Scott was wise he came in and
turned off the speakers He didn't get blasted out Zephaniah let's begin in chapter
1 that's where I want to begin with this message And the title
of the message is the cause and source of joy cause and source
of joy now this book does not begin with joy and This book
ends with joy, but it begins by announcing God's coming judgment. God's coming judgment. Now, if
you read the last part of verse 1, you see that this was during
the time of Josiah. Josiah was a good king. Josiah was a man that loved God,
that instituted the Passover that had been forgotten. This
man was a man who did right in the sight of the Lord. And Israel,
following this man, everything seemed to be going well. It seemed
that the people were turning to God at this time. But this
is very surprising. You would think during a time
where everybody seems to be turning to God, everybody seems to be
following God, that you would get a book completely full of
joy. But that's not so. Why? Because
there's a lot of people during this time who only turn to God
faintly. They only made an outward profession
of faith. Everybody else was doing it,
and they were just following along the crowds. But in their
heart and in their homes, they had those idols still. And so God here begins this book
by the mouth of this prophet Zephaniah. He begins this book
with a warning. A warning. Look at verse 2. God says, I will utterly, completely
destroy and consume all things from off the land, saith the
Lord. I will consume man and beast,
and I will consume the fowls of heaven, and the fishes of
the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked. I will cut off
man from the land, saith the Lord. I will stretch out my hand
upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and
I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the
name of Cherims with the priests, and them that worship the host
of heaven upon the housetops, and them that worship, that swear
by the Lord, and that swear by Malchim or Moloch. Remember that
was the God that they had offered their children to. And them that turned back from
the Lord and those that have not sought the Lord nor inquired
of Him. This is a message that begins
of great destruction, a warning. Here God swears. He swears that
He will completely remove and consume every idol and every
idol worshiper. One day, this is speaking to
us and reminds us that one day the Lord Jesus Christ will come
again to this world. People have been saying, well,
where's His coming? Where's His coming? Everything seems to continue
the same way it was before. Why do you say he's coming? He's
not coming. Oh, yes, he is. He's coming.
Just like he came the first time. He told them in the Old Testament
he was coming. And did he come? Yes, he did.
And He tells us after He has risen and ascended into heaven,
He is coming again. But this time He is not coming
in salvation. He is not coming in for redemption. He is coming in judgment. In judgment. Our Lord Jesus Christ
is coming down from heaven with a shout. And everyone will see
Him. Every man, woman, boy and girl
shall know this. that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. They'll know that. They may deny
it now, but soon they won't. Soon they won't. That in a moment,
every false god in that moment when he comes, every false god
and every false idea of God will be removed forever from the face
of the earth. All those who worship Baal, which
is a type of all false gods. Everyone who worships a false
god upon the housetops, those who worship a false god without
shame. There were some people during
this time that were worshiping Baal on their housetops. They
didn't care who saw it. They put their idols up on their
housetop and they bowed down and they worshiped, didn't care
who saw what they worshiped. There's some people like that. Some people worship the hosts
of heaven. Some people who worship Allah and Buddha and Mohammed.
All those who worship the earth, such as those crazy, some crazy
environmentalists who just love to hug the earth and worship
it. I read one article, they were
saying that, you know, man should be killed so that the animals
can have a place to live. They'd rather kill, they'd rather
everybody die. I just heard worship. It's not
something new. It's been going on for centuries. There's some men who swear by
God and by Moloch. Who are these? These are ones
who come in the worship service today and go home and worship
their lust, follow their lust and their passion. They come
here and change. They sit up straight. They listen.
They go home. Nah. They forget what they hear
as soon as they walk out the door. There's those whose loyalty and
devotion are divided between Christ and Balaam, between Christ
and this world. Remember this, you cannot be
a friend of this world and a friend of God. You cannot serve two masters. You
either love the one, hate the other, despise the one, forsake
the other. You cannot serve God and man. You can't serve God
in this world. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. There are some who pretend even
to believe on Jesus Christ. They are outwardly devoted in
their public worship, but they still have some hope,
some inclination of being accepted by their works. These are the ones that come
in and say, Lord, Lord, But yet what they are doing is
not really bowing to Christ. They are bowing to Christ partially. In other words, they want Christ.
They know they got to have Christ. And what they do is they're also
bowing to their own works. They're trying to mix grace and
works together to bring salvation. Papists, those who worship God
and their idols, they seek God outwardly, but really they're
truly just trying to justify themselves by their own works
and not trusting in grace. But there's a day coming where
every man's religion will be fully exposed. And I'll tell
you this, I've seen some pretenders. I've seen them. They've come
in and they were on fire. And you know they went out just
as fast as they came in? Just like that, they were gone.
They're still gone. And I pray that if they are gods,
I know this, he'll draw them, he'll bring them back. But I'll
tell you this, whatever your religion is, in that day, it
will be fully exposed. Be fully exposed when Christ
comes. And all who are outside of Jesus
Christ in that day will be forever swept away by the justice of
Almighty God. In that day, when He comes in
His full glory with His holy angels and His saints, He will
come in judgment and every man's religion will be fully exposed
whether it is true or it is a lie. In that day. And we men may deceive
one another We may deceive one another, but in that day there
will be no deception. Everything will be exposed when
Christ comes. Go over to Isaiah chapter 28.
Hold your place. Very vivid description of this. In Isaiah 28, verse 14, Wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, you scornful men that rule the people which is in Jerusalem,
because you have said, we have made a covenant with death, and
with hell we are in agreement. And when the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us. For we have
made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves."
I keep thinking of a poor man in a cardboard box. Here comes a tsunami, and he
ducks in in a cardboard box. And he says, I'm safe. I've made
a covenant with this tsunami. Everything's just going to be
just fine. Oh, that's not what God said. And He said in verse
18, And your covenant with death and hell shall be disannulled. And your agreement with hell
shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
And from the time it goeth forth, it shall take you. For morning by morning it shall
pass over by day and by night, and it shall be vexation only
to understand the report. Listen, here's the report. For
the bed is shorter than a man can stretch himself on it, and
the covering narrower than a man can wrap himself in it. That's
the message. They're going to understand that,
but it's only going to be too late. It's too late when He comes. That day, my friend, is fast
approaching, and I pray that God would even open your eyes
to it, to see whether your refuge is a refuge of lies or not. Do you not think, you that have
been saved for a long time, is it not still incumbent upon us
to make our calling and election sure? Don't you think you'd be
wise to do that? Instead of just saying, I know,
everything's all right. Not for me. I want to make sure
that I'm in the refuge, the one laid by God, the one laid from
eternity, Jesus Christ, upon whom is all the fury of God been
poured out. I want to be in him. I got to
be in him. Any other thing else, anything
else I don't want. I don't want. It's a refuge of lies. A day is fast approaching when
men will be truly surprised who think that they were worshipers
of God but only to be found deceived by their own wicked hearts. And all they thought to be a
strong refuge was nothing but lies and falsehood. They will
see then clearly the bed is shorter and you can stretch yourself
out on, and the covering's too narrow." What does that mean?
The bed's too short and the covering's too narrow? In other words, all
have sinned and come short, short of the glory of God. I thought
of this illustration one time. If California fell into the ocean
and the only place to swim was Hawaii, Now I'll tell you what, the good
swimmers could make it a long way. But they are going to drown just
as sure as the ones who can't swim. Why? It's too short. The distance they can swim is
too short. Listen, your righteousness is
too short. It won't fit. You won't make
it. Try as you may, you won't make
it. Your righteousness is not enough.
Your good works are not enough. Go and strive, if you will, labor
and work and sweat and labor for righteousness as much as
your heart desires. But if your God, listen to me,
if your God accepts your best efforts, then your God is not
God. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. That's what my best gets me.
That's my best. That's the best I can do is filthy
rags. That's all I've got. That's all
you've got. I'll tell you what, your covering,
your righteousness is too short. It won't cover your nakedness
before God. Now, it may cover your nakedness
before me. That's okay. You can deceive
me. I'm easy. I'm easy to deceive. I want people
to believe. I do. I want it so bad sometimes
I even just... I don't listen to reason. But,
one thing about it, you won't deceive God. And if your God
accepts your righteousness, your works, your God is not God. Therefore, you're an idle worshiper,
and in that day, God's overflowing scourge will come over you, death
and hell will swallow you up for eternity. Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way. It leadeth
unto life, and listen, few there be that find it. Many, like the Pharisees, seek
to enter the straight gate and obtain righteousness by their
works. Paul said about the Pharisees,
he said, I bear them record, they have a zeal for God, but
not according to knowledge. Why? Because they seek after
righteousness by their own works. They're trying to obtain God's
favor by what they're doing, and they're not going to get
it. all who seek the righteousness
of God by your works, you will be forever cast out into outer
darkness, where there will be nothing but weeping and regret."
But Jesus speaks of some who come from the East and the West
Pagans, sinners who come in and enter in and eat with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. How is that? How is it that the
most self-righteous people in the world could not enter in,
but yet sinners can? Why? Because sinners obtain it
by grace. They seek it by faith, not by
works. That's how they obtain it. Because God has chosen a remnant. God has chosen a people. He has
loved them from eternity. And it was these people God purposed
to show His mercy. And it was to these elect people
God purposed to make righteous, though they were by nature and
birth sinners. Now consider Consider that if
there were no election to salvation, that there would be no salvation.
I'm gonna show it to you. Go back to Isaiah. You're there
in Isaiah, but go back to Isaiah chapter one. Isaiah chapter one. He says of these people, he says,
ah, you sinful nation. people laden with iniquity, a
seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have forsaken
the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One
of Israel to anger. They are gone away backward. Why should you be stricken anymore? In other words, why are you fighting
against God? You can't win. You will revolt more and more.
Though you know you can't win, you'll still kick. This is the
nature of man. The nature of man is always to
sin and hate God, to kick against God. Yet you'll revolt more and
more. You won't repent. The whole head
is sick. The whole heart is faint. From
the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness,
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed
up, neither bound up, nor mollified with ointment. Your country is
desolate. Your cities are burned with fire.
Your land, strangers devour it in your presence and is desolate
and overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left
as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,
as a besieged city. Listen, he's talking about these
people. He's mentioned these in verse
9. Except the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant,
we should have been as Sodom and would have been like Gomorrah.
Do you see that little cottage out in the middle of this big
field? He's talking about the remnant. That's it. This is all
there is. The remnant that God has chosen. And if God had not chosen some
to life, none of us would have been saved. Praise God for His
electing grace. It's mercy to save some. It was
God's purpose and will that these sinners should obtain righteousness. That these sinners, though they
were sinners by nature, that they would desire and seek after
righteousness only through grace. How else can this sinner be made
righteous except by the grace of God? There's no other way.
There's no other way. But those such as Pharisees who
try to seek out righteousness by their work, listen, your end
is sure. God will consume you. And all
of those works that you trusted in will be burned up. And hell, hell will be your final
abode. But because there is election
unto grace, I do have a message, a gospel message, as to how sinners
are made righteous. How that we who cannot obtain
righteousness by our works may obtain righteousness through
faith in a representative man, Jesus Christ. Behold, God has
laid in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock of offense, even Jesus
Christ. Now listen, the Jesus Christ
of today is no offense to anyone. Because all He is is a figment
of their imagination. He is a weak effeminate Savior. He's one who has died in hopes
of maybe saving somebody if they'll just pretty please let Him. That
poor Jesus, He's knocking on the door of hearts of men and
saying, pretty please let me in. Let me rule your life. Friends, that's not Christ at
all. That's not the Christ of this book. The Jesus of today is not offensive
because he doesn't rule anything. The love of the false Christ
of this generation loves Judas and Peter the same. Therefore,
what does the love of God have to do with salvation? If He loved
Judas the same as He loved Peter, then what in the world does His
love have to do with salvation? Nothing. Nothing. I declare unto you that Jesus
is not a passive, weak ruler, but He is God manifest in the
flesh. Jesus has come into the world,
not to save all men, but to those that the Father hath given Him. Jesus has come to fulfill all
their righteousness by His obedience, and He has come to shed His blood
to redeem them from all their sins. Behold, Jesus, out of love
for his own, he did redeem them and reconcile them to God, and
every one of those elect he will break. He will break their hearts. He will convince them of their
sin. And they will confess their hopeless,
helpless condition. And they will turn to Him for
complete mercy. Absolute mercy. You know what
I need? I need absolute mercy. You know where I find absolute
mercy? Jesus Christ alone. That's where I find it. That's
where I find it. Jesus Christ has come to save
His people from their sins. Sinners, cast off your refuge
of lies, forsake your false thoughts of Christ, and come to Him, bow
down to Him, and believe on Him, and He will save you. This is the promise of grace. Faith in Christ, my friend, is
not a complicated thing. It's not complicated to understand. It's just impossible for men
to do. Except God give it to you. And if you have faith, it is because God gave it. Where
then is boasting? It is excluded. No boasting. No pride here. Salvation by free grace. Now
then, to you who believe, I'm going to give you four things
in closing. concerning the joy. We know Christ
is coming. We should cast off all the old
refuge of lies. You should believe on Jesus Christ
and trust in Him. And all who do, listen, this
is what God says to you. See, O daughter of Zion, shout,
O Israel, and be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter
of Jerusalem. Surely God will come in judgment
for the wicked and the self-righteous, but here God says to his people
not to fear. You know, you who believe, you
should not fear the coming judgment of God. You shouldn't fear it. Death, you shouldn't fear it.
I know we do. I know the old man fears it.
But I'll tell you this, God says fear not. You who are His people. Listen. I'm going to give you
four reasons. Here's one. Verse 15. Here's a great reason for you
to rejoice. You who do believe. You who are
elected, chosen, redeemed, and called. Here it is. The Lord
hath taken away thy judgments. I told you God is coming in judgment,
but not for me. Not for me. Why? How is it that
I should escape? I'm a sinner just like you. How
is it that I should escape? Because my judgment has already
been paid. Paid. This is it. The Lord hath
taken away thy judgments. So rejoice, rejoice because all
of the holy vengeance of God that was against my sin is that
I truly deserve was executed upon Jesus Christ, my substitute. You remember Abraham when he
took his son, his only beloved son up that mountain and God
said, you kill your son for me. You raise that knife and you
slit his throat and you kill him for me. And he was already
determined in his heart he was going to do it. He raised the
knife to kill his son. And can you imagine how sweet
that voice was? It said, Whoa! Stop. Lay not
your hand upon the lad. You know who that was? That was
the Lord Jesus Christ, the pre-incarnate Christ come and stopped him.
He said, Behold, a ram is caught in the thicket. He was speaking
of himself. This is a substitute. This is
what Christ did for His people. He's the ram. Called Him the
thicket. And He was substituted for Isaac. He was substituted
for His people. And the knife fell on Him instead
of us. God made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. He imputed all our sins to Christ. And as Christ bore my sin in
His own body on the tree. Listen, God will never, will
never, will never judge me for that sin. Ever. He will never judge me for that
sin. I like this song by Top Lady, it says, From whence this
fear and unbelief? Hath not the Father put to grief
His own spotless Son for me? And will the righteous judge
of men condemn me For the debt of sin which, Lord, was charged
on Thee? Complete atonement Thou hast
paid, What error Thy people owed! How then can wrath on me take
place, if sheltered in thy righteousness, and sprinkled with thy blood? If thou hast my discharge procured,
and freely in my room endured, the whole of wrath divine, listen,
payment, God cannot twice demand. first at my surety's hand and
then again at mine. God can't demand twice payment.
Isn't that just? Isn't that just just? If he's
already paid for my sin, how can he come to me and demand
it? That's unjust. He can't. Does that give you hope? Does that give you hope? Gives me a good hope. Second,
sing, because thine enemies are cast out. He has cast out all
thine enemies. Oh, friends, we've got some real
enemies. The world, the flesh, the devil,
sin within, sin without. We are constantly surrounded
by enemies. But you, believers, should sing,
for your enemies have been forever cast out. They're cast out. Sin. That's the enemy you deal
with all the time, isn't it? Your sin. You feel guilty. The conscience is constantly
barred by this enemy. But really, where is your sin?
Where is it? It's gone. It's gone. Matter of fact, Jeremiah chapter
50 and verse 20 says that God himself can't find it. God himself says, I will not
remember your iniquities anymore. All friends, if God be for us,
who can be against us? You got some enemies? How can
they stand against you if God's for you? Thirdly, listen to this,
sing because the King is in the midst of you. He said the Lord
is in the midst of thee. He's in the midst of thee. He's
here this morning. I know that because He promised
to be. Where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there I am in the middle of them. But I know something more intimate
than that. He lives in us in this body. Know you not that you are the
temple of God and the Holy Spirit dwells in you? Oh, the Lord's
in the midst of you. He dwells with you. And when
you're all alone, you're never alone. You're never alone. He's always there. When thou
passest through the waters, they shall not overflow thee. Why? Because I'm with you. When the
fire comes in, you won't be burned. Why? I'm with you. I'm with you. He's always with us, and He'll
never leave us nor forsake us. And lastly, get this. I want
you to hang on to this. Hang on to it. Promise. This is a promise of God to His
people. Thou shalt not see evil any more. Believer, nothing happens to
you for evil. If you go out of this place this
morning and a car hits you, it's not for evil. If you get sick and die, it's
not for evil. If you lose your children, it
is not for evil. How do I know? God said it. Matter of fact, that's part of
the eternal covenant. He said, I will do you good all
the days of your life. Whatever it is you're going through,
it's good. You won't see evil anymore. Everything
happens to you for good. sickness or health, in poverty's
veil or abounding in wealth, it don't matter. Everything is
for your good. Why? Because he chose you, he
redeemed you, he loves you, and he will keep you. And not even
we can mess this up. I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful. Not even me. Not even my sin. Because he's already taken that
into account and put it away. Isn't that what he told David?
When David said, oh, I've sinned against the Lord, and he said,
David, the Lord hath already put away your sin. Now, he didn't
put away the consequences, but he sure did put away his sin. I tell you what, if you have
need of singing, you can always run back to this. Yes, God is
coming in judgment. Yes, God will do away with the
wicked. Believe on Christ now, today, and you may sing. You
may sing. Your judgments are gone. Your
enemies are cast out. The Lord is in the midst of thee,
and thou shalt not see evil any more. Causes of joy. causes of joy. May God bless
this to you. Stand will be dismissed in prayer.