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The sermon presents God as both slow to anger and unwilling to acquit the wicked, rejecting the idea that patience means indifference to sin. Divine restraint flows from God’s goodness, greatness, and sovereign power. Spurgeon teaches that forgiven sin is not ignored but punished in Christ’s suffering at Calvary, making substitutionary atonement central to salvation. Those who trust Christ may find refuge and assurance, while the unrepentant are urgently called to repent before their reprieve ends.
Theological center: God’s mercy and justice meet in penal substitution, as Christ bears the punishment that divine justice requires so that believers may be forgiven.
Applications: Flee to Christ for refuge · Repent without delay · Understand divine perfection · Fear unpardoned judgment
Primary texts: Nahum 1:3 · Hebrews 8:12 · Lamentations 3:33
“The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked.” Nahum 1:3 WORKS of art require some education in the beholder before they can be thoroughly appreciated. We do not expect that the uninstructed should at once perceive the varied excellencies of a painting from some master hand. We do not imagine that the superlative glories of the harmonies of the princes of song will enrapture the ears of clownish listeners. There must be something in the man himself, before he can understand the wonders either of nature or of art. Certainly this is true of character. By reason of failures in our character and faults in our life, we are not capable of understanding all the separate beauties and the united perfection of the character of Christ, or of God, His Father. Were we ourselves as pure as the angels in heaven, were we what our race once was in the garden of Eden—immaculate and perfect—it is quite certain that we should have a far better and nobler idea of the character of God than we can by possibility attain unto in our fallen state. But you cannot fail to notice that men, through the alienation of their natures, are continually misrepresenting God, because they cannot appreciate His perfection. Does God at one time withhold His hand from wrath? Lo, they say that God has ceased to judge the world and looks upon it with listless phlegmatic indifference. Does He at another time punish the world for sin? They say He is severe and cruel. Men will misunderstand Him, because they are imperfect themselves and are not capable of admiring the character of God. Now, this is especially true with regard to certain lights and shadows in the character of God, which He has so marvelously blended in the perfection of His nature. That although we cannot see the exact point of meeting, yet (if we have been at all enlightened by the Spirit) we are struck with wonder at the sacred harmony. In reading Holy Scripture, you can say of Paul, that he was noted for his zeal—of Peter, that he will ever be memorable for his courage—of John, that he was noted for his lovingness. But did you ever notice, when you read the history of our Master, Jesus Christ, that you never could say He was notable for any one virtue at all? Why was that? It was because the boldness of Peter did so outgrow itself as to throw other virtues into the shade or else the other virtues were so deficient that they set forth his boldness. The very feet of a man being noted for something is a sure sign that he is not so notable in other things. And it is because of the complete perf…