Book of Nahum - Ch. 1, Vs. 1-15 (05/08/2022)

Park Meadows Church

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May 8, 2022

Bro. Bill Nichols

00:00: Okay, good morning And I was gonna make my visit a birthday visit
00:58: But I decided to push it forward a couple of weeks. Her birthday was on the 4th of July And I thought it would be a good time to do all of these things together to visit her
01:11: To visit my family to celebrate the 4th of July to celebrate her birthday
01:16: And all of that and it would been a wonderful time. But as I thought about it, I Decided I was just going to go ahead and go right at the beginning of summer the last week in May or the first week of June so I did and I drove out there and and I visited her she was in the
01:38: Mid stages of Alzheimer's so sometimes she knew who I was and sometimes she didn't but this time she did
01:44: She knew who I was and she talked and she was pleasant We had a good day and we had a good week and I visited all my folks and I turned around and went home
01:54: Heading home about the middle of June Got home
02:02: In about a week Got a phone call from my sister
02:09: That said mother had passed away Well, it didn't surprise me that she passed away
02:18: Because she was 93 years old and when that happens when you get that age the
02:26: Lord You're not you don't have a long amount of time left
02:32: But as I thought about it, I said, you know, the Lord was so good to me. He let me see her
02:39: During the last month of her life He let me see her When she was lucid enough that she recognized me and knew who
02:48: I was and who she was talking to and we had a very very nice visit my sister told me that Her son which was staying with mom and taking care of her at the time said that he came in from work
03:05: And mother was had just finished doing a jigsaw puzzle. She loved to do those things.
03:10: She used to do Jigsaw puzzles of a thousand pieces and she'd lay it out on a coffee table and she'd just do it put it together
03:18: It might take her a week or a month to do it, but she'd always get it done Well as time passed she was not able to do so much and so she wound up doing smaller and smaller puzzles
03:29: So at that at this stage of her life, she was doing the little kid Jigsaw puzzles, maybe 50 pieces.
03:37: I don't have any there are any but In any case he said she came in she put her jigsaw puzzle together
03:46: She wished him good night, they said hello and good night And she went to bed and he went to bed and when he woke up the next morning
03:55: She was gone what a peaceful way to go
04:04: And I just praise God every day for not every day, but every time
04:09: I think about it I do For allowing me to see her one last time
04:18: Other than see her at a funeral and I waited until I intended to I would have seen her at her funeral But allow me to see her when she was alive to allow her to be lucid enough that we could communicate when
04:31: I saw her It was just was like a blessing that the Lord gave me and I thought you know
04:41: The one thing we need to do is make sure that we tell our mothers and our fathers and Our significant others
04:54: All of whom we love just exactly how much we love them as often as we can
05:04: Because there is no assurance of tomorrow. I'm glad brother
05:14: David is not in here right now Because I don't want to make it any harder on him
05:19: But I do see some that are also in here that this is hard on her, his mother, your grandparents
05:29: Grandmother Just recently passed away She was a great woman and I know you guys told her as often as you could
05:40: Just how much you loved her and that's a good thing
05:46: My mom told me after my dad died she missed him, but she had no regrets
05:56: She had nothing unsaid that she need to say That's what we should be we should not leave anything unsaid that we need to say
06:09: So I want us to begin with a prayer and then we'll do our normal lesson
06:15: Most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day And thank you for giving us the opportunity to come into this place of worship where we may study your word
06:26: Thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit to guide us in our understanding of the Holy Word Bless us for your son that you gave us
06:37: To come into the world and bear the penalty for our short fallings None of us are perfect But we are perfect in him
06:49: Bless us and keep us to go through the services today in Jesus name. We pray Amen So I guess
06:57: I will get to my intended Lesson The Book of Nahum and we're going to begin at chapter 1
07:14: Now before the holidays before the Easter and Mother's Day and all the holidays We spent several weeks studying
07:21: Jonah the book of Jonah now the book of Jonah is a book that detailed an account of a prophet
07:29: With a message of doom for Nineveh. It was a message that the entire city heard and Responded to it was a response that did not surprise
07:48: God He knew that the entire city would repent
07:54: And he forgave them every man woman and child and of course
08:01: Jonah suspected that that's what Jesus would do or what God would do and That made him angry
08:08: Which just goes to show he wasn't God now you need to consider how the citizens of the city of Nineveh must have felt as time went forward
08:24: God had forgiven them God had shown them mercy and grace when they deserved punishment
08:33: He had blessed them instead of cursing them and One might imagine that they thought that his blessings would last forever
08:44: Now this is a thought That could be similar to the way the people of the
08:52: US might feel today We're indeed a nation blessed of God and We may also feel that those blessings will last forever
09:09: That's my hope as well that the blessings will last forever Or as long as this country lives last
09:17: But that's not likely Remember our study of Jonah when we were in Jonah 3 as we explored the question
09:26: Does God ever change his mind? Let's lay that question out there.
09:31: Do you think God ever changes his mind? Another way to ask that question is do you think
09:40: God ever learns anything about anything that would make him change his mind about anything? Well as we explored that when we were doing
09:50: Jonah We found this from J. Vernon McGee and I thought this was the best explanation.
09:56: It was not his explanation. It was a guy Dr. G. Campbell Morgan Explanation, but I wanted to read it one more time
10:04: Someone, this is McGee writing someone asked that of Dr.
10:10: G. Campbell Morgan, does God ever change his mind or does God change his mind often?
10:19: Someone asked that of Dr. G. Campbell Morgan years ago in England Dr. Morgan, is
10:27: God as changeable as a wither vein? And his reply was you use the wrong illustration.
10:35: A wither vein is not changeable It never changes It operates
10:42: According to a law that says it doesn't matter make any difference Which way the wind will blow the wither vein always points in the direction
10:52: The wind is going It's the wind that does the changing
11:00: Well It wasn't God that changed It was the people of Nineveh The people of Nineveh changed and God forgave them
11:10: Now at this point it might be instructive to consider the question Was McGee correct when he stated that Nineveh was not destroyed?
11:22: What do you think? Was it destroyed? Not at the time.
11:28: He's not at the time Jonah said it It was destroyed
11:34: It was just not destroyed 40 days later like Jonah said It took more than 100 years
11:40: And then it was not only destroyed It was destroyed so completely that it was hidden for almost 2500 years
11:52: So the years pass And the people of Nineveh change again
11:59: And now more than 100 years later God sends a new prophet
12:05: Nahum With a message similar to that delivered by Jonah So we're going to look right now at Nahum 1 -1
12:20: The burden of Nineveh It's a burden because the prophecy is a message of doom
12:29: The burden of Jonah I did it again The burden of Nineveh The book of the vision of Nahum The Echo Site Now when
12:42: I looked up As I was studying this I looked at Dr. John MacArthur's commentary about Nahum And the first thing he did is he spent a lot of time
12:56: Resolving or trying to resolve a difference a dispute between two sets of religious biblical scholars
13:05: I'm just going to read what he says All that is provided in the scripture about Nahum is here in this verse
13:13: He was an Echo Site This may refer either to his birthplace or his place of ministry
13:20: Attempts to identify the location of Elkosh Have thus been
13:27: Thus far been unsuccessful Elkoshite is thought by many biblical scholars to be a reference to the little city of Elkosh located in Galilee Now there's another city in Galilee In which
13:47: Jesus spent most of his ministry A city near the
13:52: Sea of Galilee You know what that city is? Capernaum You know what
14:01: Capernaum literally means? The city of Nahum And it is thought by a second group of scholars to be
14:11: Nahum's birthplace So we have two groups of biblical scholars arguing about the birthplace of Nahum Isn't that like Satan?
14:28: To interject controversy over a point that is not very important But this is important.
14:38: Nahum forms a sequel to the book of Jonah The two books need to always be studied together.
14:45: Jonah first and then Nahum Jonah for one reason And then
14:51: Nahum for another over a century earlier
14:58: Jonah had recounted the remission of God's promised judgment toward Nineveh Now more than a century later
15:07: Nahum depicts the execution of God's judgment
15:17: Nineveh was proud of her city a city thought to be invulnerable
15:24: It had walls reaching 100 feet high It also had a moat 150 feet wide and 60 feet deep but Nahum prophesied that the sovereign
15:37: God would bring vengeance upon those Ninevites who violated his law And indeed he did
15:44: The same God who bestowed his loving kindness upon the repentant
15:49: Ninevites judges the unrepentant ones as well Now I've got this just a little bit of out of order and that's
16:00: I thought I had it fixed, but I didn't The point of the book of Jonah Was not the great fish
16:08: The book of Jonah was not about the great fish The point of the book of Jonah is
16:14: God's children will always repent But they will do so on God's timetable the point of Nahum's prophecy
16:32: Is not Nahum's birthplace It is this God's children will never repent
16:41: No matter how much time they're given Now Nahum's prophecy brought doom and it brought comfort as well
16:52: It brought doom to the Assyrians and comfort to Judah and to all that feared
16:59: Assyria or Nineveh Nahum said that Nineveh would end with an overflowing flood and it happened
17:08: Just that way when the Tigris river overflowed to destroy enough of the walls to let the
17:14: Babylonians through Nahum also predicted that the city would be hidden and after its destruction in 612
17:25: BC the site was not rediscovered until 1842
17:31: AD more than 2 ,000 years later almost 2 ,500 years later And interestingly enough the same biblical scholars that that disputed the existence of Nineveh As they read it in the
17:47: Bible as well, it's just a story like What's the city that was
17:54: Atlantis Like like like Atlantis. It's just a mythical city They couldn't believe the
18:02: Bible and they're biblical scholars but they could believe when some Geologists said or archaeologists said that they found the remains of the city of Nineveh.
18:13: They could believe that but not the Bible It says something about the nature of the biblical scholars
18:20: Maybe they're not biblical scholars at all. Maybe they're just scholars who are studying the
18:25: Bible in any case The burden of Nineveh the book of the vision of Nahum the
18:34: Ecclesite God is jealous and God revengeth God revenges and is furious
18:43: The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies
18:51: Well, let's look at it piece by piece. God is jealous His jealousy emphasizes
18:56: God's burning zeal for Israel It is the cause of his passionate reaction against anyone guilty of spiritual adultery
19:10: He's possibly talking about the captivity of the 10 northern tribes in 722
19:15: BC or the invasion of Sennacherib About 20 years later in 701
19:25: BC The Lord will take it take vengeance on his adversaries
19:33: Man needs to understand that he cannot fight God and hope to prevail
19:41: Everyone Who sets himself against God will end up being the object of God's vengeance
19:50: No one will ever succeed in opposing God verse 3
19:58: The Lord is slow to anger And great in power and will not always acquit the wicked
20:05: The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm And the clouds are the dust of his feet
20:16: God is far more patient than man However, there is a time and a place where he does display his anger
20:26: But it doesn't come quickly or capriciously Charles Spurgeon said this God's sword of justice is still in its scabbard
20:37: It's not rusted in It can be easily withdrawn But it is held there by the hand that presses it back into its sheath
20:46: Crying sleep oh sword sleep for I will have mercy upon sinners and I will forgive their transgressions
20:56: And a little later this is Charles Spurgeon God is not like an unjust judge who simply lets the guilty go out of a sense of compassion
21:09: We can't just figure that God will say let's let bygones be bygones
21:14: When we get to heaven Sin must be accounted for Because he will not acquit the wicked
21:24: Every sin will be paid for Every sin will be paid for either in hell or on the cross
21:33: If your sin was not paid for on the cross, then it will be paid for In hell if it wasn't paid for you on the cross by Jesus It will be paid for you by you in hell forever
21:49: Never once Has he pardoned an unpunished sin not in all the years
21:59: Of the most time not in all the days of his right hand has he once blotted out sin without punishment
22:06: Did he brought out your sin without punishment Well, no, but you didn't have to bear it
22:16: Jesus bore it for you Now look at the phrase the lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm
22:25: God's power Is so great that it controls the mightiest forces known to men
22:32: A huge whirlwind or storm is nothing to God He has his way in them
22:41: There is nothing about the storm that is a threat to God Or there's nothing about a storm that is in the real sense a threat to any of God's children
22:51: Oh You may die in the storm But that won't take you away from God It will just take you to him quicker
23:02: He rebuketh the sea And he make it dry He drifts up all the rivers
23:08: Bashan languishes And Carmel And the flower of Lebanon languishes
23:15: The mountains quake at him And the hills melt And the earth is burned at his presence
23:22: Yea, the world and all that dwell therein who can stand before his indignation?
23:28: Who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him
23:41: Now when God has resisted long enough and rejected strongly enough eventually his judgment comes
23:49: He is slow to anger, but when he but when it does come his anger does come his fury is poured out like fire
23:58: Understanding this should make men quick to repent and wary of presuming on God's patience
24:06: Uh, we tend to think well I'll ask for forgiveness tomorrow for the sin that I'm going to indulge in today
24:16: Have any of you ever done that Have you ever said you don't don't answer that out of stature for you
24:24: There have been times when I was tempted to sin And there's times when
24:30: I was tempted to sin that I didn't and the reason I didn't is because I was walking hand in hand with God at that time
24:39: But there's been times when I've been tempted to sin And I decided well,
24:47: I'll sin today and I'll ask forgiveness tomorrow I hope none of you do that I'm trying my best to stop doing that But I'm like In that way,
25:02: I'm like Paul. Oh wretched man that I am That which
25:07: I want to do I don't do and that which I know I don't want to do that I do And the only thing that can keep me from doing it is
25:14: God And he will only keep me from doing it if I'm walking hand in hand with him when
25:20: I'm straying from him I'm on my own but fortunately like Jonah made lots of bad decisions
25:30: The Lord never let him get away And I'm hoping that that's the case for me.
25:37: No, I know that's the case for me but We should be quick to repent and wary of presuming on God's patience.
25:51: We should not but we should not take Into our heads the idea that yes,
25:56: I can sin today and ask forgiveness tomorrow and God will forgive me If that were to happen you sin today you ask forgiveness tomorrow.
26:06: God will forgive you But what if you sin today and die tomorrow before you ask?
26:14: well I don't know that that's possible but Uh, especially if you're his
26:21: I don't know that it's possible But you should be wary of presuming on God's patience
26:29: The Lord is good A stronghold in the days of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him
26:37: That's comforting The Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble those who love him and trust him
26:47: See the goodness of God and find protection in his stronghold Spurgeon says this
26:56: Remember that is it is only a day not a week Not a month
27:03: And God will not permit the devil to add an extra hour to that day It is a day of trouble and there is no end to all of our griefs
27:13: I'm, sorry, and there is an end to all of our griefs God is good a stronghold in the day of trouble
27:24: Those who love him and trust him See the goodness of God and find protection in him
27:33: He knows those who trust him God knows those who trust him
27:42: Not only does he know them the sense of identification But also in the sense of an intimate relationship
27:52: Trust implies relationship and God knows those who trust in him And again, this is
27:59: Spurgeon What's more dear friends? This word know means loving communion
28:08: God knows us. He knows our prayers our tears. He knows our wishes
28:14: He knows that we are not what we want to be But he also knows that we what we do desire to be
28:22: He knows our aspirations Our sighs our groans our secret longings our chastenings of spirit when we fail
28:31: He has entered Into all of it and he says yes your child.
28:37: I know all about you I have been with you when you thought you were alone I have read what you could not read
28:46: The secrets of your heart that you could not decipher. I have known them all and I still know them
28:55: That was Spurgeon It's no wonder that he's known as the prince of preachers
29:03: But with an overflowing flood, he will make an utter end to the place thereof and darkness shall pursue his enemies
29:11: That overflowing flood was fulfilled both literally and figuratively according to secular accounts
29:18: During the final siege of Nineveh by rebel army of Persians, Medes, Arabians, and Babylonians Unusually heavy rains caused the rivers to flood
29:28: And to undermine the city's walls Which then collapsed And the invading armies entered the city
29:36: Through the breach in the wall Verse nine
29:42: What do you what do you imagine against the lord? He will make an utter end
29:48: Affliction shall not rise up a second time The utter end of the place was also literally fulfilled
29:57: Not only were these people lost from history. Even the city was lost Until it was rediscovered by archaeologists at the beginning of the 1840s
30:15: He will make an utter end of it Nineveh was ripe for devastating judgment
30:23: This was not a harsh chastening. It was utter destruction. It was more than a harsh chastening
30:29: It was utter destruction And it was to come upon the city The promise affliction will not rise up a second time
30:38: Might sound encouraging until you realize the reason it won't come up a second time is
30:44: Nineveh won't exist a second time For while they be folded together as thorns and while they are drunk
30:54: As drunkards they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry
31:02: The dry leftover stalks of grass are ready to be devoured by the smallest of flames This is how ripe
31:08: Nineveh is For judgment and how complete the fire of judgment will be when it comes that should give us some concern as well
31:18: We are but by leftover stalks ready to be devoured by the smallest flame Verse 11
31:28: There shall one come out of thee that imagineth evil against the Lord a wicked counselor
31:35: Maybe I need to explain that There is one that will come out of thee That's Nineveh.
31:41: There's something that will come out the Assyrians that imagineth evil against The Lord a wicked counselor
31:50: What we have here, I believe is a near and a far prophecy the near prophecy beginning
31:59: Begins relating to the completion of God's wrath which began when an emissary of Sennacherib threatened to deliver
32:07: Delivered a threat to Jerusalem after which the Lord intervened and destroyed his army
32:13: You probably remember that from 2nd Kings if you didn't if you don't I'm going to read it.
32:18: It's kind of humorous And it came to pass that night after the emissary of Sennacherib had told the
32:26: Jews that The Assyrians were going to destroy them
32:33: And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smoked The camp of the
32:40: Assyrians a hundred four score and five thousand that's 185 ,000 men
32:47: And when they arose the next morning Behold, they were all dead corpses
32:55: I thought that was funny I but the they they who arose were not the
33:01: Assyrians they who arose were the were the uh Jews looking over When they arose and got down to check to see why they hadn't been destroyed
33:10: They found that the whole Assyrian army were dead corpses but it did sound like dead corpses arose
33:25: I pushed the wrong button. Sorry gotta be careful as I do that.
33:35: Okay Okay, so that was completed As prophesied by Nahum With the complete destruction of Nineveh, that was the near prophecy
33:47: The near prophecy is what's going to happen to Nineveh. Now the far prophecy Is a prophecy that I believe is still in the future.
33:54: It's the prophecy of Antichrist Named in at least one other
34:00: Old Testament book as the Assyrian This is a passage that we always read at Christmas but now
34:09: Bethlehem Elipha Though they be little Among the thousands of Judah yet out of these shall come forth unto me that is to be a ruler
34:20: Of Israel whose going forth have been from old from everlasting and that of course is
34:27: Jesus the Messiah and that's usually the end of that paragraph that we uh, the verse that we put on the walls at Christmas time, but if you keep reading you'll see that uh
34:38: Uh, it goes on to say therefore Will he give them up? Until the time that she which travaileth that is getting ready to have birth to give birth
34:49: Israel hath brought forth that would be the Jesus being born Then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the city unto the children of Israel and he shall stand
35:01: And feed in the strength of the Lord and the majesty of the name of the Lord his God and they shall abide
35:08: For now he shall be great unto the ends of the earth and this man the
35:14: Messiah Jesus Shall be the peace When the Assyrian shall come into our land and when he shall creed in our palaces
35:25: Now there's something to consider Nineveh was located just across the river From what is now
35:33: Mosul, Iraq In the heart of what used to be the Assyrian empire verse 12
35:44: Then saith the Lord though they be quiet and likewise many Yet shall they be cut down when he shall pass through Though I have afflicted thee
35:54: I will afflict thee no more Though they are quiet the enemies of Zion look mighty
36:03: They were safe and there were many yet they will be devastated by the judgment that the
36:08: Lord promised Though I have afflicted you I will afflict you no more The God's people look weak and afflicted yet.
36:16: God promises them that they will be strengthened and restored verse 13
36:23: For now I will break his yoke from off thee and will burst thy bonds asunder And the
36:32: Lord has given a commandment concerning them that no more of thy name may be stoned
36:37: Out of the house of thy gods. I will cut off the graven image and the molten image. I will make thy grave
36:44: For thou art vile. He's talking again about Nineveh The city of Nineveh at once was instantly recognized as one of the greatest power cities in the world
36:57: God promises to bring that wicked city so low that they lose their legacy and they lose their name among the nations
37:05: I will make thee a grave for thou art vile God warns
37:11: Nineveh of its coming judgment and destruction, but unlike the
37:19: Ninevites of Jonah's time who Who all repented every last one of them every man woman and child repented and God forgave them
37:30: He's just given a greater threat to the Ninevites of Nahum's day But unlike the
37:36: Ninevites in Jonah's time the Ninevites of Nahum's time Did not repent
37:42: As far as I know not even one repented And that would be even worse than Sodom and Gomorrah When they had a few that got out
37:54: Behold the mountains Behold upon the mountains the feet of them that bringeth good tidings
38:03: That publisheth peace O Israel Keep thy solemn feast perform thy vows for the wicked shall no more pass through thee.
38:13: He is utterly cut off There'll come a time when there'll be no wickedness in Israel.
38:19: That's not now But it's a time that's coming The contrast between the fate of the godly and of the wicked
38:33: Are bad news to the Ninevites but good news to Nahum and to all people of God and that's about the end of That is the end of the chapter
38:53: Any comments or questions? That passage about the
39:00: Assyrian It started with that, you know kind of the Christmas passage that y 'all had
39:06: That was in Micah I'll get back to it in just a second It was
39:15: Micah 5 verse 2 that that's the Christmas passage and we end at the end of verse 2 but if you keep reading it's going to Talk about the other things that will happen and it will it will prophesy the coming of the
39:34: Antichrist And it calls that man Uh what it called the
39:42: Messiah This man shall be the peace. That's the Messiah. He shall be the peace when the
39:48: Assyrian shall come into our land That would be the Antichrist Then the verse where it seems to imply that That he'll come out of this place, you know
40:06: It it kind of tells you where will the Antichrist originate It kind of says out of Assyria Well people always say well in Daniel it said out of the
40:18: Roman Empire Remember that the the prince of the power of the prince of the people that shall come and everybody says well, that's out of Rome Rome was only half of the
40:32: Rome was only half of the Roman Empire The other half eastern half of the
40:37: Roman Empire outlasted the western half by over 500 years And the eastern half had in it
40:47: Turkey and Iraq and Iran All of the ground where the old
40:57: Assyrian Empire was So I think that I think that tells us that the Antichrist is going to originate up from From Iraq Or what is now
41:13: Iraq, but I may be wrong that that's conjecture
41:19: That's why I didn't bring it up before But it is interesting any other comments or questions
41:30: If not most gracious heavenly father, thank you for this day, thank you for giving us your scripture
41:39: Your son the holy spirit And thank you, especially this morning for giving us our mothers bless us and bless them and keep them and Remind us day by day
41:53: To tell our mothers how much we love them We can't presume to know
42:04: Anything about tomorrow But we do know about today Right now we can tell all of those that are important to us