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Nahum 2:1-2
Amen.
I do need to note that it was probably going to be a shorter sermon until we sang it as well. So, take that up with Gunnar. We come to the portion of our service where we open God's book and we preach the Word.
Nahum, chapter 2 now. You know that when we come to the preaching of the Word of God, that we don't separate this from worship. You understand that the preaching of the Word of God is part of worship.
Maybe you get in your mind that worship equals singing. Well, singing is part of worship. That's not all worship. You understand that right now. We haven't stopped worshiping and now we're going to have the preaching.
Preaching is worship. As I preach, I'm worshiping. And as you listen, you are worshiping. You're thinking about what is being said and you're matching it up with the scripture and you're even holding one of your pastors accountable to make sure he's preaching in accordance.
With the Word of God.
And then you're saying, even as we begin the sermon, you're saying, yes, Lord, my answer to the Lord Jesus Christ is yes. Now tell me what I have to do. But I'm coming in by faith saying it's already yes.
Nahum, chapter 2. Now, we move into the part of Nahum's prophecy on the account of the destruction of the city of Nineveh. And to be honest, it's kind of meticulous. In other words, it's not just that, hey, I'm going to destroy Nineveh.
It's actually here's what I'm going to do. And it's important to remember that this we've given an approximate date of 650 BC. So plus or minus there a little bit is important to remember. This prophecy was given then and that this comes to fruition in 612 BC, exactly like it's given to us in this word.
It's why some people are like, well, there's no way that Nahum was written in because they can't believe in its accuracy. But this is the way that God operates. Now, one of the things we're going to learn from the text is that the Lord.
Is a warrior.
He is a fighter of our battles, he is the conqueror and the response to God's warpath from his people. Should be one of worship. And so that's the sermon titled today, Worshipful Gratitude for a Warrior God, and I feel gratitude in there because here we are on the eve of Thanksgiving just right around the corner.
We should worship God. What should our response to be when God destroys a city like Nineveh? It should be one of grateful worship. So here's what we're going to do today. I'm going to read this entire chapter.
I'm going to ask you to stand in just a moment. I'll read the entire chapter. But really, we're really just going to focus in on verse one and two. But for contextual reasons, let's stand and let's read all of Nahum chapter two.
We stand here just out of a way to give reverence to the reading of the scriptures. This is the word of the Lord. Nahum chapter two. Verse one, the scatterer has come up against you, man, the ramparts.
Watch the road dress for battle, collect all your strength for the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel. For plunders have plundered them and ruined their branches. The shield of his mighty men is red.
His soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal on the day he musters him. The Cyprus spears are brandished. The chariots race madly through the streets. They rush to and fro through the squares.
They gleam like torches. They dart like lightning. He remembers his officers. They stumble as they go. They hasten to the wall. The siege tower is set up. The river gates are open. The palace melts away.
Its mistress is stripped.
She is carried off.
Her slave girls lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts. Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. Halt, halt, they cry. But none turns back. Plunder the silver, plunder the gold. There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of all precious things.
Desolate, desolation and ruin. Hearts melt and knees tremble. Anguishes in all loins, all faces grow pale. Where's the lion's den? The feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness went, where his cubs were with none to disturb.
The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled prey for his lionesses. He filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh. Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of Hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke.
The sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard. Father, would you give us grace to understand our text today?
And even if it's difficult for us to wrap our minds and hearts around, even if we've been so indoctrinated and infected by the the soft Christianity that's peddled sometimes, Lord, let us just respond in worship.
We get this text in the Bible because you are a God who is glorious. You are the avenger of wrongs. You are the God who destroys the enemies of your people. You are the God who reigns. You are supreme.
Let us come here this morning with wonderful gratitude for who you are. Thank you for the book of Nahum, a neglected book. I've neglected it in my own heart and mind too often throughout the years. But here we are going through it together verse by verse as a church.
Would you bless the preaching of your word? Would you draw sinners to yourself today? Would you convict the hearts of your people and in areas that we need to grow, challenge us, help us, exalt Christ?
We want to see more of him in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. I just give you a word of note that next week I meant to announce this earlier in the service next week. We're going to take a pause from Nahum.
Like, listen, I planned out Nahum to be 10 sermons, the whole book. And now we're on week 16. It's not going to turn into Ephesians part two. It's not. It just doesn't have that. But but but we are on week 16.
We're going to pause next Sunday. What I'm going to do is I'm going to take first Peter two twenty four, break that down in a few weeks and just want to talk about the gospel at Christmas. So read first Peter two twenty four this week and we'll consider that beginning next Sunday.
But for our text, we look at worshipful gratitude for a warrior God. The Lord, my friends, is a warrior and we ought to worship God and we ought to thank him that he is such a warrior. And I'm going to go ahead and do this because I think sometimes the God of the Old Testament is pitted against the God of the New Testament, which is, by the way, which is heresy because it is the same God.
And sometimes we think, well, God is different in the Old Testament than he is in the New Testament. God is one way in the Old Testament and he seems different in the New Testament. But God says in Malachi, I, the Lord, do not change.
God is a warrior in the Old Testament. And friends, I want to remind you today, he also is a warrior in the New Testament. In fact, let's just look for a second. Revelation chapter 19. Come back to Nahum, but go to the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 19.
And you tell me, is there a more vivid depiction of God's war path than a robe dipped in blood and a name by which he is called is the word of God and the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure were following him on white horses.
From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God, the Almighty on his robe and on his thigh.
He has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I agree with the Matt Papa song, Shilin song there. The Lord is a warrior. And I agree with that because that's what the text tells us. The Lord is a warrior and we see the portrayal of his warring both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
For the Lord does not change. But specifically this morning, back in Nahum, we see. His war path against the city of Nineveh. The one time you could almost say the capital of the world, the ancient capital of Assyria, but the Assyrian Empire at the time that this was written is at its height and at a very powerful nation.
Three things this morning then about the work of God that I want you to see from our text, particularly verse one and two is where we're at today. First, it is direct. So let's go to verse one. It is direct.
The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts, watch the road, dress for battle, collect all your strength. The scatterer now in verse one. So we're talking about the work of the Lord is direct.
And I'll explain that in just a minute. But the scatterer here in the text is in reference to those who would destroy Nineveh, those who God would use to scatter the people of Nineveh. Now, make no mistake about it.
God is the one that is doing it. He is using means to accomplish the end. The end is the destruction of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire. And God is going to use the scatterer to do it. God is sovereign over nations.
Listen to this from Jeremiah 51 20. He says to Babylon, you are my hammer and weapon of war with you. I break nations in pieces with you. I destroy kingdoms. And so God did use Babylon and he used a coalition of the Medes and other nations in 612 B .C. to bring destruction upon the city of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire.
And God has the sovereign right to dispose of nations when and how he is ready. He is the scatterer himself in one sense, but he is standing behind the scatterer in verse one. And my point here is that God is direct about this.
God is direct about this. Look at the four commands in verse one. Man, the ramparts, that's one, that's a command to watch the road, that's a command three dress for battle, that's a command for collect all your strength.
God is saying openly. God is saying transparently. God is saying directly to this city. This is what I'm going to do. Now, some of you love it. I'm thinking about Gunnar when I use sports analogies. Well, you think about a football team, you think about those football teams.
Now, it used to be Alabama. They've kind of fallen off the wayside now. It used to be they get late in the games and essentially they could tell you, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to snap the ball to my quarterback.
The quarterback is going to turn around. He's going to hand the ball to the running back and he's going to run right at your defense. That's what we're going to do. Bring it on. And they would do it and they would just pound the ball down people's throats essentially, except obviously much more reverently and much more true.
God is telling the city of Nineveh, man, the ramparts, watch the road. Dress for battle, collect all your strength, and he's telling them this is what he's going to do directly. Go ahead and try to stop it.
If you can, of course, we understand the city cannot be saved for God has pronounced judgment upon this city. What does Psalm 127 one say? Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It doesn't matter how big your army is. It doesn't matter how great your income is as a nation. It doesn't matter how wonderful your technology is.
It doesn't matter if you have the most secure borders in the history of the world. If God is against your nation.
It's over.
Friends, let me just give a plug here. We're in a season, I believe, of mercy from God in our nation. We are in a season of mercy. I think that was evident by what transpired in the election. This is not me giving an endorsement of every single thing that the GOP does.
But just listen to me. It could have been really, really, really bad. And we deserved and we do deserve worse. But the Lord, for some reason, I don't understand all his reasons, but I do know this. He has stayed his hand upon our nation and he has entered in, entered us into at least, I don't know how long it will last, but at least today we can say there is a season of mercy upon our nation.
And we need God in America. We need the intervention of the Lord's hand. We need revival. We don't just need some sort of political victory. That's not enough. We need hearts to be changed and we need the intervention of God.
So consider that for when God is against the nation, it's over, unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. Now, our text, you're going to have to deal with something. Our text is a bit of satire.
I need to wrestle with that just a bit, but in essence, you understand, I'm saying this very reverently, but you understand that God is mocking man, the ramparts. Watch the road, dress for battle, collect all your strength.
So first, let me just say this. We should never nuance what God clearly speaks. OK, and I would, in fact, let me back up. Let me get to that in just a minute. Let me put it this way. Don't think that this gives you a license to mock whenever you want.
I've seen some people use passages like this, maybe not this passage, but passages like this, and they just mock people all the time to say, well, God does it. Well, you can't do that. That's not right.
I don't think that's not a right application. But also, let me say this. Sometimes it's right to mock the enemies of God. We say, well, how could you say that? That doesn't seem very Christian. I'm saying it's sometimes in our imprudence and biblical wisdom.
We have to think through this rightly, but sometimes it's got to be righteous.
Why?
Because God does it.
God does it.
Man the ramparts. Watch the road. Dress for battle.
Collect all your strength. And of course, what is the response? They can't do it. But the point is, he speaks directly to his enemies, essentially saying, here's what's.
Going to happen.
Dress for battle like a man. And let's see how it goes.
Get yourself ready. Get your warriors ready. Get your best warriors ready. Sharpen your swords.
Let's go, man. Let's have at it.
And what is Nineveh going to do? Nineveh cannot prevail. Now, here's a few points of application for the church. First, I go back to what I just said. We should never nuance what God speaks clearly about.
This is not nuanced here, man the ramparts, watch the road, dress for battle, collect all your strength. And I want to say that in churches today, just an application here. This happens all the time. We're telling you that the experts are telling us they're writing blogs and they're preaching in these conferences and they're telling us, hey, listen, you guys, you can't.
Be so edgy.
You know, yeah, you need to tone it down.
You need a nuance.
Hey, we need to nuance homosexuality. We need to nuance abortion. We need to nuance Marxism. And until what you do when you do that is you find yourself nuanced into a knot and you no longer have biblical Christianity.
And I'm just making an argument from the text here. God speaks directly. I understand that it's not in the same way God speaks directly here. And I'm making an argument that the church should speak directly.
Sin is sin. Judgment, God, now this is more closer to the text here. Judgment is coming upon Nineveh and God doesn't nuance it. God doesn't try to soften the blow. God doesn't try. In all of chapter two that we just read, God is serious about what's going to happen to these people.
And too often we are not. We're not serious about the judgment of God that is coming. We try to soften God. We try to soften the message. We try to dull the blade.
I'm making an argument today.
I think it's warranted from the text that God speaks directly and so must we.
Repentance is necessary.
Christ is king.
Secondly, let me say this, an application, we should not be bashful about the triumphs of God. The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts, wash the road, dress for battle, collect all your strength.
You go all the way down to verse 13. Behold, I'm against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots and smoke and the sword shall devour your young lions. This is vivid. This is serious.
But we shouldn't be bashful about it. God wins. God has victory over his enemies. And this is not something that we are ashamed about or embarrassed about. Hey, you know what? The only Bible verse I want to tell the lost and dying world today is John 3, 16.
That's what they need to know. We need to just go around and say John 3, 16 and the rest of the Bible.
It doesn't matter.
Yes, it does matter.
The rest of the Bible does matter because even the rest of the Bible feeds John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him, what should not perish, should not perish.
That is the perishing of the enemies of God is coming. It's all connected, don't you see? The Bible tells us one story. We shouldn't be ashamed.
Furthermore, let me say this.
Let's go the New Testament, Colossians 2, Colossians 2. We should not be bashful about God's triumphs, whether that's over Nineveh or more pointedly. How about this one? Colossians chapter two. If you're bashful about God's triumph over Nineveh, then you'll eventually be bashful or you may already be bashful about this triumph.
Colossians chapter two, verse 13. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.
This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. Now, listen to verse 15. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, open shame by triumphing over them in him. God has been, in other words, very public about what he has accomplished in his son.
He lived before a watching world in perfect righteousness. He was crucified publicly, not in a corner, not in a closet, not not not in some secret place, publicly outside of Jerusalem. He rose again from the dead.
And Paul says in first Corinthians 15 that he was seen by over 500 witnesses. How many witnesses do you need to believe an event? Paul says God went above and beyond. He gave the church 500 witnesses over 500.
God, I'm just saying that he's not been secretive about what he has done in Christ. Can I tell you something? This Thanksgiving and Christmas season, this election season, this year that we're in 2024, can I tell you this morning that Christ is our only hope, that Christ is the righteousness we need to enter God's holy presence, that his death propitiated the wrath of God against my sin and that it publicly and openly disarmed the accusations of the evil one?
It nullified the devil's ability to stop the church's advance. And Jesus has risen again from the dead and reigns at the right hand of God, the.
Father Almighty. This is the gospel.
And I'm just telling you this morning that we can't be ashamed at the warrior God that is the God of the Bible. We can't be ashamed of what he's done to Nineveh and we can't be ashamed of what he's accomplished in Christ.
John Owen, I read this last night and this morning in preparation. He says it is in Christ alone that we may have a clear, distinct view of the glory of God and his excellencies. Christ is our only hope.
So what does this have to do with Nineveh? Only everything. The overthrow of Nineveh in our text is but a foretaste of the overthrow of all of God's enemies, which he has made certain by the triumph of the cross.
Is there a road from Nineveh to Golgotha? You better believe it.
There is.
And God has destroyed in Nineveh is what God has destroyed. Nineveh is but a foretaste of what God destroyed on Golgotha 2000 years ago and the eventual destruction of all of his enemies. So what I'm saying here is if God is direct, then can we not also be direct with the.
Gospel?
Hey, y 'all, this is what God has done and we're not bashful about it. And you understand, yeah, but man, if I really get into the the nitty gritty of the gospel, I really weighed off in there. I got to tell people they're sinners and that's just not how we deal with people today.
They need to be encouraged and maybe they need medication and they need a hug and a pat on the back. They don't need to be. They don't need to be told that they're sinners. Friends, if they're not told they're sinners, they have no hope of Christ.
For Jesus Christ came into the world to save only one type of person, the sinner. And if you're not a sinner, you don't need Christ. Of course, we understand all of sin and falling short of the glory of God.
In fact, let me just say this. In light of today's text, are you here? Are you here and you're unbelieving? When a lot of today's text, I might say something like this to you, you're.
Unbelieving. OK.
Why don't you dress for battle? The Lord's coming. He's a warrior. Why don't you go out and sharpen your sword? Go out and get a new AR -15. Prepare to meet God. Go ahead and do some extra running this week.
Do some more pushups. Hey, friend, go ahead and train your hands for war because the warrior God is coming. Go and prepare to meet him. Of course, if you have any modicum of sensibility, you tremble at such a thought.
It actually should terrify you that you're in an unconverted state and you're more worried about the meal that we're about to eat in just a minute than the fact that God is coming to judge you. How could you be so arrogant in your sins?
How how could you be so foolish in your sin has blinded you and hardened you? And what you must hear today is repent and go to God for mercy. Are we afraid, church, to speak directly and plainly to our friends and neighbors the reality of our warrior God that he is coming to judge the nations?
He's coming to judge the nations.
And there's only one way out.
And that way out is not you trying to better yourself. It's not you trying to lift yourself up by your own bootstraps. It's for sure not you doing the pushups and training your hands for war so that you.
Can meet God in battle.
The only way out is through Christ alone.
And you must this day consider your sins and offenses against such a good and holy God. And you must recognize that they are worthy of eternal judgment. And you must repent of your sins and stake all of your hope in the finished work of Jesus alone, not Jesus and your nice suit that you wear to church, Christ alone.
You must believe upon him as your only suitable and all sufficient savior, man, the ramparts, watch the road, dress for battle, collect all your strength. So there's two options here, dress for battle or appeal to mercy.
There's no middle ground in dealing with the Lord's war path. He has made war on his son at Calvary for those who seek a refuge in Christ and for everyone else. For everyone else, he will come in vengeance.
So can we not be playing? With the gospel, there's judgment coming. But there's real hope, peace for today. We don't have to sneak the gospel into places, we don't have to bake cookies and put the gospel, you know, somewhere in one of the cookies and they eat it and choke on it.
And they're like, OK, what was this like? Yeah, we can bake cookies for people as long as we're openly like saying, hey, I baked you these cookies because I want to tell you about Jesus. Like, can we not just be open like this?
What got like, why are we why are we ashamed? Like, why is it that I'm getting a little bit on a tangent? I'm just going to go real quick and come back. Why is it that we're so ashamed to tell the truth when lies are forced upon our families and our children and and and in so many different avenues?
The government can't trust a news cycle, can't trust it. Different teaching material, you can't trust it. OK, but then when we try to speak the truth, we're silenced and then we feel bad about like, yeah, OK, well, I won't ruffle anybody's feather.
Listen, they're indoctrinating our children. They're indoctrinating our minds. Why can we not just say, hey, listen, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, just stop.
This is what God has done.
He's coming to judge the nations, but he has atoned for the sins of all who will look to Christ. If you'll repent today and you'll run to Jesus and you'll believe upon his name, you'll be saved and you'll be avoiding the wrath of God that is to come.
Why can we not be plain? In second Corinthians four to Paul says we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth, we'd commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.
So listen, here's God's strategy. God's strategy is not the Trojan horse method. You know the story, right? And Troy, we're going to put all these guys, which seems kind of crazy, like no one thought, like maybe there's people in there, like we're going to put all these guys and they'll sneak the horse into the city and then boom, gotcha.
That's not how God does it. Matthew 16, 18 says the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. The church is marching forward. So God's strategy is not to hide his truth, but to declare it directly.
And so we must do that. We must use God's weapons of warfare in this gospel age. And those weapons are publicly declaring the truth without reservation. And don't you believe that God will honor?
I've got to believe this. I do believe this.
This is the testimony of scripture. God will honor his truth. So if God would use the wicked Babylonians and the Medes and other nations, if God would use those to take out Nineveh, how much more confident can we confidently can we expect him to use his own glorious truth to tear down the walls of sin and lies and deceit in our day?
So let us be proclaimers of the truth of God without reservation. God is direct. Let us be direct. Now, let me give you a little bit more pointed application because this Thursday is Thanksgiving. Did you know that?
It's the one time of year that when I'm listening to Christmas music, I don't feel weird and I do it 12 months out of the year, but these times I'm kind of normal ish. So this Thursday is Thanksgiving.
Some of you listen to me, you need to think through and pray through how to talk with your loved ones directly. About Christ, see, for years, you've told him, well, you know, I'm praying for you, or maybe you've told him something like, you know, God loves you, or maybe you told him like God bless you and you've walked away and you thought, OK, I've done my duty.
I'm telling you, you haven't. I'm not trying to hurt your feelings or make you feel bad, I'm just saying, hey, would you listen? Would you speak directly about Christ? For some of you, that might be just say, hey, could I take a second before the meal and say a few words and just tell the truth of Christ plainly?
You know, I understand the days that we live in, there will be people in your family. I have people in my family. Living together outside of marriage or some who profess to be homosexual or transgender or any number of other difficult things.
Now, be careful here, you need to pray for wisdom, you need to consider your approach. But I just want to I'm just trying to say this, the things in our world today that we have made difficult and messy, God's word doesn't make difficult or messy.
It's plain, for example, Revelation 21 and 8, but as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
Nothing nuanced or messy or difficult to understand there. So I'm just saying maybe there's someone in your family, I'm not saying, hey, preacher told me go blow up Thanksgiving. No, that's not what I'm saying.
But maybe there's someone in your family this week that needs this truth. They need you to come alongside them and tell it to them plainly. Listen, maybe in a one on one, it's easy sometimes to just publicly do it because maybe you don't get pushback.
It's harder sometimes to put your arm around someone that you disagree with and tell them the truth. I'm saying that you need to pray about that and think about that and tell them what God's word says about the truth, about sin, about judgment and also about the hope of Christ, also about the hope for a future, also about the hope that there is now there's freedom today from the tyranny of sin.
I don't care what the news or the science or or the professors or the experts say there is actually free. You don't have to be a homosexual. You don't have to be transgender. I'm not trying to whitewash everything and say, well, it's just all simple.
No, no. I'm just saying the gospel really delivers people.
It really does.
And so how could you look at and how could we look at our friends and our neighbors and our relatives and we say, I'm going to withhold the truth when I have the only hope that.
They have that they need?
Let's speak directly, that's my argument there. Consider these things. I know you've heard that old adage, don't talk about religion with your family, but I mean, do you think that you think Jesus signs his name to that statement?
I don't think so. Don't be contentious, don't be rude, but don't fear man. God is direct, let us follow in his ways. One more thing to consider from this verse before moving on. So in verse one, it says the scatter has come up against you.
And it's just interesting, the Hebrew word, hopefully I'm not making too much out of it, but it has the idea of ascending. So the idea is that Nineveh is a city high on a hill. And what I thought about when I was thinking about that is the Garden of Eden was high on a hill, Jerusalem is elevated, the church is called the city on the hill, the church is to be a witness.
I'm just going to make a point that sometimes God's enemies kind of being high on the hill, they can kind of try to imitate the people of God. Or sometimes the enemies of God may feel secure in their loftiness, I'm high up, no one can get me.
But if this is you, you need to remember that God will find you. He will have the final say, so if you say, well, I'm just going to imitate the people of God, no one will know. God knows and that will not save you.
Or finding comfort in the walls of this world, I'm OK, everybody else is doing it, I'm fine. Quatro, he's crazy. And listen, look, if you want to call Quatro crazy, you'll find a long list of people that would agree with you.
But listen. I may be crazy in some things, but I'm not crazy in this. Finding comfort in the walls of this world, the majority, your own moral compass, it will not save you. The work of God is direct.
Secondly, it is deliberate. Now, let me talk about this for a moment. Remember, I said it was going to be short until Gunnar sang that song, so. Verse two, for the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunders have plundered them and ruined their branches.
So let's just do a little work here. But I'm saying that the Lord is working in Nineveh for a reason, a deliberate reason. He's not just random. It's not just like, you know, why isn't God why didn't God like destroy maybe some city in China or something?
Right. During this time, why is it Nineveh? Well, there's a deliberate reason. He's defending the honor of his name. He is procuring the good of his people. He is exacting divine justice. He is declaring his glory.
Now, I think the New Testament writers, we're not going to read this. I'll let you read it later. But I think the New Testament writers understood passages like this that would have a much greater fulfillment than just the physical nation of Israel.
So here's a passage you can look at this later. Acts 15, 13 through 19. Now there, James is quoting from Amos and he says that but he says that all the prophets agree. So that would be Nahum. But but the point is, Nahum agrees with what Amos says.
And what is that? Well, that is that what God is doing here is not just a physical restoration, although, yes, God's going to deliver his people. Yes, we're not denying we're not mystifying or allegorizing the text at all.
We're just saying it has a greater fulfillment and the greater fulfillment of this text for the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as a majesty of Israel. The greater fulfillment of this text is in the church.
Now, some translate this differently in the Hebrew may be difficult, but really what's being communicated is that God is going to restore the majesty in the text that the Assyrians have taken away. And what I'm arguing now in this point is that an even greater than just a flat sort of focus on the city of Jerusalem, I'm saying the greatest fulfillment of the restoration of the majesty of Jacob is in the church.
Again, go look it up. Acts 15, 13 through 19. You can read that yourself. I'm just arguing for a moment that you must not miss what God is doing in the world today. He is fighting in the world today, as it were, if you want to think of that for his church and he is adorning his church for the great wedding feast that is to come for the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel for plunders have plundered them and ruined their branches.
I thought that was interesting. Ruined their branches. The people of God had been plundered, the people of God had been oppressed, the people of God had been beaten, their vine branches here have been marred.
You can't make new wine without vine branches, can you? But two thousand years ago, Jesus pours the fruit of the vine into a cup and he says this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Drink ye all of it in remembrance of me.
God fully restores, I'm arguing, the majesty of Jacob in showing that the true sons and daughters of Abraham are those of faith in Christ. Christ is, I'm arguing, building his church, that there is certainly a rescue of the people of God immediately in context of physical Israel.
There's a rescue there. Absolutely not denying that at all. I'm just saying that the beauty of this text is pointing forward to what James has said in Acts 15, that all the prophets agree of calling not just the Jews, but also the Gentiles under one head into one people into the church.
God is working. And by the way, I'll say this, sometimes the people of God are plundered, they're oppressed, they're killed, but you can't destroy them.
You can't.
God will always have his people. The church will endure forever. Also, where are you investing today? Some of you is like, well, I'm investing in Bitcoin. It's on a run right now. I'm saying something even greater, infinitely surpassing Bitcoin is the church.
Where do you invest in your life? Now, God takes out Nineveh. I'm arguing for the restoration of the majesty of Jacob. Now, put this maybe it's just in my brain, but hopefully I'm communicating clearly.
Take this and let's put this together. So if God is is taking out Nineveh for the restoration of the majesty of Jacob and if the greatest fulfillment of that is in the church, then what is happening is God is taking out Nineveh so that the line of the promised seed will not be snuffed out.
So if the lineage from from Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob, to Judah, to David on down to Christ, that it would continue, that Assyria is not going to wipe out the Jews because God is going to have the promise won't come.
So the promise that the father made to the son to give him a people, it's going to happen. It's going to come to fruition because the Lord takes very seriously his promises, his own honor, his own godhood is at stake.
He takes very seriously also his people and he is a warrior God, the warrior God worthy of our worshipful gratitude. Think of this for just a moment. This is the God who fights for the greatness of his glory, but also for the good of his people.
Let me just make that personal, Christian. This is the God, Christian, this is the God who fights for you when you wouldn't even fight for yourself. When you were fighting against God, when you were fighting even against the best good, when you were when you were just saying, no, God, no, God, no, God, I'm going to go my.
Own way. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to live my own way.
Leave me alone, God. God was fighting for you thousands of years ago in the destruction of Nineveh.
God fought for you.
You see, if Nineveh succeeds and Nineveh and the Assyrians take over the Jews and wipe them out and or they intermarry like they did in the northern tribes, there is no line to the Messiah. There is no salvation of the nation.
You're not saved.
But thousands of years ago in a place that you didn't even know about before America was even invented. God was fighting for you. Two thousand years ago, God fought for you. The serpent coiled and struck the Redeemer's heel, but the Messiah's foot stepped upon the serpent's head in triumph.
You wouldn't and you couldn't lift one finger toward truly and perfectly obeying the law.
Of God. And yet God fought for you.
Christ procured a perfect righteousness. He fought for you at Calvary in the sense that he not only triumphed over Satan, but he was bearing the wrath of God that was against justly against your sins.
And he won victory in his resurrection from the dead. The Lord is a warrior. Now, I'm not making you the center of the gospel because you ain't. God's glory is, but he fought for but to bring glory to himself.
He fought in such a way to bring you to himself. And it didn't just stop two thousand years ago. Most of you, I don't know, we could do with the kids here. So some of you were born this century. Some of you were born last century, but you're born in sin.
It's kind of weird for me to say I was born last century. You're born in sin. You're born condemned in Adam and the very moment that you were able, you chose your own path away from God towards self, towards sin.
But God fought for you. In one sense, he fought you for you. The Holy Spirit stopped your knuckleheaded rebellion in its tracks.
He stopped you where you were.
He rescued you from your dreadful path of sin and misery.
He gave you eyes to see, ears to hear, a heart that feels.
He drew you to himself without your help. He showed you Christ and what could you do but repent of your sins and believe the gospel? You didn't clean yourself up and then make your way to God. God brought you to Christ and therefore cleaned you up.
God fought for you, I'm saying. I'm just saying. Nahum 2 reminds us of how God fights for the greatness of his glory.
And for the good of his people.
And we see this even more beautifully displayed in the gospel of Christ and all these things that go along with it. Can you pause even now and give glory to God? Lastly, the work of God is direct and is deliberate.
This won't take long. Thirdly, it is dependable. The scatterer has come up against you. You man the ramparts, watch the road, dress for battle, collect all your strength. For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel.
For plunders have plundered them and ruined their branches. Now, I remind you again that this was prophesied around 650 and God carried it out just like he said he would. I'm telling you that God's work is dependable.
The word of God is true. All that the Bible says is true. There is no mixture of error. The scriptures are always trustworthy. We talked about earlier in the service, you say, y 'all really believe that God created the world in six days?
Yes, we do. Yes, we do.
Unashamedly, six 24 hour periods. Why do you believe that? Because the Bible teaches it and everything that the Bible says is true. No mixture of error. God's word is true. God's work is faithful. You can always depend on the Lord to do what he says he's going to do.
There's both comfort and concern in a statement like that. There's comfort for those who've taken refuge in God. Remember Nahum 1 7. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge in him.
This is comforting to those who take refuge in God. Christian, the Lord is a warrior. He's fought for you. He's fighting for his glory and for the good of the church. Even when Nineveh seems like it's at the height of its power, God is not done.
Take comfort in our warrior God. Let us be a people who worship in gratitude for who he is and all that he's done in Christ. Can we be thankful? For our warrior God today, and then I said there's comfort and concern, I don't know what to do.
I wish I could just maybe shake here or just I know why some people try to do the laser lights or video. Sometimes it's wrong, but they're just trying to evoke some sort of response because some of you today, you're just sitting there.
There's no response. You're just like, can we get to the pumpkin pie? I'm saying if you're in an unbelieving state, you should be concerned. Because the Lord is a warrior. Maybe you're a church member.
Maybe you're a visitor today, maybe you're a child, maybe your parents are Christians, maybe everyone in this room thinks you're a Christian. But if you are an unbeliever, the Lord is against you. If you are against the church, then who you are in this story is not on the winning side, you're Nineveh.
And when Revelation 19 says that Jesus will come back to strike the nations, that's you, that's you, you are there included in that. You will be struck now.
You will be defeated.
The day of mercy will be over. You will perish forever in the lake of fire. This ought to concern you.
How does it not?
How could you go one more moment in defiance to such a God? How could you play around on your phone or be concerned about, hey, how many dogs am I going to kill next week or deer or what are we going to do?
How could you think about anything than the fact that God stands against you? In 612 B .C., the one strongest nation on earth crumbled under the sovereign hand of God. How do you think you're going to fare?
If you had 10 ,000 lives, if you could live 10 ,000 pounds, if you could run in an.
Instant 10 ,000 miles, you can't beat God.
He wins. He always wins. He will have his way. He will have his glory.
But hear me today, friend.
The arms of mercy are open today. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart today. This day, repent, little child, little boy, little girl. You listen to the preaching of Pastor Jacob and Pastor Cuatro and the teaching that goes.
On Wednesday night and Sunday school.
You hear day in and day out.
I'm saying, will you believe today? Will you trust Christ?
Leave the walls of Nineveh, friends. Run to the open arms of Jesus who receives all those who truly put their faith in him. Imagine you're standing alone on a battlefield, there's two great armies opposed and you're alone.
On one side, you have the demonic army, if you will. They're charging against you to destroy you. On the other side, you have the wrath of God that justly condemns you. And so you've got one army of demons charging you, if you will, just an analogy.
On the other side, you've got an army of angels. They're charging to destroy you. One army hates you because you're made in the image of God. The other army hates you because you're an enemy of God.
There is no out.
There is no way for you to go. You are alone.
And in steps Jesus.
And he says to them all, stop. This one's mine. I bought this one. I paid for their sins. This is my beloved part of my church, the demonic powers are put to open shame and the angels rejoice at the satisfaction of justice and the exaltation of grace.
Don't you see this morning that the warrior God that we've been preaching about is also the God of compassion toward needy sinners. Stop fighting the warrior God.
You cannot win.
Take off your garments of rebellion and put on today the righteous robes of Jesus Christ received by grace alone through faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone. I got nothing else to preach.
What will you do with this God?
Father, thank you for your word. Help us to hear what the spirit says to the churches. Through the word, give us grace to stay. Let us be a church that is not rude or contentious, but also not afraid to speak boldly and tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Thank you for the families that are here today. I know they'll dismiss later and they'll go their separate ways. And this week, much to celebrate and much warmth and joy to have with the blessings of family.
Oh, God, I pray that they would not take for granted, though. That you've put a true believer in their family, them. And perhaps it's their testimony of the truth of God and Christ, of sharing the gospel.
That will bring some of their own physical family members into the family of God. Lord, is there an unbelieving student here, a teenager? A child, an adult, a senior adult? Oh, God, how could they? How could they be so unresponsive?
Holy Spirit, would you just, by your mercy and for the glory of Jesus Christ. Draw them to Jesus, even this day. And may they repent and believe the gospel and join the family of God.