbornness is countered by the consuming fire of God's wrath. No, nothing is going to stop

God's wrath They shall be consumed as stubble fully dried Nothing burns more quickly and with greater intensity than fully dried stubble

All right If you ever drop the match into sawdust You'll see how quickly it goes up the tighter this tangle of thorns the more spontaneous it combusts if the

Assyrian abandoned Self -control and drunkenness then he has forfeited all control of self and should be turned into smoking vapors

This is what it looks like This verse pictures progressive images of trouble first They're tangled thorns

Then in a drunken stupor and finally dry to crackle crispy in consuming flames

Nineveh's and a serious end will be final. Does anybody remember why it's going to be a complete destruction of Assyria and Nineveh?

How did Nina and Assyria? treat their enemies They completely wiped them out.

So as with the measure you so will be done unto you. God is going to completely Wipe out the

Assyrians. There's going to be nothing left of them and for a long time in historical in historical periods there was no

Recordings of what happened to Assyria. They were lost for a while Eventually, they were found but they were completely wiped off the map

Okay So now we're going to get into verse 11 from you has gone forth one who plotted evil against the

Lord a wicked counselor The next address is even more forceful For it is from the mouth of God up to now

Nahum has been speaking indirectly to the Ninevites as they and them Now God's words are spoken directly second person singular to Nineveh as you

Have you ever been in a position where someone was pointing at you because you did something wrong?

Remember when we talked about Job and God questioning him and Questioning him and questioning him and Job sat there put his hand over his mouth

Could you imagine the Almighty pointing a finger at you? Saying you have done this you are gonna reap the consequences for what you've done.

I can't imagine That God pointing a finger finger at me and saying you what

I would feel like I'll be like Isaiah undone the powerful confrontation of Nahum's inspired voice speaking the you

Against Nineveh is a repeated is repeated a remarkable 22 times in the next two chapters in the you one can hear both the intense human outcry against Nineveh's atrocities and Yahweh's direct response against its wicked and criminal oppression of the ancient

Near East a Syria will receive everything that they're do right and what we have to remember sometimes when we come under persecution not physically thankfully at this point in time, but sometimes in our jobs or We get we're part of the cancel culture

Somebody doesn't do business with you because you're a Christian and you speak out against the things that the Bible speaks out against We have to remember that God is one who's going to repay.

He says I will avenge It is not up to us to avenge our enemies Okay, our job is to love our enemies and bless those who persecute you

It's the exact opposite of what the world would expect. Okay, we leave vengeance up to God He's the one who takes vengeance on our enemies

Difficult to do but that's what we're called to do We got to remember at one point in time. We were enemies rebels toward God and he seized and subdued our heart

He conquered our heart for his glory and for his namesake But for the mercy and grace of God, we too would be the oppressors and persecuting people.

Okay? The one who comes from Nineveh and plots evil against the

Lord and counsels wickedness is a king Or is the king or a king of Assyria?

Some commentators understand Nahum to be speaking of Sinatrib Who lived from who ruled from 705 to 781 and he was a particular evil king from Assyria's past In 701

BC. He devastated the land of Judah Destroying 47 fortified cities including

Lachish if not for God's supernatural intervention He would have annihilated

Jerusalem that's found in 2nd Kings chapter 18 and 19 Others say name Nahum could also have had in mind the current king of Nineveh as he too

Designed evil and wickedness against the true God and his people Okay, we're gonna go through right now who we think who

I think and some of the commentators think that King is Daniel cook Gregory cook

I should say who his commentary on Nahum is just incredible. I love it continually Quote him he says this the events of verse 11 happened when

Assyria invading Judah in 701 BC a Human messenger went forth from Nineveh to give

Jerusalem worthless counsel this rabbi Sheikah gave much counsel to those quaking behind Jerusalem's walls and all of the qualified as evil as Against the

Lord and as worthless He boasted that no God or king could resist Assyria Should the

Jerusalemites choose to trust in God's deliverance. They would eat their own dung and drink their own urine

Now if that isn't a poke in the eye of the God of Israel, I don't know what is

So I just want to show you the verse that he's talking about in 2nd Kings chapter 18

But the rabbi Sheikah said to said to them has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you and Not to the men sitting on the wall who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine

Then rabbi Sheikah stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah Hear the word of the great king the king of Assyria Thus says the king do not let

Hezekiah deceive you for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand Do not let

Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord By saying the Lord will surely deliver us and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria Do not listen to Hezekiah for thus says the king of Assyria Make your peace with me and come out to me then each one of you will eat your own eat of his own vine and each of you of your own fig tree and Each of you will drink the water of his own cistern until I come and take you away

To a land like your own land a land of grain and wine a land of bread and vineyards a land of olive trees and honey

That you may live and not die and do not listen to Hezekiah who misleads you by saying the

Lord will deliver us Do not these words sound like the words of God promising them a land promising them a vineyard

Promising them all these things. These are the things that God promised to us and to Israel Okay, I'm gonna bring you to land flowing with milk and honey

Okay, you're gonna reap the fruit of the land Notice the language sounds very much like the temptation in the wilderness

To the temp the temptation to Adam and Eve, right? This is how

Satan counterfeits God's actions. Thus says the king of Assyria Thus says the

Lord Right. We trust in God over all the Kings who would seek to persecute us or take us over especially in this situation

They're being taunted and they're being told that the promises of God are not going to hold up he's not going to be able to deliver you

You say that to God and God is not going to take that lightly Okay So we're gonna see what happens here, right?

Thankfully Jerusalem rejected the counsel of Rabbi Sheikha Hezekiah humbled himself and then

Isaiah prophesied Sinatrub's doom The Bible considers this event so momentous that three different Old Testament books devoted a total of five chapters to retelling the story

The vileness of Rabbi Sheikha's words are also merited mention in Nahum. These insults become a reason for divine judgment

Again, I'm brother Lawrence had brought this up before anybody who's in covenant with Israel God's people is also in covenant with God So when you break that covenant or cause a problem with that covenant with God's people, he's now going to come after you 2nd

Kings 19 As soon as King Hezekiah heard it He tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the

Lord and he sent Eliakim to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz They said to him thus says

Hezekiah This day is a day of distress of rebuke of disgrace Children have come to the point of birth and there is no strength to bring them forth

It may be that the Lord your God heard all the words of Rabbi Sheikha Whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the

Living God and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has Heard therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.

He's asking Isaiah to intercede for him When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah Isaiah said to them say to your master thus says the

Lord do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard With which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me

Behold I will put a spirit in him so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land

And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land This is God avenging the destruction of his people or the

Perceived destruction of his people Assyria trying to come in and take them over We see this in Acts chapter 9 when when

Paul's on the on the road over to Damascus And and God shines a bright light and says soul soul.

Why are you persecuting me? Who was soul persecuting? This is an easy one the church, right?

How is that me? Right. We're so closely in union with Christ that an attack on the church is an attack on the king

Right when you're in union marriage covenant, right an attack on my wife is an attack on me

You attack you can attack me and I may take it you attack my wife. You're gonna have a problem

It's the way it is. You don't attack the people of God God will avenge that Okay, and thankfully we don't have to avenge it avenge that we leave it to God God's gonna do a much better job of avenging than we can

Okay, so don't keep it in your mind and we talked about this Several weeks ago with regards to revenge don't look to seek revenge

Leave room for God God will avenge his people and bring about perfect justice We need to just be witnesses of the mercy and the grace and the love that he's shown us to the people around us

Okay. All right. So from you has gone one -fourth who what?

Plotted against plotted evil against the Lord a wicked counsel. Where else have we heard about plotting evil?

We talked about it all the time here. There's a psalm

That there's a psalm that we talk about a lot around here Psalm 2 there we go.

Excellent. Psalm 2 why did the nation's rage and the people's plot? Right the people plot in vain.

They're plotting against the Lord The kings of the earth set themselves together and the rulers take counsel together

Against the Lord and against his anointed saying let us burst their bonds apart and cast their cords from us

The natural condition of the human heart is to cast off God's rule to cast off God's law.

I don't want to submit to the king I submit to me and me alone. I have my own law.

I Determine what's right or wrong? This is what happened in the garden, right? The the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

I'll determine what's good and evil. I don't need a God to tell me what's good or evil you hear that in the world today

Right so many people think that they're doing what's right in their eyes and they are doing what's right in their eyes only it's evil

In God's eyes. All right, they call evil good and good evil So many things are happening in the society today that we could look at and say, oh my goodness.

They are trying to Burst burst God's cords off them take God's cords away from this is the default condition of the human heart

We at one point in time All Operated under our own autonomy.

We all had a law for ourselves that we were following and thinking it was right And Proverbs says says that there is a way that lead the how's it go?

Thank you. Say that again Seems right There's a way that seems right to a man and in the end it leads to destruction

Right and this unfortunately is the is the condition of the human heart. We think we know what's right

Until we see what God's law says and we line ourselves up to that and recognize. Oh my goodness

I fall woefully short of God's perfect law Actual Assyrian annals contain numerous notations that a subject

King had plotted and devised evil So here's where they actually pull up historical evidence annals records of what the

King said for instance Ashurbanipal his annals record as King of Ashdod plotted in his heart to withhold his tribute and sent messages of hostility to the

Kings round about him Right, so he plotted he plotted evil in his heart because of the evil

He had done I Assyria put an end to his rule over the people of his land So here you have actual recorded history of these guys writing down how they plotted

Not against God because they didn't think they were plotting against God. They were plotting against Israel and other nations around them plotted in his heart

In a more vivid recounting Sinatra boasted I tore out the tongues of those who slanderous mouths had uttered blasphemies against my

God Asher and had plotted against me His God -fearing Prince I defeated them

Completely one such plot resulted in Israel's destruction So here you have the kings of Assyria plotting evil plotting evil plotting evil

You know basically a reflection of what Psalm 2 says they're plotting evil against the

Lord They're plotting evil against his anointed which would be Israel at that point in time right Israel was God's chosen people chosen nation the human heart

Wants autonomy it does not want to submit itself to the authority of God or anyone else

Okay, any questions at this point? We're good. Yes Steve. I Just remember in Genesis Some after Kane and there's a

Genealogy and one of them I think One of them killed someone

I killed I killed a boy If pain is this punished they're not punished seven times what he's

Posted that early and that's the human heart where the

Assyrian they have records of their posting And just, you know, when a society is so depraved that the evil is exalted and lifted up in praise, you have to let the

God be. Certainly. Yeah, Lamech, I think it was Lamech said, let Lamech's revenge be sevenfold or seventyfold, something along those lines.

Several weeks ago we read, we talked about Psalm 1, blessed is the man, right?

Now we're reading Psalm 2, which really is a continuation of Psalm 1 and then cut in half. And this is the man who plots evil, the nations raging, plotting evil against the

Lord. Okay. So we pray as Christians, not my will be done, but thy will be done.

All right. We don't want autonomy. We want to come under the Lordship of Jesus, recognize that he is

King, Jesus is Lord. Thankfully, we want to act in accordance with his will. Even before Hezekiah was in Israel, against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and Hosea became his vassal and paid him tribute.

But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hosea, for he had sent messengers to Sow, king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year.

Therefore, the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria for three years.

He besieged it. Okay. So this, again, is the enemies of Israel coming against them. Assyria had no tolerance for Israel's scheming.

Again, they wanted a vassal state. They wanted them to just bow down, pay them off, and continue business as usual.

But God would have no tolerance for Assyria's plots against the Lord. Remember, God's people are in covenant with Him.

When you come against God's people, you're coming against God himself. So the Assyrians accepted

God's blessing, the expansion of their empire, their wealth, their fame, but they refused to acknowledge the true cause of their success, or give

God His portion. All right. It was God who used Assyria to come in to punish the

Israelites for their disobedience, but they took it too far. Their hearts went too far. And this is why

God's going to punish them. Nahum considered action against Jerusalem as against the

Lord Himself. Those who make themselves enemies of God's people become the enemies of the

Lord. This is why our actions toward the widow, toward the orphan, toward the outcast, towards the unbeliever, are so important.

When we devise wicked schemes because it is in our power to do so, we oppose God Himself. Okay.

So important that we show love and mercy and grace and kindness to the people around us.

Love your enemies. Bless those who persecute you. Now look, if you had to choose a religion, would you choose a religion that tells you, oh, love your enemies, bless them?

I'd be picking a religion that'd be like, oh, let's take the heads off. Let's kick them down the street, right?

That's why nobody chooses Christianity. That's why God has to choose you and transform your heart so that you recognize and understand that this is supernatural.

The only way you can love your enemy and bless those who persecute you is by the supernatural Holy Spirit changing your heart to love them and have pity on them, knowing that if they die in their rebellion to God, He's ultimately going to have,

He's going to avenge them and they will pay for their own sins. We, we, we have to remember that that is a horrendous end for anybody who dies in rebellion to God.

We should never, ever, ever want that for anyone because we were in the same condition. Now is it just absolutely is

God right to do it? Absolutely. But we should be so enamored, so moved by God's love for us that we show that love to everyone else and, and pray that they don't end in that place, right?

Our heart should be moved such that we've received mercy. We've received grace. We have to show that to the other people around us.

Genesis 12, three is an example of those who oppose God. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you,

I will curse and, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Galatians 6, 10.

So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially those who are of the household of faith.

Okay. Wicked counselor. This is going to be interesting. The words translated wicked counselor are found several places in the old

Testament as one commentator Patterson notes, one who counsels wickedness stands in stark contrast to the coming

Messiah who will be a wonder of a counselor, right? Isaiah nine, that's the Christmas verse.

He shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, prince of peace, everlasting father.

So here we have a contrast between the wicked counselor, right? And God, who's going to send a wonderful counselor, his son,

Jesus, who's going to be the prince of peace. In some places in the

King James, it transliterates the word for wickedness as a belly owl. The sons of Eli were sons of belly owl, a phrase emphasizing their wickedness or worthlessness.

The two sons of belly owl carried out Jezebel's wicked plan to murder Nick Naboth and to defraud him of his vineyard.

Later, the phrase came to be associated with the wickedness of Satan. Okay. So that word belly owl is a transliteration.

So it's really just the word in Hebrew transliterated into English. The same way we use the word baptized, which means to immerse.

We don't say immerse. We say baptized, right? Because that's the Greek word. So it just gets pulled over into English so that we use the word baptized.

Same thing with belly owl. It means wicked, worthless counselor. The context in scripture for the usage of this term points consistently to a person who is depraved and despicable.

Usually this is taken as a reference to Sinatrib, but A .T. Robinson is correct in seeing Nahum's usage as broader.

All those wicked kings and leaders of the enemies of God's people who have come forth from Assyria manifest the characteristics of that brutal figure.

As Achtemeyer says, it certainly is the title which Nahum gives to evil incarnate in the form of Assyria.

So this kind of has a dual fulfillment. The wicked counselor is Sinatrib, and we're going to see that in a second, but it also applies to all of the other wicked counselors, all the other wicked kings that would follow after Sinatrib.

Nahum's adjective, worthless, wicked, also appearing in verse 15, carries more malice than the

English word suggests. We could just as easily translate it as the proper name, belly owl.

Most Hebrew names carry meanings, so it does not surprise us to find such a word here. It's very important when you're going through the scriptures, if you see a name, look up what that name means.

There's so much meaning poured into the names of the people who were named in the scriptures.

They have significance behind them. We think of Jacob, God calls him

Israel. What does Israel mean? Israel means struggles with God, right?

Because he wrestled with the angel of the Lord and won. So sometimes when we're going through life and we're struggling with God, praise

God, that means you're Israel. That means you're struggling with God. If you weren't struggling with God and going your own direction, that's when we would worry.

So when God conforms you into his image, it involves struggle. So embrace the struggle.

I hate to say that, but we have to, right? Because we're not perfect. We need to be conformed to him who is.

For instance, the word Satan is transliteration of the Hebrew word. It means accuser or adversary.

Satan's name derives from his actions. Revelation 1210 calls Satan the accuser of our brothers.

For our purposes now, we only need to note that such words may function as a proper name, a description, or both.

In Nahum 1 .11 and 1 .15, he definitely used the word as an adjective, worthless.

But he likely intended the double meaning, an adjective and a title. So it's not just that Belial is worthless.

That's also his title, worthless, wicked. The New Testament confirms that Belial is a demonic being.

And when you look up 2 Corinthians 6, Paul gives this command. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? So there it's a direct name of that particular being.

The use of Belial suggests that Nahum believed that Judah had suffered from a malevolent spirit.

And it's translated Belial in the ESV, NASB, the Net Bible, Lexham English Bible, Young's Little Translations, they all use the proper name

Belial. So it's not just one version that would say that. It's pretty much in all the literal

English versions. The womb of wickedness, which is

Nineveh, has produced a horrid monstrosity, a son of Belial, as the text reads, literally translated as he who schemes ruthlessly.

This is the wicked counselor. The precise origin of the term Belial is difficult to determine. It may have originated by co -joining the two words bely, meaning without, and ya 'al, meaning value or worth.

A son of Belial would be a worthless one. The context of the scripture for the usage of the term points consistently to a person who is depraved and despicable.

The law code of Deuteronomy anticipates a situation in which the sons of Belial may lead astray the inhabitants of a city, luring them into the worship of another god.

We're going to see an example of this in a second. Deuteronomy 13, 13, certain worthless fellows, that's that term,

Belial, have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known.

OK, so this this spirit, Belial, is dragging people away. Additionally, the use of the term, the use of the same phrase in the

Book of Judges to describe the debasement who demanded the opportunity to sexually abuse the overnight guests of their neighbor, probably intends to set the narrative in terms of the provisions of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomic law about the sons of Belial.

OK, so this is this is a term that is denoted to describe the worthlessness of the king, a wicked counselor, as opposed to Jesus, who is the wonderful counsel, the one, the

Prince of Peace, who's coming. Name is the only one of all the prophets to use the term

Belial, and he employs it twice in the book, verse 11 and verse 15. From you has gone forth one who plotted evil against the

Lord, a wicked counselor and 115 behold on the mountains of the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace, celebrate your feast.

So Judah, pay your vows for never again will the wicked one, the Belial, pass through you.

He's cut off completely. So all of the wicked ones eventually are going to be cut off and separated from God forever and not live in the new heavens and the new earth.

So we can say, yes, we're being persecuted by a Belial, a wicked counselor. Wicked counselors are going to stand against the

Lord, but no one is going to overthrow his plan and his purpose. He's going to make a complete end of all of them.

So although we go through some difficult times right now, we have to look to the Lord, we have to recognize that he will avenge his enemies, that we will be safeguarded in the midst of it.

I mean, safeguarded doesn't mean that you're not going to get hurt or lose your life, but you're not going to lose your life for no reason.

You're going to lose your life if you do for the king of kings and the Lord of lords for the sake of the kingdom. Right. Look at what happened with the early church persecuted, martyred.

You'll read that the book, the Fox's Book of Martyrs, and you see how many of these these people laid their lives down yesterday.

Sure. Right. He who loses his life for my sake shall gain it.

Right. We can't we we shouldn't be so bent on saving our own lives that we lose our own souls.

Right. We want to be able to say freely, I'm laying my life down for the sake of the kingdom, for the sake of Christ.

Why? Because that's what he did for me. Right. We have to have a long range vision.

Right. We don't look to the things that are temporal. We look to the things that are eternal because the things temporal are unseen, the things eternal, the things temporal are seen, the things eternal are unseen.

Right. We're going to be living in a future kingdom here on Earth where we will be seen. But it's again based on the spiritual principle behind it.

OK, the term Belial at first had broad application to designate men generally possessing a set of set of scoundrelish characteristics.

Subsequently, the term narrowed so that it became a designation of Satan himself, the archenemy of God.

It is so used in the Testament of the twelve patriarchs, the ascension of Isaiah, the Book of Jubilees and the

Sibylline Oracles. This intertestamental application of the term helps to explain its only appearance in the

New Testament found in 2nd Corinthians 6 .15 as a member of a fivefold contrast, Paul sets

Christ and Belial over and against each other. OK, good.

All right. So really, we're going to end a little early here unless we have questions. The Assyrians were like thorns, drunk and stubble.

Right. So they were tangled thorns. They were in a drunken stupor and they became like stubble, easily consumed.

Once once God set it on fire, it would be quickly consumed, which is what the Assyrians are going to happen to the

Assyrians. First tangled, then in a stupor and finally dried and lifeless.

Again, we had talked several weeks ago with regards to abiding Christ and bearing fruit. You have to abide in the one who has is the fountainhead of the spirit,

OK, who you're plugged into, who you're grafted into. And as the spirit takes residence up in you, you're going to bear the fruit of the spirit.

If you're not abiding in Christ, you're abiding in something else. And whatever else you're abiding in is not going to bring forth the fruit of the spirit.

Right. You have to remember we have to abide in Christ. He is the prince of peace. That's that's our

Lord. Their end, Assyria's end will be final, complete and consumed the same way

Assyria went in and completely wiped out their enemies. God went in and completely wiped them out and will in the future wipe out all of his enemies.

Whoever stands against God is going to be consumed. Jesus says whoever whoever doesn't gather with me scatters.

So even those people who claim to be neutral are not neutral. If you're not for me, you're against me,

Jesus says. So we have to we have to have a mindset of moving forward within the kingdom of God, preaching the gospel, loving, loving our enemy, loving our neighbor.

These guys are going to be in Port Jeff 230 today preaching the gospel so that people hear the gospel.

Thank goodness that people still preach the gospel outside. So many times people come up to us.

Why are you doing this? Thank you for asking. And it gives us an opportunity to tell them who we serve.

When you think about who our father is, who the king of kings is and know that as his child, you're working for him.

You you can't get a higher authority to work for. There's no company on earth that you can work for that's going to give you the benefits that you have working for your father in heaven.

Remember, your life has been saved, your soul has been saved for all eternity. What is that worth?

What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? Your soul is of infinite value and will live on forever.

Just a matter of where. The one from Assyria, Assyria is the you remember the finger

God is pointing at Assyria, you are the wicked counselor. Right when again, when

Job stood before God and God questioned him, he recognized that he was he was way outmatched.

He puts his hand over his mouth. Whoa. Oh, my goodness. I've spoken when I shouldn't have.

The one is a wicked king and he singled out. I believe that it's Sinatra, OK, who came who came in, who was the king who sent

Rabshakeh to the walls of Jerusalem to speak those words and said that your your God won't deliver you.

You're going to eat dung and drink urine, OK, which is obviously an offense to God's people and an offense to God who will deliver them and proved to that king in Assyria and the rest of the world that he would he would avenge them.

He, like all unbelieving kings, plot against the Lord. Again, it's the it's the it's the default condition of the human heart to stand against God and the things of God.

It's not the human condition to come out of the womb loving God, although God can do that.

Right. But we trust that God can change the heart at the proclamation of the gospel.

So when when when the gospel is preached, we recognize that God ordains the means as well as the end.

So a lot of times, you know, again, we're Calvinists. Oh, God, you know, nobody's going to choose

God unless unless he chooses them first. Absolutely. That's 100 percent correct.

But he also uses the proclamation of the gospel to do that. Right. We can't sit on our hands and say, well,

God's going to save everybody he decided to save. No, because he decided to use us and us proclaiming the gospel as the means by which somebody would hear the message and that he would change and affect their heart.

So you can't sit on your hands like a hyper Calvinist would and say it's all going to work out.

God's just going to take care of everything. We're not responsible. We are responsible for proclaiming the gospel.

We are responsible for loving our neighbor. We are responsible for loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

OK, our actions in this life matter. OK, and I'll say this and have to qualify it.

There is a choice. You need to choose Jesus. You need to choose Jesus. There is a choice now whether you do or not,

OK, is going to be determined by what God does in your heart. But there is a choice such that when you reject

Jesus, that's a choice to reject Jesus. It's the natural condition of your heart. But if you recognize what

God's law says and the fact that you're going to stand before him, have to give an account of your life, every idle word which should scare the life out of you and me.

Now is the time to bend the knee, now is the time to recognize your own sinfulness, turn from it and trust in the

Savior. There's demonic activity behind all of the actions that we talked about today and all of the actions that are going on in the world today.

All these different nations, they're still plotting against the Lord and they're all motivated by unclean spirits.

Belial is a wicked counselor, OK? He is one of the ones moving in the spiritual realm against the things of God.

With that, any questions? I wouldn't use the term federal headship, but I would say that all evil is going to be punished, regardless of whether they come under the king and his actions or not.

Nations are going to be judged. OK, and sometimes there's innocent people, they're Christians in the middle of a nation like us today and our nation is being judged.

Right. So we feel it. Ultimately, everybody's going to stand before God and have to give an account of what they've done with the revelation they've received.

Yes, Steve. In Proverbs, in many places, it says that the wicked will fall into the traps that they're setting for the righteous.

So when Rav Shaka was at the wall and he was, you know, the tongue has the power to fight for death, he was mocking

God. And it was prophesied that he would go home and die from a rumor, you know, from someone else's mouth.

He died from his own, setting a trap for Israel, his own destruction. And then there was another thing that when you think of like powerful nations, like powerful armies and man strength, and you compare it to the, you know, who can endure the burning of his anger, the rocks are broken up by him, an overflowing flood, none of these things, man can't stand in front of a flood, how big can you build a wall to defeat him?

It's just, I can't think of a word, of course, the example of one versus the other one is so much more powerful.

God is so much more powerful. Absolutely, absolutely. Listen, when you when you stand outside at night and you look up into the sky, if you were in a spot where you could see all the stars or something like that, you would recognize just how small you are.

I mean, the universe and its size is just a picture of how big

God is versus how big we are. We're infinitesimally small. And it's amazing that's that we who are so infinitesimally small are what

God chose to take dominion over this planet. Right. So we're all created in the image of God, which is unbelievable.

God would place us on this earth, his temple to take dominion over it and use it for his glory and bring him to earth.

Right. Jesus is ruling and reigning until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. How are his enemies made a footstool for his feet?

By preaching the gospel to them, by loving them, by serving them, by blessing your enemy.

So many stories of of wicked people who've persecuted Christians and the Christians did not return the same behavior back, but love that person.

And it caused such a change in that of the wicked person's mind that they're like, why are you doing this?

And it gave them opportunity to share their faith. I mean, this is this is what first and second

Peter is about. It's about being persecuted in the midst of your faith and and acting in such a way that people question you.

That's where we get your first Peter 315. Always be prepared to give an answer, a defense for the hope that lies within you with gentleness and respect.

Why are you doing this? Why are you treating me nice when I'm persecuting you? Right. And again, that gives you opportunity to bear witness of what

I deserve was poured out on Christ at the cross, the wrath that I deserved he took for me.

Credible act of love. So we just thank God that he did stand in our place and do this for us.

How could we not do this for others? We're called to a perfect standard, you know, very it's daunting, but it's it's possible in the power of the spirit.

So we recognize by God's power, we can do these things and we have to do these things.