Good News? - [Nahum 1:9-15]

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Nahum as a Well-Written Book of Judgment and Comfort

Some people hate the book of Nahum. They despise the contents of this little book we have. They call it a violent, nationalistic book, quote, �one morally repugnant to modern persons. They go on to say, �Its moral inferiority, however, does not mask its literary artistry.

Nahum is a bad book, written well. Please turn your Bibles to the book of Nahum in the Old Testament. If you can�t find it, feel free to use your table of contents. It is right after Jonah, Micah, Nahum.

We are going to look at this book that is really well-written, and of course, for us as Christians, we love this book. It has nothing to do with nationalism or anything else. It has to do with the exaltation of God and His name.

I found it fascinating. As I studied this week, people that don�t like Nahum still think it�s written well. They think it�s full of wonderful bits of poetry, the phraseology, how picturesque it is. It�s realistic.

You feel like you�re there. The imagery is bold and fascinating, and it draws you in, and so at least they give the book of Nahum that. As you know, for just a little background and some review, Nahum is written against Assyria.

Nineveh is the capital of Assyria, while other prophets have prophesied against Edom, like Obadiah did, or Habakkuk against Babylon. This burden, chapter 1, verse 1, this oracle is given in a book form, and it really reflects the name of Nahum, and Nahum�s name means to console or to comfort.

Yahweh is comforting, Yahweh is consoling, and everything about this book drives the listener to say, �God is my true comfort. No matter what�s going on in the world, I can trust in Him, and He is good, and His promises are true.

In this particular case, in Nahum, they need that comforting message because they�re getting oppressed by the Ninevites, by Assyria, and the taxation is heavy, the tributes are high, and the way that Assyria deals with people is exactly the opposite of the Lord Jesus.

Think about the exact opposite things when I read this passage, and then you�ll know who Assyria is. �Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. As you know, that�s not talking about the Assyrians, that�s talking about the Lord Jesus, of course, for those who rest in Him by faith alone and receive Him.

The exact opposite of that is the Assyrians, and they are a wicked people, and besides that, they�re powerful. If you go to the British Museum, I�ve been there several times, you see the reliefs there of different assaults by the Assyrian generals, maybe Sennacherib or Ashbanipal, and there�s the ladders that they have, the battering rams that they have, the archers, they are one powerful people.

And here you have Judah, right, the twelve tribes of Israel, and the bottom two are Judah, and they�re tiny and they�re small, and here sits Jerusalem, and what are they going to do? They need a message of triumph.

Oh yes, back in the day, 100, 150 years ago, Nineveh repented, they were doing the right thing, Jonah went to preach to them, they received the message, but now it�s later and they�re back to their old ways.

Let me read verses 1 -8 today for review, and our passage that I�ll be preaching from is verses 9 -15, so hopefully we�ll finish chapter 1 today, so in review I�ll read verses 1 -8, and this morning we�ll look at some divine comfort when we think of adversaries in verses 9 -15.

When you see the word LORD, all capitals, think of Yahweh, that covenant-keeping God, who is self-existent yet is concerned for his people. An oracle concerning Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum of Elkash.

The LORD is a jealous and avenging God, the LORD is avenging and wrathful, the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in the whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes a sea, makes it dry, he dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither, the bloom of Lebanon withers. The mountains quake before him, hills melt, the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it.

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. The LORD is good and a stronghold in the day of trouble.

He knows those who take refuge in him. But with an overflowing flood, he will make a complete end of the adversaries and will pursue his enemies into darkness. Now I haven't mentioned the last two messages in the book of Nahum, that this first section is what we call a partial acrostic.

So if you look at Psalm 119, for instance, the acrostic, in English it would be A-B-C-D-E-F-G, so we can kind of remember what's in that psalm. Of course it would be with the Hebrew alphabet with 22 letters.

This acrostic isn't finished, it's almost like if an acrostic creates wholeness in something easy to remember, this partial acrostic makes you think, what's going to happen in the future? What's the rest?

Fill in the blank. It's kind of traced, but what's the color look like when it's completely full? And so what happens in this book early on, God says before we think about the adversaries, let's make sure you think about me.

Make sure you understand who I am and what I do and my promises before we get to any kind of battle. Now chapters 2 and 3 are what's to come. This sets us up partially for the fulfillment that everyone should say, well, what will happen with these adversaries?

You know what's really neat about this? There are certain kinds of psalms, and there's a particular psalm called a warrior psalm, a divine warrior psalm, and you would sing warrior songs about God. When do you think?

Well, three different times. Before you go to battle, you'd sing a psalm, and you'd sing a psalm of God help us, protect us. You'd sing a song another time during battle, and that would be Lord continue to help us as we fight the enemy.

And then there's another psalm that's a warrior psalm, and it's a psalm of after you won the battle, you sing praises to God. This is like that last psalm. While the war has not started yet with God and the adversaries, it's as good as done.

It's over. He, the writer, is making sure that these people under persecution and under the heavy bondage of the Ninevites realize that God knows, God cares, and God will judge. I mean, we don't know in history that Jesus has come back yet.

That's the wrong way to phrase it. We know that Jesus has not come back yet. But will he come back? There are songs written about him, words written about him that extol his second coming. And for us, that would be encouraging to know that no matter what goes on, Jesus comes back.

This first section, verses 1 through 8, is a divine warrior. He judges evil. He knows his people. And then we come to now, verses 9 through 15. One guy called this a, it's hard to pronounce, a dizzying passage.

D-I-Z-Z-Y-I-N-G. Dizzying, dizzying. It makes you dizzy. You can't even hardly say it because there's so much going on. And it's just this kind of cacophony of action and what's going to happen to these Ninevites, strong and powerful and rule people and foot on the neck of those in Jerusalem.

Two Reasons to Take Comfort in Difficult Days

If you want an outline this morning, it's super simple. Let me give you two reasons to take comfort in difficult days. You say, well that's kind of an extension of the earlier section of chapter 1. That's exactly right.

The first section was about take comfort because you realize who God is. Now we're going to think about the adversaries more. We're going to look at taking comfort because God's adversaries will eventually be obliterated.

And every enemy of God, every enemy of God's people will one day be extinguished. And secondly, I want you to take comfort because in the midst of God's adversaries, there's good news. Super simple. Take comfort because the adversaries will be obliterated and take comfort that there's good news in the midst of all this.

Thinking about God's adversaries the right way. Well, let's look at verses 9 through 14 first. It's almost like bad news for the adversaries and then we'll get to the good news for God's people. Verses 9 through 14, taking comfort that God's adversaries will be obliterated.

Verse 9. You have to be very careful as you study, by the way, as we get into this text. There's lots of personal pronouns, but we don't know exactly who these people are unless you think rightly. And so here's an example of that.

What do you, it's masculine plural, by the way. What do you, maybe all the leaders of Assyria, all the Assyrians, the Ninevites, what do you plot against the Lord? He will make a complete end. Trouble will not rise up a second time.

You can just kind of sense what's going on here. You're going to mess with the apple of God's eye. The people of Israel, generally speaking, specifically those down in Judah, in Jerusalem, you're going to mess with God's people and you think you're going to get off scot-free?

No possible way. There's going to be a complete end, not partial. There's going to be trouble not coming up a second time. While Assyria went after Israel proper, those 10 tribes, and just demanded every kind of thing from them, there's still not tons of persecution yet here for those in Jerusalem.

Yes, there's some, but it's not a destruction. It's not taking away wives and children. It's just heavy, exorbitant taxation, paying tribute. Sometimes they'd come and do some damage. But the Judah dwellers were saying, you know what, we better brace ourselves.

Something bad's coming. But the Lord says, no, no, it's going to happen to the Ninevites. They're going to be the ones who are going to make a complete end of them. We're in Jerusalem. Will they finally crush us?

No, no. It's going to be the other way around. If you look at the Hebrew in Nahum 1 .9, what do you think concerning the Lord? What are you thinking? I have said to my children before, when they were little and they've done something wrongly, when they're tiny, tiny, I didn't say, why'd you do it?

I just said, what did you do? Kind of like God with Adam in the garden. What did you do? I don't need to know why. But then when they got older, I wanted to try to process with them what they're thinking.

So remember, I said to my particular child, you might guess who it might be, why did you do that? He was about ready. Oh, sorry. And he looked at me and said, Dad, I wasn't thinking. It's a good answer.

I just did it. What must these people be thinking when they say, God, I don't care about you and I don't care about your people and I will persecute your people. How is that going to go off on judgment day, by the way?

And I hope you're thinking just kind of more generally, too, as we see specifics in Nahum. But when the people of God, the church of God on earth is being persecuted by whomever it might be, do you think they're going to get off on judgment day?

You think they're going to be let off in terms of judgment? No, complete end. This is not just good for those who are getting persecuted in Jerusalem, but for all of us today. You say, well, the church is really getting persecuted in America.

Really? This is persecution. It might get a lot worse. It has been worse for other people. And so how does God comfort his people? Verses 1 to 8, here's who I am. Verses 9 to 14, don't worry. Vengeance is mine.

I will repay. God addresses the Ninevites. What are you thinking? Everything you do, all your strategies, they'll be vain, they'll be futile, they'll be empty. Whether it's the Ninevites or the Muslims or the Roman Catholics persecuting the church in the Reformation, it doesn't matter.

The end isn't good. These people who are against God's people, they didn't just fall into it. They didn't say, well, I was kind of walking along and then I just started persecuting. They're plotting. They're actively doing it.

They're putting together plans. And so for our enemies, by the way, dear Christian, whether it's, you think the government, you think it's other religions, you think it's Satan, whatever the persecution is, you can trust the Lord.

He knows. He'll take care of them. Instead of being full of anxiety and fear and what will happen, these words are meant to comfort. When you persecute the people of God, God knows. He cares. He'll do something.

Remember what happened? Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Now as he went on his way, right, all the plotting he's got, he went on his way. He approached Damascus. Suddenly a light from heaven shone around him and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying, you know the passage, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting the church?

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting the people of God? Is that what it says? Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He's taking it out on the church, but the church is the bride of Christ. Remember in eternity past with the father agreeing to go rescue the people of God, to go rescue those elect people.

And that was what Jesus was sent to go do, to go to do that very thing. And then you're going to go and mess with them and persecute them and kill them. Who are you, Lord, Saul said, and Jesus said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

I don't know how bad persecution is going to get in America, but if it gets bad, we can trust the Lord. He'll know. And there'll be judgment day one day. And for the Ninevites, and of course, ultimately our enemies, what does the text say?

Trouble will not rise up a second time, not going to repeat the blow as it were with this idiom in Hebrew. There's not going to be like a second wave. There's not going to be re-armament. No, no, no second rebellion.

It's going to be done. And guess what? The Ninevites love to do that to people. They love to completely destroy people and wipe them off the face of the earth. One account, a historical account, reads this, the sanctuaries of Elam destroyed totally.

It's gods and goddesses, ice scattered. It's Ashurbanipal, Ashurbanipal saying this, an Assyrian leader. Their secret groves in which no stranger ever penetrates, whose borders he never oversteps. Into these my soldiers entered, saw their mysteries, set them on fire.

Everything they do is to try to just burn the other places to the ground. No memory. Just think kind of the strutting pride of a warrior king like that. Proverbs says there's things that are stately in their thread, in their tread rather.

Three things, four are stately in their stride. The lion, which is the mightiest among the beast, he does not turn back before any. The strutting rooster, the he-goat, and the king whose army is with him.

Walking around, beating the chest, we're going to do this and the tables have been turned. This is a direct illustration of he who sits in the heavens laughs and the Lord holds them in derision. Look at verse 10, for they are, three similes here, three likes.

They're like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink. They are consumed like stubble when fully dried. Why is God going to judge? They're plotting against his people. How is God going to execute?

Right here. In this kind of poetic form. Sometimes you take entangled thorns and put them around like barbed wire, your encampment, so that you could be impervious to the enemy at night. The drunkard stuff here is probably, we have victory and we have demolished the enemy, and what do you do?

You have a feast, you have a festival, you have a drinking party, and they're consumed like stubble fully dried. Ever take stubble and just throw it into the fire? That kind of crackling that happens and you just can hear it?

He uses these similes here and basically says they're done, they're incapacitated. By the way, if you notice when it says they're drunkards as they drink, I think it's to help us to realize, you know what?

Drunkards don't really put up much of a fight. I always thought to myself, how much money would it take for me to get in the ring with Mike Tyson 20 years ago? I don't know, probably a lot, but I'd be more apt to do it if he couldn't hardly stand up because he was so drunk.

He might still get me, but I would probably get in the ring with him. These people can't defend themselves because they can't even stand up. They're totally drunk, swallowed up, and become mastered by their own sinful choices.

They're so haughty, they're so swollen, but it's stubble. It's dry and it just goes up in the fire immediately and it's just poof, gone. Quick extermination of God's enemies. Ever light a Christmas tree on fire?

I don't suggest you do it in the house, but this is the idea. Psalm 1, the wicked are like chaff. That's the same idea. Jesus said, I'm the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he's thrown away like a branch and withers. The branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. And what we can't see in that verse is there are six S words in Hebrew that just make it kind of roll off your tongue with alliteration.

S, S, S, S, S. God's going to do this. He's going to do it in the future. Verse 11, from you came one who plotted evil against the Lord, a worthless counselor. From you, it's feminine. It's probably Nineveh itself.

You can call a city her if you'd like. But out of this city comes one who plots evil against the Lord, a worthless counselor. You can do your study and figure out, is it the man Ash or Banner Paul? Is it Sennacherib?

It doesn't really matter because they all have been wiped out. When somebody stands against the Lord, there will be judgment day, one day, temporally, maybe eternally, certainly. And this city produces what?

Bad fruit, worthless counselors. That word worthless means vile or empty, belial we think of sometimes from that. Kind of satanic. That's who they produce. They don't produce a king like Bethlehem might produce a king, King David.

No, they don't. They don't produce anything except worthless things. Enemies that are wicked, ultimately against the Lord. Nothing good comes out of this. Sometimes people think this plural here is kind of the goddess Ishtar that they had who controlled everything.

And she's the female evil that commands a worthless counselor, a demonic counselor, a satanic counselor even. John Calvin writes, it is indeed gratifying and pleasing when we see our enemies destroyed.

But this would be a cold and barren comfort, except we were persuaded that is done by God's judgment because he loves us, because he would defend us having embraced us with paternal love. The issue is not, I want all the enemies gone.

The issue is the enemies are gone. Yes, I want that. But the enemies are gone because God will protect his people. All the way back to Genesis chapter 12 and the covenant with Abraham and he will go out of his way in spite of their sins, Israel, Judah, they were sinful.

But God says, I don't care. I'm going to take care of you anyway, because I am the Lord. Nobody's going to stop it. Verse 12, thus says the Lord. Now we switch from thinking about how bad these people are and addressing them and describing them to now directly talking to God's people.

Thus says the Lord. Here's how you should think of God's enemies, the Ninevites. That's how we should think of them. If we were in those days and any enemies that the church has today, this is how we should think about them.

Thus says the Lord, though they are at full strength and many, that's certainly Assyria, they will be cut down and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more. I used to use them as an instrument of chastisement for you, Judah, but I'm not going to do that anymore.

They're powerful, but they're going to be cut down. It's supposed to give comfort to God's people. We don't have to worry and run around and be a nationalistic kind of church and everything is. You know, we're going to get this done our way with, with, uh, lots of power and might and numbers.

These Assyrians powerful, but they are going to be gone, politically gone, militarily gone. It's over. And I'm not going to afflict you anymore, Jerusalem. There's an end to your persecution. And then it's kind of interesting here.

He says something else. He says, still speaking to Judah verse 13, and now I will break his yoke. By the way, the Ninevites love to put heavy yokes on people. They love the word. They talked about it all the time.

Put a yoke on the people that we've conquered. I'll break his yoke off you and burst your bonds apart. No more taxation, no more military overflow. You'll be released. You'll be redeemed. No more bondage deliverance for God's people.

God might use the Assyrians to chase in his people, but he's not going to forget his covenant. They love to put yokes on others. Now they have a yoke on themselves. This matters to God. His people matter to God.

Verse 14. This is almost kind of like a yikes thing. I would ever, I would hate to ever have God say this about me. It doesn't maybe get any worse. The Lord has given a commandment about you. Now he's back to addressing to the people of Nineveh, Assyria.

I wonder what he's going to say. How will it go for the people who persecute the apple of God's eye? No more shall your name be perpetuated. And didn't they want that? They want dynasties. Again, you go to the British Museum and you see these, these huge lions and these huge displays of the people and marble statues of their leaders.

Everything you do is to carry on your seed, carry on your name, carry on the dynasty. Where's the Assyrian dynasty now? He says, no more your name shall be perpetuated. And by the way, I'm going to smash your religion too.

I hate your religion. I hate your idolatry. Anything that you would worship to think you'd get more power from these idols to go persecute my people. All these religions, they're done. From the house of your gods, I will cut off the carved image, the metal image.

I mean, it is all gone. And maybe the worst thing ever could be said to someone or a country or a nation by God himself, I will make your grave for you are vile. I'm going to bury you. And later he did.

God had the Babylonians and the means and the Scythians, and they dug their grave in 612 BC. Here's what Ezekiel 32 says. Assyria is there with the whole army. She is surrounded by the graves of all her slain, all who have fallen by the sword.

Their graves are in the depths of the pit and her army lies around her grave. All who spread terror in the land of the living are slain, fallen by the sword. Verse 13, you'll be all right, Judah. Verse 14, doom your grave.

You're going to be buried. Sometime read Psalm 9. It sounds similar to this. Enemies coming to eternal, everlasting ruin. The decree of God for the perpetuation of your name cut off. No more name sewn around this area.

One writer said the prophet alludes here to Sennacherib, who was slain in the temple of his idol by his own sons shortly after his return from Judah, when the siege of the holy city was miraculously raised.

Whether that's true or not, I don't know. But that's the kind of thing that the Lord would do. Temporally, it's bad. Eternally, it's worse. The termination of Nineveh, no descendants, no memorial service, no funeral.

The Good News of the Messenger on the Mountains

So for us, dear Christian, when we think about God's adversaries, just a quick reminder, this is a good pattern for us. And that is, we don't have to worry, we don't have to be fearful, and we know one day there'll be an accounting and we can rest in him.

To just shall live by faith, it's okay. He knows. But you say, I'd like a little bit more good news than that. Okay. Verse 15. We come to taking comfort for good news. Yeah, it's fine that we take comfort that there's adversaries will be obliterated.

But now in verse 15, is there any other good news? Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace. Keep your feast, O Judah, fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you.

He's utterly cut off. Okay, so you're getting oppressed, heavy tribute. One day what's going to happen to Israel is going to happen to us. It's going to get worse. Obviously, Israel has around it, Jerusalem, many hills.

And I wonder if you just walk out one day and look at the hill saying, I just wish someday somebody would come running up over that hill and say, you know what, Nineveh is done. It's over. They'd have runners like that all the time.

I mean, how does news spread now? News spreads quickly through phones and internet and everything else. In the old days, you had to run. Go run and tell somebody some good news or bad news. Can you imagine just looking over that hill, just wondering one day, when will this yoke be off of our necks?

What will the future bring? We're going to be like Israel. We're next. And all of a sudden, you see somebody running. You first kind of see them up on the mountain. It's kind of sudden, the text, like behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him.

And you're watching that person's running. Are they one of ours? Are they an enemy? Maybe it's an enemy coming to say, you know what? You better give us more or we're going to obliterate you. Are they a good guy?

Are they a bad guy? I kind of see. I'm looking. They're becoming more focused. Hey, that's one of our people. And he's running. And he doesn't look scared. It looks like he's got some good news. And what's the good news?

Israel, by the way, they're persecuting you. You can't worship. You can't do things in the temple with sacrifices and feasts and holy days that all ultimately point to the Messiah. You have no hope to see the Messiah come one day in terms of the remembrance that you have and things that you would do in order to remember the Messiah who would come like feast.

No, no. Now the good news comes. Fulfill your feast, O Judah. It's okay. You can do it. Why? Because this worthless one is done. That's good news. One writer said it is certain that the messianic import of Nahum 115 was utilized by the early church and has brought comfort to the saints throughout the succeeding ages who, while keeping their spiritual exercises, look forward with confidence and an expectation to the one who will reign in righteousness and execute perfect peace.

And for them, the Ninevites, they're cut off. For those in Judah, they were hoping for that Messiah. And in fact, he did come the first time. And while we look back with great joy that he came the first time, for us, we're in persecuting times and it's going to get worse.

We look forward to the Lord Jesus's second coming. Everything about the feast pointed to, you know what? Messiah will come. The future, there's hope. We can have confidence. There's good news. Doesn't this sound like other verses in the Bible to you?

Can you think of other verses that talk about good news and feet? And behold, I've got some good news for you. How about Isaiah 52? How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who bring good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns.

You're in slavery. You're struggling. You've watched and heard about horrible things that have happened to your people. And you look at the mountain and you see someone running. They've got good news.

Keep your feasts, Judah. That's good news. By the way, when you study history, Nineveh's destruction was so awful that when Alexander the Great was fighting a battle, he didn't even know he was near the ruins of Nineveh because it's been obliterated.

It's gone. There's good news. From mountaintop to mountaintop, shouting forth deliverance. It's sudden, but it's needed. And of course, as we as Christians read this and we think about the deliverance that we have from sin and the bondage to Satan and the evil system, we've been blinded by Satan.

And someone comes along and announces good news. I can't remember the first person who ever announced good news to me, but I remember several who did throughout the years before I got saved. It's like good news.

This is all temporal punishment, by the way, that would lead to eternal punishment. But we're on our way to hell as unbelievers, damned and doomed, and then God in His providence, He sends people, frail people, with a message that says, you know what?

You don't have to die in your sins. How would you like to be forgiven? How would you like to have someone else do everything that you were required to do? And you don't have to do it along with Him. You just trust Him because He's such a great God.

He's such a great King. He can represent you. He can be a substitute for you. He'll be a law keeper for you. He'll bear your law breaking. And it's all by grace alone. And deep down you know with me, as an unbeliever in our consciences, and because of the law of God, we are doomed.

We are damned. We might be better than other people, but we're going to need some good news because the good news isn't, do more good than bad. That's not good news. I mean, we have sins. We have Adam's sin imputed.

We have personal sin. We have an inherited sin. What do we do? Is there a sin bearer? I love when it says in the Gospel accounts and throughout Scripture, the modifiers for the word Gospel. Because they just, they just proclaim how great Jesus is with His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection.

Listen to some of the modifiers of the word Gospel in the New Testament. The Gospel of God. The Gospel or good news of Jesus Christ. The Gospel or good news about His Son. The Gospel of the grace of God.

The Gospel of the kingdom. The Gospel of peace. The Gospel of everlasting, the everlasting Gospel. I have good news for everybody here. If you're a Christian, this is what God has done in your life. Don't forget it.

While you might get persecuted on the earth, you have the hope of heaven. A fellowship with God. Now, if you're not a believer, what if I were to tell you, God will help you if you help yourself. Is that good news?

Back in the medieval days, they would say, God will not deny His grace to those who do what lies within their power. If you're an unbeliever here, do what lies within your power and you'll be alright.

Yeah, except God demands perfect obedience. That's not good news. Good news isn't, be like Jesus. You could never do it. The good news is not, you need a purpose in your life. You need to have a better relationship with your spouse.

The good news isn't, get baptized with the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues. Say the sinner's prayer. If you just believe in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, you're okay. If you just make Jesus your Lord, you're okay.

Have a personal relationship with Jesus. Let go and let God decide for Jesus. What would Jesus do? Love God. Love your neighbor. Repent, believe, trust, follow. The good news doesn't have anything to do with us.

The good news has to do with what Jesus did. And how would we know good news? From our own person? We have to have somebody come over that mountain and tell us, by the way, the gospel's free because the gospel is about the Lord Jesus, who lives, who dies, and is raised again.

And there is a response to the gospel, yes, of trust, of repentance, of believing. That is true. But the gospel itself, strictly speaking, is what Jesus did. Machen, what I need, first of all, is not an exhortation, but a gospel.

Not directions for saving myself, but knowledge of how God has saved me. Have you any good news? That is the question I ask of you. I know your exhortations will not help me, but if anything has been done to save me, will you not tell me the facts?

In Nineveh's day, the guy's coming over the hill. Behold, he's got good news. And here's the good news. We need double fortifications. They're coming. Would that be good news? Of course not. The good news needs to be, God has done a work in spite of us.

God has done a work. In the gospel, the good news, God doesn't demand, but He offers. The law demands perfection, but the gospel, the Lord Jesus offers. Think about the heart of the Lord Jesus when you think about what He does and how He operates with lepers and with centurions and with Peter's mother-in-law and all these people.

It is not, you do this and I will be your friend. Jesus is a friend to sinners if you do this. No, it's not that at all. He offers. He gives. He provides. He pardons. He reconciles. He makes redemption.

He propitiates. That's the gospel. What the law, for what the law was impossible and that it was weak through flesh, God did by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and condemned sin in the flesh through sin, that the righteousness required by the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.