"The Lord Will Restore" (Nahum 2)

“He who scatters has come up before your face.  Man the fort! Watch the road! Strengthen your flanks! Fortify your power mightily.  For the Lord will restore the excellence of Jacob like the excellence of Israel, for the emptiers have emptied them out and ruined their vine branches “(vs1-2).

Even though we have been defeated and chastened of God, the time's come for Him to help us, as promised, and you can be sure His help will succeed.  He says, “For the Lord will restore the excellence of Jacob like the excellence of Israel”.

God's children are often down, wondering what is wrong, learning about unbelief and the unprofitableness thereof. But God sees fit to end the chastening and to restore us, dramatically advancing His truth and power in our hearts.  He says, “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb 12:11).  The time has come, and He taunts our enemies, calling them to battle and comforting us with ABSOLUTE promises.  He tells them, “Man the fort! Watch the road! Strengthen your flanks!  Fortify your power mightily... Though Nineveh of old was like a pool of water, now they flee away” (vs1,7).  

Victory, by God’s mighty grace, just as He promises, is ours!  Hear the Lord’s boast and believe that YOU benefit from these promises, that this is your reality.  He says, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper” (2 Chron 20:20).  You’ve been misguided and faltering because of sin, but now God calls Himself into action, and love, peace, and obedience will result in you.   Hes’ overthrowing what hinders your walk with Christ, and you WILL be more full.

Be encouraged, and you'll see your victory.  Believe, continually, even amidst setbacks, and it will be true in your experience.  Today is your turning point. Now, your shackles are broken, and now you and I can HONOR Christ by the strength that He gives.  We can serve the church, love the enemy, and walk clean. We CAN be better and nearer to God. We can be joyful in spirit by the power that we didn't have before.

Bless Him by believing, go forward by faith, and look for this new help. You're no longer the weak coward or the lustful beast.  You can whip this inward sin by faith.  You now have and will get the obedience that honors God, brings fruit, and increases your strength. Bless Him by believing and sinning no more.  There was a man in John 5 who was impotent, and Christ asked him if he desired to be made whole. Admitting that he had no one to help him was insufficient. Christ said, “Rise, take up your bed and walk”, and He tells you and me the same.  Right now, believe that you can do what you couldn't do before, because God promises it, Christ earned it, and it is the Spirit who gets it done (John 5:8-9).  

“Know the Lord” (Hos 2:16-3:5)

In that day I will make a covenant for them With the beasts of the field, With the birds of the air, And with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, To make them lie down safely. I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the LORD.(vs18-20)

We'll know the Lord, when He saves us, intervening on our behalf and recovering us from sin (vs16-20). He says, “ In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the LORD”. We'll know Him in grace, in His love, and we'll know His mercy, because we have sinned and sinned, and only He came to intervene.

We'll know Him because we didn't straighten out or save ourselves. We were astray, wondering, lost, and never returning, but He CARED enough to humble us, to destroy our vain ambitions, and He MADE us trust Christ, taking everything else away, revealing we're sinners, and then having mercy on us EXACTLY as we are. We know the Lord, because we know the blood of Christ, the justness of sins atoned, and the purpose of chastening love, which is to bring us to God. We know the Lord as everything, because we see that rebellion lacks lasting pleasure and won't work.

Secondly, assurance is the result of blessing (vs21-23). We read, “Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth [will bless the soul to win her heart], And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they shall say, ‘You are my God!" Thus, when God blesses us with grace, we know that we're His. He blesses us with faith alone, allows us to receive the testimony apart from feelings and merit, and then He blesses us with the joy of holiness as justified children. We're blessed without works, and then we're blessed in them. We're blessed because God makes us to rejoice in the Lord, receive salvation freely, and then He blesses us by the Spirit with comfort, power, and satisfaction. Joel 2:26-27 says, “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be put to shame. Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I am the Lord your God and there is no other”. Yes, we're blessed in obedience, so that knowing we're His, we get hot for Christ and receive more assurance from His throne.

Thirdly, God makes us faithful (Hos 3:1-5). We read, “So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley. And I said to her, You shall stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man – so, too, will I be toward you”, which is faithful. Thus, salvation - the return of God to the soul by Christ - is always a double bond. He doesn’t love us, merely, but He causes us to love Him back in return. We read again, “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:18-19). He puts joy in our heart, the fear of departure, and He gives the Spirit of obedience, so that we call on the Lord to do His will. When God saves, He saves the character, the whole man, and not merely his mouth will confess. He gives heart love, obedience, and desire for Christ. He gives the fear of the Lord to keep us near, and then He REWARDS our nearness. He never forgives, without giving strength to sin no more. We look to Him, we live, and we walk uprightly in godly fear.

Before salvation... or the restoration of the believer... we pursue other interests, other gods, and our vain ambitions. We seek salvation by the devil's hand, pleasure from sin, and security by compromise. We forget God and think our bread is buttered by the world. But, He painfully proves this is vain, hurts us lovingly, forgives us freely, graces us graciously, and then we are His. We read, “Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days”. He catches our heart, draws us in by a mixture of truth, godly fear, love for holiness, and single minded hope. He makes us know that Christ alone can satisfy, and that Christ alone is real.

Blessed be God. Forgiveness makes Christ mine, and it makes me His!

“Useful To Me” (2 Tim 4:11)

“Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry.”

Often, the sermon, person, or church that we least likely think to succeed becomes a champion and glorifies God. Paul had doubts about Mark before, but now he sees him useful. I rejoice that God turns light on in places where we saw darkness. He opens our eyes to His value in the weak things, and He takes things that we've looked upon as useless and makes them profitable to us. We read elsewhere, “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.. that no flesh should glory in His presence....that, as it is written, 'He who glories, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Cor 1:26-31). Do you believe in the God of miracles?

First, the Almighty doesn't check with us for permission to make men great. He doesn't say, “What do you think of Mark”, and make His judgments there. He sees beauty where we do not, and He takes the despised things and makes them sparkle.

You may think, “this poor preacher”, “this poor sermon”, or “this little church”, and yet God use these very despised people to save the elect and light a flame in the world. It doesn't take many obvious signs to make someone useful; it only needs God's blessing, which is God's proof that He is with the sermon, the person, the church. The despised of men are not despised by God. He has His own ways, and the least likely to succeed will become the chief of the apostles, even Paul, who said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Cor 15:10). Moses, the man with impeded speech and fear on his resume', will lead the nation. Women who have been barren, poor, and despised, even from the cursed race of Moab, are in the bloodline of Jesus (Matt 1:1-14).

Never judge God by your feeble sense. We can only see so far, and God can make us blush for our doubt and hardheartedness, blushing as He THRILLS us with His hand on someone's life.
 

Secondly, Mark is useful. He isn't like Demas who forsook Paul in love for this world (1 Tim 4:9). He is a man who FORSAKES the world in love for Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a man of character to be counted on.

Looking on the first half of my life (40 years) and my first 14 years in Christ, I have only one regret, and that is my sin - listening to people instead of God, and doing my will, rather than reverencing Him. But, just as God changed and brought fruit from John Mark, I have seen the Lord change and recover me. Instead of allowing me to stay where I was, a disappointment perhaps to many, He's given me and my church grace to improve. Our character and focus has improved. Our desire for His glory has been purged and proven in the trial of fire, and He's taken a man who “went back” from the ministry and changed him into a man to be trusted, a faithful man, seeking God's glory in Christ.  And, He did this for a man who caused contention by his actions.  We read, "Now Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark. But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work.   Then the contention became so sharp that they parted  from one another" (Acts 15:37-39).

Thirdly, God will make this change in you. Just as Paul saw Mark faithful, others who've looked you up and down, finding fault after fault, will sincerely say, “This man knows God”. Perhaps, they were not wrong about you in the past, but they can see the improvement God makes. This gives us hope for all. The wavering saint may become the strong man in the church. The cold pastor may inflame for Christ continually. The WEAK church, so careful of many things and missing Christ, may become SINGLE in her focus for God.

Don't shut the door on yourself. God's in the business of changing people. God saves by grace, and GRACE permeates a life. It is slow at times, but grace causes continual change, even though it is often imperceptible to the human eye... even as a tree must grown down before it grows up.

People say, “I've made a mess. I've ruined things. I haven't been what I should be”. Yes, indeed. Admit it in the hope of Christ. Take the gift of life God GRACIOUSLY gives and trust Christ for power over sin. It is still true, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9-10).

Hope in a God who changes men and be changed yourself, even as you hope for others.

Finally, let us not quit on people, but let us hope. I know many profess Christ and then don't know Him, but some fence sitters, yes many who look doubtful, will one day shine as the sun, even if we don't see it here.

That person you're doubtful about, pray for them in hope, fetching strength from Christ to hope continually.

Christians ought not be mean spirited or suspicious fault finders.  Be rich in love.

Repents of the Evil (Joel 2:13)

“And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repents him of the evil.”

Read: Joel 2:12-18

God repents of the evil that He will do us, if we repent of the evil that we are doing.

If I come back to God in Christ, admitting my sins, then God will remove the punishment of estrangement, the curse of His chastening love, and the power of sin shall be crushed. My enemies shall not defeat me, but they shall be defeated RUTHLESSLY, if I repent. The things that are destroying me, things too much for me, where I have gone astray, will no longer have power. God will give the victory to me, His son.

I don’t have to think, “It is over”, because it isn’t. If I believe God, then I will have Him now. Like Paul, who fought the way, but became a servant of Christ, I who have fought God, can be reconciled and BLESSED. The blessings I have despised can be mine now, and the way that I should be living will be mine also – “And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you” (Joel 2:25).

God will not say, “You have sinned, I won’t forgive”, but He forgives FREELY and restores Himself to us completely. There is never a loss when repentance happens, for we get Christ in full.

Christ won’t say, “Ok, you have been bad, and the other has been good, so I will manifest myself to him, but not to you. You will live in the ghetto, while he enjoys the penthouse”. This cannot be. God has one thing to give sinners that repent, and that is EVERYTHING, all spiritual blessings in Christ, and everything the Son earned – (Eph 1:3-4) “Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love”.

We are not in Christ and out, dealt with by God less favorably now because of the past, but EACH AND EVERYONE that beholds the Lamb of God shall get what the Lamb earned; it is not us.

If you and I will be saved, then repent. Stop going your way, and through FORGIVENESS and GRACE go God’s way now: He takes you and gives you Him.