The Judgment of the Nations - February 8th, 2026

Join with me back on your feet. I'm just gonna read verse 13. We're gonna be looking at from verses 8 to 13 of chapter 2 of Nahum. But for this reading, we're gonna just read one verse, and it reads. 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, and I will cut off your prey from the land. And no longer will the voice of your messengers be heard. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for just your kindness that is so evident in our lives. And we thank you, God, for giving us ears to hear your truth. I pray that as there are going to be things that we share and learn about you that are hard for us to grasp. I pray that you would cause our faith to increase, our hearts to be humbled, and that at the end of today's service, we will all leave here just with a greater degree of awe and reverence and delight in the person of Christ.

I pray, Father God, that your gospel will be sweeter today than it was even yesterday, and that the message of your holiness would evoke in us. That's just a great compassion for the lost. So we thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to hear your word this morning. I pray that you would engage not just our hearts and our minds, but just even our bodies, that we would be engaged to the proclamation of your truth. And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take your seats. The Bible clearly says that God is not like us. Right? For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways, and so his thoughts not like our thoughts. So let that sink in a little bit.

Okay. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is the difference between us and God. So we cannot come close to fully understanding God. He is infinitely different from us. God is completely other from us. He is very other in comparison to us, and that's what the word holy means, right? Now, we've been created in his image, so there are a few things that we can grasp intuitively about God, but because of our sin, our understanding of God is flawed. Our understanding has been severely corrupted and tarnished by sin. And as a result, there are many truths about the attributes of God that we will never be able to fully understand on this side of eternity. And there are a few of these attributes that are highlighted in the prophecy of Nahum.

And I want to start by putting a few of these attributes on the slide for you, and they are all interconnected. The first attribute of God is that he is good. He is perfectly good, and no one is good except God alone. And because God is perfect in goodness, he perfectly cannot but hate that which is not good. So he is also a God who hates.

And Nahum introduces us primarily to God as a God of wrath. Right? And Yahweh is jealous and avenging. Yahweh is a God who hates. And Isaiah chapter 1, verse 14 says that God hates sin with the entirety of his soul. And there's been an erroneous teaching that is spread in the church, which I'm sure you've heard. God hates sin but loves the sinner. That is not a biblically accurate statement. The Bible is very clear that God not only hates the sin, but he also hates the sinner perfectly. Psalm 5-5 says that Yahweh is a God who hates all workers of iniquity. Now, at the same time, God is love. He is perfect in his love, and he hates perfectly because he loves perfectly, and because he is a God who loves, he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness, and then he relents, and he is slow to send calamity and judgment to those he perfectly hates.

So God is unrelenting and patience. He extends grace to even the objects of his wrath. Fourth on this list is that God is sovereign.

So in God's sovereignty and power, he has created all things, including objects of wrath. He has created objects for his wrath. Proverbs 16 4 says that God has created even the wicked for their specific use. So he is the author of all things, and he has created the wicked, but he is not the author of evil or of sin. Sovereign also means that he controls all things.

And because God is perfect in his goodness, love and sovereignty, and because he has created all things, he cannot tolerate any disloyalty or disobedience or any misrepresentations of himself from those whom he has created. Because he is elkanah. God is jealous.

And he is perfectly jealous with a fiery and a wrath-filled jealousy, and then going full circle, this is a supremely good thing for us. So with these five, just five perfect attributes of God, we can spend countless hours trying to wrap our minds, how they're all interconnected, and our finite minds will not be able to handle the tension. And every effort to harmonize, even just these five in our minds will not only create like a dissonance and tension, but you will likely come up with great amounts of doctrinal error and even perhaps a form of heresy when you try to articulate them and smooth them out. But remember, God is not like us. Amen.

And the difference between God and us is a greater difference between the distance between the heavens and the earth. Now, here's another jarring statement that might create some dissonance in your minds. The God of wrath desires with all his soul for us to be happy.

And you and I have been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God. That is our purpose, and God has wired us to find perfect happiness in fulfilling that purpose, and only in that purpose. And it's a good purpose authored and filled with perfect love. And what sin basically is just a rebellion against that purpose of our being happy in loving and serving God. And the folly of sin has caused us to erroneously believe or hope that the creator exists to love and to serve us. So we have been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God, but we have been seeking our purpose and our happiness outside of God and outside of his purposes. And so as C.S. Lewis once wrote, human history is the long, terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

Now think hard about this one. Okay, you gotta pay attention here. The wrath of God comes upon man because he is rebelling against God's purpose for that man's happiness. God's wrath is coming on man because man refuses to be happy in him. Now, our minds will go to that's he's so egocentric. What kind of a petty God is this? So we have to pay attention because there is a residue of this rebellion in each and every one of us, even if we've walked with the Lord for decades. So again, there's gonna be tension in our minds when we try to think deeply on the attributes and the character of God. And the prophecies of Jonah and Nahum studied together, it captures this tension. To many people, Jonah's description of God, and you guys all know the story, and then Nahum's descriptions of God almost feel like they're talking about two different gods, right?

So if you recall, the prophecies of Jonah and Nahum were written as book ends concerning Assyria. Okay? They were written about a hundred years apart, detailing God's dealings with this wicked nation. And they are coincidentally the only two books of the entire Bible that end with an important question. Both of them end with questions. In Jonah's prophecy, the rhetorical question highlights the compassion and mercy of God. Shall not have pity on these wicked people. Jonah's emphasis was on the grace, mercy, and kindness of God on a wicked nation. Nahum's question highlights Assyria's vileness and their evil. And Nahum's emphasis is on the jealousy, wrath, and vengeance of God. So Jonah would have loved to have preached and seen the vision of Nahum and declared Nahum's prophecy.

Because in the prophecy of Nahum, we are given a description of a God of hate. A God of wrath. So Nahum chapter 1, verses 2 to 3. Alex, can you click the verses 2 to 3, a jealous and avenging God is Yahweh. And this is how it's introduced, right? In the opening verses. Yahweh is avenging and wrathful. Yahweh is avenging against his adversaries, and he keeps his anger for his enemies. Yahweh is slow to anger and great in power. And Yahweh will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. So Yahweh is angry at Assyria. He hates Assyria. His anger just burns against Assyria, and he's going to come upon them with the fury of his hatred about 40 years later. Nahum 1.6. Who can stand before his indignation?

Who can endure the burning of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks, the mountains are crumbling before him. So today we've arrived at the end of chapter 2. And for the rest of the prophecy of Nahum, God is going to make a declaration of war, and he's going to give a voice to the doom and disaster that will fall the Assyrians. And we're going to be given the reasons today and next week why God hates the Assyrians. And it's interesting because you can learn a lot about what someone is like, what their hearts value by what he hates. Right? And we get a glimpse into the heart of God by seeing what he hates. And he's going to declare Assyria an enemy on two occasions. So for the next two sermons, we're going to learn about our God by learning about what he hates and who he hates and ultimately why he hates.

So here are the two declarations of God's hatred. They both begin with the declaration of, behold, I am against you, followed by a prophetic outcome. Okay. The first one is what we read altogether in the beginning, chapter 2, verse 13. Behold, I am against you, declares Yahweh of hosts. I will burn up our chariots in smoke, and a sword will devour your young lions, and I will cut off your prey from the land, and no longer will the voice of your messengers be heard. And then the second one we're going to be looking at next week. Behold, I am against you, declares Yahweh of hosts. I will uncover your skirts over your face and show to the nations your nakedness and to the kingdoms your disgrace.

So Assyria is in trouble.

And what are they in trouble for? They're ultimately seeking happiness outside of God. Huh. You're going to see this. What will happen to them? Why does God hate? Why? What does he hate? And that brings us to the outline for today's morning's sermon. God will put an end to Assyria by putting an end to the things he hates about Assyria. First, through verses 8 and 9, we're going to see God's hatred will come upon them for their enjoyment of their prosperity. They were a thoroughly worldly and a thoroughly materialistic people, but that prosperity will come to an end. Second, verse 10 sees the breaking of Assyria's pride. God hates their pride. And we're going to see the arrogance of Assyria come to an end, and the end of their military pride, and their once mighty warriors will become like terrifying young women, it says later in chapter 3.

And then in verses 11 to 12, we're going to see that there's going to be an end to Assyria's pillaging and plunder. They had been a very cruel and a violent people.

So that too is going to come to an end. So the end of the line has come for Assyria. God has declared them his enemies.

So the end of Assyria's prosperity, their pride, their pillage and plunder, they're all being prophesied here in Naham chapter 2, verses 8 to 13. And through this, we will grow to worship better the God of hate. Okay, as we get a glimpse into what he hates. So first we're going to see God's hatred and judgment directed at the prosperity of Assyria. And I want to read Nahum 2, 8 to 9 for you. Though Nineveh was like a pool of water throughout her days, now they are fleeing. Stand, stand, but no one turns back. Plunder the silver, plunder the gold. There is no limit to the treasure. Wealth from every kind of desirable object. Now Nineveh was like a glorious pool, a beautiful oasis. And in America, we take swimming pools for granted.

Right? But in many places in the rest of the world, a swimming pool in someone's house means that someone is living in the lap of luxury, right? How many of you guys know at least five people who own a home, uh, who own a pool? Yeah, that that's a sign of luxury, but we take it for granted, right? In the ancient Near East, where there were many stretches of barren desert, fresh water represented life. So a body of fresh water, like a pool of water or a lake, a river or reservoir, usually meant fertile land and abundant agriculture, and then, and Assyria was or Nineveh was surrounded by fresh water. Nineveh had abundant fresh water both within and outside of its city walls. And it was so much fresh water that they could not only drink freely, they could wash and bathe and play in it.

So it's no wonder that King Sennacherib made a palace and it erected walls at the juncture of these three rivers. Water was life, water was wealth, and the Assyrians were very protective of their wealth of water. They were rich in water, and they were also very rich in material treasure. So for a few hundred years, Assyria had stripped all their conquered nations of their wealth, and we see through Amos' prophecy that Assyria had even plundered and stripped the northern kingdom of Israel of her wealth. And that's one of the primary reasons why God is coming with vengeance on the Assyrians. God had made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Right? He will pay back with affliction those who afflict his people. Also, 2 Thessalonians 1:6, right? So Assyria had amassed mountains of silver, mountains of gold. They had taken every kind of treasure and glittering jewel from every people that they conquered. There's a Bible scholar named Opalmer Robertson, and the Assyrians had extensive troves of chariots, precious metals, copper, iron, brightly colored fabric, exotic animals, and finely crafted furniture and walls and walls filled with jewels. So they were the kings of the world with great fortune. So there was no limit to what they enjoyed. So the Assyrians, they were wealthy, rich, and extremely comfortable. And God hates this. And their wealth is not shocking.

Get rich or die trying has always been the theme of all mankind. Right. Man has always loved the created thing more than the creator. And the richer a person, the more creation that person can possess. And then the more false happiness he could access. And the Assyrians had endless riches, endless treasure, endless pleasure. The wealth of the Assyrians was not in and of itself the problem. Their wealth was symptomatic of their problem. So the Assyrians had been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God, but they believed themselves to be gods, and believed themselves to be worthy of being served by the wealth of the peoples and the gods of their lands. And the wrath of God was coming upon them for the love of the created things more than the creator, Romans 1.18.

They had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and they too were guilty of cosmic treason and cosmic adultery. So a love for the things of this world is treason against God, is all over the Bible. Amen. Now, James 4 4 says, You adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity towards God? Therefore, whoever aspires to be a friend of the world sets himself as an enemy of God. Now here's a very important distinction. Wealth is seen as a blessing from God in the Bible to some. Right? Wealth to some is seen as a blessing. True? It's a blessing of the Lord to be rich. But to others, wealth would be a snare that would ruin and devastate the soul. So if you have some wealth, you're hoping that it's the first one, and not the other one, right?

The love of wealth ruins and destroys the soul. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. First Timothy 6, 9 to 10. And you guys have all heard this before. It reads, but those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish, harmful desires, which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evils, and some by aspiring to it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Have you guys all seen these verses before? Do you take it seriously?

So here is an important question. Is being wealthy a sin, deserving of the wrath of God? Absolutely not. The sin for man is never that he is rich. It becomes a sin when a man is discontent with what God has ordained for him, and he desires to get even richer, no matter what the means.

Very important distinction. Some people in their foolishness flee from money, flee responsibility, and they prove themselves to be an irresponsible fool. Every person is called to faithfully steward his resources and not to be an irresponsible, wicked slave who buries his talents, right? So when money follows the man, you can assume it to be the blessing of God. But when that man follows the money, it is not hard to discern when God has that God has given that man over to his lust and set himself up for self-destruction. Proverbs 1022 reads, It's the blessing of Yahweh that makes rich, and he adds no pain with it. He has no trouble with it. You don't stress about it. God does not hate the rich.

Plunder, signaling the end of Assyria. God so loves the world. Amen. But God stores up his wrath for the worldly. Clear distinction. Second, Nahem foresees the end of Assyria's pride. Nahum 2 10. She is emptied. She is emptied out and eviscerated. Hearts are melting, and knees knocking. Anguish is in all their loins, and all their faces turn pale. Assyria had once thought itself to be invincible, and in their pride they had mocked God. So 2 Kings 19 tells us that they had the audacity to blaspheme and taunt God. They believed Yahweh to be like the weak and powerless gods of the other nations. They believed Yahweh to be a myth and a fairy tale and a figment of the Jewish man's imagination.

The Assyrian commander, his name is not mentioned here, but his name was Rab Shaka. What he did was he taunted King Hezekiah and told him basically, hey, Hezekiah, don't even bother to show up to the battle. And in his arrogance and pride, Rabshaka mocked the God of heaven. And I'm going to read this for you, 2 Kings 19, 10 to 12. Thus you shall say to Hezekiah, king of Judah, do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Haha. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction. So do you think you will be delivered? Did the gods of those nations which my fathers brought to ruin deliver them?

Even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden, who are in Telasar.

God is lying to you. Your God is making empty promises and boasts. That's what Raphshaka was saying. And that's one of the most foolish and arrogant and offensive things ever uttered by any human being. Right? But statements like these are made all around us today. Your God is powerless to help you, let alone to save you. Trust in science. Trust in degrees. Trust in your 401ks and your gold. You have to secure your future. Trust the government. The fool says in his heart, Psalm 14, Romans 3, that what? There is no God. But the funny thing about fools is there very rarely are fools ever aware of their foolishness.

Fools are usually what? Pretty arrogant. So that night Hezekiah went and prayed to Yahweh. Yahweh told Hezekiah that he would defend Jerusalem. And it was proven that Judah was not the underdog in this fight. Verses 19, 34 to 35. I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. Now it happened that night that the angel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. The men arose early in the morning, and behold, all of them were dead bodies. Yahweh is more passionate about his glory and about his covenant people than you and I can ever possibly imagine. But people are more arrogant and foolish than you and I can possibly ever imagine. Amen.

But apparently there's nothing new under Nineveh's son. By the time Nahum's prophecy comes about, the Assyrians remained foolish and haughty. By the arrogant voices of Nahum's writings, they are back to their old ways, and their pride is going to turn into a permanent terror, and their pride is going to come to an end.

She is emptied. Yes, she is emptied out and eviscerated. Hearts are melting and knees knocking. Also anguish is in all their loins, and all their faces turn pale. God hates pride. Amen. He hates that more than any other sin. Out of an overflow of a proud man's heart, the proud man's mouth speaks his little tongue, starts to make great boasts, and the boasts become louder and brasher, as God simply delivers that foolish man over to his pride in judgment. So all the people who make much of man and less of God, they become louder with time. Proverbs 16 5. Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to Yahweh. Assuredly he will not be unpunished.

That's the first thing we need to get rid of in our hearts. Now the tricky thing is well, how? Okay. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling. The greatest manifestation of man's pride comes in the form of his self-reliance. Man's pride blinds him to his need of a savior. Man's pride blinds him to the truth that he cannot earn his way to salvation. Man's pride blinds him to believe that he can provide for himself his daily bread. And man's pride makes him unwilling and even unable to pray.

So the old residue of the old man remains, and there is a part of us that believed that God is incapable and unable to do things for us, so we trust in ourselves and in our own strength. God's hatred of man's pride would be made evident through the coming to an end of Assyria. That's the second thing. So the first one was their prosperity, the second one is their pride. And then third, it would show an end to their pillage and their plunder. Naam 2, 11 to 12. Where is the den of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions? Where the lion, lioness, and lion's club prowled with nothing to make them tremble. The lion tore enough for its cubs and strangled enough for its lionesses and filled its lairs with torn up prey and its dens with torn up flesh.

If we were to say that a person is a snake, right? That means you can't trust that person. If I were to say, man, my father-in-law is like an owl. What am I saying? He's wise. If you were to refer to a man as a dog, you're not saying that he's happy and loyal. I'm like a dog. I'm so happy to see my best friend. I'm so loyal like a dog. No. When you call someone a dog, you're calling him a pervert, right? Where is the den of the lions? According to history and here in Nahum, the lion was the apex predator of the day. They're at the top of the food chain. There's nothing to make the lion tremble. Verse 11. Only the mightiest warriors in the scriptures are referred to as lions. 2 Samuel 123. Strong kings, Ezekiel 19, were referred to as lions.

But in many of their artwork, the Assyrians depicted themselves as lions. So they were, Nineveh was a den of lions. They were a people whose business was in devouring. Their men were lions. Their women were lionesses, and their cubs were young boys prepared for warfare from the ages of 10 to 12, some as early as seven, according to some records. It was said that the royal youths of Assyria were bloodthirsty warriors in training. So this was a culture that taught its tenure olds to slaughter and to kill. This was a culture that said a good and violent offense is far better than a good defense. Little children of their day were taught to strike first, strike hard. What's the next word? No mercy.

Little children. So the Assyrians were a people who believed themselves at the top of the food chain, and that all other people were subservient to them. They believed themselves to be superior to all peoples. They believed their lives to be of greater importance than others. So they felt justified in their violence. They felt justified in their deception and their sneak attacks. These people would rape, pillage, plunder, and kill, and they believed in the core of their hearts, it was manifest destiny, that it was heaven's will for all other peoples to bow to their needs and to their wants. So Nineveh was a city full of the bones of victims and the carcasses of their human prey. Notice in the forms of the word to tear.

How many times are they repeated? Three.

Okay, this is a preview. Woe to the city of bloodshed, completely full of deception and pillage. Her prey never departs. There's always a dead carcass in their city. So Nineveh was literally a city of bloodshed, full of torn up prey. This is a description of Satan. Right? The Assyrians were a satanic people. They belonged to their father, the devil, the father of lies, and the murderer of the peoples. A satanic people is deceived into thinking that the killing of human lives is justifiable. Notice that the apostle Peter later describes Satan as a prowling lion looking to devour, right? Now, John 8 44, Pharisees, you are of your father the devil. You want to do the desires of your father, and they're gonna kill Jesus, right?

Shortly after this. Satan was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature. For Satan is a liar and the father of lies. So Satan is a thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy, John 10 10. So a hatred and resentment and a condescending attitude toward human life is the fruit of the ruler of the power of the air. Apathy towards people and the habit of using people are evidences that one is under the ruler of the power of the air. So it's important to pause here and think, okay. How are you with people?

Do people around you exist to serve you? And if they are failing in their purpose, you can distance yourself from them. Is that your approach to people? Or are you in their lives to bless them and to bring them to God, no matter what kind of a person that is. God had given the Assyrians over to their sins. He allowed them to reach their wrathworthiness to the limit. And you see the great depravity of their hearts in their treatment of other people who have been made in the image of God. So in 2 Timothy, the apostle Paul gives us a glimpse into the end times, people's treatment of one another. Notice how many of these are connected to relationships. Notice how many of these prioritize self over others.

Everybody around me exists to please me. Okay. I've highlighted all the attributes that justify the pillaging of others for the sake of self. 2 Timothy 3, 1 to 4. But know this that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, without gentleness, without love for good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. I think we're here. This describes this generation.

Love for God and love of God always results in love for people. Amen.

Love of self. And the love for the world and its pleasures always culminates in a hate-filled life, devoid of any gentleness. I literally could have highlighted all of these in yellow. Sin always places self on the throne. God exists.

And for me to love me and to serve me. Why is God not working? Is the cry of the self. So enough was enough when it came to Assyria. And Yahweh declares Assyria his enemy in verse 13, the first of the two times he will do this, and he makes a proclamation of Assyria's end, and he's preparing her grave. Okay. 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. All your children are going to be wiped out. That's a something that's hard to understand. How can a God of love kill children? Well, they're a lion's cubs. I will cut off your prey from the land. No longer will the voice of your messengers be heard. So everything is coming to a crashing end for the Assyrian Empire, and especially your capital city.

Nineveh is going to be judged for their wealth, their pride, and their cruel treatment of people. All three of these things were their delight. But their happiness is coming to an end. So here's a sobering thought. Okay.

Right? The wrath of God is similarly being stored up and only to be revealed in our day. Romans chapter 1, verse 18. The wrath of God is right. Behold, I am against you, declares Yahweh of hosts, will be coming to the Ninevites of our world. So you and I have been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God, and that's our happy purpose. Sin is a rebellion against that purpose, and sin, when it has been allowed to be made fully evident, it's manifested in worldliness, arrogance, and the devaluing of human life. You guys following? The things that we see are the symptoms. They're not the problem. And so sin robs man of the happiness that God in his goodness and love has prepared for those whom he has created.

And as a result of sin, we have an incredibly hard time reconciling the juxtaposition of these attributes to one another. But we do have a visual.

And to be blessed. Happiness does not come from wealth. Amen. And the older you are, from what I've heard, that becomes more true. Money can't cure your health, nor does it bring happiness. Hopefully, the youngers of us, we learn it sooner. And we believe the theory. And we don't have to experience it for ourselves to gain wisdom, right? Wealth does not bring happiness. Happiness also does not come from achievement or success or accolades or anything that boosts our sense of worth. Amen. Happiness does not come in isolation or independence. If you feel like I don't need people, all people do is hurt me. You're gonna be miserable the rest of your life. In your desire to flee from scars, you are going to be fleeing from happiness and wholeness.

Only a fool will say, I don't need anybody. That's not how God wired us. True happiness comes only for, or only from a restored love for God and an interdependent love for others. The stupidest thing you could do is to not love people. Because you will not be loved back. Now, here are some things that we are not called to do in application of Nahum 2, 8 to 13. First, we are not called to pursuit of poverty. That is not the application of Nahum 2, 8 to 13. That's absolute stupidity. That is not the way of the Bible. Having less money does not make you godlier. Amen. So taking less money because you think it is noble, that doesn't make not make any sense, and that is not what's biblically prescribed.

But we are called to flee from the love of money. Now, sometimes that's confused. Sometimes you'll meet very worldly poor people. Sometimes you meet very wealthy people who don't care about money. What's the difference? One is a slave of money, one is a slave of God, regardless of the dollar amount that he is worth. The slave of God is completely comforted by the presence of his master in his corner. If God is for me, what can man do to me? Starve me? Haha! God is for me. There's nothing that I fear. The slave of money clings tightly to what he thinks he owns. The slave of God holds loosely to the things he knows, he is only called to temporarily steward anyway. So happiness and contentment are found only in the presence and in the knowledge of God.

Money is a distraction. And it could be a big distraction, and it could become an idol. Make sure that your life, your way of life, is free from the love of money. Being content with what you have. For he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you. So the first thing that we're not called to do is pursue less money. Okay. Now, what I'm not saying is pursue more. Alright? Secondly, we cannot rid our hearts of pride through effort. Does this make sense? You can try and act humbler, but real humility happens to you. You don't put it on for show. When you put on a humble mask for show, the Greek word for mask wearing is Hippocritus. You know what that is? Hypocrisy.

Pride only goes away with an increase in the fear of the Lord. We cannot but be humbled as we grow in the knowledge of the heart of God. So an increase in biblical literacy will always result in humility, terror, and love. Because he will increase in your mind and in your heart. You will decrease in your mind and in your heart. Thirdly, we are not called to try harder to love people by effort. Think about this. You and I are not called to try harder at loving people. We can improve in holding our tongue. Right? So I don't ever say, oh, let me try to love you more. No, no. I can improve in holding my tongue. I can work on keeping my temper in check. But you cannot love in your own strength. Amen.

In your flesh, in my flesh, we cannot love people. So all of this and this, we hear a lot of noise right now of anti-hate that we're seeing all over politics. Do you see it? It's all over social media, it's all over the news. There is so much anti-hate rhetoric. That's all fake love. And the fruit of that fake love. They're not really angry. People on the right and the left saying all kinds of stuff, that's not love. True love's heart grieves. It doesn't self-righteously voice anger. Fruit of fake love always leads to division and anger. Fake love always leads to division and anger because self-righteousness is involved. How come I'm the only one loving? How come other people are not loving?

That's fake. True love is supernatural. Love is from God. As we are affected by the love of God, we can't not love people. Do you understand the connection? Even difficult people become lovable because I am aware of how unlovable I am before God. Even enemies, I start learning to love. Because as I'm learning more about the heart of God and his love for me, who once was his enemy, huh? He would adopt me as his child. How can I not forgive him? So from what we see in Nahum 2.8 to 13, the only application is to take refuge from the wrath of God by seeking refuge in God.

That's it. This will make you grow. That's the only application. And think deeply on the cross of Christ, where the love and the hatred of God come together to slay the Son of God. And as you seek refuge in that, and as you grow in your knowledge of God, you're actually going to find yourself become less worldly, less prideful, and more loving. Grace starts to then become actually more amazing. Amen.

And then we will become happier as we are reminded of our purpose and the source of our happiness. So you and I have been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God. And I'm going to close with a picture of the hatred of God for sin, juxtapose with his intimate love for the redeemed saint. And that comes from Nahum 1.6. 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. Amen. If the book ended here, we're all doomed. But verse 7, Yahweh is good. That's a switch of direction. Actually, it's not. He is a strong defense in the day of distress. And he intimately loves and knows those who take refuge in him.

So to this rhetorical question in verse 6, we can stand before his indignation. We do not have to endure the burning of his anger. Why? Christ was the payment for our sins. He was the one on whom the wrath of God was exhausted. He continually remains standing in our stead as a mediator and intercessor. And as we are changed more and more into the image of Christ our King, we are going to grow in a greater love for the hatred of God and the hatred of the God of love. Paul Washer once said, God has saved you from himself by himself for himself.

And this is Paul Washer's words. I like it. God has saved you from himself by himself for himself. And may this cause you and me truly to be happy in this life. Amen. How does the story end? In the Bible. Happiness is our purpose. Lack of happiness will be our destruction. The end of the story is we live happily ever after. You guys realize that? Because we will see him face to face. And we will perfectly and fully understand all of those attributes that we're like, I don't get it. Because right now I only know in part, 1 Corinthians 13. But when we see face to face, we will be like him because we will see him as he is, and we will know fully, even as we're fully known. In heaven, we're gonna be thrilled that God is a God of hate.

We're gonna be thrilled that God is a God of jealousy and God of wrath. And we're gonna stand thrilled that he is being glorified, and that every tongue is confessing and every knee is bowing that Jesus Christ is King of Kings, Lord, Lords. Right now we don't understand fully. And it's okay. But we will live happily ever after. Amen. Let me pray. Father, help us to stand in silence and in awe in front of the things that we don't understand. But would you increase our faith as you increase our knowledge? And help us to grow in likeness of Christ as we grow in understanding of the wisdom of Christ. So, Lord, would you receive honor in our lives? Make us more and more like your son. We pray all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.