Comfort For The Oppressed - [Nahum 1:1-8]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Well, I'm thankful for those songs that remind us about the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Many of you here love music, and I typed into the search engine online, what makes a great song?

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If you had to judge a song on its greatness, what would you choose? What makes a great song? The first thing that popped up on the internet search was, a great song connects with people.

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Number two, a great song causes a reaction. You know, you cry, you laugh, you dance, something that you do in response to a great song.

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Thirdly, a great song is memorable. Maybe you sing it throughout the rest of the day, or there's some hook in that that makes you sing it often.

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Next, a song is well -crafted. There's rhythm and rhyme and everything is put together properly.

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And then lastly, a great song stands the test of time. What makes a great song?

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Well, I'd like you to turn your Bibles this morning to the book of Nahum. Nahum is in the Old Testament, and we're going to look at a song today, a great song in Nahum 1, verses 2 through 8.

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And it is a great song. It connects with people. It causes a reaction. It is memorable, well -crafted, and it stands the test of time.

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The book of Nahum, chapter 1, verses 1 through 8. We have not been in Nahum for the last week.

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I was gone last week and thankful for Steve to fill in for me. I think I notified Steve on a Friday, please preach for me.

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And of course, I've learned in seminary that you ought to be ready to preach, pray, or die with a moment's notice.

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And so Steve said, yes, I will, and then probably began studying ferociously.

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Whenever I walk into a church, I think, as a visitor, if somebody taps me on the shoulder and says, will you preach today,

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I better have something, right? I'll say yes, and then I'll do a prayer lap in the parking lot or something as I think about it.

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When you turn to the book of Nahum, we don't normally study this book, although we should. And if you look at the name, that's helpful in understanding the entire book.

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Nahum means comfort. Nahum means consolation. When you need consoling,

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Nahum or Nehemiah, Nehemiah, same root. And this is a book that is 100 years, 150 years after the book of Jonah.

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Jonah, of course, goes to Nineveh, and he has a message of repentance. They repent, but it doesn't stick.

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It doesn't stick around for long. A century later, 125, 150 years later, they are back to oppressing people, persecuting people.

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The Ninevites were ferocious. When you show up at different ports and other things that they would have, you would be greeted by walls that would be wallpapered with human skin of the enemies.

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They were ferocious. And now 100, 150 years have passed. They are no longer repentant.

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Nineveh being the capital of Assyria, and they, along with the rest of Assyria, are oppressing

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God's people. They're persecuting God's people. They're attacking God's people. And Nahum is written so that the people of God, especially in Judah, could understand properly what's going on.

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By the way, the Old Testament, written in Greek, called the Septuagint. You'll see it written in commentaries and Bible tools and helps, the

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LXX. The books of the Bible, in order for us, it's Micah, then Nahum, and the

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LXX, the Septuagint, it's Jonah, and then Nahum. So you make the connection. Jonah, repentance was well established.

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Nahum, they're back to persecuting God's people. Nahum was a message of judgment, while Jonah was a message of mercy and forgiveness.

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We're going to look today at verses 1 through 8, as we continue from two weeks ago. And essentially, here's the theme of Nahum, and here's the theme of chapter 1.

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God's people can receive comfort in himself when they're oppressed and persecuted.

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Now, we could apply this to trials. We could apply this to anything. But really, this is the people of God are being persecuted, oppressed, killed, and everything in between.

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And so where do you go for comfort? How do you deal with a situation when you're on the run, when you're getting persecuted?

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And we'll see that chapter 1 is essentially kind of a buildup. You think chapter 1, wow, it's wild enough.

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But chapter 2 and 3, it gets wilder, because chapter 1, it's almost like the precursor.

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It's almost like the rumbling of a fight. It's the buildup, right? There's a big hill over here, and I can't see over it, but I can hear what sounds like a thousand different horse hooves running my direction.

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And so chapter 1 is we're standing here, but we hear some rumblings in chapter 2 and 3 that we'll get there soon enough.

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It's almost like Jonah is a war reporter. Sometimes I like to watch those shows where they'll take a reporter, and they'll insert them or inject them into a company or a battalion or a group of men who are fighting.

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And then they're interviewing and understanding from a layman's perspective what's going on.

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In chapter 1, verse 1, remember it says, an oracle, that means a burden. That means it's so on Nahum's heart, he's got to preach it.

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And not just because he feels like it, but this is a divinely inspired message.

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Concerning Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, the book of the vision. So it was a vision, but delivered not from a preaching style, but in a book of Nahum of Elkash.

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Very, very important to understand. This is not just his made -up thing. This is supernatural revelation to a prophet.

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And it is about comfort in a day of oppression. Well, let me give you the outline from two weeks ago that we'll continue today.

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A little bit of review, but not a whole lot. How to receive comfort in oppressive times. Comfort in oppressive times.

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Not that we're really getting oppressed now and persecuted, but who knows? It's probably around the corner. And if it's not, this still helps us deal with any problem, really, since it's so God -centered.

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Comfort in oppressive times. Number one, we saw last time, embrace the whole counsel of God. If you'd like to have comfort, you need to embrace the whole counsel of God.

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This isn't in the text per se, but when you read things like verse two, the Lord is jealous. The Lord is avenging.

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He's wrathful. He takes vengeance on his adversaries. He keeps wrath for his enemies. He's not going to clear the guilty.

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The whirlwind, the storm, the rebuking, the quaking. You ought to say to yourself, whatever the text says about God, I have to embrace.

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Because if I just pick and choose what I want with the Bible, it's not going to be helpful.

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If you doubt parts of it or some of it, it's going to be comfort zapping. By the way, this is great advice, especially when you read what we call the minor prophets.

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The shorter prophets. Because you'll see this kind of message of doom regularly. We also saw last time, if you want comfort in oppressive times, look up, not in or around.

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In other words, comfort's found in the triune God. When you get your eyes on yourself, trouble.

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And you get your eyes on your persecutors, trouble. Why did Nahum not start with, it's going to be okay.

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The enemies are going to be taken care of. He starts with the character of God, the nature of God, what

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God does. He doesn't start with the opponents as subject. He starts with God as the subject.

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That is a good way to deal with trials. If you have not read the book, Trusting God by Jerry Bridges, subtitle,

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Even When God Hurts, you have to read that book. That book will encourage you. Any person that comes in for any kind of counseling, if I just handed them that book, they would be encouraged.

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They would be helped. Because it talks about who God is. And so the eyes here at the very beginning, and even as Calvin would talk about, they don't go to the enemy as subject, they go to God as subject.

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So when you're dealing with issues, remember, some trust in horses and some trust in chariots.

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But we trust in the name of the Lord, our God. Comfort is found not in analyzing the oppressors.

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But do you see in verses 2 and 3, how many times, all caps LORD. Yahweh, the covenant -keeping

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God. The Lord, the Lord, the Lord, the Lord, the Lord. Five times. We always focus on ourselves.

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That's our default. But here is looking up to this God who even his name, remember,

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Yahweh means he's a personal God. He's a covenant -keeping God. He's a God who keeps his promises.

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He's a God who when he promises Abraham a nation, he's going to fulfill it. He's going to protect.

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This is who God is. The entire chapter is unified and dominated by the character and nature of God.

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He exists. He personally exists. He is self -existent. He is independent. He does whatever he wants and he loves his people.

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Nahum starts with Lord. What if I were to tell you this? Whatever problem you have, maybe it's oppression, persecution, etc.

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Maybe this is just getting ready for all that. But whatever problem you have, what if I just reminded you about who

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God is? What if I just said to you, behold, the Lord God comes with might and his arm rules for him.

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Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd.

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He will gather the lambs in his arms. He will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young.

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Who has measured out the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in the scales and hills in a balance?

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Who has measured the spirit of the Lord? Or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did

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God consult and who made him understand? Who taught him God the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?

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Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales.

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Behold, he takes up the coastline like fine dust. To whom then will you liken

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God? Or what likeness will you compare with him? When you hear those words, what do you say?

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I hope you say, that's the God that I serve. This is who God is. I need to be reminded not about my problems, not about the issues.

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Those things we can deal with, but we have to think about who God is. And by the way, those words were from the Bible, true or false?

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True. Where were they from? Isaiah chapter 40. That's right. Good words to be reminded of.

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Number three, we saw when you need comfort, praise the Lord for all his perfections. Praise the

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Lord for who he is. Embrace the whole counsel of God. Look up and praise him for who he is.

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Verses two through eight is really a praise song. You can even see it in some of the indentations of some of your study

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Bibles. It's like a poem. It's a song. It's a song about God and it's about its attributes. And so here's what happens.

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When we're oppressed and we struggle, we tend to do what

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Israel did. We tend to groan, don't we? We tend to sigh, we tend to complain.

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That's our default. Sadly, even as Christians, we could fall into that. Remember Ephesians six chapters in the first three chapters.

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Here's what the Lord Jesus has done. God, the father chooses, God, the son redeems, the Holy Spirit seals.

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We're in Christ. It's all for the praise of his glory. And then in chapter four, he begins to say, here's how you should live your life.

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He uses language of like clothing. Put off these old shabby clothes, put on these new clothes, put off, put on.

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That's a Christian view of holy living. Don't lie, tell the truth.

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Don't steal, work. Don't do this and do this instead.

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So when we respond to trials with complaining and sighing and blaming everybody else and all that. How do we put that off?

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Well, we put it off by repentance. That's true. But you put on something instead. And I think that's exactly what's happening here in NAM.

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Instead of being like Israel, grumbling and sighing and complaining and murmuring and all the things that we like to do, blame shifting.

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Right now, the focus is, no, no, let's help you not do the negative things and do the positive things in this song of praise.

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This is a song to a sovereign God who's a warrior. Very, very fascinating.

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Do you notice? It even says, we saw this last week. He is jealous.

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He is wrathful. And we were reminded two weeks ago that we must not think of God as a bunch of component parts.

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He has wrath. He has jealousy. He has holiness. He is. He simply is.

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He's simple. He doesn't, he's not made up of all his attributes. He simply is. He is love. He is goodness.

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I love R .C. Sproul when he used to talk about this. He said, you know, we are called human beings.

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He said, but that's not really right. We should be called human becomings.

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Because there's only one being who is by essence and nature, God alone. God is one.

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He doesn't get better. He doesn't get worse. He doesn't change. He's immutable. He's from himself. He's simple.

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That is, he's not made up of a bunch of parts. We become, we get older, we get frailer, we get grayer.

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Why does it sound like I'm talking about myself? But God is. And by the way, when you don't know if you can praise

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God for being jealous and wrathful, that is who God is. You're like, well, that's not my God.

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But that's the God that you have to deal with. He is not a composite portion of all his attributes.

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He simply is. Louis Burkoff said, from the simplicity of God, it follows that God and his attributes are one.

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The attributes cannot be considered as so many parts that enter into the composition of God. And so we see this here.

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We want to praise him for who he is. The only living, true God, hero Israel, the

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Lord, our God, the Lord is one. He is singularly perfect.

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Do you notice the text there? He's jealous. We talked about that a little bit last time. Did you know, as I studied this idea about God being jealous for his own glory and for his people's protection, some people in psychology said that God's jealousy was a result of, quote, territorial imperative of a primal mind.

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Some others said that a jealous God is the result of vestiges of our reptilian brains.

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And one other said jealousy of God is little more than, quote, the motive in homicide and wife beating.

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They just somehow think there's a negative, sinful jealousy. Therefore, we put that on God. And therefore,

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God is sinfully jealous versus. God has no sin in him, and he is a jealous

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God. And when it is attributed to him, of course, it is a good thing because he's zealous for his glory.

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He's jealous to protect his own honor and therefore his people. Verse two, it's easier to understand if you understand these who

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God is. He's avenging. He's he's full of vengeance. He has judicial aspects to his nature.

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He's going to judge sin. He's not going to just let it go. He takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.

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People want to deny wrath all the time, but of course, that's not true. Number four, how do you get comfort?

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And now we move to some new territory comfort in oppressive times. Embrace the whole counsel of God.

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Look up, praise the Lord for who he is. And number four, acknowledge that the Lord disciplines the ones he loves.

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In other words, God uses oppressors and trials to refine his children. Now, this is going to be developed more in the book of Nahum as we go, but I just want to insert that now so we can think through this clearly.

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Judah is getting disciplined by the Lord as the Lord uses

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Nineveh and the Assyrians to oppress the people. Ninevites are responsible, but he uses these means, these secondary means.

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He uses trials. Just think of it in your own life. He uses trials to have a sanctifying effect.

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Do you know, and I know you know this, it's rhetorical, that the purest the church ever is, is when she's persecuted.

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The persecutors aren't off the hook. Ninevites aren't off the hook. But God uses these trials.

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You can think of James chapter one. Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces what?

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Endurance. We can rejoice in our sufferings because we know they produce endurance.

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Romans chapter five. So what's happening to Judah is that she's being refined by the

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Lord as God uses Nineveh as a corrective stick, as it were, for chastisement.

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That's important to say now so we understand later. Number five. Comfort in oppressive times.

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Comfort in oppressive times. Number five. Remember that God will eventually judge the church's oppressors. He will eventually judge.

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He's not inept. You're like, how long, oh Lord, this is happening. You're letting everybody get away with it.

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But vengeance is mine. I will repay. Verse three. It's like he anticipates what's going through the minds of people.

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You think, wait a second. Why isn't God judging the Ninevites? They're killing our people. They're oppressing us.

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They're persecuting. Why won't God deal with it? Answer. We ought to be thankful for this too.

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Not only before we were Christians, but now after. The Lord Yahweh, the covenant keeping

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God is slow to anger. Will we ever be restored to have better fellowship with you,

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Lord? What's going on? Why aren't you getting the oppressors? I thought you were a jealous

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God. I thought you wanted to be holding up your name in high honor and glory. The Lord is slow to anger.

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And great in power. And the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. When you hear this language, the

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Lord is slow to anger. It's mentioned some other places. Here are two. Exodus 34 after the golden calf issue.

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The Lord is slow to anger. Another disaster in the wilderness, the rebellion of Israel.

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Numbers chapter 14. The low is slow to anger. When Israel is in a bad spot and they're not doing the right thing as the people of God, it's good to be reminded that the

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Lord is slow to anger, even for the children of God. But also in a bigger picture, the

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Ninevites are oppressing the Assyrians. And you're like, well, aren't you going to do something, Lord? No, he will do something.

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But remember, God is slow to anger. And in case you think he's a weakling, he he's inept.

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It says what? He's great in the exact thing that the Ninevites rejoiced in.

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We have more chariots. We have more spears. We have more army. We are more powerful. We rejoice in power.

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Who doesn't? Except this God is great in power. The only God great in power.

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The power of God is not just some kind of passive weakling. You know, I always watch people on TV and they're like, well, if God was really to strike me with a lightning bolt right now and then

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I then I would believe in God. And they taunt God like that. He's slow to anger and great in power.

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And by the way, all those Ninevites that oppress the people, what the text say at the end of the verse, he will by no means clear the guilty.

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They're not going to get away with it. Nobody gets away with it. If you're here today as not a Christian, God is requiring perfect obedience from you, entire obedience from you, exact obedience from you, perpetual obedience from you.

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And you're not going to get away with it. There'll be a day of accounting. He will by no means clear the guilty.

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Now to evidence how great this God is, how powerful. What would you write about? What's the most kind of like massive display of power that you might know about?

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Well, here he uses nature. Look at what he says. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

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This song talks about how God is sovereign over nature. It's dramatic. He controls nature.

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When I was a kid, we grew up in Omaha or when I was, when I was, I grew up in Omaha. And as a kid, we would always have to go in a certain corner of our basement when we had tornadoes.

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And in the back of our yard, there was a big telephone pole and the top had a siren. And once a month, that siren on the first Saturday of the month would go off as kind of a test.

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This is the test. And so you are supposed to be reminded that when the tornado comes, get in that right corner of the basement.

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How about earthquakes? How about thunderstorms? What he does is he uses nature to say,

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God is sovereign over nature. Remember the song? Oh, tell of his might. Oh, sing of his grace.

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Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space, his chariots of wrath, the deep thunderclouds form and dark is his path on the wings of the storm.

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God wrecks the universe. God destroys the atmosphere. He's sovereign over it.

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You think that the Ninevites are terrible? You think they despise God and they're going to get away with it? No.

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I love Psalm 18. The earth reeled and rocked. The foundations of the mountains trembled and quaked because God was angry.

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Verse four. Do you think he is? Do you think those in Judah would know this? He, God rebukes the sea and makes it dry.

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Remember that? That's an exodus. And you've got a mountain here. You've got a mountain here.

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You've got the hordes of the Egyptian army here. And you've got the Red Sea here. And how do you get through that Red Sea?

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By the way, if you ever watch movies and they describe the rebuke of the sea and make it dry.

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What are the two shows that come to mind? The Ten Commandments. You've seen that movie, right? And what's the cartoon version of the

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Ten Commandments? Prince of Egypt. See, there are pagans here that watch TV. You just fell for that too easily.

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And both neglect to show that how do you get two million people through the

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Red Sea in the watch of a night? If it's streaming single file or you see on those two shows, it's pretty close.

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No way. It's going to have to be a half a mile, three quarters of a mile. A mile wide dry land and God gets them through.

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So are they in any danger ultimately of the Ninevites when a

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God can do this? He rebukes the sea. He didn't have to do anything to it. He just said, see, divide.

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Verse four, he drives up, dries up all the rivers. And then he lists three names, three places,

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Bashan, Carmel and Lebanon. And if you wanted the best stuff, if you wanted the most rich pasture, if you wanted the most beautiful places and countrysides, if you want to have the best trees for wood, you'd go to these places,

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Bashan and Carmel and Lebanon. And they wither and they wither before the

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Lord. And he says this with wonderful poetry. So memorable, so meaningful.

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What's the strongest thing around there? What's the most stable thing around there? Verse five, probably a mountain.

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What do mountains do before God? They quake before him. The hills melt.

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The earth heaves as if to and fro. I mean, we're thinking ice heaves ahead.

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No, this is earthy. Earth is heaving itself and the world and all who dwell in it, including the

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Ninevites. Nahum basically says, all right,

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God is at his tribunal. He's on the judgment seat. And is he afraid of the

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Ninevites? I'm not going to be able to make sure I rescue my covenant people. He says in verse six, rhetorically, who can stand before his indignation in light of the last verses?

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Who can endure the heat of his anger? I think about ultimate judgment in hell here, too.

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Eventually, for those that won't trust in him, his wrath is drizzled out. His wrath is dropped out.

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His wrath is kind of just little bits out. Now, what's the text say?

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Because it's all at once. It's sudden. It's just dumped out. It's poured out like what?

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What's judgment used in the Bible often of fire? It's his wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

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So much for the granite state. That's why we trust in rocks and granite, something hard, mountains, hills, the earth.

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It's just all laid waste before God. The enemies of the church, they rely on their power, but they don't know anything.

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The half of the power of who God is, who can stand before his indignation.

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Skip down to verse eight. We'll go back to verse seven in a moment. But with an overflowing flood, by the way, there is an end to the oppressors.

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It might not be on our timetable, but there's an end. He will make a complete end of the adversaries and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

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There will be a payday that day. When I was a kid, we used to go to Kmart and we didn't have much money.

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And so mom would say, you know what? That's okay. We'll just put a couple dollars down and we'll put it in a thing called layaway, right?

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Do people still do layaway? They do kind of you put a little bit down and get it later.

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There's going to be a payday one day, the divine layaway program. It might not be on our timetable, but the sudden destruction of Assyria will be great.

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Fascinatingly, look at verse eight. It says he will make a complete end of the adversaries. That's what ESV says. But in the Hebrew, it should read this way.

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He will make a complete end of her place. What? He will make a complete end of her place.

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What do you mean her place? Who's the her? Well, if you remember that the patron goddess of Nineveh was a lady goddess named

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Ishtar. That's who he's talking about. There's a myth in Assyria, the descent of Ishtar to the underworld.

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Ishtar is so powerful she could travel to the underworld. No other myth gods could do this, but she could because she had to retrieve her lover.

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And these other deities might not be able to travel around to the underworld, but she could. And she has got a place of worship in Nineveh.

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And what's going to be her end? Destruction, darkness.

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And then now, finally, for some good news. You're like, we came to church today. Could we have some good news? Number six.

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And finally, rejoice that you don't get what you deserve. Rejoice that God is good. Verse seven.

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Now, if you underlined anything in the first eight verses before I began preaching, probably you underlined a little bit of verse three.

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And you probably underlined all of verse seven. I don't blame you.

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The Lord, Yahweh, He doesn't have goodness. He is good.

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By nature, He's good. A stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge in Him.

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God has a covenant with His people and He will defend them. He never fails to protect

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His people. The Lord is a stronghold of my life, David said. Of whom shall

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I be afraid? Jeremiah said, O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble.

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He knows those who take refuge in Him. You come to the Bible and you go, how do I interpret this passage?

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I'll tell you, by the way, a side note how people are telling me these days, how I have to interpret the Bible. They are telling me and therefore they want me to then tell you.

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Because if they get the pastor, then they get the people. They want me to understand the Bible this way. I come to Nahum.

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I'm trying to figure out the passage. And since I'm white, I've got all kinds of biases as being

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German and white and other things. And that is preventing me from understanding the scripture.

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Therefore, I need people who aren't white to help me. People who aren't German to help me. And we need to kind of globally come to the passage and figure out not who knows

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Greek, who knows exegesis, who knows systematic theology, who knows historical theology. But what your skin color is that will help you understand the

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Bible. You know, that is awful. And don't you buy it. If I come to the passage, you don't understand it.

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I'm not going to blame my whiteness for doing that. I might blame my lack of education or something else.

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But I come to the passage. And one of the things I could do, there are many when it comes to interpretation. But one is, how would a

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Jew understand this? He's writing to Jewish people. And if a Jewish person understood these words and could remember, oh, yeah, the sea rebuked, the winds, the earthquake,

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Sinai, he'd be thinking about the Old Testament. And what would he or she be thinking about if I said, the

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Lord knows those who take refuge in him. What would go through your mind? Answer.

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Remember, there was a manslayer. And if he needed to get away from the family of the person he accidentally killed, there were six cities, three on one side of the

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Jordan, three on the other, where this man could run. And they were called cities of refuge.

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There's been an act committed. And I'm on the run. And I don't want to get slain. I need to go to the city of refuge.

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That's exactly what he's talking about here. No wonder the book of Hebrews says, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

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They were getting persecuted, the recipients of the book of Hebrews. There's persecution here. And the answer is the same.

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The Lord is good, a stronghold. And he knows those that take refuge in him.

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The focus and hope on Christ himself, the refuge, the anchor. Fleeing for refuge.

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That's exactly what we had to do when we trusted in Christ, because we were guilty of sin. We had fallen short of the glory of God.

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Guilty of manslaughter, as it were, because if you hate somebody in your heart, you're like a murderer. If you lust in your heart for somebody, you're like an adulterer.

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We needed rescuing. We needed the high priest to not only intercede for us on God's behalf, but to be the sacrifice for us.

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What explains that? Answer the first four words in English in verse seven. The Lord is good.

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Why are you going to heaven, dear Christian? Answer. The Lord is good. It's his goodness.

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He's a stronghold, not just in temporal days of trouble, but that ultimate day of trouble. As you know,

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Luther said there are two days in my calendar. Today and that day. Today and judgment day. And those who fled for refuge could go back to their cities when the high priest died.

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Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? In the Old Testament, when the high priest died, you could go back to your life.

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You'd be treated as innocent. What a connection. We, by faith, have fled to Christ for refuge.

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He's our eternal refuge. And if Jesus loved sinners on earth, what does he do now as the eternal refuge in heaven?

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He doesn't love us any less. We've fled from the avenger. We fled from our own sin, from Satan, to the city of refuge.

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No, to the person. What's this text say? He knows those who take refuge in him.

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Did you know, dear Christian, your salvation is secure? Because it's based on who

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God is. He is good. And you say, well, I'm not good. That's true. Even as Christians now, we're simultaneously just and sinful.

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But Jesus is our refuge. Listen to Psalm 2. This is how

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Psalm 2 ends. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way.

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For his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all those who take what? Refuge in him.

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Blessed. Oh, the rewarding life. Oh, the blessed life. Oh, the most wonderful life.

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Oh, the most joyous life. Not just they're blessed, but how blessed? David exclaims, the

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Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge. Now, for those people that aren't

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Christians, this is a wonderful invitation for you to trust in this savior, because there will be a payday one day.

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You say, well, could God ever accept a sinful person like me? I followed my own life and my own desires and act like there was no

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God for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years. I just have some news for you, but God's good.

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God is good. He's faithful. And if you take him at his word, and he says,

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I'd like you to lay down your arms of sin, and I'd like you to trust in my son, the savior.

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The Bible says he knows those who take refuge in him. That's by faith. But I also, dear

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Christian, want you to be reminded, look at the language. He knows those who took refuge in him.

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Does that say that? He knows those who take refuge in him. I regularly say this, but here's going to get,

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I'm going to get to the good news. How'd your week go this week? How was your obedience this week?

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Now, last service, I asked, did anybody perfectly love God this week and love their neighbor?

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And a little kid, a younger kid raised her hand. I felt bad for the mom. What if we

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Christians sin? What if we didn't love our wives like we should have this week? I didn't.

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What if we didn't submit to our husbands this week as we should have? We meaning you ladies. What if I didn't surrender to God as much as I wanted to with my devotion this week?

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What if I wasn't submitted completely to his will? What if I looked at other Christians?

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They seem to be obeying more, and I'm not obeying like I should. What if my prayer life was a wreck?

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What if I say to myself, you know what? I should treasure God more. I should desire God more. I know it's right, but I just don't do it.

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It's Roman seven. I know what to do, and I don't, I don't do it. Is there any good news for the Christian? All too often, dear

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Christian, here's what happens. We trust in Jesus for our salvation, i .e. justification. And we forget to keep trusting in Jesus for our sanctification.

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You stand before Jesus now as a person who's in ongoing struggle with holy living, but you're still a child of God.

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And by the way, this is present tense for Christians who struggle with sin. He knows those that take refuge in him.

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He knows you, and he's accepted you, not based on your performance this week. Because dear Christian, God only accepts perfection.

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If you want to be standing before God as a Christian this week, by your own merits, you have to be perfectly obedient to the law.

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He doesn't law light it. Oh, you're my, you're my son now, or you're my daughter. You don't really have to obey the law.

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No, no, you have to perfectly obey the law if you want to stand before God. But since Jesus has done that for us, now we don't stand before God as a judge.

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We stand before him as a father. And out of a desire to glorify God, as a desire to show gratitude to God, as a desire to serve our neighbor, we do good works.

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He is good. He knows those that take refuge in him.

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All week long, our conscience does only one of two things, accuse you or excuse you.

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But I want you to know, Christian, the Lord's good. He knows you. He knows those that take refuge in him.

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Do you know what's happening here in this song? It's not, you know what,

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I stand before God based on my own merits, based on my own devotion, based on my own quiet time, based on my own holiness.

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I want you to have a quiet time. I want you to read the Bible. I want you to live a holy life because God is holy. But Jesus died for the sins of Christians too.

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And this is reminding me of that very thing. He knows those who take refuge in him. Everything's focused on the

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Lord. It's not introspective. You want to wreck your assurance? Only look at your own fruits.

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Only look at the own evidence. Only look on inside and your assurance is going to be wrecked.

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I think it's fine to look on the inside after you've had a good view of who God is. Do I have enough faith?

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Is there enough fruit of the spirit in my life? Do I love God enough? Do I really love Jesus? Do I love lost people enough?

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Did I confess enough? Did I repent enough? Did I desire enough? Did I treasure enough? Did I submit enough? Did I surrender enough?

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Answer, all those things are law. Let me give you some good news, Christians. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble.

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He knows those who take refuge in him. That is good news. If you have not read

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The Whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson, you ought to read it. It talks about a controversy in Scotland about this very issue.

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It talks about a book called The Marrow of Modern Divinity. And in that book, he talks about this very issue.

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The law says, thou art a sinner and therefore thou shall be damned. But the gospel says, no,

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Christ came into the world to save sinners. The law says, pay me what you owe or else

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I will cast you into prison. The gospel says, Christ gave himself a ransom for thee.

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The law says, thou has not continued in all that I require of thee, but thou art cursed.

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The gospel says, Christ has redeemed thee from the curse of the law being made a curse for thee.

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It's good to take refuge in the Lord for salvation. And it is good to take refuge in the

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Lord for sanctification. We start with the work of Christ, then we work toward our fruits and evidences.

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Now, I've quoted this before, but it's so wonderful. I want to remind you in light of this. Remember, Jesus said in John 6,

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I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

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But I said to you that you have seen me and do yet not believe. All that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me,

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I will never cast out. For I've come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

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And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me. But I will raise it up on the last day.

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This is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on that day.

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Now, verse 37, it says, and the one that comes to me, I will never cast out. Remember the old

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King James? I guess King James is old, but remember the authorized version of King James? And the one who comes to me,

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I will in no wise cast out. Remember? In no wise cast out. John Bunyan wrote a book called

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Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ. And it's good words for sinners to hear.

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And there's a dialogue between the sinner and Jesus. But I'm a great sinner, I will in no wise cast out.

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But I'm an old sinner, I will in no wise cast out. But I'm a hardened sinner, I will in no wise cast out.

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But I'm a backsliding sinner, I will in no wise cast out. But I have served

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Satan all my days, I will in no wise cast out. I have sinned against light,

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I will in no wise cast out. But I have sinned against mercy, I will in no wise cast out.

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But I have no good thing to bring with me, I will in no wise cast out.

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Now, that is really good news. And the only reason that's true or the reason that's true is the

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Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those that take refuge in him.

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John Bunyan additionally said, Christ as priest goes before, and Christ as advocate comes after. Christ as priest continually intercedes.

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Christ as advocate, in case of great transgression, pleads. Great transgressions this week, you have an advocate.

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Christ as priest, he has need to act always. But Christ as advocate, sometimes only.

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Christ as priest acts in time of peace. But Christ as advocate, in times of broils, turmoils, and sharp contentions.

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Wherefore, Christ as advocate is, as I may call him, a reserve. And his time is then to arise, to stand up and plead, when his owner clothed with some filthy sin that of late they have fallen into.

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Jesus is a great savior. And he is good, and a stronghold in the day of trouble.

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And he knows those who take refuge in him. What makes a good song?

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I think we had the answer today in Nahum chapter one. Bow with me, please. Father in heaven, we look to you as the giver of all good things.

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And by nature, you're good. Your son is good, the Holy Spirit is good. And we would approach you today and just ask, on behalf of those that might be here or watching, who have not trusted in the

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Lord Jesus for their salvation, have not recognized their own sin as lawbreakers, that you would make them alive.

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That you would use the preaching of the word today through a frail man to quicken them, to make them convicted, and to run to you.

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And we're thankful that all those that come to you, you'll never cast out. For the Christians that are here today,

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Father, persecution for Christians in America is going to be a reality if it's not already.

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So would you help us to find our comfort in you? Would you protect us from thinking that the oppressors are our ultimate enemies?

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We will trust in you to do the right thing. And we're thankful that when we come to you initially or when we come to you even as Christians who have had a difficult week, you're good.

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And that you know we've trusted in your son because you've actually given us that faith. So thank you for everything in Jesus name.

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No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.