We will start with a quick review of last week's lesson. Each week we're looking at seeing God's character in the Word. We looked at that God is jealous. And we asked that this week in your regular Bible reading that you might, if you could find verses that showed that God is jealous. And then we gave you three specific passages, Deuteronomy 6 and 1 through 15, if you would like to. If you read those in something you would like to share with the class that you saw in those passages, raise your hand, we'll get you a microphone. I noticed personally verses 14 and 15 of Deuteronomy 6, It says, ye shall not go after other gods of the gods of the people which are around about you, for the Lord thy God is a jealous God. It said, lest you anger the Lord and thy God be kindled against thee and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. We've talked about this before, even last week from Exodus 20, that this idea about God being a jealous God had to do with the Ten Commandments, and especially the first two, where we were to have no other gods and no graven images. And God is jealous of that relationship that he deserves with his people. So Exodus chapter, or Exodus, Ezekiel 39, 21 through 25. Anybody have a thought on those verses? You guys are quiet this morning. You're going to make me do all the talking. Verse 25 says, Therefore thus saith the Lord God, now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name. Again, speaking of the jealousy of God, in this case talks about his holy name, that he is holy, and he won't tolerate sin. Zachariah 8, 1 through 8. Anybody? I think each of these passages, Dave, each of these passages has the word jealous in it. Yeah, Dave? Let's see, verse 2, well, let's start with one. Again, the word of the Lord of hosts came to me saying, thus saith the Lord of hosts, I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury. Some notes from the previous stuff, it all seems to compound, but Kind of building off of what Rod said last week, God is zealous for his people to live in truth and righteousness, but he is jealous of our response when we don't. Like he is all about giving us truth, righteousness, and life, and then when we respond away from that, he's jealous of that. because he has given it to us to be righteous through his son, but when we choose otherwise, he is jealous of that other decision to bring us back to truth. Yeah, very good. Anybody else? Yeah, Perry? Up front here, Marcus. Marcus needs a helper today. Now, what's kind of interesting in each of these passages in the Hebrew, there's actually different words. It's translated in our King James, it's jealous, but the Hebrew words are, there's, I could go a little bit more detail on that, but the word back in Deuteronomy and Exodus, actually the word means red in the face. not out of embarrassment or shame, but we would say like somebody who's running a race, they're really running hard, they put their heart into it. And so, in essence, what God is saying there in the book of Exodus, you know, I am jealous, and kind of a way is God is telling the people of Israel, I put my heart into it. when I saved you out of Egypt." And so he's basically, he's trying to tell him, you know, you put your heart into it. Of course, in Exodus 32, they did just the opposite. They went back and started looking for other gods, but it seems the idea has, in John 3, 16, where it says, for God so loved the world. That little word, so, a lot of these modern translations, I will just leave out that little word, so, but the emphasis here is that God wants us to understand that he didn't want us to underestimate his great love for us. And when we're going through trials, people often say, well, why doesn't God love me? Why doesn't God love me? But he's saying just the opposite. He says, don't ever forget that what I have done for you, and don't you forget and love me in return. He's basically challenging them here. He's incorporating that into the of all things, the Ten Commandments, when we don't trust somebody, we usually sign a warranty or some kind of a guarantee, like a sales warranty or something like that. We have peace treaties between people who don't love each other. But this is part of God's covenant, kind of like the wedding vows. He says, for better or for worse, my wife has learned a better word. Anyway, but the idea here that part of a love covenant, God's saying, I love you, this is how much I love you. It's a jealous love, it's a protective love, and I want you to, he's conveying them, I want you to love me, as I've loved you. Very good. Thank you. Anybody else? All right, then moving on to our lesson today. Our passage is Nahum chapter one verses two through six. So if you'll turn there, we'll read through these this morning. And Nahum is one of the minor prophets Book of Jonah, and then I think Micah is next, and then Nahum, I think the next book to look it up, I guess, is Habakkuk. I don't know, what is it? Yeah, Habakkuk. It's a small book. If you move too fast, you'll miss it. Nahum chapter 1 verses 2 through 6. We'll read them responsibly this morning so I'll read verse 2 and if you read verse 3 and then so on. All right, Nahum chapter 1 and verse 2, God is jealous and the Lord revengeth and The Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger, great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord hath his Verse four, he rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and dryeth up the rivers. Basham languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. Verse six, and we can stand therefore, or who can stand before his indignation, and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. So our goal, as we mention each week, is to help you observe God's character by reading the Bible and then act upon that knowledge. And as always, the key things there are to observe or see, which is the title of the series, Seeing God's Character, but seeing God's character and then acting upon that. Scripture makes it clear that we are to act upon God's word, what we know it should change our lives. Uh, and I'm on the way to church and then I see it every time I drive down 31. But It stuck out this morning. There's a church on the south side of Greenwood called Life Change Church. And it struck me this morning, I guess because of the thing about this lesson and the series, you know, God's word should change us, shouldn't it? And so that's the whole goal of this series, is as we see these things, these characteristics of God in scripture, that they will have an effect upon our life. They will change us and make us more Christ-like. What characteristic of God do you see in verse two? And you can't say God is jealous, okay? That's the one we looked at last week, even though, as we mentioned already, Almost every passage of scripture teaches multiple things about God, not just one. But for the purpose of this series, we are gonna pick out one. So what is something else in this verse that teaches us about the character of God? Dan? He's angry with the wicked. It's true. Anything else? We see that in verse six as well. Uh, not just, uh, verse two verse six. It says, who can stand before his indignation? Anybody else? Anything else in that passage? Yeah. Cherry. He's judges. Uh, he is the judge for, you know, He'll get revenge, and I think all of these kind of fit together under the topic we're gonna talk about today, and that's God is angry. And we see that he judges, he gets revenge. You can't stand before his anger. The Bible, reveals to us lots of things about God's character. And we're taking them one at a time, but reality is, in him, they all work together. We hear more about the fact that God is love, that God has mercy, that God shows compassion, and those are the things that the world wants to focus on, isn't it? And that's what you hear all the time, you know, is that that's what God is. And that is true, but that's not all that God is. And so we need to look at, as we look at these characteristics, we need to see them as only a part of the whole of who God is. And his divine anger is not like our anger. And our anger often is impulsive and selfish. His anger is not. His anger is a holy response to sin and injustice and it's rooted in his holiness. And so we need to keep all these things in mind. Let's look at the next slide. God executes vengeance and wrath righteously, the next blank on your sheet there, and on those who deserve punishment. Romans 118, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. So we see these passages in scripture that talk about God's wrath, God's vengeance, God's anger, all of these are in the context, as we see here, that it's all against ungodliness and against sin, and he exercises his vengeance and his wrath righteously. Anger Remember last week we used the word jealousy, and that has a negative connotation to all of us. But, and the same with the word anger. There's a negative connotation of that. In fact, in scripture, we are warned against being angry and told not to be angry. And we'll take a look at that a little bit deeper in a moment. But anger is an emotion that is typically viewed in this negative fashion and when man is angry it often results someone loses their temper. And when you talk about losing control of something, obviously it's not godly. But we get angry, we lose our temper, we say things and do things in that heated moment that often, if not always, we regret later. But when we look throughout scripture, We see that God is angry, he takes vengeance, and he pours out his wrath, but his anger is not some uncontrolled emotion that clouds his judgment. And so we need to keep all this in mind. In fact, the words anger, angry, wrath, and vengeance are used over 500 times in the Bible. So as we look at this today, the next blank on your sheet there, God's anger toward the wicked. Psalm 7 and verse 11, God judges the righteous and is angry with the wicked every day. There's a lot in that verse, but the idea that he judges the righteous, he's angry with the wicked every day. God's wrath is upon those who've not believed. All people are born sinners, we're born the enemies of God, and we're not righteous. God is just, and because of his justice, we must punish him. I've often, we talk, earlier that you know everybody says you know god is love and god loves us all and yet uh... they bloom often but when the world focuses on that they ignore god's justice uh... one of the arguments against tells how can a loving god send people to hell well how could adjust god not send us all that uh... and so uh... we need to always keep in mind that God is just, and that because of that, sin must be punished. There's no, and ultimately, that's why Christ died on the cross for our sins. God just couldn't say, oh, I love you and forget about it. We'll just pretend that you never were a sinner. That's not the case, is it? God has to judge that sin because he is holy and he hates sin. The next blank, I think, on your sheet there. Those who do not believe in him will suffer the wrath of God for eternity, John 3.36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. The wrath of God abideth on him. So those that do not know Christ will suffer that wrath of God for eternity. Scripture tells us that God is slow to anger, but that he must punish sin. Psalm 103 verse eight says, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. And so for that, we can rejoice. God could have, and talk about how he's slow to anger, When Adam and Eve sinned, he could have just destroyed them both and started over. You know? And he told Moses at one point, he was just going to destroy the nation of Israel and start a new nation with Moses. Remember that? And Moses said, no. No, that's, you know, argue with God. Obviously, that's not what God ended up doing, but God could have done that. But because he is slow to anger and full of mercy, he did not. The next blank on your sheets there, number two, God's anger toward his people. Numbers chapter 32 and verse 13. And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness 40 years until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was consumed. Those of you that have been in church for a long time, what's the context here? Why was God angry at them? Dave? Right, they refused to go into the promised land. Remember they sent the 12 spies and you went to Sunday school like me, you learned that the 10 were bad and two were good, is that how it goes? I can't remember. They used to sing that little song and had those hand gestures, you know, 10 were bad and two were good. But you know, they came out and they all agreed that they were giants in the land and it would be difficult. But two of them said, but our God is bigger. And the other 10 said, no, we're afraid. And a nation of Israel followed those that were afraid and they refused to go to the promised land because they feared men more than they feared God. And God says in Numbers 32, the verse there on the screen, that God's anger was kindled against them, and so they wandered in the desert for 40 years until all of that generation had died. And so, and we also know that they, when they found out that they were going to have to wander around for 40 years, they said, oh, no, okay, no, we changed our mind now. We want to go, we want to go in. God said, nope, too late. But we see in scripture, that God is angry when his people sin against him. I believe that's the next blank on your sheet there. God is angry when his people sin against him. Joshua, back up here, a little too far. Yeah, Joshua 7.1, but the children of Israel committed a trespass in Jerusalem. in the accused thing, for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accused thing, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel." So again, what's the context here? I think most of us are familiar with this. Yeah, Dave? Right. So God told them when they conquered Jericho, we all, uh, if you, as I hear one preacher, I listened to on occasion talks about if you're a Sunday school graduate, you know, the story of Jericho, how the God, uh, took down the walls of Jericho, Israel destroyed Jericho and God told them did not take any spoil. that they were to destroy everything. And Achan took some of that spoil, remember, hid it in his tent. And because of that, God's anger was kindled against all of Israel. And so Achan was the problem, and as we know, they dealt with that. But God deserves man's obedience. And he is angry when his people choose to ignore his commandments and reject him. Number three on your sheet there, God's anger and our anger. Psalm 37, eight. says, cease from anger and forsake wrath, fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Now, as we mentioned earlier, anger always has, anger has this negative connotation, and scripture tells us that we are not to be angry, we're not to be vengeful, that we're not to, you know, seek our own revenge against those who do us harm, and there, might appear to be a conflict, contradiction in scripture where God can be angry, but we can't. So scripture, we will talk about that just a little bit. In scripture, we see God being angry and full of wrath, and of course, God is perfect. Again, we can't just look at one thing about God's character, because it all works together. Scripture does make it clear, though, that throughout the Old and New Testament, that we are not to be angry, and that we are not to take out vengeance on those who do us wrong. But God's anger is never sinful. It is always just and right. And we are told in scripture, at least in Ephesians 4, to be angry and sin not. It is possible that we could be angry and not sin. So to do that, you need to understand really what anger is. And this, what I'm about to say, is not a definitive, I don't even, claiming it's not a definition of anger, it's not what the Greek word means or any of those things. But one of the things about anger, for us, it's an emotion. And the problem is sometimes we can, we get angry, but we get angry for selfish reasons. And that is always wrong. We get angry because, I don't know, I don't like to project my sins on you, but you know, I like things, you know, if everybody would just do what I would tell them, I'd be a happy man. You know, but it doesn't work that way, does it? And sometimes we get angry when things don't go the way that we want them to go or the way that we think they should go. We see a world today. and especially, well, all the way around the world, that is full of anger because things aren't the way people want them to be. But scripture tells us that we are to be angry and sin not, but a preacher friend of mine from years ago said that anger often creates an energy in us that we normally don't have. Now when that energy is uncontrolled and we lose our temper or we strike out in anger, then that's a problem. But you know that energy we get when we see something that is not right, that energy that we get often helps us confront that which is not right. Nobody likes to confront sin. We see someone that is doing something that is wrong, that is sinful, and yet we know scripture says that we should go to that brother and confront them about their sin. We don't want to. But sometimes a righteous anger can give us that energy that we need to do that. But anyway, that's just one thought on that. Again, I'm not saying that's a definitive definition. But we are told to be angry and not to sin. And the one place where it says that is in Ephesians chapter four, verse 26, where it says, be angry and sin not. What's the last part of that verse? Anybody know? I'm guessing most of us are familiar with the first part. Right, let not the sin go down on your wrath. The idea there in the context is that this righteous anger that we may have is short-lived. It's something that is dealt with and it comes up, we deal with the situation, and then it's done and over. It's not something that carries a grudge for the next 30 years. I think all of us have probably experienced something of that nature, where we get angry about something and we carry that grudge. I mean, somebody may have done us wrong and we carry that forever. uh... and uh... in a lot of times simply because we don't wanna actually confront the situation confront the problem and so uh... but but uh... righteous anger towards evil is acceptable but it's not something that is long uh... lasting or it's not something that that becomes uncontrolled God's anger about his people's sin, about the sin of the world, is not something that he acts on out of... He didn't lose his temper, let's put it that way. It is controlled by his love, his mercy, his compassion, and yet he is just, and he is holy, and he deals with those things, and scripture says, calls that anger. So, We see that God is angry, that God is angry at sin, He's angry at the world that is lost and they will be the object of His wrath for all of eternity. He's angry when His people sin, when His people don't obey Him and give Him what He's due. So how does that give us comfort? Yeah, Rod? Yes, mm-hmm, yeah. I'm not sure what you mean by that, but I would offhand, I... I believe it depends on how you want to define the word anger, but I do believe that God is not pleased. He's upset. He disapproves of our behavior and punishes us because of that. Yeah. Yes. We don't pay the children. We don't give. We get angry at the children. We don't give. Right. Anybody else? Yeah, Dave. Yeah, we're gonna put you on record in Islam. The God of Islam Allah does not love you until you love him. And he directly calls his followers, his people to give their lives for his cause to be angry and to kill and to murder and to slay. And it is a great comfort to know that our God calls us to the fruits of righteousness. He calls us to the fruits of the spirit, which are love, joy, and peace. So our God is angry at sin, absolutely. But he doesn't call us to anger like the other gods of the world. He calls us to his righteousness, to his peace, and to his joy. Right. So Dan? I also think that he's angry because of what sin does and how it separates us from him in the sense, not positionally, but in a practical sense as a believers. He's jealous for us. He gets back to his jealousy for us because he loves us so much and sin is so destructive in our lives. Yeah. Anybody else? All right, so how can this characteristic of God give us comfort? And I got a couple things that I wanna say, and then you can, if you have a comment, but turn to Psalm chapter two. Pastor and I were talking about this, and he was saying that he wished he'd have thought of this, put it in the material for Sunday school today, But Psalm chapter 2, the very last verse, says, kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled. But a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in him. The idea there about, it says, kiss the son, and the idea, specifically theirs, that you honor the king's son and the king won't be angry at you. But the picture is that of us honoring Christ and that God is blessed or blesses us because of our honor to Christ. But another one you might be a little more familiar with, Romans chapter 12. And about how this can give us comfort and how that God's wrath and God is the one who carries out vengeance can give us comfort. Romans chapter 12, verse 17 is a passage that I've read often, I've read over and over for a lot of times because it convicts me and helps me to do the right thing, but it says, recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men, for if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. You know, one of the comforts that we can get from the fact that God is angry, is angry with sin is that when people do us wrong, God will take care of it. He says, recompense no man evil for evil. Isn't that what we want to do? We're driving to church on Sunday morning and somebody cuts you off. You want to get back at him. Somebody does something to you at work, we want to get back at him. But scripture says that we're not to do that. Recompense no man evil for evil. The last verse says, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Verse 20 says, if you're in any hunger, feed him. He may be thirst, giving something to drink. That's not normal, that's not what we want to do, that's not what our first response is. But we can say that God, it says in verse 19, avenge not yourself, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. You know, we can take comfort in the fact that we should do what is right, and God will take care of those that that wrong us and do us wrong. Anybody else? Yeah, Barry. Just a second, Barry. We'll get you. Yeah. No, I think that's good because God is our craftsman. That's true. Anybody else? Yeah, Perry. Well, I think one thing, the idea, you mentioned a while ago that God is under control. He doesn't lose that control. And I use the word, God knows where to draw the line, so to speak. His anger is tempered by the fact that he's merciful. and he's kind, and he is love. And so there's a perfect righteous balance. God's love and his mercy will not contradict his anger. And so again, sometimes people don't know where to draw the line. you know, a lot of people just stew and they like you mentioned one ago, they carry those grudges. They won't talk to people and won't. But God doesn't cut us off. God gives us an opportunity to come back and repent, apologize if you pay, you know, and and make things right with God. Right. Very good. Anybody else? All right, how can we communicate this characteristic? Right, very good, which goes along with what we talked about that how we are to act upon what we learn and that it should change our lives and people see that in us when we don't respond the way most people would respond. Anybody else? Okay, just a couple points before we leave under what's called the teacher's favorite part. The one thing that really differs often the anger that we have and that we're told in scripture not to have is our anger often leads to destruction where God's anger is always just, it's measured, and as Brother Perry was just saying, it's aimed at restoring righteousness. There's a restorative part to God's anger that often, if not always, is missing from our anger. And four things that we should learn from understanding that God is anger. One, we should live in a reverential fear of God. And scripture talks over and over again about fearing God. Proverbs 23, 17 says, let not thine heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all day long. Also, it should encourage us not only to live in fear, in a reverential fear of God, but to pursue repentance in our own lives. Hebrews 10 or Hebrews 12 says, Verily, for a few days chastened us after our own pleasure, but he for our prophet, God chastens us for our prophet, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby." So God's wrath, God's punishment of our sin should lead us to repentance and seeking to restore that relationship with him. They should also encourage us to seek justice and righteousness in our own lives and in the lives of those around us. Micah chapter 6 verse 8 says, he has showed the old man what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Those are the things that we should be pursuing in our own life. Then lastly, and not the least important, is that knowing God's wrath and hatred of sin, that should be a motivating factor for us to share the gospel, to tell others about Christ. We mentioned that those who do not know Christ, who are going to be the objects of his wrath for all of eternity. And we ought to share the gospel, the good news, the hope of salvation with them, that they might come to know Christ as their Savior. So with that, we'll close today. On your sheets there, you see the stuff for next week and the verses we'd like for you to read through and maybe have a comment on next Sunday. All right, let's pray. Dear God, we do thank you for your grace and your mercy. We thank you that, Lord, you do love us, Father, I just pray that you would help us to understand your character, Lord, and that how your anger fits into your other characteristics of love and mercy and compassion. But Lord, to know that you do hate sin, that Father, that you will punish sin, and that Father, that we just ask that you would help us to live our life in accordance with your word, and Lord, that we would have a proper fear and understanding of who you are and how that ought to affect our lives on a daily basis. We just pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.