Nahum 1:4-5: The Mountains

Reformed Rookie

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:13

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to just read the first few verses of Nahum chapter 1

00:19

An oracle concerning Nineveh the book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh The Lord is a jealous and avenging

00:26

God the Lord is avenging and wrathful The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies

00:32

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty

00:37

His way is in whirlwind and storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet

00:42

He rebukes the sea and makes it dry He dries up all the rivers Bashan and Carmel wither the bloom of Lebanon withers

00:50

The mountains quake before him the hills melt the earth heaves before him the world and all who dwell in it

00:56

Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger his wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken into pieces by him

01:05

Now again, that's strong language We generally don't get to hear too much of that nobody really preaches on Nahum, right we never heard a

01:17

Service on the book of Nahum not here anyway, and certainly not in other churches

01:23

So these are very strong words and everything God tells us about himself We need to understand and know that this is

01:29

God's revelation of who he really is So these are tough words that we don't generally get to hear so I want to concentrate on what

01:36

God is telling us in this Book, so I just want to reiterate About whirlwind and storm clouds and what this means

01:45

Okay, psalm 92 7 verse 2 through 5 Clouds and thick darkness all around him righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne

01:53

Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around his lightnings light up the world The earth and the sea trembles the mountains melt like wax before the

02:02

Lord before the Lord of all the earth Isaiah 19 1 an oracle concerning Egypt Behold the

02:09

Lord is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt and the idols of Egypt Will tremble at his presence and the heart of the

02:16

Egyptians will melt within him The claws the clouds are the dust of his feet has particular relevance in the book pertaining to Assyria the

02:27

Assyrian military caused dread and fear wherever it appeared a city's first sign of danger came from the dust of thousands of feet

02:35

Human and horse rising into the sky as terror approached Nahum marks

02:40

God's coming with a much more magnificent dust cloud the Assyrian armies tool of terror now comes against them on a cosmic scale

02:47

So last year Last year last week. I used the word figurative

02:53

Okay, and I said these are figurative examples of what's going on and they are

02:59

So I want to reiterate that the whirlwind and storm is literal in a spiritual sense

03:06

But not necessarily in a physical sense when the armies would come and come to attack a city

03:13

Because of the horse and the men you would see a dust cloud So this language is bringing us to a physical understanding to point to a spiritual reality

03:22

In fact, the reality of the spiritual realm is more real than the physical side

03:29

All right, the physical side reveals the spiritual I'm going to show you that in a minute

03:35

But for now when we see the Assyrians armies tool of terror now comes against them on a cosmic scale

03:40

It just reminded me of Proverbs 26 He who digs a pit will fall into it and he who rolls a stone it will come back on him

03:50

Remember that what we do we're going to be as we judge with whatever we measure we use

03:56

That's going to be what is measured used when it's measured against us Okay, so we have to be careful about that.

04:04

We want to make sure that we're doing things in love towards our neighbor. So Let me just explain to you what

04:09

I mean the entire world reveals God to us Romans 1 20 for ever since the creation of the world his

04:18

Invisible attributes his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen through what has been made

04:25

Right. So what God is telling us is there's a physical reality that is mimicking or Reflecting a spiritual reality behind those things.

04:36

So the spiritual reality existed before the physical reality, right? We know Genesis 1 1 in the beginning

04:42

God created the heavens and the earth, right? So before the heavens and earth were created there was a spiritual realm that existed already that God existed with the angels

04:50

Okay, so the spiritual reality comes first then the physical reality we see this in Psalm 19

04:57

The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork day -to -day

05:02

Pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. So the creation is constant really

05:08

Revealing God to us in a way that we can understand because we exist in the physical world

05:15

John frame says it like this Everything in creation bears some analogy to God All the world has been made with God's stamp on it revealing him to us

05:28

Creation is his temple. Heaven is his throne. The earth is his footstool thus scripture finds analogies to God in every area of creation in Inanimate objects

05:41

God is the Rock of Israel Christ is the door of the sheep. The Holy Spirit is as wind or breath

05:49

Plant life is like God's strength the cedars of Lebanon Christ is the bread of life

05:56

Even with animals Christ is the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God In regard it relates to human beings.

06:05

God is King landowner lover Christ as prophet priest

06:11

King servant son friend Even abstract ideas God is spirit love light

06:18

Christ as the way the truth and the life wisdom righteousness sanctification redemption.

06:24

Those are all words that are describing God but from a physical standpoint when we say

06:30

God is the Rock of Israel. What are we saying? He's immovable He's he's the the one upon which we can build and not be shaken

06:38

So it those are all things in the physical realm that point to the spiritual realm the spiritual realm

06:43

Exists and there's a literal reality to the spiritual realm. That's Figured in creation we can use creation to point to the spiritual realm

06:52

Which is the reality upon which everything stands James Jordan says it like this It called this can be boiled down to a simple fact the universe and everything in it symbolizes

07:03

God That is the universe and everything in it points to God This means that the

07:09

Christian view of the world is and can only be fundamentally symbolic The world does not exist for its own sake, but as a revelation of God to us

07:20

Does that make sense anybody had any questions about that? But I don't I don't want to Misunderstand this

07:29

I thought I was clear last week, but there was some questions So I just wanted to make sure that we understand when

07:34

I when I use the word figurative or literal and I say God Wasn't literally riding on a cloud.

07:40

What I'm saying is in the physical realm We don't see God riding on a cloud in the spiritual sense.

07:47

It has meaning but it makes Through the it makes sense through the our physical understanding of things

07:54

This is we're comprehending. That's good. We can fall. Okay good. All right. Just wanted to clear that up didn't want any

08:00

Misconceptions, okay now we can get into Verse four he rebukes the sea and makes it dry

08:06

He dries up all the rivers bashing and karma wither the bloom of Lebanon withers

08:12

So the military image of dust clouds leads into this image Which recalled two of God's greatest military interventions in Israel's history

08:21

Egypt and Canaan All right, God rebukes the sea and makes it dry

08:27

He dries up all the rivers in Egypt. Remember God dried up the Red Sea culminating the event of the

08:34

Exodus bringing both deliverance to the Israelites and judgment on the

08:39

Egyptians Israel found freedom from bondage by walking between the walls of water.

08:45

This is supernatural miraculous Egypt received a final demonstration of God's justice as the

08:51

Egyptian soldiers drowned And what Nahum is saying in this is that Syria your justice is coming

08:59

Okay, God will deliver his people and bring justice upon you that happened in the

09:05

Exodus now in the Jordan River God also dried up that as a precursor to Israel's conquest of Canaan again, this action brought both deliverance and judgment

09:17

God delivered Israel into its own land he had promised to come down to deliver them out of the hand of the

09:23

Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land To a good and broad land a land flowing with milk and honey and remember milk and honey is figurative

09:32

All right, even in the spiritual sense. There's not literal milk and literal honey happening, but spiritually that's a spiritual reality

09:39

What is honey? Sweet what is milk it nourishes children? So that spiritual realm is a realm of nourishment of sweetness.

09:48

Remember the scripture tells us taste and see that the Lord is good Right. We're not physically biting into a sandwich and saying hmm.

09:56

This is good Right. It's a it's a it's a figurative word to describe a spiritual reality

10:05

Okay in Exodus and Joshua God's dramatic sovereignty over water brought life and death freedom and Destruction and later on in Nahum.

10:15

We'll see that he's gonna prophesy that God will use water in this same way again Okay, so this is a precursor.

10:22

He's letting a Syria know that he is the God of all the physical elements that we see He's God over them.

10:30

So he talks about bashing anybody remember where we hear about bashing Psalm 22.

10:37

Yes the bulls right God gave the command and the Red Sea and the Jordan River dried up bashing known for its plush pasture lands

10:46

David spoke of the strong bulls of bashing that surrounded him that was Psalm 22 These bulls were large and strong because they grazed on the abundant vegetation in bashing

10:55

It was north and east of the Sea of Galilee We also hear in Amos the cows of bashing

11:01

Speaking of the women who were getting fat on the luxuries They were enjoying in the land without taking care of the poor.

11:08

So God is basically saying Bashing this beautiful pasture land. I'm gonna wipe it out

11:15

Carmel Carmel is the mountain where Elijah met with the prophets of Baal in first Kings It's located near the

11:21

Mediterranean coast. It overlooks the modern Israel city of Haifa It attains a maximum elevation about 1 ,700 feet

11:27

Carmel meaning garden or fruitful field was proverbial for its beauty a garden spot here again

11:34

God is gonna take a beautiful spot on the earth and wipe it clean We're gonna go through why in a second

11:40

Lebanon Lebanon was also noted for magnificent forests Particularly its cedars of Lebanon yet a harsh word from Israel's God could make these beauty spots wither and fade

11:52

All right. Why do you think this is why would God wipe out something so beautiful? Coffee, I mean, yes

12:07

Certainly you can get gets the Israelites Attention right when you see something so beautiful be wiped out.

12:15

But then again, it's beautiful on what level Maybe on a human level, right?

12:22

What is what is the scripture warn us about? It says that Satan masquerades as an angel of light

12:30

Right, sometimes what looks beautiful on the outside is not beautiful on the inside Right.

12:38

So these cities that were built up and look beautiful. They were built by under under pagan

12:45

Auspices right whose pagan rule. Yes the land brought forth vegetation and stuff

12:52

But these people were were not worshiping God so beautiful Yes in one sense, but not beautiful with the underlying

13:00

Current below it. Okay. So sometimes we look at things like in our world today. That's beautiful yet.

13:06

It has no Beauty on it on an inward sense. These things were not done in faith towards God So yes unbelievers can bring about beautiful things

13:17

But if these beautiful things lead us away from the God who were supposed to worship, they're not beautiful So we have to be we have to be on guard.

13:26

All right to guard ourselves from following something that looks beautiful But really on the inside will corrupt us how many things do we we see in this world today?

13:36

Supposedly look beautiful that will lead us down a dark path We have to be careful

13:42

God is showing the Israelites that he can take something beautiful that the world created.

13:47

They get a Tower of Babel I mean probably a beautiful tower that they built not in God's sight They were trying to make a name for themselves

13:54

God is concerned about his he's jealous for his name. He's jealous for his people

14:00

He's not gonna allow that to prosper. So these these towns bash in Carmel, Lebanon We're leading people away from God.

14:08

Okay into a secular understanding of things. Okay, let's continue God God's way is one of great power

14:17

The clouds which brings the weather And with it agricultural blessing or curse are at his feet right when when the scriptures say something is at the

14:25

Lord's feet It's a biblical symbol of complete control Right. He has dominion over all of it

14:31

The sea we've learned before is a symbol of chaos and power that is also under Yahweh's control

14:37

He turns the sea back he rebukes it and it becomes dry Something we see daily with the tides the tides come in and they go out right the rivers of the land run dry according to Yahweh's common order and as they do in dry season the place is known for the agricultural abundance patient fashion

14:54

Carmel, Lebanon Withering fade in his presence as they do after the harvest

14:59

God is sovereign over all those things So do you think this? Him rebuking the sea has any application in the

15:07

New Testament anyone Anyone recall anything in the New Testament where the sea was rebuked

15:16

It was a softball for everyone All right We're waiting for that All right Mark 4 and a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into a boat so the boat was already filling

15:26

But he was in the stern asleep on a cushion and they woke him and said teacher Do you not care that we are perishing and he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea peace be still and The wind ceased and there was a great calm

15:40

He said to them why you were so afraid have you still no faith? And they were filled with great fear and said to one another who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?

15:52

So we see in Nahum 1 chap chapter 1 verse 4 that the Lord Rebukes the sea and makes it dry and here we see in the

16:01

New Testament Jesus rebuking the sea and making it calm Again this points to the deity of Jesus that he's in sovereign control over all these things

16:12

In fact, he is not the God of the wind. He's not the God of the sea

16:17

He's not the God of the land He is God over them all he is sovereign over every inch of the world as we know it

16:27

Remember back then they had a God for the sea. They had a God for the Sun They had a

16:32

God for the rivers. They had a God for the rain. They had a God for everything What this is telling us is that there's one

16:39

God and he's sovereign over all those things. There's not a multiplicity of gods This is the one

16:44

God who created everything rules over everything and will destroy everything if it doesn't work for his people

16:51

Okay. So again Nahum is a message that's going to bring a great destruction on a

16:57

Syria But should bring great comfort to his people his name Nahum means comfort

17:04

Right. So when we see these things, it's like oh my goodness. God is fierce Yes, he's fierce for his people and that's why we need to keep him first and foremost in our minds

17:16

Okay So the mountains quake before him the hills melt the earth heaves before God the world and all who dwell in it

17:24

Does that sound familiar to anybody does that verse ring any bells

17:32

Maybe the study That was done before Nahum Micah Micah 1 4 it's almost verbatim and the mountains will melt under him

17:44

The valleys will split open like wax before the fire the waters poured down a steep palace place palace place

17:52

Right, so Nahum's basically repeating what Micah said now the verse before Micah 1 4 is 1 3

18:00

Behold the Lord is coming out of his place and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth

18:07

And we're like, oh good God come God tear down all those all those but you know

18:12

Trounce your enemies come to conquer over them. The problem is this All this was done for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel What is the transgression of Jacob?

18:26

Is it not Samaria? What is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? Right. So this these words are used for God to come down against his own people

18:38

Who set up false a false temple in Samaria? Who would not worshiping in Jerusalem the way he they were supposed to Case and now

18:48

Micah takes place when a Syria is coming in and conquering the northern tribes So Mike is telling the northern tribes and the southern tribes

18:56

This is a God who's going to come down and destroy your high places You need to repent and come back to God.

19:03

Why? Because judgment begins with the house of God Right, thankfully we read early in in this in this study that King Hezekiah had a son

19:14

Manasseh Who is the most evil King in all of all of Israel? In fact tradition says he was the one who sawed a

19:22

Isaiah in half What happens when he's deported to Babylon? He falls to his knees.

19:29

He repents Lord. Forgive me and God grants him repentance because God is faithful to his covenant

19:37

This is gonna have application to what we see in the world today Okay, God judges his people first judgment begins with the house of God It's the same

19:47

God who will come in and discipline his children will also come in and crush his enemies

19:53

Okay Let's so we've heard this language before Right.

19:59

What's a mountain anybody want to take a guess on what a mountain is biblically? More coffee you guys got brewing decaf in the back.

20:11

What's going on? Yeah head Sarah Temple sure.

20:16

That's one of the things absolutely. Yes Meeting place.

20:22

Absolutely those that's right Chris you were saying Kingdom definitely kingdom nation

20:31

Government these are all things that that mountains represent I'm glad you guys said that mountains are sometimes a symbol of religion

20:39

Of refuge and security. All right, the name of the Lord is a strong tower strong mountain the righteous run into it and are saved

20:47

Sometimes they're a threatening place of military slaughter at the base of the mountain in the Mount Sinai When they worship the golden calf, you know,

20:54

God told Moses slaughter them, right at times Mountains are inaccessible barren uninhabited mountains are nonetheless places where God's people will dwell in abundance as Sites of religious experience mountaintops are also places of pagan worship that God denounces

21:11

He says remove the high places. What's a high place? It's a mountain where people would go to worship a false

21:19

God All right the mountains and hills of the Bible are both physical phenomena and spiritual symbols

21:26

Again, we see mountains in the physical world that reveal the spiritual realm to us

21:33

Okay, so when God when Moses meets God on a mountain That's depicting something in the spiritual realm

21:40

Right God created the earth as his temple as a mountain of the

21:45

Lord Okay, so the physical reveals to us what's going on in the spiritual realm?

21:52

Mountains are sacred sites almost from the beginning of the Bible mountains are sites of transcendent spiritual experiences encounters with God or appearances by God Ezekiel 28 places the

22:03

Garden of Eden on a mountain right the rivers flowed down Abraham shows his willingness to sacrifice

22:10

Isaac and then encounters God on a mountain God appears to Moses and speaks to him from the burning bush on Horeb the mountain of God and God encounters

22:20

Elijah at the same site Most impressive of all is of all is the experience of the

22:26

Israelites at Mount Sinai Which Moses ascends in a cloud to meet God? All right, and if you haven't heard a couple months back.

22:33

I did a Sermon on worship, and how it's ascending the mountain of God remember in the

22:40

Psalms. We have Psalms of ascent What does ascent mean? moving upward so as they were

22:47

Walking up the mountain to get to Jerusalem They were singing Psalms of ascent as they approached and moved up to God Mountains can symbolize temples places of worship holy places ladders to God where men meet with God and Again, it also encompasses encompasses government's kingdoms

23:06

Edom was a temple on a mountain. Okay, we're good Another picture emerges from the

23:14

New Testament where Jesus is also associated with mountains Jesus resorted to mountains to be alone

23:22

All right, he went there to pray Matthew 14 and to teach his listeners.

23:28

It was on a mountain that Jesus refuted Satan's temptation, right? Satan brought him up to a to a high place.

23:34

He was also transfigured on a mountain He died on a hill and he ascended into heaven from the

23:41

Mount of Olives All right, so all these things are again are pointing us to the spiritual realities behind us

23:47

It's depicted in a physical sense so that we can see it Mountains and hills are a master image of the

23:54

Bible through which One can trace the whole course of biblical history and doctrine in microcosm they are literal landscapes in which a broad spectrum of human activity occurs as Symbols they declare the nature of God as the place where humans encounter the divine

24:10

They epitomize how God and people relate to each other both in history and in the eschaton

24:16

Okay, so mountains are very very important Let's continue.

24:23

So what prophets spoke about a great mountain? Isaiah, yeah, who else?

24:31

Isaiah is one He's with a D Daniel who else

24:37

I Referred to him a couple minutes ago Yes, and no

24:43

The study we did before Nahum Micah all right. Here we go. Okay. So let's look at what

24:49

Daniel says about mountains He says that then the iron the clay the bronze the silver and the gold all together were broken in pieces and Became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away

25:00

So that not a trace of them could be found but the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and Filled the whole earth right

25:10

Daniel speaking to us about something here Daniel continues in verse 39 another kingdom

25:17

Inferior to you shall rise after you and yet a third kingdom of bronze which shall rule over the earth and there shall be a fourth kingdom strong as iron because iron breaks into pieces and shatters all things and Like iron that crushes it shall break and crush these all these right

25:34

So these kingdoms are opposed to the mountain of God the mountain of God is also a kingdom

25:41

And you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron it shall be a divided kingdom but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it just as you saw iron mixed with soft clay as And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle

26:00

These are kingdoms that are going to come against God's kingdom in fact. They're in the past right

26:05

God established his kingdom here now So that's the mountain of the Lord Let's continue watch how

26:13

God speaks of Babylon in this verse Jeremiah 51 I will repay

26:19

Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil They have done in Zion declares the

26:25

Lord and watch this Behold I am against you Oh destroying Mountain declares the

26:32

Lord which destroys the whole earth I will stretch out my hand against you and roll down from the crags and make you a burnt mountain

26:40

Right so you see how the kingdoms of the earth are considered mountains and God's kingdom is considered a great mountain

26:48

God's kingdom will eventually cover the entire earth. He's that's the great mountain that Daniels talking about Zechariah who are you

26:57

Oh great mountain before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain and she shall bring forward The top stone amid shouts of grace grace to it now

27:06

Zechariah speaking about a time when Jesus comes He's talking about the great Bring forth the top stone who's the top stone

27:15

Christ right he's speaking about as Zechariah speaking about Israel or Rome being mountains that come against God's kingdom

27:23

Isaiah 40 a voice cries in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord make straight in the deserts a highway for our

27:29

God What comes after this? Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low and The glory of the

27:39

Lord shall be revealed and all the flesh shall see together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken God's kingdom is going to destroy all the other mountains

27:48

Okay, his is going to be the biggest mountain the greatest mountain on all the earth all the other kingdoms

27:53

These little mountains and hills are going to be done away with because God established his here on the earth by the power of God Okay, I want to continue this and I say

28:06

I'm Mike it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and Shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nation shall flow to it and many people shall come and say come

28:18

Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of God of Jacob That he may teach us his ways and that mean we may walk in his paths

28:27

So when is this gonna happen? Anyone has this happened already?

28:40

Yes. How do we know? Yes Because Jesus came.

28:47

Okay, that's that's a good reason right? He's the king. He's he established the kingdom. He set it up We just we would we're preaching a series through this right now, right

28:56

Hebrews But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the

29:02

Living God to heavenly Jerusalem and to innumerable angels in festal gathering at the assembly of the firstborn

29:08

Who are enrolled in heaven and to God? the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the

29:17

Sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel Okay, God has set his kingdom upon the earth and he's ruling and reigning until what he makes his enemies a footstool

29:28

For his feet, so yes, this has happened already and we have come to that mountain spiritual mountain of God his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, right and We are being built into a spiritual house, which

29:42

I'm going to show you in a second, right? The church is what what does Peter say? We're a holy nation nation government kingdom

29:49

See the language Matthew 21 Jesus answered them truly

29:55

I say to you if you have faith and do not doubt You will not only do what has been done to the fig tree But even if you say to this mountain be taken up and thrown into the sea it will happen and whatever you ask in prayer

30:07

You will receive if you have faith So now as Jesus talking about speaking to physical mountains and casting them into the sea

30:16

No, he's talking about the spiritual reality behind that the mountains of Babylon You know the the governments and the kingdoms that are working against God's kingdom

30:26

And he says they'll be they'll be thrown into the sea. What is C symbolic of? Say again.

30:35

Yes, the Gentiles the world chaos Right Israel is known as the people of the land

30:42

All right We stand on firm footing right when you're in the when you stand in God's kingdom You're in a kingdom that can't be shaken you build your house upon the rock

30:50

It won't be shaken So when the storms come your house is still going to be standing the chaos of the of the seas

30:56

Those kingdoms are going to be cast into that and how do we do that? We do that through prayer, right?

31:02

We pray the imprecatory Psalms, right? we pray that God's kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven that he would take out his enemies and Save those whom he will if it's if his will is to save them save them.

31:15

We pray Lord If if the president the vice president these people are not ruling according to your word take them out of the way

31:22

Replace them with people who are gonna rule according to your law Right. Did you have something? Right.

31:34

He's taken that Yes, and Israel Israel who rejects the

31:43

Messiah is going to be taken out of the way Right. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. We're in that particular.

31:48

I mean there are the mountains that we pray against Okay, so let's move

31:54

But here's the promise of God to his people Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace removed

32:06

So as we see the things that are going on in the world today, we see the world shaking Right us standing in the kingdom should not be shaking.

32:14

We shouldn't be What's the word we shouldn't be fearful we should be confident knowing that God is shaking things out

32:21

We need to be obedient to his word if we're obedient to his word We're gonna see the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, right?

32:28

We need to be witnesses We need to shine in the darkness. Let our light shine And while earthly kingdoms come and go there's one kingdom that will both destroy and outlast them all the eternal kingdom of God Again in Daniel's vision that kingdom is pictured as a great rock

32:43

It struck the statue and became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. So God's kingdom will eventually cover the whole earth

32:51

Right God's kingdom is going to be worldwide Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

32:58

The whole earth is ours Okay Exodus 19 on the third new moon and after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt on that day came

33:09

Into the wilderness of Sinai they set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai and they can't encamped in the wilderness

33:15

There is really camp before the mountain while Moses went up to God The Lord called him out of the mountain saying thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel You yourselves have seen what

33:26

I did to the Egyptians how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself Now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant

33:33

You shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples for all the earth is mine And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

33:40

These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel So now sometimes we are we feel like we're in a wilderness, right?

33:49

What do we have to remind ourselves? Look what God's done in the past Look at how he delivered his people out of the

33:56

Egyptians hands Right, if we're faithful if we do what God told us to do, we're gonna see things change

34:03

We have to pray. We have to trust in Christ. We have to build his kingdom. We're co -laborers with Jesus, right?

34:10

And how does this apply to what we are as the church? Because of Jesus you are chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession

34:23

That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light once you were not a people

34:28

But now you are God's people once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy

34:34

Beloved I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which were against your soul

34:40

Remember earlier I told you about bashing Carmel and Lebanon things that look beautiful Right things that look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside can corrupt you

34:49

This is what we have to be careful of the passions of the flesh some things may look beautiful They may be very very dangerous for us.

34:57

So I want to encourage you look at what this the New Testament says about us Do you not know that your body is a temple of the

35:05

Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God? We are the house of God you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house

35:14

To be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices Acceptable to God through Jesus So yes, we may be in a wilderness right now

35:24

We may see the chaos of the nations around us, but God has not done right we have to we have to press it

35:32

Continue doing what we're doing and expand the kingdom while we're alive leave everything out on the field for the kingdom, okay?

35:41

Nahum's words indicate that God will now have to intervene he comes to deliver his people and to judge accumulated sin

35:48

However Nahum God comes alone. He says I have trodden the winepress alone and from the people's no one was with me verse 5

35:56

I look but there was no one to help I was appalled But there was no one to uphold so my own arm brought me salvation and my wrath upheld me

36:05

Nahum gives us no Moses. No Joshua only God works deliverance in this book

36:11

Afflicted by Judah play afflicted Judah plays no part God alone brings salvation Deliverance from bondage and destruction of evil may not come by means of Israel now.

36:22

What do we have that they didn't? The Holy Spirit we have the written word right we have

36:30

Jesus who came died who was raised to life We he's the firstfruits of the kingdom and he came to transform the world to Bring it restore it back to what it was when when

36:45

God first sent Adam who failed Jesus is not going to fail Right so we have so much more.

36:51

What's the Great Commission? All right behold. I will be with you always even to the end of the age

36:57

All right, Jesus is with us as we co -labor with him to bring the kingdom So yes, we have

37:03

God the Holy Spirit and his church here on earth to bring the kingdom We just have to get to work all right

37:11

Exodus 19 now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire

37:16

The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly, right?

37:22

This is when God comes what happens The mountain nation government kingdom known as Assyria will quake and dissolve as the

37:30

Lord visits her in judgment So as God visits this world in judgment two things happen.

37:35

He delivers his people and judges his enemies Before the omnipotent

37:43

God the mountains quake and the hills melt away and the earth trembles Second Samuel the earth it reeled and rocked the foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked because he was angry

37:53

Psalm 46 the nation's rage the kingdoms totter he utters his voice the earth melts

38:00

Psalm 77 the crash of your thunder was in the world when your lightnings lighted up the world the earth trembled and shook

38:07

Then we get to Joel The Lord rose from Zion he utters his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth quake

38:14

But the Lord is a refuge to his people a stronghold to the people of Israel. He is a

38:20

God of great power He is sovereign over all things We must remember who we work for who birthed us who our king is who our father is like nature

38:35

Humanity will be terrified at God's presence when they encounter him But the psalmist observed an oracle within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked there is no fear of God before their eyes

38:46

All right, the church is going to be one identified as those who fear the

38:51

Lord Psalm 36 Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart. There's no fear of God before his eyes

38:59

Psalm 55 God will give ear and humble them he who is enthroned from of old because they do not change and do not fear

39:06

God The Apostle Paul concludes his graphic description of sin in Romans with these words.

39:13

There is no fear of God before their eyes Presently evildoers do not fear

39:18

God But when they finally come face to face with him They will cry out to the mountain and the rocks

39:23

Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the

39:28

Lamb That's very easy To point out other people who don't fear

39:35

God, right? We can point to a multitude of churches that don't fear God. That's easy

39:41

Pointing out the fact that other churches don't fear God doesn't mean that you do You just identify the fact that they don't fear

39:47

God. You must be careful. You have to remember It's not the other churches that we should be worried about We need to be worried about our own walk with the

39:56

Lord. Are we fearing God in the way the Bible tells us to fear God? Remember Romans also tells us

40:05

Paul goes on therefore you have no excuse Oh, man, every one of you who judges from passing judgment on another you condemn yourself

40:13

Because you the judge practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things

40:20

Do you suppose oh man you who judge those who practice such things yet do them yourself that you will escape the judgment of God?

40:27

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience

40:33

Not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance It's easy to point out other people who don't fear

40:42

God we need to recognize if we're not fearing God The fear of the Lord is what sets

40:48

God's people apart from everyone else So if you don't fear

40:53

God Repent place your faith and trust in Jesus be born of God's Spirit Okay fight with the