The Gospel for the Self Exalting - February 22nd, 2026

If I can have you guys all stand, I will read just two verses of today's passage. It's going to be from verse 8 to 19, so 12 verses, but I am going to just read just the two. Okay, and it reads.

Your mighty ones are lying down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to regather them. There is no relief for your breakdown, your wound is incurable. All who hear the report about you will clap their hands over you. For on whom has not your evil pastally. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for just allotting for our church a season in which we can go through the books of Jonah and Nahum together and for teaching us your character. And I pray that as we grow in the faith, as we mature in not only our knowledge, but our convictions and our passions.

Help us never to look in our past and envy the passion that we had in the past. May that continue to just grow and expand until we reach home in heaven. And I pray that this morning would contribute to our growth, that it would not only cause us to look forward to the end, but also while we're here in the present to grow to be zealous to represent you properly to a dying world. So I pray for your help to not only speak on my part, but also to engage and listen and to worship with our hearts for all of us together. We pray this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Go ahead and take a seat.

And as you can see, the book ends with a question. And the rhetorical question, it points to the Assyrian Empire's deserving of wrath. They were evil, and everyone had been affected by their evil. And so this closure, this question that closes the prophecy, really reviews for us what the book is about, right? And so this is the tenth and final sermon for Nahum. And I'm going to start with a little recap of each of the three chapters. So chapter one, we were given many descriptions of Yahweh. And the descriptions given by the prophet Nahum were very jarring. Because in the book and prophecy of Jonah, God is described to us as a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness.

In Jonah, we were given a description of God who relents from sending his wrath upon a wicked people. But then in Nahum chapter 1, it feels like God is described to us as the very opposite. And the only description of God that is the same in both Jonah and Nahum is that Yahweh, God is slow to anger. In Jonah, it felt like the emphasis was on the slow. And yet in Nahum, chapter one, it felt like the emphasis was on his anger. Okay, Yahweh is a jealous and avenging God. He is great in power, and he comes in wrath. He comes in anger. He controls the entire cosmos, and this powerful God will be coming with a full and unbridled vengeance on the Assyrian Empire. And Assyria will be overwhelmed with a supernatural flood and then a terrifying Babylonian army, and they will be silenced forever.

And so this news of the destruction of Assyria is literally the gospel of God to the people of Judah. And so they're told to celebrate. Prepare to celebrate. The end of all evil is coming. The end of their oppression, the demise of their oppressors is coming. And so that was great gospel news. And that's Nahum chapter one. And Yahweh has commanded concerning you, Assyria, there will no longer be seed from your name. From the house of your gods, I will cut off graven image and molten image.

Behold, on the mountains, the feet of him who proclaims good news, who announces peace. Celebrate your feasts, O Judah, pay your vows, for never again will the vile one pass through you. He is cut off completely. So the Assyrians will be permanently finished. There will be no seed, there will be no seed left from their bodies, their fame, their reputation will be forgotten, and the Assyrians will be buried in a grave, never again to trouble anybody, and they're going to be completely cut off forever. So that was chapter one. And then in chapter two, the prophecy shifts in tone to show that the great lion, Assyria, is going to fight to the death. He's going to put up a fight. But then the prophecy shifts to the hunter, turning into the hunted.

The Assyrians had been adenalions, even their young cubs were violent predators, and the Assyrians for about 300 years had pillaged nations and devoured them for centuries. They had oppressed Yahweh's people, and so Yahweh God was coming in wrath to kill them. Okay. So the lions would never ever devour nor roar again. The devouring lion will be devoured permanently and permanently silenced. And that's Nahum chapter 2. Where is the den of the lions? In the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, lioness, and lion's cub prowled with nothing to make them tremble. The lion tore enough for its cubs and strangled enough for its lionesses, filled its lairs with torn up prey and its dens with torn up flesh.

Behold, I am against you, declares Yahweh of hosts. And I will burn up her chariots in smoke, and a sword will devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the land, and no longer will the voices of your messengers be heard. So chapter two was about the futility of Assyria's resistance, because the God of heaven himself is against them. So justice was gonna come, and they could do nothing about it. And last week we started chapter three. Chapter three is about how the end of Assyria, the country, the end of Assyria's nationalistic pride, and their end of the reign of terror would be a global celebration. Assyria had been a satanic nation, and every country around them is going to clap their hands at their fall, because as Assyria had done, it would be done to them.

And chapter three prophesies the end of Assyria with a very bloody and gory detail. And we looked at the opening of chapter three last week. So today, for the rest of chapter three, we're gonna return back to the good news, the gospel of the end of Assyria's evil. God's judgment is coming, all evil and all evildoers will be destroyed, and that is reason for celebration. And so the outline for today, the last sermon in the Nahum series is as follows.

God's judgment on self-exalting nations will first be predictable and predicated. Predicated and predictable. Nahum 8 3, 8 to 13. To be predicated means it's based on something, or it's depon dependent on or modeled on something. So as Assyria had done, it will be done to them. And the judgment would also be predicated or springing forth from God's righteous character. So there are going to be predictable patterns here. There's going to be a foreshadowing here, as God had done in the past, he would do in the present, and he will do in the future. He doesn't change. God had made an example of Egypt.

He would do the same to the Edomites, the Moabites, the Amalekites, and He's going to do the same thing to the Assyrians. And God had foretold this. God has always made clear his hatred toward evil. He has always clearly spoken that he would judge all evil. And God is faithful to his word.

So Yahweh has always been very explicit in his warnings to nations and empires when it came to their evil ways. So Assyria's judgment was predicated and predictable. Second, God's judgment would be very pervasive. Nahum chapter 3, verses 14 to 17. God's judgment would be complete. It would be thorough and all-encompassing. God's wrath would pervade every hidden corner of the Assyrians in judgment. There will be nothing left and kept safe, nothing protected. There will be nothing hidden. Job 34, 22. Everything is going to be judged. Luke 8, 17. So the devastation and the judgment on Assyria would be pervasive. And third, the judgment would be permanent. Assyria will never rise again. Nahum 3, 18 to 19.

So God's judgment on all evil and all evil evildoers will be predictable, pervasive, and permanent, and that's the gospel. That's good news to whom? The humble, the righteous. God's wrath and judgment on sin is the gospel. So every gospel message that doesn't have wrath and judgment, that doesn't have God's holy character, is a false gospel. And so we're looking at this today. And Nahum was written around 650 BC. Review. What year? 650 BC. And God was predicting through Nahum the events of the battle of Nineveh, which would take place about 40 years later in 612. So this is written 650. He's predicting what's going to happen in 612. And so first, God's judgment on the self-exalting nation of Assyria and Nineveh, the capital, they're predicted.

It's spoken of beforehand, and it's predicated on what they had done to the other nations. And so I want to read Nahum 3, 8 to 13. Assyria, are you better than No Amon? Which sits along the waters of the Nile with water surrounding her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall consisted of the sea. Ethiopia was her might, and Egypt too without end. Put and Lubim were among her helpers. Yet she became an exile. She went into captivity. Also her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in fetters. So this prediction begins with the rhetorical question.

No means city here. Okay? So Noamon is the city of Ammon. Amon was the chief god of Egypt. And Noamon was a common way of referring to Thebes, the capital of the Egyptian Empire. Okay, so people would say Nineveh, and what would they mean? Assyria. When people say DC, what do they mean? America, and when people say Beijing, it's China. And when people said Loamon, they meant the Egyptian Empire. Now, Noamon, ancient Thebes, had been destroyed by the Assyrians in 663, about 10 years before Nahum's prophecy. When did Nahum write? 650. Battle of Nineveh is 612. 663, Egypt had been destroyed. And Noamon had been a city just like Nineveh. Both cities were surrounded by water. And if you remember, Nineveh was situated at like three rivers.

Noamon similarly had the Nile River on its west and the Red Sea on its east. Both cities were wealthy. Both cities had palaces and great monuments. Both Noamon and Nineveh were surrounded by fortresses and walls. Both had powerful militaries, and both had powerful allies. So for Egypt, Ethiopia was their mighty ally. And so Noamon, ancient Thebes, was not unlike Nineveh. But in 663 BC, Assyria took Noamon down. And this was after they had destroyed Ethiopia. So both Noamon and Ethiopia were pillaged and plundered by the Assyrians.

And what did they do when they captured these other nations? The history books tell us, and verse 10 also tells us.

Yahweh said, even as my servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years as a sign against Egypt and Ethiopia, the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, with buttucks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. You never thought you'd see the word butak in the Bible, right? But there it is. They will be dismayed and ashamed because of Ethiopia their hope and Egypt their boast. But what happened to these guys? Their infants were dashed to pieces, and their great men were taken away. Israel would seek help from Egypt and Ethiopia. Israel had trusted in the horses and the chariots of Egypt. But Assyria had proven to be very powerful.

And Egypt and Ethiopia were defeated and taken captive. So Isaiah is walking around barefoot and naked to visualize to Israel what Assyria would do. But he would also visualize for them what Assyria would have done to them. So the judgment was foretold by Yahweh, and what Assyria had done to enemy nations, they would have the same thing done to them by the Babylonians. Because remember in Nahum chapter 3, verse 5, last week, the Ninevites would have their skirts lifted over their face and their nakedness exposed to the nations. So, Assyria, are you better than Noamon? Absolutely. The Assyrians had gloried and prided in their might, but they would suffer the same fate as the nations they had conquered.

God's vengeance would be predicated on their wicked and violent deeds. And God would predict and foretell the Assyrians' demise through the prophet Nahum. The same thing is gonna happen to you. You too. You too. Verse 11 to 13. They never thought that it would happen. It's just like for us, we can't imagine an America that is impoverished in the future, that is slaves and destitute in the future. So this is a shock. This great nation is going down. Whoa, but you too. You too will become drunk. You will be hidden and buried and covered, forever forgotten. You too will search for a strong defense from the enemy. All your fortifications are fig trees with ripe fruit, and when shaken, they fall easily into the eater's mouth.

The imagery is this. The fruit just falls off. And then Babylon's like, they're just eating. Behold, your mighty warriors are like women in your midst. And that's an insult of this day. Okay. Today people would be like, How dare you? But back then, they don't fight. And the gates of your land are open wide to your enemies, fire will consume your gate bars. So Nineveh had devastated Noamon. And God, both through the river waters and the Babylonian armies would debilitate and devastate the Assyrian Empire, and He's going to bring them to an end. And so Nineveh in that moment is going to seek a strong defense from the enemy. But what's going to happen? Feudal. They're going to be overtaken. And then the massacre at 612 BC in Nineveh would mirror the massacre of 663 BC in Noamman.

The Babylonians wouldn't even have to try that heart. The floodwaters would take care a lot of the army. And they would have to only give the fig tree a tiny shake. And all of the fruits just gonna fall off and easily be devoured. So God's judgment would come on this self-exalting nation. It will be predicated on their wicked deeds. And God predicts and foretells the demise of both Assyria and of self-exalting nations and peoples like it. So here's a tangential thought.

America is headed the same way.

Right. God's judgment would come, and it would be pervasive. Nahum 3, 14 to 17. It would be pervasive. Draw for yourself water for the siege, strengthen your fortifications, go into the clay, tread the mortar, take hold of the brick mold. So verse 14 is basically dripping with sarcasm, like chapter 2, verse 1. Yeah, go get ready. Arm yourselves, ready your defensively. You do you. But as you are doing those things, what's gonna happen in verse 15? There, fire will consume you, the sword will cut you down, it will consume you as a locust does. Multiply yourself like creeping locusts. Multiply yourself like the swarming locust. You have increased your traitors more than the stars of heaven. The creeping locusts strips and flies away.

Your guardsmen are like the swarming locusts. Your marshals are like the locust swarm encamping in the stone walls on a cold day. But the sun rises and they all flee. And the place where they are is not known. So three images are used here. The first one is fire, the second one is the sword, third one is a locusts. Do you your eyes are you tracking? Fire, locusts, and swarm. Fire will engulf. The swords will slice in dice. The young infant lions and all the children who are cubs, Nahum 213. And then the locusts will devour. All three of these things they destroy thoroughly. So Nineveh's destruction will be total. It will be pervasive. Fire touches everything, right? Until something stops it.

But fire, if it's let go, it destroys everything. The sword, it will be helpful to think of a blender with knives. Do you have an image? Whatever you put in there, it's no longer to be like it. Right? It's all encompassing. The knife, the sword, bloodies and destroys. Locusts, they ravage. Locusts leave nothing green. And the devastation will be akin to what a locust swarm does to a field of ripe crops. And I'm gonna give you a quick visual of what a locust swarm looks like today. Imagine if this is in your backyard. Now, locust swarms overwhelm and devastate. Locust swarms were very common in the ancient Near East. So locusts flew in, they consumed all the vegetation, and they stripped the land completely bare.

Locust swarms are still common today. It's just we don't see much of them in North America, but they are a plenty in the Middle East and on the African continent. I've eaten actually locusts on multiple occasions in Uganda. They have basketfuls of them. Okay. But locusts, they swarm, overwhelm and destroy. Even today, many national governments spend tons of money to combat locust infestations. And locust swarms have been particularly prevalent over the last five years in North Africa. In 2020 and 2021, what were we struggling with? Coronavirus. We were struggling with COVID, right? But at that time, North African countries allocated more money to the combating of locust swarms. So we're so ethnocentric that we think everybody had COVID.

Africa struggled with locust swarms. Alright. So we were combating COVID, but the World Bank during COVID times sent 43 million dollars to Kenya to combat locusts. Uganda received 48 million dollars. Somalia received 40 million dollars. And the UN via the World Bank sent 25 million dollars to Yemen. So typically, locust swarms overwhelmed and destroyed everything.

Assyria had been the world's locusts. So in the few hundred years that they had been the superpower of the day, they had multiplied like creeping locusts, which is locusts in their infant stage. They're like the little the pupa, okay. And they had multiplied like swarming locusts, like mature adult locusts, and the Bible says they were as numerous as the stars in the heavens. So the Syrians, they went through the nations, stripped every nation bare, every tribe, every people they passed through, they would devour. So in Nahum 3.14 to 17, that's gonna be a great source of comfort to all the peoples because Yahweh declares that the Assyrians are gonna be overrun and devastated. They're gonna be consumed like the fire, like the sword and like the locust swarm.

Just as they had pillaged the nations around them, a jealous and avenging God is Yahweh, chapter one, verse two, and they are going to get their day. So here's a tangential but related application. Not a single deed of an evildoer in your life will be left unaddressed. Amen. Whoever has wronged you, it will not be left forgotten or unaddressed. So whatever evil has been done to you, the Lord will avenge. So the Bible says, Let the Lord avenge in his time and in his way. On our part, like our Father in heaven, we are to trust and obey and love and bless the enemy and leave the results to God. Amen. That's tangential.

But that's what Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 12. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. By being of the same mind toward other Christians, not being haughty in mind, but then associating with the humble, and do not be wise in your own mind. Verse 17, pay attention. Never paying back evil for evil to who? Anyone. Respecting what is good in the sight of who? All men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, being at peace with who? All men. Never taking your own revenge, beloved. Instead, this is your alternative. Bless in love, and leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

The Lord will always set things straight. Amen. And as it says in 2 Thessalonians 1 that we looked at, we're going to look at this week.

Oh Lord, yes. No. That is not like our Father in heaven. So God's judgment on self-exalting nations will be first predictable and predicated. Second, God's judgment will be thorough and complete, all pervasive. And third, we get to the final verses of the prophecy, Nahum 3.18 and 19. God's judgment will be permanent. The wicked and the wicked and wickedness will all permanently come to an end.

There is no relief for your breakdown. Your wound is incurable. All who hear the report about you will clap their hands over you, for on whom has not your evil passed continually. And then it ends right there. So Assyria's judgment will be permanent. Assyria's shepherds had become cocky. Their leaders had not been vigilant. They were all sleeping and caught off guard. The mighty men, the warriors of Assyria had been overconfident, and they had scoffed at the warnings to repent, unlike their previous generation.

Stand your ground. But all the people would do what? They would flee.

So for citizens of self exalting nations, their leaders could not and would not protect them. Their political leaders, their military leaders, their religious leaders, not a single one of them, no matter how eloquent, gifted, or mighty, will be able to deliver them from judgment. And this is an important lesson to learn.

There is no hope to be found in man. Let me repeat this. There is zero hope to be found in man. Because even the best of men are men at best. And the men of exalting nations, what do they do with their little tongues? Their little tongues make great boasts and promise great things. But what does the Bible say again and again? Do not be deceived. Man is powerless against God's judgment. And what does the Bible say about judgment? It's coming. And when judgment comes, you cannot hide behind any man. You guys know this, right? Well, unless that man is also fully God. And we're gonna get to that in a moment. You should never trust men. Amen.

Ever. So I don't fully believe or trust whatever president promises anything. Human beings are depraved to the core. Some people are just better at pretending. So whatever or whoever we are associated with here in this life cannot protect from the coming wrath. It doesn't matter who your pastor is, he cannot protect you from the coming wrath. It doesn't matter how great a spiritual giant your mom or your dad is or was, they cannot protect you.

And they will have to fend for themselves at the judgment, and that's verse 18. You have no hope in your leaders. And then verse 19, the last verse of the prophecy closes with the permanence of the judgment. Breakdown, the word refers to a fracturing of the bones, or even a complete collapse and a disintegration of the bones. Leviticus 21, 19, Leviticus 24, 20. Modern-day technology has made it so that a reconstructive surgery is possible for shattered bones. But think of ancient Near East. If someone shatters their pelvis, that you're you're done, right? If you're broken, if your bones are broken, that's a permanent and irreversible damage. It's incurable. And that is excruciating. So the agonized screams, verse 19 of the Assyrians, they're gonna be met with applause and a global standing ovation.

And rightly so.

Nahum chapter 2, verse 7. Nineveh is fallen. Nineveh is devastated. So everyone who hears those words, they're gonna be clapping their hands. This is not an unimportant verse because this is a snapshot of human history's final days. Okay? It's a foreshadowing of the celebration that would take place on the day of the Lord. Similarly, on the day of the Lord, the gospel, the good news will be proclaimed as it had been in Nahum 115, evil is coming into an end. And let's look at Revelation 19, 1 to 4 together. After these things, okay, verses 6, chapter 16 and on, there's a lot of war in Revelation. Okay. I heard something like a loud voice of a great crowd in heaven, saying, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God, because his judgments are true and righteous.

For he has judged the great harlots. Do you guys remember who the harlot was? Chapter 3, verse 4? Satan, who is corrupting the earth with her sexual immorality. And Yahweh, he has avenged the blood of his slaves, shed by her hand. And then a second time they said, Hallelujah, her smoke rises up forever and ever. And that's also in Nahum. I will burn up your chariots in smoke. And the 24 elders and the four living creatures all fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne, saying, Amen, hallelujah. So the end of evil is gonna be a cosmic celebration. The great harlot whom we learned about last week in Nahum chapter 3, verse 4, is judged. And then in Revelation 19, it continues, and we're given details, the marriage of the Lamb and the feast that is going to be prepared by God.

All of this is in one visual. Whoa. Sorry.

So that was my wedding ring. So I was I'm a skinnier now than I was in 2007. Okay. Apostle John is given a glimpse of this in Revelation 19, 11, and go for and following. Then I saw heaven opened. And behold, a white horse, and he who sits on it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and wages war. And from his mouth comes a sharp sword, and that's the Lord Jesus, chapter one of Revelation. So that with it he may strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, and he treads the winepress of the wrath of the rage of God the Almighty. Is God angry in the New Testament? Absolutely. He didn't change. Some people say, oh, God of the Old Testament is all anger, but God of the New Testament is all like grace and nice and peace and love.

That's true. But it's not complete. He is man. And he has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So the wrath of God is a call for cosmic celebration. And the Apostle John is given a prophetic prediction that the judge is gonna come with all pervasive wrath, usher in a permanent end to the harlot, everyone led astray by the harlots, predictive, pervasive, permanent, predicated on the character of God. So the end of all evil is coming. God is coming in judgment and wrath, and he's going to make all things new and right permanently. What's he called here? Faithful and true. So faithful and true continues.

There will be no longer any death. There will be no longer any mourning or crying or pain. The old is passed away. And this verse, everybody loves it, right? It's a glimpse of heaven. And he who sits on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And he said, right.

So the result of evil, mourning, crying, pain, permanently gone, death will no longer be. All things will be made news. Is that good news? It is only if you're not a spiritual Assyrian. God coming in judgment is not good news for the Assyrian. Right. It's only good news if you're not a spiritual Babylonian, which is the common way evil is characterized through the book of Revelation. Assyria was bad, but in the book of Revelation, evil is called Babylon. And so Israel's going to be under Babylon for a time. Alright. The judgment is only good news to you if you're spiritually the Israel of God. It's good news to you only if Yahweh is fighting in your corner. You are only not the underdog if Yahweh is standing in your corner.

So here's a sobering thought. The default setting for all of us is Assyria. Amen. That's the default setting. You are an Assyrian. Outside of the grace of God, you and I are arrogant, self-promoting, self-exalting, rebellious, deserving of the full and unbridled wrath of God. We are not Judah in Nahum's prophecy. We are not the kingdom of Israel who have been afflicted and ravaged. Lord, repay. We are all Assyria. Are you guys following this? But if it's any solace, in reality, you don't want to be Judah either. Because Judah and Assyria are exactly the same, were it not for the grace of God. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Amen. Judah too had been a self-exalting nation, see, seduced by the harlot. That's in the Bible. And that's what the prophecy of Micah was about. Micah was contemporaneous. Can you click for me, please? To Naum. The wound of self-exalting Judah also had been incurable. So apart from the grace of God, Nineveh and Jerusalem, Gentile and Jew, are exactly the same. So Micah 1.9, it reads.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Let that sink in a little bit. Because in your heart there's a little resistance. No, I'm not that bad. Yes, you are.

Amen. Man cannot get to God on his own effort or merit. Every single human being who has ever existed on this planet spiritually is an Assyrian. Let that sink in.

If not for the kindness of God.

At the judgment of God. On you being wiped out. But for some strange reason, God has saved the elect by himself, from himself, for himself, and that is so bizarre to the angels. Do you know you see a lot of confused angels in the Bible? They're very confused at this gospel. That is the mystery into which angels want to look. 1 Peter 1 12. We're going to look at that in about a month. The gospel coming to wicked people like you and me, the angels are like, what is that? Because spiritually, the Assyrian can be converted and transformed into the Israel of God. He just has to have his eyes supernaturally open to see. So your testimony should be.

Yahweh is good. A strong defense in the day of distress. And he loves and he knows those who take refuge in him. Thank God that the Yahweh of Jonah is also the Yahweh God of Nahum. Amen. Thank God and thank only God that mercy and wrath, they come together at the cross of Christ. Judgment and wrath, grace and wrath, meet at the cross. And your judgment and the wrath you and I deserved has fallen on the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Praise the grace of God alone, for the blood of the Passover Lamb has covered your doorposts. And in that, you get a visual of what strong defense means. And by God's grace, you've been humbled enough to seek refuge in Christ alone. And Yahweh knows you because he has foreknown you.

Amen. Faith in the name of Jesus Christ alone saves. Acts chapter 4, verse 12. There is salvation and no one else, either on earth or even in heaven. Proverbs 18, 10.

The humbled righteous runs into it, and he is exalted on high. A rich man's wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his own delusion. Let us not be deluded. Riches cannot save us. High walls cannot save us. Even though we're working hard for our riches and higher walls. Horses and chariots, and the making great of a nation like America again, will not protect our children.

Our children are not going to be safe from the wrath of God because they live in a particular country. And we're not righteous because we run into this strong tower. We are made righteous only because we had been given the faith to enter in.

Amen. Jonah and Nahum are the two bookends of the prophecies concerning Assyria. Do you guys remember what Jonah's name means? Peace. A dove is a has two meanings. A dove in the Bible is both a symbol of peace, like in the ark, or it's stupidity and foolishness. So Jonah's name means peace and naivete. Okay. Nahum's name, if you guys remember, means comfort. Right. Nahum ultimately is a gospel message of comfort and safety. And Nahum is the gospel presented to the self-exalting. And praise God, we who once were self-exalting have been given supernatural wisdom to seek refuge, safety, and comfort in Yahweh alone. God opposes the proud, but he does what?

He gives grace to the humble. And thank God for his grace. The more we get to know God, the more disgusted with us we should be. And the more powerless we should feel. Thank God for his grace. Nahum 167. I want to close with this one last verse. Just coincidentally, remember, this is on your double double wrapper and all your in and out purchases. It's a good gospel message. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the burning of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are torn down by him. Yahweh is good, a strong defense in the day of distress, and he knows those who take refuge in him. We're taking part in communion today. And this is what communion is. Right?

God's indignation and anger poured out upon his one and only son, his son's body broken, his blood shed, because Yahweh is good. And in his grace and kindness, he has chosen to bloody his son and make us Assyrians our strong defense. Let's pray together. Father, I pray that you would deeply humble us.

Even though we know biblically that you said there is no boast. So I pray that as we grow in the faith that you would become so high and exalted and lofty that we forget even ourselves. Make your name great and make it magnified and well known in here. And may we go forth, magnifying and exalting the name of Christ alone, who alone can save. Pray all this in Jesus' name.