(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

. . . Good evening, everyone. Welcome back to Mountain Baptist Church. Take your song books and turn to song number 56. Song number 56 in your song books, and we'll sing when we all get to heaven, and if you would stand, we'll sing song number 56. Sing the wondrous love of Jesus, Sing his mercy and his grace, In the mansions bright and blessed, He'll prepare for us a place, When we all Get to heaven What a day of rejoicing that will be When we all See We'll sing and shout the victory While we walk the pilgrim pathway Clouds will overspread the sky But when traveling days are over Not a shadow, not a sigh When we all get to heaven What a day of rejoicing that will be When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout the victory Let us then be true and faithful Trusting, serving every day Just one glimpse of him in glory Will the toils of life repay When we all get to heaven What a day of rejoicing that will be When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout the victory Onward to the prize before us Soon his beauty will behold Soon the pearly gates will open We shall tread the streets of gold When we all get to heaven What a day of rejoicing that will be When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout the victory Song 102. We'll sing he hideth my soul. Song 102. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord, A wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock Where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the cleft of a rock That shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths of his love And covers me there with his hand. And covers me there with his hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord, He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up and I shall not be moved, He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft of a rock That shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths of his love And covers me there with his hand. And covers me there with his hand. With numberless blessing moment he crowns And filled with his fullness divine. I sing in my rapture, O glory to God, For such a Redeemer is mine. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock That shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths of his love And covers me there with his hand. And covers me there with his hand. When clothed with his brightness, Transported I rise to meet him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, his wonderful love, I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock That shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths of his love And covers me there with his hand. And covers me there with his hand. I need to do that. Today is what, the 18th, right? So did we have, did anyone talk to Jason as far as if he had any, if they had any saved? So I know we had one this afternoon then, and then we had, Brother Richie did you have one? Monday, and then was there any Tuesday? So three then, unless Brother Jason had one, or had some this afternoon, so. So good job Al Solening, I know if I lived in Clarksburg here I'm voting for city council, but I don't live in Clarksburg, so. So yeah, good work Al Solening, don't forget about the Monday and Tuesday, Brother Richie I know with your, the whole car issue, are you going to still be up for Solening on? Okay. But if you're on the WhatsApp, obviously Brother Richie will be on there saying where you'll be meeting and all that, and then Brother Charles leaves up the Tuesday time. So Monday's like the Clarksburg Bridgeport area, and then Tuesday is usually Morgantown area. Those are our two regional Solening times there, and obviously Sunday, except for Grad where we go, so. Just have to figure out whatever I'm feeling that day, that's where we're going, so. And then service times, everything's normal, as far as the service times go this week. We have the upcoming prayer meeting, so we have the men's prayer meeting, I moved that to the 23rd, so I can be here for that, and then May 1st, that's Saturday, May 1st, the women's prayer meeting will be meeting in the morning there. Pregnancy's, be in prayer for those on the pregnancy list, so we have Ms. Joyce, Ms. Tabby, and we'll be adding Ms. Anastasia on there as well, so excited about that. And can't think of anything else really on the announcements, yeah, that's pretty much it, so. I know the typical announcements, we have the offering box in the back, we have the mother baby room back there, but everybody I think knows about that, so. Where they will come and sing one more song, and then who's reading tonight? So Brother Levi's going to be reading Nahum Chapter 1 for us. Do you sport coffee on it? Nah, I don't, nah, I spill water on it. Can't take you anywhere. At least you got your tie on. Alright. Song 118 in your songbooks, turn, yeah, in your songbooks to song 118, we'll sing Near to the Heart of God. Song 118. There is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God, a place where sin cannot molest near to the heart of God. Oh Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent from the heart of God, hold us who wait before Thee near to the heart of God. There is a place of comfort sweet near to the heart of God, a place where Savior meets near to the heart of God. Oh Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent from the heart of God, hold us who wait before Thee near to the heart of God. There is a place of full release near to the heart of God, a place where all is joy and peace near to the heart of God. Oh Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent from the heart of God, hold us who wait before Thee near to the heart of God. Alright, take your Bibles and turn to Nehem chapter number one, and we'll have Brother Levi read that for us. Alright, Nehem chapter one. The burden of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nehem, the Elko Sheit, God is jealous and the Lord revengeth, 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 and great in power and will not at all quit the wicked. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry and drieth up all the rivers. Bashan languisheth and Carmel and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him and the hills melt and the earth is burned at his presence, yea the world and all that dwell therein. 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. The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him. But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof and darkness shall pursue his enemies. What do ye imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end. Affliction shall not rise up the second time, for while they be folden together as thorns and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. There is one come out of thee that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counselor. Thus saith the Lord, though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down. When he shall pass through, though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds and sunder. And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown. Out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image. I will make thy grave for thou art vile. Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace. O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows, for the wicked shall no more pass through thee. He is utterly cut off. Let's pray. God, thank you for this day. God, thank you for the time that we had, soul winning God, and the people that we had saved out, soul winning God. I just pray that you would be with us today as pastor preaches and help us to learn something, and we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. So you're there in Nahum, chapter one, and we are continuing our series through the prophets. So we are obviously going through the Minor Prophets at this point, and we're in the Book of Nahum. Now I did a whole chapter by chapter study through the Book of Nahum, so this will not be an exhaustive study of the Book of Nahum. So if you really want to get onto every rock and every turn of every verse as we go through the Book of Nahum, I've already done that, so that should be online. But this is going to be kind of like an overview of the Book of Nahum and just getting into this prophet. Now the first thing that you see here is what the book is about. Verse one, so Nahum one, in verse one it says, the burden of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum the Elchashite. So the whole book is talking about Nineveh, okay? So Nineveh is, it makes sense that you would probably know what Nineveh is because we just got done talking about Jonah a couple of books before, okay? So Jonah is a prophet who was sent to Nineveh to preach so that they wouldn't be destroyed. Nahum is a book talking about how Nineveh is going to be destroyed, okay? So this isn't a story about Nahum going and preaching to Nineveh or anything like that. It's just pronouncing the wrath of God that's going to be coming upon Nineveh. So Nineveh was spared by God, but then eventually they did get destroyed, okay? Nineveh was completely decimated and annihilated. I don't know if Jonah was around to see it or not. If he went and sat on that hill and be like, finally, you know. But it would be more humorous if he died right before it happened and be like, yeah, we didn't get to see it. So but anyway, all I have to say is that this whole book, so it's not a huge book, it's three chapters, is dealing with the subject of Nineveh and it being destroyed by God. Now Nineveh is the capital city of Assyria. So Assyria is a nation or an empire, if you will, the Assyrian empire. Go to Genesis chapter 10, Genesis chapter 10. I just want to prove this to you that Nineveh is Assyria, but it's also something that is coming away from the past. So this is going to be important later on when I get to, you know, just dealing with the nation of Assyria, how that relates to Egypt and all that. But Genesis chapter 10, if you know Genesis chapter 10, you're dealing with the Tower of Babel and you're dealing with all these nations that are basically being split off, okay? And one of these nations is talked about here, but it's talking about the person that built Nineveh, okay? And it says in verse 11 there, Genesis 10 verse 11, it says, out of that land went forth Asher and builded Nineveh and the city of Rehoboath and Calah. Now I don't want to go through this whole list of, you know, different cities and people and all that other stuff, but that being said is that you see Asher and how you get Assyria out of that. Go to Zephaniah chapter 2, Zephaniah chapter 2. So you have Nahum, then you're going to have Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah going down the line. So just a couple books after Nahum, you get into Zephaniah. Now to give you an idea of where Nahum falls in the timeline, if you know that Micah, you know, was dealing with Jotham and into Hezekiah's reign, and then Zephaniah, you're dealing into Josiah's reign, okay? So it's got to be in between there somewhere as far as where Nahum would be in this list because I believe they're all in chronological order. But in Zephaniah chapter 2 and verse 13, notice what it says. So Zephaniah also deals with the destruction of Nineveh and it says, and he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria and will make Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wilderness, okay? So you can definitely see how it's associated with Assyria, but it's the capital city. It's the city, you know, it's kind of like Rome was to the Roman Empire, you know, or, you know, just different nations had kind of this hub where they all, that was their capital city of that, okay? And so that being said, when you're dealing with this book of Nahum, you're dealing with the Assyrian demise, if you will. And so we'll get into that, but this first chapter is packed because there's a lot of information about God in this first chapter. The first thing we see is that God is jealous, okay? Look at verse 2, so Nahum chapter 1 and verse 2. I love this chapter because it just kind of blows away a lot of these misconceptions of who God is, okay? Also what it means to be jealous and that jealous is a bad thing. Actually in the Bible, jealousy is a good thing, envy is the bad thing, okay? And it says right here in verse 2, God is jealous and the Lord revengeth, 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 and great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet. And this whole, you know, chapter here, you know, leading down to verse 7 actually is just dealing with the fact of God's magnificence and how people will tremble before him and all these different things. And but we see that God is jealous. Now this isn't a new thing that it states there, go to Exodus chapter 20 dealing with the Ten Commandments. Actually the fact that God is jealous is written within the Ten Commandments, okay? Now jealousy, you say, you know, I thought jealousy was bad. Jealousy is when you desire something that's yours, okay, that belongs to you. So like being jealous over my wife, that's actually not a bad thing. But being envious over someone else's wife, that's bad, okay? So we normally think of jealousy as being a bad thing that, you know, you're just too, you know, I guess like you usually think you have trust issues, you know, you can't, you're not trusting the person or something like that. No, it's a good thing for your spouse to want you to be them, theirs and theirs alone, okay? That's actually a healthy relationship, okay? If my wife wasn't jealous over the fact that there was like, you know, good-looking women that were like fawning over me, you know, or flirting with me or something like that, then I would question whether she even cares about me, right, wouldn't you? And the same thing is your wife would think the same thing if you had like a whole bunch of guys that were just flirting with her and doing all and just like hitting on her and all this stuff and you're just like, I don't care. Like that's not a good relationship, okay? So jealousy is a good thing but envy is a bad thing. Now envy is where you are desiring something that doesn't belong to you, okay? So that's where you get into covetousness and because it's good to covet things, it says to covet the best gifts but it says also not to covet, okay? So you're not supposed to covet your neighbor's wife, covet your neighbor's house, you know? So that being said, jealousy is not inherently wrong and you know why I know it's not wrong? Because God is jealous, okay? So you know what, if God is jealous, that means it can't be simple. That means that there at least is a type of jealousy that's good, okay? But look at Exodus chapter 20 and verse 3, Exodus chapter 20 and verse 3. You know what, if more husbands were jealous over their wives and more wives were jealous over their husbands, maybe they would have better relationships because a lot of times people are trying to show, no, I'm not jealous, you can go do what you want, you can hang out with whoever you want and that's where they end up, you know, committing adultery and that's where they end up, you know, getting into all kinds of sin because for one, you're naive, okay, because wherefore let him that thinketh he stand to take heed less default when it comes to adultery. But second of all, you know, it doesn't really show like you're going to, your spouse is going to think that you don't really love them that much if you don't care that they're doing all this other stuff where they're trying, you know, hanging out with all these other people. Now, obviously I'm not talking about abuse, okay, because you're like, oh, you should, you're telling me you should just beat your wife, it's like, whoa, how'd we get off on that? You know, but that's what people think, you know, like, oh, you want that jealous husband that's like beating their wife, it's like, no, I never said that, okay? But there's a healthy jealousy that you covet your wife, you desire your wife, she's yours, no one else's, and the same thing goes, ladies, is that, you know what, your husband wants to know that you want your, that you want him, okay? Believe it or not, but we are a little sentimental in the fact that we like the fact that our wives desire their husband, you know, like that they actually want us and that they don't want someone else and that they don't want you to be hanging out with someone else because they own you. You're like, I don't like that in 2021 that you're saying that you own your wife, yeah, I do, but she also owns me, so, you know, but that being said is that, yeah, we're one flesh, you know, but that healthy jealousy should be there. Look at what it says next in chapter 20 verse 3, thou shalt have no other gods before me, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water underneath the earth, thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and showeth mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. So why is God jealous here? Because they're making these other gods, they're putting other gods before him and he has every right to desire the worship of his creation, okay, does that make sense, like he made us, okay. So it's nothing wrong with that and it shows that God actually cares about us too, okay, that he actually, you know, he's not just like brushing up like, I don't care, I don't care if they worship me and they worship other gods, no, God does care, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but everlasting light. So he loves us so much that he died for us so that we would not perish and that we would go to heaven and not go to hell. The Bible also says in Exodus chapter 34 verse 14, for thou shalt worship no other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God, okay. So in Exodus 34 and verse 14, it's saying that his name is jealous, okay, be like, well, you know, that someone talked away, he's like, his name's jealous. So that being said, the Bible even talks about in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 2, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. So you say, well, maybe there's other jealousy that's wrong. Well, here's the thing, in our modern vernacular, and I know, you know, I'll read the Berenstain Bears books to my kids and there's a whole book about jealousy. And here's the thing, in our modern vernacular, when we use jealous, we're meaning envy, okay. So a lot of times I'll, you know, talk about it with my kids and be like, this is, in the Bible, this is envy, this isn't jealousy, like jealousy is not a bad thing but in this case, this would be bad, right. So you know, in our modern vernacular, when we think of jealousy, a lot of times you're dealing with envy, not jealousy, okay. But sometimes when they're talking about a jealous husband, that's not a bad thing. They should be jealous. They shouldn't be a wife beater but they should be jealous of their wife where they desire their wife and they don't want them to be with some other, you know, these other men or something like that. That's a healthy relationship. That's a relationship that's stating, hey, you know what, we're just for each other, you know. But that being said, you know, the Bible hits that right on the head here with the fact that God is jealous. The Bible says his name is jealous and in the New Testament says that, you know, that Paul had a godly jealousy over the Corinthians. So there's nothing wrong with that, just as much as there's nothing wrong with coveting things that belong to you or things that God would want you to have. You shouldn't be coveting things though that don't belong to you and all that. Now go to Nahum chapter 1 and verse 7. It's one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It's Nahum 1 verse 7. It says, The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him. This is a great verse. Obviously, God, the Lord is good and that's a whole sermon for another day to really get into the fact that the Lord is good, even to the unjust and the just, that he reigneth upon the unjust and the just. And you know what, everybody that's breathing right now, you know, the Lord has been good to them, you know, to give them breath, to give them life. So but the Bible says also in Psalm 34 and verse 8, it's kind of a nice couple of these verses here. In Psalm 34 and verse 8, you probably heard this, O taste and see that the Lord is good. So Psalm 34 and verse 8, O taste and see that the Lord is good. You usually hear that a lot and you think about like 1 Peter chapter 2 where it says, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Lord, that ye may grow thereby, if so be that ye have tasted that he is gracious. Right? So you can see how like sometimes in the New Testament, it couples this in there, taste and see, you know, that the Lord is good. Obviously, you drink in the milk of the word and see that it's good and it's gracious, all that. But taste and see that the Lord is good. But then notice right after that, it says, Blessed is the man that trusted in him. And that's, you know, I mean, kind of the same things you're dealing with in Naeum 1 7 is the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him. And so these are great verses to couple together there. And in the Old Testament, a lot of times besides, it doesn't say believe as much in the Old Testament, it actually uses trust a lot. You know, kiss the son lest he be angry, blessed is the man that putteth his trust in him, right? And the idea is that trust and faith are used synonymously in the Bible. We see that in the New Testament where it'll talk about trusting in him, whom you also trusted after that you heard the word of truth, and after that you believed, you know, and it goes into the fact that trusting in the Lord, trusting in him and believing in him are synonymous, okay? And so we see that, but we also see that the Lord knoweth them that trust in him, okay? So this is where you get into that, you know, the Calvinists want to say, well, it's only who God foreknew, it's only based, you know, he predestined people to believe, no, he knoweth them that trust in him. He foreknew who would believe in him or who would trust in him, and those whom he did foreknow that would believe in him, he predestinated them to be conformed to the image of his son, okay? And this is a great verse to show that because people like James White will say, well, no, when it says no, it's just talking about like intimately knowing that person, which is weird, okay, to kind of use that language. Like Adam knew his wife Eve, it's like, uh, no, that's not what it's talking about. But when you understand he knoweth them that trust in him, and when it's talking about predestination in Ephesians chapter one, and it says who first trusted in Christ, it's like predestinating them, who first trusted in Christ, then it all makes sense because he foreknew these people, he foreknew who would trust in him 2,000, 4,000 years later from the foundation of the world, he foreknew who would trust in him, and from the foundation of the world, he predestinated that person who he foreknew would trust in him to be conformed to his image. Not that difficult. So that's a little different than him fore, you know, at the foundation of the world predetermining who will put their trust in him, right, and that's what Calvinists believe. They believe that God is picking and choosing, and from the foundation of the world, you don't have a choice, you don't have free will, he just chose who would trust in him, and that, you know, that case closed, you know. But that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that he's the savior of all men, especially those that believe. The Bible says that he tastes the death of every man, and he's not willing to do it, and he should perish. And they don't want all men to be saved and come into the knowledge of the truth. And when it's talking about predestination, it's not talking about predestinating to believe. Okay? So this verse is a good verse to have, okay? So if there's ever a verse to memorize in the book of Nahum, it's 1-7. Nahum 1-7 is a good verse to have memorized because it shows you that he knoweth them that trust in him, okay? So when it's talking about him foreknowing, predestinating those who foreknew, that's what it's talking about. The knowing, him knowing us, is talking about knowing that we trusted in him. But go to 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 19 because it states kind of something similar to that because he knows those that trust in him, but they're also his, okay? My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, right? The fact is he knows his sheep, okay? And it says in another place, it says, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and am known of mine, you know, the idea that he knows us. But he knows those that are his, but he knows those that are his because he knows who trusted in him. Okay? That's what it really comes down to. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 19 says, Nevertheless, the foundation of God standest sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. So when you go to Matthew 7, you don't have to go there, I'm just kind of mentioning this. When you go to Matthew chapter 7, and it says, Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, which art in the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, we not prophesy in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. And then when I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from ye that work iniquity. When you understand the fact that he knoweth them that are his, he knoweth them that trust in him, and then he says to this person, I never knew you, that means they never trusted in him, they were never his. Does that make sense? So that's why it's important to have some of those verses like that memorized, because when you go into passages like that, first of all, if you haven't memorized, you can just quote that off to somebody, and say, well, my sheep hear my voice and I know them. Or the Lord knoweth them that trust in him. So how could you say these people ever trusted in him if he said, I never knew you? How could you say these people were his at any point if he says, I never knew you, and it says, he knoweth them that are his? Does that make sense? And so these are good things to have for, you know, answering harder passages. Now that's funny because people use that passage to say you can lose your salvation. It's actually one of the best passages to show how it's by faith alone and you cannot lose your salvation. Because when you go back to the will of the Father, it's the fact that you need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. But go back to Nahum 1, Nahum 1, and verse 8. So I'm kind of just picking some things that kind of catch my eye when I'm reading through Nahum. Like I said, I did a whole, you know, series of chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, where we kind of do verse by verse. I can't do that in one hour or, you know, it'd just be way too long. And everybody's looking at me like, thank you for not doing that. But so Nahum 1, verse 8 here, that's what it says here, it says, But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. What do you imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end, affliction shall not rise up the second time. For while they be folding together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. Now I was talking about the fact that obviously God, when He comes, I love just these passages here where it's talking about the fact that affliction shall not rise up the second time. It kind of reminds me of when Joab was with David, remember, and everybody was sleeping, and Saul was there, and they're like, he's talking to him, he's like, let me smite him to the ground, I will not smite him again, I will not smite him a second time. He's basically saying, when I smite him, he will be dead. This will be quick, I'll do it fast, and it'll be done. And this reminds me of that, where God's like, affliction won't rise up the second time. When God takes them out, they're not coming up again. And Nineveh is a case where Nineveh is going to be destroyed, and they are not going to rise again. The Assyrian empire never rises again. And they're dead, they're dead, it's done. And so that's how God rolls when it comes to His wrath, when it comes to destroying these nations. And then it talks about this in verse 10, for while they be folding together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. And it's interesting how the Bible uses that term thorns. Thorns and briars are the curse that was put upon the land, if you remember from the very beginning, and how thorns are likened unto people. Certain group of people, but dealing with reprobate people, are dealing with children of the devil. And I'll just give you a couple places where it's dealing with this, Psalm 58 verse 9, Psalm 58 verse 9. Because this isn't in a corner, it's just like throughout every prophet you see dealing with people that are just, that are nigh unto cursing and to be burned. And it's funny, you know, first of all it's funny when people are just like, well God's not so mean, and God doesn't talk like that, it's like, you have never read the Bible. Okay? It's like, there's things that God said, I'm just like, whoa, or the prophets would say under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, I'm like, what in the world? And it's just always baffling to me, it's like, you obviously never read the prophets. Right? And when people are like, oh, you know, this reprobate doctor, you're just pulling out a couple verses here and there, it's like, you obviously never read through the prophets. You obviously didn't make it very far in your Bible reading in the Old Testament, let alone the New Testament, which is very explicit about it, and very clear about it. But in verse, I had you in Psalm 58 and verse 9, notice what it says, before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living and in his wrath. So when he's talking about his wrath being poured out, he a lot of times talks about these thorns, right? He's like gathering up these thorns to be burned. Go to 2 Samuel chapter 23, 2 Samuel chapter 23, and a lot of cases, it's like, you don't want to take them with your hands because they're going to cut you, and just how you have to carefully, like with his iron pot, all these different things that it uses these analogies. Just know this, that he doesn't really care about thorns, like he's not telling you this just so that when you go out and do some brush hogging, you're like, oh yeah, I need to watch out for the thorns, okay? You can figure that pretty much out on yourself. Trust me, I have figured that out on myself. You know, when people are walking through a thorn patch, and then it just like comes back and whips you in the face, and puts a nice scar on your face. You know, anyway, that being said, he's obviously saying this to liken it onto something, right? He's using physical things that you can understand and be like, does anyone love thorns? Does anyone love briars? No, okay? So he's likening people onto something that everybody hates, everybody despises, and everybody just wishes would be burned up. It's like snakes. Who likes snakes? Okay, there might be someone in here who likes snakes, but I hate snakes, and it's no marvel. The devil was a serpent, okay? But I hate snakes, I wish they'd all die, and you're like, what about the black ones? All right, I understand, they eat the rats. But this is a case where you gotta take the lesser of two evils, and I'll take a cat to take out the mice, okay? Give me some cats, they're not coming to my house, but they can be outside and take care of the mice, but all the snakes can die. So you're gonna ruin the ecosystem, I don't care. I hate snakes, I don't wanna touch a snake. Every snake that I ever ran into when I was a child, I chopped up with a hoe, or I shot with a pellet gun. They all died. Now, a lot of them were copperheads, so don't judge me too hard, because they were not ones you wanted to keep alive anyway. Anyway, how did I get off on that? Oh yeah, sons of the Belial. All right, so in 2 Samuel chapter 23 and verse 6, it says, but the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands, but the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear, and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place. So it's kind of likening the fact that, hey yeah, getting rid of thorns, that's not, that's hard, okay? You know what, let's say you cut down some bushes or whatever. They're not thorns, they're just bushes. You cut them down, you pick them up, and you put them over, and you burn them, or do whatever you're doing with them. What is thorns? Those things are nasty, okay? And you're just like, you got these gloves on, you're like, hopefully you got your Carhartt pants on, you got the Kevlar stuff on, so it's not going to come through your pants and just all this stuff, and you got to be careful with it, you don't want it to spring back and hit you in the face. So the whole point that he's making here is that, you know, you got to be fenced with iron, you got to be like prepared to take out these thorns, okay? But in Nahum, it's basically like, yeah, when God takes them out, he's just going to destroy them like it's nothing. Does that make sense? So to us, it's like dealing with thorns, yeah, that's a big deal, it's hard to deal with them, all that stuff. But listen, all those sons of Belial at the day of Armageddon, the Battle of Armageddon, he's going to destroy with the sword that preceded the Battle of his mouth, which is the word of God, obviously. And so it just kind of shows you that picture. But again, I just kind of want to show you that correlation. I know you've seen that before with the thorns and the briars, and there's many other passages on that, but Nahum is obviously hitting on that. And when you're dealing with Nineveh being destroyed, you are dealing with a reprobate nation, right? Now, I'm not saying every single person in that nation is unsaved, okay? But by and large, it's a reprobate nation, right, meaning that it's to the point where God's going to completely destroy it to where it'll never be inhabited again, okay? That's a big deal, okay? Because there's a lot of nations that God destroys, and then they kind of get built up again, then he destroys them, kind of like Israel, right? He'll destroy them, then they come back, he'll destroy them, then they'll come back. But then there comes a point where he's just like, they're never rising again. They're not going to rise up a second time. They're done, okay? And he does that with Nineveh. Now go to Nineveh, Nahum 1.15. And this goes into our moniker verse that we have. So both these verses are kind of our moniker as far as our church goes while we're Mountain Baptist Church because we believe in soul winning, okay? We do soul winning. That's what we do here. And we want to be always known as a soul winning church. We don't ever want to be a Sardis where we used to be living, but now we're dead. In verse 15 it says, Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace. O Judah, keep thy solemn feast, perform thy vows, for the wicked shall no more pass through thee. He is utterly cut off. Now ultimately, you know, obviously all the saved, all those that believe the gospel, we're going to be in New Jerusalem and there's not going to be any wicked people there, right? It's only going to be the saved. It's only going to be the righteous. So that's kind of what it's kind of segwaying into is if you believe the gospel, in the end, that's the end game, okay? But Isaiah 52 7, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace. See, that's what you see in Nahum 1 15. But Isaiah 52 7 kind of clarifies a little more that bringeth good tidings of good that publisheth salvation that saith unto Zion thy God reigneth. And also in verse 10 of Isaiah 52 it says, The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. So when it's talking about bringing good tidings, it's talking about salvation, okay? That's why when this is quoted in Romans chapter 10, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, and then it goes down the line to the very end, which started it all, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. And faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So great verse to have memorized there and that is our moniker, you know, Nahum 1 15 and Isaiah 52 7. Those are the two verses that if you're saying, what's the verse that encapsulates your church? It's like Nahum 1 7 would be Stronghold Baptist Church moniker verse, right? That's where they got their name from. And so these are, you know, this would be our verse that we would hold on to. By the way, I have, I believe it's a 1611, you know, those that are out there that don't think the 1611 actually exists. I have a leaf of a 1611 of Nahum 1 and part of Micah 7. So yeah, it does exist. So plus we have a replica over here. So if you ever want to look at the 1611, this is a facsimile of it, obviously, meaning that it was just copied as far as just an image of an actual 1611 and then printed off. You know, that's the actual size too. So imagine taking that door to door. They eventually came out with a New Testament that was smaller, right? But imagine taking that and be like, all right, you know, you get that thing out there like, all right. And you're like, do you have like a stick that you use? No. Obviously, you know, you can memorize scripture and give the gospel and all that or have it written on smaller portions for like soul winning, right? But thank God for the printing press and, you know, how we have it today. But going back to Nahum chapter 2 and verse 3, Nahum chapter 2 and verse 3, we're getting into God's wrath upon Nineveh. So Jonah covers where God is gracious and repents of the evil that he's going to do unto Nineveh. Nahum is where God's going to actually do the evil that he said he would do unto Nineveh, right? So it really does show you that even with nations that aren't Israel, he had long suffering and he would go back and forth with them, but they would come to a point, it's too late, okay? Did he, you know, thinking about this, right, as far as Nineveh being kind of like a reprobate and rejected by God to the point where God's going to completely annihilate it, did he always hate Nineveh or did he love them at one point? Did he actually like give them mercies and forgiveness at one point? Jonah, case in point, that he had mercy on Nineveh, but there came a point. Not anymore. So that's where you get into the fact that I will love you no more. There I hated them, will love them no more, and Nahum is where it's like Nineveh, I hate you and I love you no more, you know? But obviously Jonah is where it's like, no, I love you, I want you to get right, I don't want to destroy you. You know, he's not just out to just destroy everybody, that's not Israel, okay? And Israel he destroyed many times too, okay? Now in Nahum 2 and verse 3 it says, the shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet, the chariot shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken, the chariot shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways, they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings, he shall recount his worthies, they shall stumble in their flock, they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defense shall be prepared. The gates of the river shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved, and Uzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tapering upon their breasts. But Nineveh is of old, like a pool of water, yet they shall flee away, stand, stand shall they cry, but none shall look back." So it's kind of showing you what's about to happen to them and this judgment is coming upon them, these chariots jostling one against another, these torches that are coming through. So it's this very ominous type of picture that's headed for Nineveh and basically saying they're going to be saying stand, stand your ground, right? But it's not, it's going to be to no avail, okay? And go to Joel chapter 2, Joel chapter 2, because there's something that's very similar that's said in Joel, and I believe it couples well with this as far as how the day of the Lord, right? I mean, the idea of God's wrath and being tied in with the day of the Lord is just something that happens over and over and over and over again in the prophets. And so, in Nahum 1, you're dealing with the fact that God is going to help Zion, they're going to restore Zion, and you can really see how this applies in Hezekiah's day, right? Because you're dealing with Judah and Zion and all this, and Assyria took out the northern kingdom, but they couldn't take out Judah, they could not take Jerusalem, and God helped in this to destroy them. Now in verse 1, so Joel 2 and verse 1, it says, Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. So when we think about the day of the Lord, we think about the Lord Jesus coming back, His wrath being poured out, but there's many days of the Lord in the Bible, then there's going to be the day of the Lord, okay, where Jesus is going to come in the clouds. But the day of the Lord, a lot of times, you're going to see is associated with wrath and God's vengeance being poured out upon a nation or something like that, right? In verse 2, it says, A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains, a great people and a strong. Where hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burneth. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolation, a desolate wilderness, yea, and nothing shall escape. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, notice we were talking about the horses and chariots jostling one against another, and as horsemen shall they run, like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Now we know, and I kind of hit on this with Joel when we went through this dealing with the locust and how that shows the destruction that God's going to do in the very end, but you see this idea of the day of the Lord and these chariots and these flames, these torches of fire that are coming through, and just how it's going to be completely annihilated and they're going to be done. So Nahum 1 really sets you up, tells you who God is, right, it's like, alright by the way, God is a jealous God, God is furious, the Lord of revenge is furious, right, and it goes through this whole thing about how God, you know, the mountains melt underneath him, you know, like in the presence and all these different things about who God is, then it talks about the fact that, hey, there's this wicked counselor in chapter 1 and these thorns that he's going to destroy, and he's kind of setting that up. Chapter 2, he's really dealing with the fact that, hey, this is what's going down, this is how this is going down, and verse 13, so the end of that chapter there, I think this is pretty, I think this is profound, okay, if you think about this. You're dealing with Nineveh, and what Nineveh represents is Babylon, okay, I'm going to be getting to that as far as how the similarities with Nineveh, both in Nahum and Zephaniah, when you couple that with Babylon in the end, you know, in Revelation 17 and 18, there's just so many parallels to this, okay, that's because Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon itself, of the Chaldeans, the Persians, the Grecians, and going down the line to the very last kingdom, which is going to be in the end of the world, it's all the same thing, basically it's that same, you know, world government, and the wickedness that's in that world government is basically moving locations down the line, and at this point, it's at Nineveh, it's in Assyria, it's moved from Egypt to Assyria being the world power, and then it's going to move on to Babylon, then it's going to move on to Persia, then it's going to move on to Grecia, and then it's going to go on to Rome, and then we're waiting for that final kingdom that's coming down the line, but notice what it says here in verse 13, it says, Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour their young lions. I will cut off thy prey from the earth, notice this, and the voice of thy messenger shall no more be heard. You know, we were talking about false prophets, you know, and the fact that this morning I was talking about another gospel and people that preach false gospels, you know, right now, especially in the, you know, the world we live in today, it's run by these big tech companies that are the messengers, I mean, that is the town square of where everything's being, you know, bounced back and forth as far as ideas, information, okay, and when I see this verse, I'm just like, thank God, you know, think about this, you know, when Babylon is destroyed in the very end, there's no more messengers, Hellywood isn't talking anymore, none of their movies are being put out, none of the mainstream media narratives being pushed anymore, no more, they're silenced, you know, and today, that's all we get is all these people that want to tell us how to live and tell us what our morality should be when they're the most wicked, degenerate, debaucherous people in the world and they're trying to shove it down our throats, but they have a gospel, they have a message, right, and their message is wickedness, their message is to hate God and to be against everything that's God, to destroy the nuclear family, to destroy everything that's good, their despisers are those that are good, and you know what, one day they're going to be shut up, and when I read this verse, that's what I see, I see the fact that it says their messengers shall be heard no more, or I'm sorry, I said it out of order, and it says the voice of thy messenger shall no more be heard, and you can read past that and be like, okay, yeah, that makes sense, they're all killed, right, but when you understand what that means, you're dealing with a world power, okay, you're not just dealing with just some nation over here that God destroyed, Assyria was a world power that was taking out everybody, and Jerusalem got spared because Hezekiah and the people of God were right with God, and God spared them from that world power, but listen, there's going to be a world power in the end, it's going to be Babylon, and they're going to be purporting all kinds of wickedness, they're going to be speaking evil against that which is good, they're going to be calling evil good and good evil, sweet, bitter, bittersweet, we're living in the twilight zone even as it is right now, I'm not saying we're in the end times right now, I'm not saying that we're in the 70th week, but what I'm saying is that it's craziness on what's being said, what's supposed to be right, and what's supposed to be wrong, and they have the power, so to speak, okay, to have their message being broadcasted to the most people, okay, because they control the media, they control Facebook, YouTube, and all the different platforms, they control that, and they're censoring those that would have any type of biblical voice on the subject, and you say, well, you're still on YouTube, yeah, for now, that doesn't mean I haven't gotten strikes, that doesn't mean that sermons haven't been taken down, and listen, the algorithms are so messed up that the only people that get to see my sermons or will see my sermons are people that literally are subscribed and look for them, they're not just popping up, you know, hey, you're listening to Charles Stanley, maybe you should listen to Pastor Robinson in West Virginia, no, it ain't happening, you know, eternal security, oh, you're down like a number 200, you gotta go through five pages before you get to it, you know, so they are, the DAC is stacked against us, and I'm using that in quotations because we have God on our side, you know what, Facebook, YouTube could all go to hell, and all these messengers could go to hell, you know, as far as what the platforms that they've made with their own hands, but God's word is gonna be brought forth, his word is a fire, it's a hammer, and listen, the gospel's gonna be preached throughout the whole world in the end, it's gonna be published throughout the whole world, and listen, we don't need Facebook and YouTube to do it, now I'm gonna use that platform as much as I can, right, I'm gonna use whatever technology I can to get the word out, to get to other countries, as much as I can, but they shut it down, you better just wait for God to start working, because he will, because when it says that all nations are gonna hear that the word of God, that the gospel's gonna be published to all nations, I believe that's actually going to happen, before he comes, okay, and how that happens, I may not know exactly, I don't, I definitely don't believe that God is leaning on Facebook and YouTube to do it, and if he was, he would make it happen, okay, if he needed Facebook and YouTube, he would make it happen, okay, but all that to say is that don't read over that verse, okay, that's a very powerful verse to think about, and to think about also, how's the chapter end in verse, in chapter one, it ends with the fact that the wicked should no more at all be, I'm gonna butcher it now, it says for the wicked shall no more pass through thee, he is utterly cut off, chapter two, how's it end? It ends with the fact that it's saying that I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messenger shall no more be heard, and what does it, and just to give you the ending of the whole book, it says the shepherd slumber, oh king of, I'm sorry, I'm giving you two verses back there, that's a good one, we'll read that too, the shepherd slumber, oh king of Assyria, thy noble shall dwell in the dust, thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathers them, there is no healing of thy bruise, thy wound is grievous, all that hear the brood of thee shall clap the hands over thee, for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually, so it's just like every end of the chapter is just showing you, hey, no more the wicked are gonna pass through thee, why, because it's gonna be completely annihilated, you know, but then just going on down the line as far as that goes, and brute, by the way, is an old word that kind of means like a message, or news, like B-R-U-I-T, so just, you know, vocabulary there for you, so, now going on in chapter 3, so Nineveh chapter 3 and verse 1, Nineveh chapter 3 and verse 1, like I said, and I kind of already hit this point, but the idea of Nineveh being likened unto this harlot, okay, and we know that Babylon, the great whore of Babylon, right, is the mother of what? Harlots. The mother of harlots, and it goes into the witchcraft and all that, and chapter 3, really, if you want to see just a nice parallel to Revelation 17 and 18, look at Nahum 3, and also I think Zephaniah 2, okay, it's in Zephaniah, okay, but it's talking about Nineveh and what Nineveh is like, but in verse 1, you kind of see, you know, why they're being destroyed, right, so chapter 1 is kind of setting you up, that they're going to be destroyed, God is powerful, He's going to destroy them, chapter 2 is talking about how they are being destroyed or how that's going to happen, and then chapter 3 is kind of setting you up like, okay, this is why they're being destroyed, it says in verse 1, woe to the bloody city, it is full of lies and robbery, the prey departeth not, the noise of a whip and the noise of a rattling of the wheels and of the prancing horses and of the jumping chariots, the horsemen lifted up both the bright sword and the glittering spear, and there is a multitude of slain and a great number of carcasses, and there is none end of their corpses, they stumble upon their corpses, because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms and families through her witchcrafts, behold, I'm against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will show the nations thy nakedness and the kingdoms thy shame, and I will cast abominable filth upon thee and make thee vile and will set thee as a gazing stock. Now if you read Revelation chapter 18, that is exactly what you see happen at the end. Now that hasn't happened yet in Revelation 18, this has happened, okay, this has happened already to Nineveh, but I believe this has happened to all these major world empires that we see. Now, go to verse 8 there, because the last thing that I want to hit on, and I believe I'm sure I hit on this when we were going through the book of NAMM, but it's been a while, okay, a lot of you weren't here when I went through the book of NAMM, you may have already listened to it, I don't know, but there's this thing called the seven-headed dragon in Revelation, okay, Revelation 13 talks about the seven-headed dragon with ten horns, okay, Revelation 17 talks about the seven-headed dragon with ten horns, okay, and just to give you the gist of what this is, okay, obviously when the Antichrist comes on the scene, he's not going to be a seven-headed dragon with ten horns, meaning like, he's not going to pop up out of the sea like Godzilla and, you know, have all these heads and horns on him, okay, it's obviously giving you, you know, telling you who this, where this person came from, I made a mistake drinking the coffee again, allergy season, I just can't drink coffee when I'm preaching, but it's giving you an idea, where did this person come from, who is this person, where did all this, you know, start, so there's seven heads and it's pretty easy to know four of the heads, okay, and, but the first two is where you're just like, it doesn't really tell, the Bible doesn't really tell you what those first two heads were, okay, because there's seven heads and these are kingdoms throughout time, okay, because in Revelation 17, actually go to Revelation 17 first, okay, I just want to show you this just so you know what I'm talking about, okay, before we get into it, okay, that's the last thing I want to show you, I don't know why that's the last thing, I'm like, oh, by the way, let me tell you what this is saying, you know, sometimes it doesn't come together the way you want, but maybe I should stop writing my sermons at 11 o'clock at night. So Revelation 17 and verse 9, it says, here's the mind which hath wisdom, the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth, and there are seven kings, okay, so it's talking about these seven heads, seven mountains, and I believe these seven mountains represent seven kingdoms, okay, because a lot of times the mountain will represent a kingdom, but it just says there's seven kings, okay, notice this, five are fallen, one is, and the other is yet to come, and when he cometh, he must continue a short space, so there's seven heads, five are fallen, so in John's day, who was the world power? Not a trick question, Rome, okay, obvious that it's Rome, you know, Caesar Augustus, Tiberius, those are all mentioned, you know, dealing in the New Testament, even just doing history on the Roman Empire, that's where we're getting up to the peak of the Roman Empire in that time, so you're dealing with the Roman Empire, so it's saying one is, okay, so that means the sixth kingdom, that sixth head was in John's day, does that make sense? That means five had already died, it says five are fallen, are fallen, okay, so who are these five? And it also says later on, okay, so in verse 10 there, it tells you that the ten horns, it says, and the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive powers kings one hour with the beast, so the ten horns are ten kings in one time period when the beast is on the scene, does that make sense? So when you see these seven heads you're dealing with throughout time, the ten horns are all at one time, okay, now, but the seven heads is what I want you to kind of focus on here, okay, in John's day, obviously the sixth head is Rome, okay, and I'm going to backtrack because I should have done this the other way around, go to Daniel chapter two, Daniel chapter two, Daniel chapter two there's a vision of this statue, okay, and Nebuchadnezzar has this dream, and if you know the story, basically he's going to kill all the wise men and magicians because no one could tell him his dream, because he didn't even, he couldn't remember it, so he's like I need you to tell me the dream, and they're like well tell us the dream and we'll tell you the interpretation, and he's going to kill everybody, but remember Daniel basically comes up to him and God reveals unto him the dream and the interpretation, and so there's this statue of a head of gold, the arms and torso are of silver, and then the thighs and the loins are of brass, and then the legs, so from the joint down of the legs are iron, and then the ten toes are iron and clay, right, it's iron mixed with miry clay, right, so you can kind of see that that last one, how that would represent with the ten horns, right, ten toes, ten horns, makes sense, but, so we'll see that we can definitely define these four, okay, so in verse thirty-seven there it says, Thou, O king, art a king of kings, for the God of heaven hath given a kingdom power and strength and glory, and whosoever the children, I'm sorry, and whosoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold, okay, so Nebuchadnezzar, who is he the king of? Babylon, so he's the head of gold, and after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee. Now we know from Daniel seven, eight, eleven, that that is the Medo-Persian empire, okay, the Persians essentially, because the Medes kind of take out Babylon, but then the Persians really just take over, and it's just a Persian empire really. So that next kingdom, that silver kingdom, is the Persians, according to Daniel eight and eleven, and according to Daniel eight and eleven, another kingdom, a third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. That's the Grecian empire, okay, so you're dealing with Alexander the Great, and, you know, when the kingdom broke off from him, and that Grecian empire, okay, so those first three are pretty simple, because Daniel spells that out, okay, Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, okay, you even see that in the book of Daniel, who takes over after the Babylonian empire? The Persians, the Medes and the Persians, okay, Cyrus the Persian is how, you know, where they kind of end with history in the book of Daniel, but then we know that the Grecians take over, and then it talks about this fourth kingdom, okay, in verse forty, So, at what kings? The ten toes, okay. So, if you put all this together, when John is sitting there in the isle of Patmos taking down this vision, it says that he's in the sixth kingdom, and if you think about, if you backtrack, okay, so the sixth kingdom after the Grecian empire, and, you know, just doing history, you know that the Romans are the next world empire, okay, and you know that in John's day the Romans were the world empire, so that's the sixth kingdom, that means the fifth kingdom is what? The Grecian empire, right, and that means the fourth kingdom is what? The Medes and the Persians, but mainly the Persians, right, and then the third kingdom is what? That head of gold, the Babylonian empire, okay, so from John you can kind of go back, you know, with Daniel and say, okay, the third head would have been the Babylonian, right, and then obviously, what's the seventh? That's the one we're waiting for, right, that's the one that's going to be the ten kings, and in that day is when God's going to come down and set up his kingdom, okay. Now, what are those first two? And you say, what in the world and why in the world are you showing us all this stuff, right? Well, look back at Nahum chapter three, and that's probably why I wanted to show it to you first to give you why I'm even going through all this. I believe Nahum has really given us a key into knowing that those first two heads, the first one's Egypt, the second one's Assyria, okay, because it's very clear that Assyria is so much like the Babylon, I mean, just all the parallel passages that happen with Nineveh, that it's kind of hard not to see that that is one of the heads, but even in the timeline, if you're going through Genesis, what is the world power in Genesis? Egypt. No doubt, Egypt is the world power. I mean, that's where Joseph goes down, and, you know, obviously that was the world power at that time, and from that point, that was the only, like, all-encompassing world power, and you say, well, what about between that? You know, was Egypt always the world power? Well, what about right now? Okay, meaning that there's not always, like, it's not like it's just world power and there's no, like, space between world powers. Does that make sense? So when Egypt was that world power and just, you know, all-encompassing, you know, it kind of trickled off to where they were kind of falling out, and eventually God just completely, you know, made them to where they'll never be a world power again. Okay, Ezekiel talks about that. I'll kind of touch on that, but notice what it says in Nahum chapter 3 and verse 8. Nahum chapter 3 and verse 8. It says, art thou better than Populus? No. Now, no there is a place, and Populus just means that it was obviously very populated, okay? Now, he's talking to Nineveh, right? He's kind of speaking to Nineveh. Are you better than Populus? No. The reason he's going to say that is because they were destroyed, okay? Art thou better than Populus? No. That was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea. Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite. But Put and Lubim were their helpers. Yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed to pieces at the top of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. So, did it end well with Populus? No. Did it end well with no? Now, you say, well what are you talking about? Okay, well who's no? How does this relate? I'm going to show you that no is actually noph, okay? N-O-P-H. Girls, Anna. Anna, sit up and stop talking. So, go to Ezekiel chapter 30. Ezekiel chapter 30. He's like, what's the whole point with this? I just want to show you that I do believe the Bible in Nahum chapter 3 here is giving us the clue that, hey, Egypt's the first head, and Assyria's the next one. So, Nahum is covering that fallen second head, right? Because it says five are fallen, one is, and one is yet to come, and Nahum is covering that second head. The next head that's going to fall is Babylon, okay? But really Babylon comes into power, Nebuchadnezzar, all that stuff, and it's not until at the end of that 70 year captivity that they're taken out by the Medes and the Persians, okay? So, that being said, I think this really shows you that, hey, we're dealing with Egypt, and he's saying that Egypt was destroyed. Are you better than them? Okay, that's essentially what he's saying. They were destroyed. Are you better than them? No, because you're going to be destroyed just like that, okay? And so, in Ezekiel chapter 30 and verse 13, it says, thus saith the Lord, I will also destroy the idols and will cause their images to cease out of Noth. Now, you say, well, how do you know Noth and Noth are the same place? Because it's going to say it later, but just bear with me. So, Noth, it says, there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt. So, is it very clear that Noth and Egypt are associated to each other here? It says, and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt, and I will put make Pathros desolate and will set fire in Zoan and will execute judgments in no. And that's a place. Then in verse 15, and I will pour my fury upon sin, the strength of Egypt, and I will cut off the multitude of no. And I will set fire in Egypt, sin shall have great pain, and no shall be rent asunder, and Noth shall have distress daily. So, when you're talking about, aren't thou better than populous no, it does say Egypt in there, right? But it's kind of saying that Ethiopia and Egypt were thy strength, and you could say, well, was it the same place? It's basically saying that Noth, or no, was basically the capital city, if you will, of Egypt that was annihilated. And it's saying, are you better than that? Nineveh, are you better than that? Because that's how they got taken out, and you're coming next. So, it shows you that progression of what this seven-headed dragon is. And sometimes you got to go backwards, right? Because remember, Revelation is the most clear, right? When you see these seven heads, the seven kingdoms, Revelation 17 is spelling that out for you, saying these are seven kings, five are fallen, one is, and one is yet to come. So, John's sitting on the sixth. He's in there during the sixth kingdom, right? That sixth head, and he's saying five are fallen, and then you could work your way back with Daniel, and then you've got to figure out who are those last two. Well, Genesis will tell you that Egypt is definitely that one. You say, well, what does it go back to? What about before Egypt? Well, you got to understand that this all started with the Tower of Babel, okay? We're dealing with world powers, okay? So, these seven heads are world powers that are over all the earth, and so, Babel in Genesis chapter 10 talks about Babylon, and it talks about Assyria. It talks about Nineveh. Those two places are mentioned in Genesis 10, and that's where they had the Tower of Babel, and they wanted everybody to speak the same language. They wanted to have everything the same, and they didn't want to be scattered, and God scattered them by, you know, confounding their languages, and they went out into other places, and ever since then, they've all been trying to get back together, okay? And it happened with Egypt. They were trying to get back together. It happened with Assyria. They were trying to get back together, and Babylon was trying to get back together, but throughout the line, these heads have been being broken down the line, and God is destroying them, and guess what? That final head is going to be broken, okay? The end game of that seventh head, the Antichrist, where these ten kings are going to give him that power to be a ruler over all the earth, guess what? He's going to be destroyed without hand. That's what the Bible says. Why? Because the beast and the false prophet are going to be cast into the lake of fire by Jesus himself, and then the armies are going to be destroyed by the sword that preceded that of his mouth. So, anyway, that's a little Bible study on that. So, you know, when you're dealing with Nahum, there's certain things, and I'm like, that's good. It's a nice little key right there to show you how to figure out who those first two are, and you could probably figure that out without that, right, because you can kind of just say, okay, well, Egypt, obviously, that makes sense that Egypt would be the first one from Babel, you know, from the Tower of Babel, but who's the one in between that and Babylon? Well, when you're going through the kings, Assyria is like that enemy, but Nahum and Zephaniah really confirm that Nineveh or Assyria is definitely that second head, right? It's that world kingdom. It's so paralleled with that Babylon that's going to be destroyed in the future. You know, a lot of times you're going there just to see more information about what's going to happen in the end. So, but that's Nahum. Obviously, that's not all inclusive. If you want to do a little more detail into those chapters, I preached three sermons on that already. So, there's definitely some more details in those chapters. So, let's end with the word of the heavenly Father. We thank you for today. Thank you for your word, and thank you for the book of Nahum, and just thank you for the study through these prophets and just pray that you would be with us as we go out through the rest of this week. Give us health. Give us safety. Help us to bring glory to your name. We love you and pray also in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Brother Dave will come and sing one more song, and that will be dismissed. All right, take your song books and turn to song number 55. Song number 55, and if you would stand, we'll sing When the Roll is Called Up Yonder. Song number 55. When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more, and the morning breaks eternal bright and fair, when the saved on earth shall gather over on the other shore, and the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there. When the roll is called up yonder, when the roll is called up yonder, when the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there. On that bright and cloudless morning when the dead in Christ shall rise, and the glory of his resurrection share, when his chosen ones shall gather to their home beyond the skies, and the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there. When the roll is called up yonder, when the roll is called up yonder, when the roll is called up yonder.