The Majesty of God's Justice
God is Love • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 45:58
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· 23 viewsGod is a righteous judge; for Him to fail to carry out judgement would be inconsistent with His glory, untrue to His word, and an outright contradiction of who He is. God’s judgement is as essential to His glory as His love.
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Introduction
Introduction
Nahum, like Jonah before him, was called specifically to prophesy against Nineveh. But this time, more than a hundred years after Jonah, God’s purpose was vengeance, not mercy.
Jonah’s message brought a loving warning and merciful gift of repentance to the city. However, Nahum’s message would be a dire pronouncement of judgment and doom.
God was about to glorify Himself again, but now He would do it by displaying His wrath against Nineveh.
Shortly after Jonah’s encounter with Nineveh, the Assyrians stepped up their barbarous treatment of the Israelites.
Assyria was responsible for enslaving and dragging the ten northern tribes of Israel into captivity from which they never returned; to this day their remnant is unknown. The Assyrians also came in military force against the southern kingdom fo Judah during Hezekiah’s reign.
Through Nahum, God was sending the message that He would no longer tolerate the sins of Assyria and their persecution of His people.
Under Jonah’s ministry, God displayed His love and compassion for the citizens of Nineveh. Now He would pour out His wrath. In both cases, God’s glory is magnified.
Jonah’s prophecy gave us insight into the character of God’s love, now Nahum’s prophecy gives us insight into the character of God’s judgment.
To prevent us from neglecting His holiness, Nahum sets forth a reminder that ultimately a holy God must wreak vengeance against sin.
God is a righteous judge; for Him to fail to carry out judgment would be inconsistent with His glory, untrue to His word, and an outright contradiction of who He is. God’s judgment is as essential to His glory as His love.
Therefore, Nahum sets before us the majestic character of God as righteous Judge.
He is a God of Justice
He is a God of Justice
Our Creator, God, has every right to judge us by any standards He wishes to.
Consequently, God cannot change His mind or lower His moral standards. He is utterly perfect, any change at all would make Him imperfect and that is unthinkable. Therefore, His justice is inflexible; His holy nature demands that it be so.
The self-deceit of humanity is that we convince ourselves that God is accountable to morals as we define them instead of understanding that, as Creator, He is entitled to rule over all His creatures any way He pleases.
He makes the laws;
He determines the standards;
He judges accordingly.
He created everything for His own pleasure, and He has every right to do so. The Potter quite simply has the power to do anything with the clay He wishes to. He also has total power to determine the principles by which His creation must function.
Simply put, God has the absolute right to do whatever He determines to do.
His righteous judgment is guided by divine, loving jealousy.
Because He is perfect, God cannot be unjust, thus Nahum begins his prophecy in chapter 1 verse 2:
Nahum 1:2-3
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.
The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
Notice it says God is “jealous”.
We typically think of jealousy as an unhealthy emotion, typically driven out of fear or lust or greed, but we must be careful not to debase God to a human level.
Nahum speaks of a righteous jealousy unique to God.
He is intolerant of unbelief, rebellion, disloyalty, and infidelity.
He resents the insults and the indignities of those people who worship anything or anyone besides Him.
He demands to be given His rightful place above all else that we love or worship.
This leads some to accuse “What a self-centered God!” Uh.....yeah! Did you not hear what I just said a few minutes ago? Everything is centered on Him, life itself is centered on Him, God has the right to be self-centered!
In contrast to all His creatures, who owe their very existence to Him, He is entitled to demand worship and be jealous of His own glory.
For His glory is the reason for creation......period.
Isaiah 46:9
remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
He and He alone, has absolute authority to judge those who rebel against His laws, refuse to give Him glory, ridicule His authority, or doubt His word.
Isaiah 42:8
I am the Lord; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to carved idols.
He jealousy guards His name against any who would diminish His glory. What is unacceptable pride in any lesser being is the necessary expression of a holy God who refuses to have His holiness defiled. Therefore, God’s jealousy is a righteous jealousy.
Ok, we get that, but why are we talking so much about jealousy? Well, here’s the punchline: The supreme jealousy of God is against those who spurn and reject His beloved Son.
1 Corinthians 16:22
1 Corinthians 16:22 says:
If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!
Those who refuse to love the Lord Jesus are under God’s curse, the Greek is anathĕma (an-ath´-em-ah) meaning devoted to destruction.
This isn’t a wish that you have bad luck, or that your life takes a wrong turn. This is utter total destruction of your being, it’s a sentence to Hell........because God is jealous for His beloved Son.
Thus God’s love, in particular the Father’s love for the Son, is integrally connected to His holy jealousy. His love would be meaningless if He ignored His jealous anger.
God’s vengeance is judgment against those who harm the ones He loves.
The concept of vengeance, like that of jealousy, often carries negative connotations. But again, God has every right to unleash His vengeance against the wicked.
Deuteronomy 32:35
In fact, Deuteronomy 32:35 says:
Vengeance is mine, and recompense,
for the time when their foot shall slip;
for the day of their calamity is at hand,
and their doom comes swiftly.’
“Vengeance is Mine”, God has the exclusive right to judge evildoers, execute vengeance, and pour out His wrath against sin. In fact, the very reason that we are not to seek our own vengeance is that judgment and condemnation are God’s rights alone.
Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:35 when he writes in Romans 12:19:
Romans 12:19
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
No one violates the glory and honor of God, no one slights His Son, and no one attacks those He loves then escapes His wrath.
Romans 1:18
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
God’s justice is consistent. His love is not permission to sin.
God’s justice is inflexible, unbending, always consistent. He will reckon with all who rebel. He will take vengeance on all His adversaries.
Sinners often presume on the mercy and goodness of God. Indeed, He is slow to anger, patient, longsuffering, kind, and gracious.
But no one should ever take the goodness of God for granted. No one should mistake His patience for weakness.
No one should assume His kindness gives permission to continue in sin and unbelief.
No one should think of His love as an antidote to His wrath.
He is a God of Mercy
He is a God of Mercy
God mercifully offers to give us refuge from His judgment.
However, in chapter 1 verse 7, Nahum reminds us:
Nahum 1:7
The Lord is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
The Hebrew that is translated “take refuge in” conveys the idea of trusting, confiding in, and fleeing to someone for protection. The idea is that those who “take refuge in” the Lord are those who believe in and trust Him, those who have faith. Hence the Lord, Himself the Judge, is a stronghold for those who seek refuge in Him by faith.
The same God who comes in judgment against the wicked is the God who lovingly invites sinful souls to find their refuge in Him.
How does He shelter those who trust Him? He covers them with His own righteousness, that’s why in the Old Testament He is called “The Lord is our righteousness.”
Jeremiah 23:6
In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
Believers are justified based on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which satisfies God’s requirement for justice against our sin.
Furthermore, we learn in the New Testament that Christ Himself has already fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law on behalf of believers and died in their place to pay sin’s penalty.
All believers in Christ are therefore both freed from their guilt and vested with Christ’s perfect righteousness. Romans 5:1 tells us this is the only way guilty sinners can ever find peace with God:
Romans 5:1
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christian theologians call this the doctrine of justification by faith and it is the very core of Christianity. In his book Systematic Theology, Louis Berkoff defines justification by faith as such:
“Justification is a judicial act of God, in which He declares, on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that all the claims of the law are satisfied with respect to the sinner.”
In other words, God declares the believing sinner righteous because of Christ, not because of any righteousness that the sinner themself has.
In the Person of Jesus Christ, God makes a once-for-all, infinite atonement for believers sins. Romans 4:11 tells us He covers them with His own perfect righteousness by imputing it to them through faith:
Romans 4:11
He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well,
God’s love and His wrath are inseparable.
Therefore, all genuine believers stand completely justified before a righteous God.
God’s holy wrath is appeased and His love is perfectly fulfilled in the salvation wrought by Christ. Thus, He Himself is truly the stronghold to which sinners may flee from His awful judgments.
Connect the dots: God’s love for Christ fuels His jealousy and, therefore His wrath, against anyone who rejects Jesus. At the same time, God’s love for Christ motivates Him to grant mercy and grace to those who trust in, who believe in, who have faith in Jesus.
Again, we see that the love of God and His wrath are intricately connected. It is impossible to truthfully talk about one without mentioning the other. That is why Nahum places accolades to the goodness and mercy of God in the middle of verses about God’s wrath.
He is a God of Righteousness
He is a God of Righteousness
God is patient and His judgment is complete.
Although Nahum 1:7 is a clear testimony that God is good to those who seek refuge in Him; verse 9 tells us the Ninevites of Nahum’s day would ultimately be the object of a different sort of lesson:
Nahum 1:9
What do you plot against the Lord?
He will make a complete end;
trouble will not rise up a second time.
God’s judgment does not negate His goodness and His goodness does not alter the severity of judgment. God truly is longsuffering and patient, but when He finally acts in judgment, He makes a complete end of it.
Those who casually dismiss the Lord should take note and tremble in sheer terror.
God’s righteous judgment will be fulfilled.
Likewise, Nahum’s message in verses 10-14 foretells the defeat of the Assyrians. God’s righteous contempt for their evil is evident:
Nahum 1:10-14
For they are like entangled thorns,
like drunkards as they drink;
they are consumed like stubble fully dried.
From you came one
who plotted evil against the Lord,
a worthless counselor.
Thus says the Lord,
“Though they are at full strength and many,
they will be cut down and pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more.
And now I will break his yoke from off you
and will burst your bonds apart.”
The Lord has given commandment about you:
“No more shall your name be perpetuated;
from the house of your gods I will cut off
the carved image and the metal image.
I will make your grave, for you are vile.”
God, Righteous Judge, pronounces total destruction against the entire nation.
God’s judgment was fulfilled to the letter. We read in 2 Kings 19:35-37 :
2 Kings 19:35-37
And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh. And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
But this was just the beginning of God’s judgment against Assyria and, particularly, Nineveh.
Nahum 2:1-13
In Chapter 2, Nahum prophecies the destruction of Nineveh.
We don’t have time to go through this entire prophecy historically in detail but note that it was recorded exactly as it is recorded.
After a series of enemy attacks and natural disasters, Nineveh was utterly leveled by the armies of the Medes; and when Nineveh fell, the Assyrian Empire toppled along with it.
God’s judgment of the wicked is severe; His discipline of His children is corrective.
And so we see again that God’s wrath is proof of His love. His judgment is linked to His faithfulness and he is righteous when He judges.
To this day, the site of Nineveh lies in ruins, through all history, it was never rebuilt; giving mute testimony throughout the millennia to the severity of God’s wrath against sin.
But it is also a reminder of God’s immeasurable love for His own people. The destruction of Nineveh freed Israel from centuries of grief at the hands of the Assyrians. It was God’s message to His people that He still loved them.
To be sure, God had punished Israel severely for her sins. But His purpose in afflicting Israel was only corrective.
There is a vast and important difference between God’s judgment and His discipline. Judgment is severe, final, destructive. Discipline is loving, tender, corrective.
Hebrews 12:6
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
Proverbs 6:15
His judgment against the wicked, however, is of a different character altogether.
therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;
in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The Lord is good, and His mercy endures forever (Jeremiah 33:11). The countless redeemed throughout eternity will give testimony to that.
However, those who spurn and reject God’s love - choosing to follow their own ways - will ultimately suffer the same fate as Nineveh.
The city where the love of God was once poured out in so great abundance, took God’s gift for granted and finally perished in the fury of His wrath.
Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.
Romans 11:22 (NKJV)
22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.
PRAYER
PRAYER