FHBC Sermon Notes

What is God like?  It is a question we all ask, but yet the answers are so diverse. If we were to ask this question on the street, what would you hear?  We have so many imaginative ideas.  This should not surprise us, for man, made in God's image, we have some sense of who he is, yet in the crucible of the heart of man, this view, blinded by the sin that separates us for Him, we end of with so many versions.

What does it mean to have so many "versions" of God?  One conclusion might be that God doesn't exist. Or if he does exist, the disconnect lies in our understanding and our inability to describe him.  Now if this is true, then we have another question… How can man, with his view so misaligned even know what God is like?

The answer we see in scripture and in history is a resounding.…

**YES!**

The way this happens is that we are not the one who will fix our skewed view, but instead God is the one who has revealed himself to us. 

That is what this view is.

And so we look at the book of Nahum, one of the most beautiful descriptions of who God is in the Bible. It tells us of the incomparable greatness of God. 

*Let us read.  Nahum 1*

**1. The incomparable greatness of God as seen through his holiness, his justice, and his omnipotence.**

    This passage begins with a description of God who is so powerful, so wrathful, so holy, so just, and terribly awesome that all with cower before him. 

    Let us define some of these terms.  First, we say he is holy.  What does this mean.  Set aside, in a category of his own.  Elevated about all else, a status unique and unmoving.  For this we honor him. For he deserves this honor. And so, secondly, he is jealous for his name, for his holiness.  This jealousy is the same type of jealousy that a husband would have for his wife.  This is a righteous jealousy. He is not willing to share his wife, allowing her to be defiled by another, for she is HIS wife. This is how God's desire to see his own name glorified is described. He holiness cannot be compared with another.

    So also is his justice. The category of jealous and righteousness.  We can see how this works when we seek to fight him, and take justice to ourselves. It says verse two that "the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries.". God is the one who defends and seek righteousness for his name.  We cannot do that. When we seek to be the avenger ourselves, acting in our interest, then he is jealous, and will defend his righteousness against us.

    >The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. (verse 3)

     This is not the image we most often have a God. God as vengeful and wrathful.  But this is the fact and nature of his omnipotence and omniscience.  He acts justly, he judges rightly, neither too much or too little.  Consider this definition of "omnipotent": God possesses ALL power. Other powers do not exist outside of God. There are no lesser powers, for there are no other powers, except that which he has made.  Nahum uses creation itself to demonstrate this.

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

The power here shows not only does he have the power to create, but to change and remove that creation. He who made the sea, can also make it dry.  It is all encompassing.

*What is the implication of this?  How do we live light of the Great and Mighty God?*

    >Who can stand before his indignation? (verse 3)

This book written to a people who were the mightiest on earth, answers this clearly.  NO ONE.  No one can stand.

    >He will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. v.7

    This continues on for rest of the chapter.  So how do we respond?

    ** We must be humbled our view of God.**

    This is how our obedience to God stops.

    **We must submit ourselves and receive the hope and joy he has given to us in Jesus.**.

    We must set aside the idol of ourselves. We are very much like the Assyrians. God will make a complete end of us if we continue, for it is true, that we are vile.  Our worst enemy is not what we face in life, our worst enemy is God.

    And do you know who can save you from GOD.  ONLY GOD CAN SAVE US FROM GOD. For he is wrathful, yes, but he is GOOD.  He will save us, and in Jesus has saved us from his own wrath.  This book of Nahum demonstrates this. For throughout we see alongside the judgment the attributes of God's hope. 

**2. The incomparable greatness of God as seen through his patience, his compassion, and his salvation.**

He is wrathful… but….

> The Lord is slow to anger (v.3)

Who can stand before his indignation?

>The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he know those who take refuge in him. (v. 7)

*The Lord saves by intending to give refuge to those he intends to destroy!*

How is this possible, is God, who is just, going to simply ignore all the evil, and that is bad in the world.  No, for this reason did Jesus die, crucified.  Jesus lived the righteous we never could, and then died, taking the fullness of the wrath God intended. He did pour out his wrath, but he poured it out on his Son, and receives us as righteous because of him, for the glory of his own name.

>Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! (v. 15)

Is this not the very reason we praise God!  He indeed is incomparably Great! AMEN.