A Pointed Promise of a City's Destruction

Providence Baptist Church

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Isambard Kingdom Brunel, that's a mouthful. If you're looking for children's names, there's one for you.

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Isambard Kingdom Brunel. You have no idea who that is. And I don't really either, other than he was a 19th century engineer.

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And what he's known for is being the chief engineer, the chief architect of the

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Great Western Railway which would connect London and then into the west of London, Bristol.

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And the reason that Isambard Kingdom Brunel is known is because he was meticulous in the laying out of these tracks, even did some things that others thought weren't conventional and he went and surveyed the lands himself and even took the tracks into places that were rural.

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And the reason he did that is because of the elevation, he wasn't so much worried about the city, he was worried about the way the tracks would lay out.

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And all that to say that he accomplished one of the greatest railway accomplishments, if you will, if that's even a category, in the history of railway engineering.

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He really helped revolutionize the railway system. And turn over in your

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Bibles to Nahum chapter two. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a master architect, but God is an even greater architect and he's meticulous in his plans and we're reminded when we get to Nahum chapter two that God has planned and will execute his meticulous judgment upon the city and he will do it like he has planned and he will do it in the way that he sees fit.

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But as we consider this, I think there are some encouragements and exhortations to the church and to those of us in here to consider.

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And so this morning we look at Nahum chapter two, we pick up where we left off, actually, goodness, now almost two months ago, but appointed promise of a city's destruction, appointed promise of a city's destruction.

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Would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's word? Let me just, for sake of context, read chapter two.

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Our focus is on three through six. The scatterer has come up against you.

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Man the ramparts, watch the road, dress for battle, collect all your strength. For the

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Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined their branches.

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The shield of the mighty man is red. His soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal on the day he musters them.

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The cypress spears are brandished. The chariots race madly through the streets. They rush to and fro through the squares.

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They gleam like torches. They dart like lightning. He remembers his officers.

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They stumble as they go. They hasten to the wall. The siege tower is set up. The river gates are open.

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The palace melts away. Its mistress is stripped. She is carried off, her slave girls lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts.

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Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. Halt, halt, they cry, but none turns back.

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Plunder the silver, plunder the gold. There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of all precious things.

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Desolate, desolation and ruin. Hearts melt and knees tremble.

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Anguish is in all loins. All faces grow pale. Where is the lion's den? The feeding place of the young lions where the lion and lioness went, where his cubs were with none to disturb.

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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.

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Behold, I am against you, declares the

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Lord of hosts. And I will burn your chariots in smoke and the sword shall devour your young lions.

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I will cut off your prey from the earth and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.

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Father, as we think about this text and it may be surprising to some, but really what this text does for the church is to cause us to say, like that song we sang just a moment ago, never fear, only trust and obey.

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Lord, this text is given for the great comfort and consolation of the church.

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It's a great warning to those who would reject Christ, who would turn their back on the church, who would even seek to be the church's enemy, and yet it is a great comfort for those who are in Christ.

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And so I pray that we would hear both the comfort and the concern, both the consolation and the warning.

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Lord, for those who stand outside the mercy of Christ, today I pray that they would repent and believe the

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Gospel. They would see that in this place and through the preaching of your Word, Christ is offered to them.

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And their exhortation is that they would lay hold of Him by faith. Lord, help us to understand your

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Word. Even this little book tucked away in the Minor Prophets, nay whom, help us to be comforted, encouraged, and strengthened.

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Lord, we confess to you our great need of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, would you bless the preaching of your

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Word? Would you work through the instrumentation of preaching? Would you comfort hearts and would you open hearts?

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Would you give us ears to hear? Would you convict those of us that need conviction? Would you encourage those of us that need encourage?

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Would you bring a variety of your graces to our hearts today? And help us to be the church that you'd have us to be here in Perryville for the glory of King Jesus.

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We pray it in His name. Amen. You may be seated. As I said, the last time we were in, nay whom, was right before Thanksgiving.

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And so it's been a while. Now we're bringing our minds and our hearts back to this prophecy.

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And you saw, as we read chapter two, that chapter two is an account of the destruction of Nineveh.

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And it's a rather meticulous account. It's rather detailed.

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I remind you, and you can turn back just two books to the left. A hundred years before, just a reminder,

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I'm gonna turn you back to Jonah. Some hundred years before, nay whom, you have Jonah.

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Jonah enters the city. And in Jonah chapter three, verse one, the word of God says, then the word of the

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Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.

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So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breath.

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Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey, and he called out, yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

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And here's this wonder. Verse five, and the people of Nineveh believed

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God, and they called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

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So we remember a hundred years or so before, Jonah goes into the city of Nineveh, he warns of the judgment that is to come, and the people, by God's grace, repent.

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And the city was spared. Let me just offer a commentary on America for just a moment.

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Let us never stop praying for the repentance of our nation.

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We remember that God is merciful to those nations that repent, those nations that trust

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His word, those nations that seek His mercy. Of course, this all flows from His own grace, but let us never stop preaching and praying for our own nation's repentance.

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Now, a hundred years later in Nineveh, a century or so later,

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God has been rejected. His mercy has been ignored.

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And here we are again, and we have a pointed promise of a city's destruction.

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And I say pointed promise because of the detail. So one commentator makes this observation.

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Nahum describes the battle scene in more graphic detail than even the actual count given by the

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Babylonians. So here's what is happening. This was written around 650

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BC, and it actually gives us more detail, more vivid information than what the

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Babylonians decided to write after they overthrew the city, the Babylonian and the Medes in 612.

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But what we see in our text is that the Babylonians are merely an instrument in God's hands in which

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He is going to bring judgment upon this city. So the point number one today, first point, the fearfulness of judgment, the fearfulness of judgment.

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Imagine the scene. Now, I think of this scene as like, this may be a bad illustration because some of you may not like Lord of the

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Rings. I know Noah loves Lord of the Rings, but you have Lord of the Rings, the two towers, and you have the movie version

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I'm seeing. All the, they're at Helm's Deep and they're kind of retreated into Helm's Deep.

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And before Helm's Deep, you have that vast army of orcs. And I think about that when

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I read verse three. This vast army now is arrayed against the city of Nineveh.

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The shield of His mighty men is red. His soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal on the day

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He musters them. The cypress spears are brandished. We're talking about here the fearfulness of judgment.

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And so you have here arrayed before the city of Nineveh, these mighty men. Now that word for mighty men, it's first used in Genesis 6, the mighty men of renown.

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But it's used in Scripture in various ways. So it's used of David. David's called a mighty man.

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It's used of Goliath. He's known as a mighty man. David's chief soldiers around him are known as mighty men.

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And so these stand arrayed before the city of Nineveh as a mighty army.

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I say this not in jest, but to think about that these are not modern armies given over to the

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LGBTQ agenda. If you watch some of the commercials, if you will, even for the

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Army National Guard sometimes, and the kind of people that are on there, they do not exude to me a strong army.

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But this does. These are mighty men. They are warrior men.

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And they have one purpose in mind. Destroying Nineveh. Now the army, look there in verse three, the army is bearing red shields.

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The shield of his mighty men is red. And it's possible perhaps that the shields are red because they've already been soaked in the blood of other enemies.

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And so here's this army that has already conquered other enemies and now is coming through.

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It's tasted blood. And now Nineveh is next. Or some would say the red just simply refers to the type of bronze being used.

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Some have suggested there that the scarlet clothing signifies wealth. Or others have thought maybe they wear scarlet because when you're in battle, and if you as the invading army, if you're bleeding, the scarlet kind of hides that.

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And so it keeps away fear and panic in your own army. But either way, the point is this army is intimidating.

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This is the fearfulness of judgment. You stand upon the walls, you look out, and you see this army, and you ought to be terrified.

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Because not only these men here, it's not just infantry, right? In ancient warfare, this army has the equivalent of what maybe we'd call a tank.

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In ours, look at verse three. The chariots come with flashing metal.

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So I picture here this idea of flashing metal. I picture this army racing toward the city.

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And you know how right now with the snow on the ground, you almost need sunglasses to go outside, it's so bright.

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Well, these chariots and this army is marching. These chariots are racing to the city, and then the sun is gleaming off the metal, and it's shining, and you have all this happening.

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Then you have these great spears there in verse three. The cypress spears are brandished.

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And so I just think about the difference for a moment between Jonah and Nahum. Jonah says, in 40 days, the city is going to be overthrown, and the people repent.

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But here, Nahum is writing in vivid detail exactly what is going to happen, and he's showing the city the fearfulness of God's judgment, and yet the

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Assyrians do not repent. Maybe one reason they don't repent is because this letter never even finds its way to Nineveh, this, or this letter, this book, this prophetic book was written primarily for the people of God.

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We'll talk about that more in just a moment. The fearfulness of judgment. Secondly, the fury of judgment.

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And we move now into verse four. Now, remember that this is Hebrew poetry, and so it kind of moves back and forth.

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But I think in verse four, we're inside the city. The chariots race madly through the streets.

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They rush to and fro through the squares. They gleam like torches. They dart like lightning.

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So now, the wall has been breached. The chariots are inside the great city of Nineveh, and havoc is being inflicted.

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Now, I know it's crazy to consider, but imagine if we're in Perryville, and there's enemy tanks going up and down the streets of Perryville.

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This is quite an intimidating situation. This is the fury of judgment. This is when all of Nineveh's fears are realized.

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Okay, we tend to imagine a lot of crazy scenarios as people. I've done this before, too.

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I still do this. You have a headache. What do you do? You Google it. That's what you do today.

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You Google it. You have a headache. And then all of a sudden, within minutes, you've diagnosed yourself with the rarest of rare diseases.

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And now you're worried. Your whole day is messed up because you think about silly things, or you worry about silly things sometimes.

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We have the strangest worries sometimes about our children, or we're worried about the stock market, or our home, or our vehicle, or the

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HVAC unit, and on and on and on. And then so often, our fears are not grounded.

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We trouble ourselves with things that should not trouble us. However, the opposite is true as well.

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Too many people are not troubled by things that should trouble them.

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And this is one of those things, the fear of God's judgment.

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And here, the fears are not fanciful. They are realized. Verse four, the chariots, an enemy chariots racing madly through the streets.

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They rush to and fro through the squares. They gleam like torches. They dart like lightning.

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Nineveh, at one point, the Assyrian capital, the epitome of world power, is now ravaged in the streets by a foreign regime.

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But it's not merely another world power here that you need to understand.

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Yes, this is the Babylonians, and it's the Medes, and I think there's others. It's a coalition, as it were, overtaking the city of Nineveh.

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But it's without a doubt God's doing. This is God's hands upon them.

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Now, God is free. You remember Sodom and Gomorrah, and He rained down fire and sulfur from the heavens?

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God is free to do that. God could have destroyed Nineveh like that, but He didn't destroy Nineveh like that.

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He works through other means too, such as in a city, economic collapse, or in this situation, bringing in the

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Babylonians and the Medes to wipe out the Assyrians. It's without a doubt

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God's judgment. And I just wanna pause for a second in this sermon. I wanna think through some things.

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We need to understand, and we don't often enough, we don't understand and we don't appreciate often enough the sovereignty of God.

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God is the God of the ends, that is the judgment and the means, how

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He will bring that judgment about, okay? Everything that is working, everything is orchestrating, it is simultaneous, and this will blow your mind, it blows my mind too.

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But the Babylonians chose to go and destroy Nineveh. And at the same time, parallel running to their desire to do so is

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God's sovereign orchestrating of this entire event. It's amazing to think about.

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Let me give you an illustration. In your own life, go back and you don't even know these people, most of you probably have no idea who these people are.

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Go back in your family 12 generations. So that's your parents, one, grandparents, two, great -grandparents, three, all the way until you get to generation 12.

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Now, when you get to generation 12, do you know how many grandparents that you have?

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Now, just think about it. No, don't do the math. I don't want anybody to be injured today. But for you to be born in the place that you were born with the exact genetics that you have, with the skin color that you have, with the shape of your nose and the type of eyebrows that you have and your receding hairline, you know how many grandparents are in your lineage and you're just going back 12, you're not going all the way back to no or whatever, just going back 12, do you understand how many?

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4 ,096. Just for you, 4 ,096.

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The 12th generation is your 10th great -grandparents and you have 4 ,096 of them.

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Now, suppose of those 4 ,096 grandparents that you have, suppose just one of them doesn't make it.

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Just one of them is accidentally dropped as a child or an infant and they die.

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Just one of them contracts the plague and they die. Just one of them, and they stand an inch over here and a bullet rips through them and they die.

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Just one of them. All the things that orchestrated for your eighth great -grandparents to meet and it was just this quote -unquote chance meeting and they barely meet and it was only because of this and that scenario.

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Suppose that doesn't happen. In 4 ,096 cases, suppose it doesn't happen in just one.

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You may not even exist. And if you do exist, the genetics and the way that you think and the way that your mouth is shaped and all these things, it would be different.

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And yet what I'm saying to you today is God is meticulously sovereign in each one of those things.

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Do you just think, I mean, I think some people just think of God like, well, He just knows all these things. No, He doesn't just know all these things.

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He's orchestrating these things. He's involved in these things. He's sovereign in these things.

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This is the sovereignty of God who ordains the ends and the means.

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He is not the divine watchmaker God. He is meticulously involved in this creation and we see that in our text.

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And we don't appreciate it enough and we don't marvel at it enough. Frankly, we sing songs like behold our

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God with way too much complacency. Consider, friends, the sovereignty of God.

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And so in our text, the chariots race madly through the streets, they rush to and fro through the squares, they gleam like torches, they dart like lightning.

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The fury of God's judgment, it's brought by God's hammer. And God's hammer is the

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Babylonians and the meats. The fearfulness of judgment, the fury of judgment. Thirdly, and then we'll talk about some application.

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Thirdly, the futility of the judged. Now, again, this is my take here on verse five.

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We are dealing with Hebrew poetry and it seems to me, and there's different commentators who think different things, but it seems to me now we're kind of looking at the perspective of the king of Nineveh.

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And so we've gone from being outside the city to being inside the city and then we're kind of backing up a little bit and we're thinking about it now from the king of Nineveh.

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So verse five, he remembers his officers. They stumble as they go.

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They hasten to the wall. The siege tower is set up. The river gates are open. The palace melts away.

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Now, the word here in verse five for officers, it means nobles or majestic ones.

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If he were a middle evil knight, we might translate it or medieval king. We might translate it as knights, his knights, these men.

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And so the idea is the city is about to be under siege. All seems like it's lost.

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It's going to be terrible. But then the king remembers his nobles, his knights.

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I will send them regulators. Mount up. Here we go. And they will go out and they will end.

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They will stop this invasion. But what happens? Verse five. He remembers his officers.

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They stumble. As they go, the word there means like stumbling, staggering, feeble can mean exhaustion.

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But what is being communicated is this. The city musters up its strength.

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The city brings forth the best of the best. All that it can resist.

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And all is futile. The officers, the text says, stumble.

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They finally make it to the wall. But what? It's too late. Because why? The siege tower is set up.

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They could not prevent it. They weren't able to stop the judgment that God was bringing.

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And just like that, decades of Assyrian rule is over in a moment.

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You better be careful. I learned this with my children. And I thought about it this last few days in the snow.

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I mean, I am kind of crazy about the snow, but also it is hard to stop everything you're doing and go play in the snow.

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And there's a couple of times my kids were like, Dad, will you come play with us? And I was really tempted.

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I was like, no, I ain't doing that. You know, I want to just sit here in my chair and enjoy, you know, just kind of some rest.

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And then I was just reminded how quickly things happen in your life and how quickly you go from one season of life to the next.

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And you turn around and you got these two crazy boys that are always out driving around duck hunting.

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And I'm like, they didn't want to build snowman with daddy. They didn't want to throw snowballs.

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They didn't want to sled. So here my younger children want to do that. And I was like, you know what, by God's mercy, I'm going out and we're going to do it and we're going to enjoy.

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Because before you realize it in life, circumstances change. And the way that you thought that things were going to be, they don't last that way forever.

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Well, in this text, in a more sobering reality, Assyria thought, well,

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I'm always, we're always going to be like this. We're always going to be the world power. Maybe as Americans, we need to check with this and we need to think through this and we need to be sobered up and we need to think through and seek the

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Lord's mercy. And it's never going to change. And then just like that, it's over.

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The palace is gone. Now, there's been discussion there about verse six, but I think it actually,

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God is telling us how Nineveh is going to fall. And so in verse six, it says the river gates are open, the palace melts away.

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Now, O. Palmer Robinson gives this commentary. He says, Diodorus Siculus, an ancient

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Greek historian, indicates that in the fall of Nineveh, a series of heavy rains swelled the

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Euphrates, flooded parts of the city and overthrew the wall for a length of about two miles.

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The text says the river gates are open. I think that's what God is saying here in the text. He's predicting that actually what's going to happen is it's not only men who are going to attack the city, but even as it were, quote unquote, nature, right?

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Nature. And yet God is sovereign even over nature. He's the sovereign

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God over the ends and the means. He is sovereign over the reign of kings and over the rain from clouds.

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Every drop hitting its specific location and fulfilling its God -ordained purpose.

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I was just seeing the snowfall the other day. I just got to thinking about it. Y 'all know I like snow. I just got to thinking about seeing the snowfall.

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And I got to think about this. Before the foundations of the world, God had a plan even for these snowflakes.

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As you'll watch the snowflake fall and it's carried this way and that way, maybe by the breeze and finally it touches the ground exactly where God had ordained.

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That it would fall. Now, some people, they don't like to think of God that way, but I'm just telling you, all of scripture points to us, to a

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God who is sovereign like that. And here he brings the men and he brings the rain and the city will be overthrown.

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And the point I'm arguing here is no amount of Assyrian strength could have stopped this.

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Any effort, I'll say this in your life and I'll say this in the life of nations. I'll say this in the life of the world.

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Any effort that there would be to muster to stop the coming judgment of God.

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It will prove futile. The palace melts away, the text says.

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I think that's just a figurative expression for the ending of this wicked ruler. The king of Nineveh now has no city, he has no home and he has no life.

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You just think about that for a moment. That's the person with maybe in the whole world at one point who had the most resources.

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The most resources at their disposal could not stop the judgment of God.

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The rich of this world cannot buy their way out of God's judgment. The powerful of this world cannot muster an army big enough to prevent

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God's judgment. We talk about irresistible grace. Pastor Jacob taught that just a couple of weeks ago.

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But here we might mention irresistible justice. The justice of God cannot be thwarted.

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So the question that you need to ask yourself this morning as we go through Nahum is what will you do when the judgment of the

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Lord comes? Here we have seen the futility of the judged.

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Now, I have some application before I do. I actually think this outline can get us to Christ, so let's just review for a second.

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When we think about the fearfulness of judgment, let us think about our

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Lord Jesus in Gethsemane. Now, I don't want you to think that Christ was afraid, but the text tells us that he sweat drops of blood understanding what was before him.

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Roman torture was before him. The slander of false witnesses was before him.

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A crown of thorns was before him. But most importantly, the cup of the wrath of God was before him.

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The fearfulness of judgment. When we think about the fury of judgment, let us think about Golgotha.

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God gave his son into the hands of Roman officials who at that point had perfected the pain and torture and suffering of crucifixion.

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And then of course, there is no greater fury and force of judgment than God himself unleashing his wrath upon you.

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And that we have in Calvary, in the cross happening to Jesus.

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And then when we think of the futility of the judged, let us think about Christ's passive obedience.

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Now, listen, it's not that he could not have done anything. He had the power, as it were, to stop it all.

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But he allowed himself to be judged as a sinner in our place, not bearing his sin.

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He had no sin. He was perfectly righteous. But bearing our sins as a substitute.

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This we have in the Gospel. Remember, as we think about Nahum, remember the

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Gospel. Christ our King was born of Mary. Christ our

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King kept God's law. He paid the penalty of sinners under God's wrath.

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Being nailed to a cross, dying that propitiatory death, and then raising again on the third day.

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And this Gospel is not futile, it's effectual. So think about this. God's judgment will bring about his intended purposes, but so will his

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Gospel. Now, putting all this together, in light of this message in Nahum, in light of the

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Gospel, I have a few applications for us to consider. One is this.

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And we're reminded of this all over the place. And you've already been given this application in Nahum. One is that God's Word can be trusted.

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This prophecy, this meticulous prophecy, you know, have you ever heard, like, parents, we do this all the time?

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My family and I, you guys know, we're getting excited, and we're trying to go to this

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Founders Conference on Revival in Florida, and so we're telling the kids, okay, here's kind of our plan, here's what we're going to do.

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We say a lot of things, but so many things can derail our plans. Nothing can derail

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God's plan. And God says here in His Word, here's what I'm going to do. And guess what happens? This is around 650

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BC. And guess what happens in 612 BC? God carries it out to perfection. So an application here is, we must trust the

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Word of God. When we are dealing with the Scriptures, we are dealing with an infallible, inerrant, sufficient, clear, necessary, authoritative

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Word from the living God. Let us treat the Bible this way. This is our trust.

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This is our hope. This is our authority. We must not play games with the Scriptures. Here we are the second

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Sunday in 2025. What are your habits with this book?

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Oh, would you consider? Would you consider for just a moment that God time and again proves the trustworthiness of His Word by His Word?

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Will we be a people who are considering how we will spend time in this book personally with our families?

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Will we commit ourselves to the preaching and teaching here at Providence Baptist Church? Nahum reminds us of the authority and trustworthiness of God's Word.

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Secondly, another application. The Assyrians, as you probably guessed, are examples of what not to do.

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So some of you today, if you will go with the analogy, some of you stand here today behind your little city walls.

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The walls that you've built by your good works. Or maybe your fearlessness before God.

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Or maybe your sin. Or maybe your unbelief.

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And here you are. And you stand like this great stone in a river. And you're unfazed.

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The preaching is coming. And there you are. Now, you're not outwardly this way. But there you are in your heart just standing there.

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And the water of God's Word rushes over you. But this text must serve as a warning to you.

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The shield of His mighty men is red. His soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal on the day

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He musters Him. The cypress spears are brandished. The chariots race madly through the streets.

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They rush to and fro through the squares. They gleam like torches. They dart like lightning.

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He remembers His officers. They stumble as they go. They hasten to the wall. The siege tower is set up.

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The river gates are opened. The palace melts away. That should shake fear into you. You have to be an irrational soul to hear of the judgment of God in this way.

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And to be unfazed. You understand that the river eventually will win over the stone.

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You just got to give it time. But your judgment is going to come even more swiftly. And all your fears, and actually worse than all your fears, will come to fruition upon you.

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And in one sense, we could say it this way. God will judge you even worse than He judged Nineveh.

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Because you are here hearing the fullness of Christ. You are here hearing the fullness of the gospel.

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And yet you've closed the city gates. And you will not hear. I'm just telling you, if you remain in that state, the day of judgment will be terrible for you.

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The text serves as a warning to you. How will you escape if you neglect so great a salvation?

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But then there's another application. And that is for believers. I'll remind you of this. You read

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Nahum, and it's almost comical. You're almost like, I can't understand why

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Nahum is named Nahum. Because in Hebrew, Nahum means what? We told you this long ago.

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We'll remind you again today. The name Nahum means comfort. It's like, the book of Nahum doesn't seem very comforting.

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Yeah, if you're in Nineveh, right? If you're an Assyrian, if you're outside of God's covenant promises, if you're outside of God's grace, if you're outside the people of God, then yeah,

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Nahum should be terrifying. But if you're in Christ, if you are a believer, the book of Nahum is meant, it is in the

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Bible, friends, to be a comfort to you. Why? Because Nineveh's destruction and the church's salvation go hand in hand.

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You understand? Both kingdoms cannot and will not coexist forever.

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The city of Nineveh and the city of God won't always exist together.

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One of those cities must fall. Read Revelation 19. Spoiler alert, it ain't the city of God.

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She will prevail. The church wins. Christ has conquered.

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He has defeated sin and death and hell and the grave. He will have His bride.

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He will have His kingdom. He will have His city. And you need to be reminded of this because if you will go with the analogy, there are that exist today, there are what we would call present day

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Nineveh's. There are cities and countries and terrorism and there are terrible things in the world today that seem as though at times they may get victory over the church.

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False teachers, greed, lust, wicked regimes. You know what

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I'm saying. And at times, if we're not careful, it can seem like these things are winning.

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Think about, again, think about the people of Judah in 650. Not 612, 650.

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Think about what they were like when they read this in 650 and they're reading this on one hand, but they're looking up with the other and they're reading and they're like, okay, this says

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Nineveh will be overthrown, but Nineveh looks pretty good right now. Well, that's the whole point.

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That's why God gives you to trust this. You're to read this and you're to be comforted.

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Let Nahum comfort you. God knows in specific and meticulous detail how he will bring down the church's enemies and so he will.

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And their fall one day will be swift and it will be righteous and God is going to do it.

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And so as we wait that day, we look at the book of Nahum and God causes people to trust him and to follow his ways.

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Look to our sovereign God. Hope in Christ. Rest in the gospel. This won't be this way forever.

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We must learn to redeem the time. A new year is a good time to think about that.

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You need to think about which city it is that you're investing in. The city of Nineveh or the city of God.

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Our habits and our priorities and our commitments and our love, all of this, it ought to reflect that our hope is in Christ.

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And God uses texts like this to graciously remind his people, just this phrase, trust me.

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Trust me. Church, let me just ask you, is there an area of your life that you've been afraid?

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Is there an area where you have misaligned your allegiance?

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Is there sin? Then hear the comfort of Nahum to God's people.

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Righteousness wins. Justice will be satisfied. Rest in Christ. For the Christian, justice has been satisfied in Christ and we are a new creation in him.

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So the call then to believers is don't walk the way of the Assyrians.

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When God's judgment comes, you want to be found living like an Assyrian? As the chariots are racing through the streets, do you want to be seen as one who is aligned with Assyria or aligned with God?

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So don't walk that way. Don't play in their city. Don't trust their gods.

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They can have those things. Leave those things. Repent in the areas that you need to and cling again to Christ.

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Trust the providence of God. You're often tempted, I know this because I'm like you, a man.

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You're often tempted to find solace inside Nineveh's walls. But remember, they're fleeting and they're falling.

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Christ is enough. I can't get this through my skull and so I don't know that I'll get it through yours unless the

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Holy Spirit is pleased to just put it in both of our hearts and that is, you don't need the things the

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Assyrians say are so important. They're going to be swept away in the flood of God's judgment and the salvation that Jesus provides us is sufficient for our weary hearts in these troubled days.

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Trust Him. Rest in His work. Trust His word. Walk in His ways. Be the people that God has called us to be.

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That is one of the applications here from the whole book of Nahum. Okay, finally

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I have this thought. Sometimes God is willing to break down your city in His mercy.

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Now let me explain. The judgment of God is coming. You understand, we've said this before as we've gone through this book.

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Nineveh's judgment, Nineveh's fall is just a foretaste of the final judgment that will come upon all nations.

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But people will not listen. You can go out, you can preach this, you pass out tracts, you talk to people, they're not listening.

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They won't listen. They won't listen. They won't listen. Yeah, whatever, preacher. But here's what God does.

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And I've seen God do this in a moment and I've also seen God do it over weeks or months at a time.

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And maybe it's happening to someone here. But God is willing to chip away at your city's walls.

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What do I mean? Well, if you go with the metaphor here, your coldness towards Him, the idols that you cling to, your love of the world.

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God, you understand, is willing at times to take these things away from you in order to get your attention.

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And then if we're following the analogy, He is willing to have His gospel army, many which really consist of one, if you're thinking about that, the

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Holy Spirit, overtake your walls. And then you begin to muster resistance.

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You begin to march out your noble warriors, the most majestic of excuses. You have your good deeds.

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You have your sins of omission and sins of commission and you have all these reasons why you can't become a

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Christian and all these reasons why not today, I'll think about this later. All these reasons why you're not going to listen to God.

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But suddenly, they all stumble. And they fall.

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And the floodgates open. And God pours in His sovereign grace.

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And God raises His banner in your heart and says, this is my country now.

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This is my heart. And I wonder, as we think about a sermon like this and as we've gone through Nahum, I wonder if the

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Lord might not even be doing that today. Would there be a soul here that has ears to hear that say, yes,

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God has afflicted me, but I see now that it has been in His mercy. He has been trying to get my attention.

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And today I hear the gospel and I believe it. Is there a man or a woman or a boy or a girl who realizes that the judgment of God is coming against sinners and that you are completely futile to stand against it on your own, but you have one who will stand in your place and His name is

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Jesus. I wonder if there is one today, even in this room, even on a snowy

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January morning, who would see Jesus as their only suitable and all -sufficient

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Savior, who will see today that the only way to be right with God is to receive

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Christ by grace alone through faith alone. Would there be any here willing to say to the

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Lord, yes, and who will repent of their sins and believe the gospel, who will see today the righteousness secured for you by the perfect life of Christ, who will see that the wrath of God that you deserve with every breath has been taken upon the

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Son in your place, and He has died to death of sinners, and who will see the victory that Jesus has secured in His glorious resurrection.

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Man, Christ is offered to you even from the book of Nahum. It would be just like God to save a child in here, to save a teenager in here, to save an adult in here.

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It would be just like God to save you through a little book like Nahum.

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This little obscure prophecy tucked into the minor prophets.

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It would be just like God to say today, this one is mine, and to save your soul from His coming and deserve wrath by the merits of Jesus Christ.

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I don't know about you. I believe God does things like that.

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And that He might even be doing that in your life today. And so the call to you is, will you come to Christ in faith?

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Suppose I come to Him, preacher. What will

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He do for me? He will forgive your sins.

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He will restore you to right relationship with God. No, you don't understand, preacher.

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Oh, here you go, you're going to muster your little army against God? Your excuses are paltry and futile.

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He will save for His glory. But you must trust

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Him. You must believe on His name. You must call upon it. You must repent and trust

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Christ. He will only be received in one way.

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Faith. Faith. We trust Him today. Church family, we pray for those who hear the call of the gospel like this.

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And will you be comforted to know, man, sometimes don't you just get this way?

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Maybe it's just me, but you just get this way and you just think all these things and all the priorities of my life and maybe some of maybe,

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Lord, maybe I'm missing out on some things. But God brings to our mind a text like this, and He reminds us to be comforted.

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You're not gaining anything by going the way of Assyria. All is lost there.

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But in Christ, everything is gained. Father, would you help us to hear your word?

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Trust your son to walk in his ways.

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We pray, Holy Spirit, that you would work in ways that we weren't even thinking about today. For the glory of King Jesus, comfort your people.

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Convict those who stand outside your mercy. And may today they be ones who would call upon your name by your sovereign grace.