Pastor James, Tim James. And you all know him, I'm sure. He's from Cherokee on the Indian
Reservation. Pastor's a wonderful group of
people there. We're so glad to have you. He's
been such a dear friend to me for many, many years. We've been
best friends. since the early 70s. And we're
thankful for you, Tim. You come preach the word of God
to us. You're welcome here. It is a sweet trip, always, and
I am thankful to be here. Turn back in your Bibles, please,
to Zephaniah chapter 3. I want to take my text tonight
from verse 17. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in His love. He
will joy over thee with singing. If you read commentaries concerning
this verse, this usually points to the time when God has come
once again to take His people to Himself and make all things
new. The new heaven and the new earth. They kind of leave it
there. But I believe you can apply this
to any point. time and eternity in reference to the Lord Jesus
Christ as he considers his people and what he has done for them.
As I read it, I think of the Lord having died in the room
instead of his people, having put away their sins by the sacrifice
of himself, having cast them behind God's back, separated
them from them as far as the east is from the west, buried
them at the bottom of the sea, however what metaphor pleases
you, put our sins away. He died the death that was due
us. That's how He kept the law. He
died the death that was due us. Satisfied God in every way as
far as justice and law is concerned. And made us righteous before
God. Indeed, God made Him to be our
righteousness. And that's the only righteousness
that God looks to. and the only one that He accepts.
I read these words and I think of eternity when Christ was made
to be our surety. And then I can see Him having
signed His name to my debt, rejoicing over me with joy and rejoicing
over me with singing. I can see Him when He came down
in His incarnation. And the same words apply. I can
see Him on the cross of Calvary as our sister just sang so beautifully
about it. Rejoicing over His sheep. It
says we are to look to Him who went to the cross before the
joy set before Him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and
sat down on the right hand of the Father. I think of when He
sends His Spirit to awaken us to what He has done for us and
to inform us through the preaching of the gospel that our salvation
was bought and paid for, done and done, finished on Calvary's
tree. And I can almost hear Him rejoicing
over His children whom He has saved. I think of Him coming
again. And the same words apply. Read
them again with me. The Lord thy God is in the midst
of thee, or in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will rest in His love. He will joy over thee with singing. Now, one would be hard-pressed
to find more encouraging words than these in all of the Word
of God. These are words of promise revealed
and fulfilled in the gospel of God's sovereign grace by the
work of Christ on Calvary's tree. It is the promise of salvation
for that elect remnant who He is speaking to particularly here
out of the nation Israel, that elect remnant according to the
election of grace. That remnant was in the midst
of that elect nation called Israel and part of that nation and therefore
they took part in all the iniquity of that nation. They are no different,
though they are elect, than the rest of the nation Israel. Like
Noah who was who found grace in the eyes of the Lord was no
different than the rest of the people on the earth at the time
whose thoughts were evil continually before God. I heard a priest
the other day on TV say that Noah was a good man and God showed
him grace because he was a good man. Noah was a rebel against
God just like all the rest of the people on the earth. And
he deserved to die in that flood just like the rest of the people
did on earth. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
In Isaiah chapter 1, our Lord speaks of the condition of this
nation religiously in rebellion against Him. And He says they
are sick from their head to their foot. No soundness in them. He despises their oblations,
their offerings, their practicing of different particular holy
days. He despises that. He says, When
you call on Me, I am not going to answer you. I am not going
to have anything to do with you. When you hold up your hands,
I am going to turn My back from you. But before he said that,
he said, Except thou had left us a very small remnant. All
of us should have been, rightfully, like Sodom and Gomorrah. So this
promise is made to those people who are in that nation. Though
they are elect according to grace, they are the same as everybody
else. The recipients of this promise were vile sinners. Every
one of them. They rebelled in every possible
way. But they rebelled especially in religion. Especially in religion. Remember, when our Lord chose
Israel as a nation, it was a kind or a type or a picture of all
the elect of God, who they were in nature and as they were in
nature. And He gave them a religion. That's what happened on Sinai.
They weren't a race of people. They're not a race of people
now. They are people with a particular religion, handed it down to them
on Sinai. And he handed down a religion
to a nation that was natural and carnal to show that natural
and carnal men can never do anything to please God. Even though they
are laid out with rules and regulations and rites and ceremonies and
sacrifices, all of them, they'll never do anything to please God. And none of what they do and
what they accomplish and no sacrifice they ever make will ever take
away sin. This is the kind of people This
is the kind of people that God chose unto salvation. The kind
of people. They are described in the first
eight verses of this chapter if you will look at it. Woe unto
her that is filthy and polluted to the oppressing city. She obeyed not the voice of the
prophets of the fathers. She received not correction. She trusted not in the Lord.
She drew not near unto her God. Her princes within her are roaring
lions, like Satan, going about seeking who they may devour. Her judges are evening wolves.
Benjamin Keats spoke of evening wolves when he talks about God
coming again and bringing the laborers home. And he said, at
the end of the day, the evening wolves come out. That means the
wolves that operate in darkness. They operate in darkness. But
they gnaw not the bones till the morrow, so they carry an
eating." They eat corruption. They eat corruption. Her prophets
are light, lighter than vanity, and they are treacherous persons. Her priests have polluted the
sanctuary. They have done violence to the
law. The just Lord is in the midst thereof. Now, He just said
in our text, in verse 17, that He's in the midst of them. But
here He says, in the midst of them also. And He will not do
iniquity. What He's going to do is going
to be right. Every morning, every morning, doth He bring His judgments
to light. Every morning when they wake
up, they know that they're rebelling against God. They know that they're
not doing what is right before God. Every morning they know
it. He brings that judgment to light. He faileth not. He never ceases to remind them.
Everything that they do, every part of their religion reminds
them that they are sinners in need of the Messiah. But it says
the unjust know no shame. They don't know any shame. They
just keep on doing what they're doing. He said, I've cut off
the nations. Their towers are desolate. They're high places.
I made their streets waste that none passeth by. Their cities
are destroyed. so that there is no man, that
there is none inhabitant. I said, Surely they will fear
me. I will receive instruction, so
their dwelling shall not be cut off, howsoever I punish them. But they rose early, and corrupted
all their doings. Therefore wait ye upon me, saith
the Lord, from the day that I rise up to the prey. For my determination
is to gather the nations that I may assemble the kingdoms to
pour upon them mine indignation. Even all my fierce anger for
all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy."
These are the people to whom he said, The Lord thy God is
in the midst of thee. He is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will rest in His love and
will joy over thee with singing. The first eight verses of this
chapter read very much like the indictments of Isaiah chapter
1 that indicts Israel. The Lord is always true. We can
count on that. When He describes the kind of
people that make up His family, He tells the truth about us.
To Him, Before God, we are precious in His sight. We are jewels of
His. We are His lamb, His sheep, His
children, His bride, His beloved. But we are by nature, as He truly
tells us, ruined, wretched, undone, unclean, doomed, damned, dead,
and dying. That's all of us. We were sinners
and are sinners. We're born sinners. That's the way we're born. And
we gladly pursued that wretched existence with vigor and hubris
all our lives. Christ came into the world to
save sinners, saith the Scripture. But the righteous need not apply
then. If you are righteous, I have nothing for you. I remember one
time Ralph Bordard telling the story of while he was preaching,
a fellow stood up and said, I don't believe a word you are saying.
He said, well, I am not talking to you. And if you are righteous
here this evening, You feel you have a merit before God that
what you've done or who you are, somehow God is going to accept
you on that basis. I don't have anything for you
tonight. So if you want to go to sleep, go ahead. We'll wake
you up when the service is over. But if you're a sinner, ruined
and undone, I have something for you. Now, these chosen ones
had no notion of their spiritual election. They didn't know about
it. Neither did you. So they had
no reason to believe that the punishment promised to Israel
was not also directed to them. Now they will find out differently
after they hear the gospel. But I can remember when the gospel
came home to me. I can remember the night it happened. Jim, you were there, weren't
you? I think you were sitting beside me. And all of a sudden
I was glued to my chair and couldn't move. And I realized I was a
lost man. And I couldn't see anything. with the probability
because of who I was that God is going to put me in hell. And
at the same time, He gave me peace in Jesus Christ. I thought I deserved hell, but
hell was never my destination. Never. Sure, if you're a child
of God tonight, if you want to be elected God, you were never
going to hell. God's wrath was never upon you. That was taken
by our surety, the Lord Jesus Christ, before the world began.
He signed His name to your debt. And when He signed it, God never,
ever looked to you to pay it. It was already signed for. And
He always looked to His Son. And thank God He paid the debt.
He paid the debt. Now these people didn't have
the prevaricating pulpiteers that are around today, these
emasculated evangelists, telling them that God loved them and
had a wonderful plan for their life. They knew judgment was
coming. God had said, I'm coming. Wait
for me. I'm coming. And they knew that it was right
soon. But because they were what they were, it did not deter them
from the career of transgression. whether a headlong rush to utter
ruin. Our Lord said, Why should you be stricken more? You revolt
more and more. The whole head is sick. The whole
heart is faint. Here is what we know about sinners,
if we know anything about them. And if you are a child of God,
you know more than you want to know about them. Sinners can
but sin. They can but sin. If they change
directions, it is simply swimming to the other side of the cesspool.
If they reform, they reform in new ways of sin, probably more
shining and more splendid, but sins fill. They apply to religion. They embrace the religious sins
of self-righteousness and human merit, hopeless and unable to
change. Vipers do shed their skin. only because there is a bigger
snake inside. They have nothing, these sinners. They are nothing. They can do
nothing that can ever recommend them to God. And hear what He says to them.
Hear what the prophets say. My goodness. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in His love. He
will joy over thee with singing. What an astounding promise. The
Lord thy God in the midst of thee, in the midst of this rabble
In the midst of this ruinous generation, in the midst of these
vile, ugly, unclean creatures that drink iniquity like water,
He's in the midst of them. In the midst. It doesn't say
He can be in the midst if you'll just let Him. It says He's there. He is there. He is among them and with them. This is Emmanuel, you see, God
with us. He comes with words that are
sweeter than Tupelo honey. And the force and verity of this
promise is without challenge because the one being referred
to as saying these things is mighty. He is mighty. That is another title that belongs
to the child born and the son given in Isaiah 9.6. The mighty
God. And really it is a repetition
of the word mighty. The mighty might. Or the mighty
mighty he is referred to. So this One that is in the midst
of thee is mighty. He is mighty. Our Lord says of
Himself in Revelation chapter 1, He says, I am Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end, saith
the Lord, which is and which was and which is to come. The
Almighty. That means He has all might.
Now I ask you this, shall the Almighty be thwarted in His intent?
Shall the Almighty be thwarted in His purpose? Shall His hand
be turned back by the wimpy will of some deluded fly larvae? Hear the promise made, hear the
promise made to undeserving, wretched sinners, to hopeless,
hapless criminals and God-haters. He will save. Well, that ought to do it right
there, hadn't it? Somebody is going to get saved. You can be
sure of that. He will save. And of course He
would. That's why they named Him what
they named. Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save
His people from their sins. And the proof and assurance of
that successful salvation is rendered in terms that can only
be applied to the great Shepherd of the sheep. He will save, it
says. And He will rejoice. over thee
with joy. Rejoice over thee with joy. It
says in Luke 15, And when he found that sheep that was lost,
he layeth it upon his shoulders rejoicing, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth
together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice
with me, with me. I have found my sheep that was
lost. This is the Savior rejoicing
over finding you. What were you wondering? Were
you out there in the wilderness looking for Him? Were you out
there in the wilderness baying for Him or buying for Him? Were you out in the wilderness
seeking Him? No, you were out in the wilderness
lost. You didn't even know you were
lost. You were wandering around in sin. And He sought you out. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. I like that kind of language.
I know stern religion often refuses to attribute such emotions to
Jesus Christ, preferring rather to present Christ in a manner
that would cause fear in the minds of believers. Religion
likes to do that. Religion likes to present Christ
in a way that the believers wonder when the other shoe will drop.
But He's not that way. Not tonight. Not tomorrow. Not ever. When you fall and falter
and fail and lie and cheat and steal, when you rob Him of His
glory and take it for yourself, when you think of yourself and
think you have some merit before God, He rejoices over thee with joy. Yes, He does. Yes, He does. Here you have it. What He called
joy in the presence of the How wondrously is His humanity displayed. Our Lord was truly a human being.
He loved as a human being. Not only did He love with divine
love, He loved with a human love. He joyed over thee with joy.
I watched Susanna sing that song. I joyed when she sang that song.
I used to dangle her on my knee when she was a little baby. Now
with clarity and beautiful voice that God gave her, she sang a
song that broke my heart while I was listening. I just rejoiced. Our Lord rejoices over you with
joy. I don't know how that's double
whammy, I guess. He rejoices with joy. I'm afraid
to take my glasses off because I might pull out my hearing aids
and then I won't be able to hear what I'm saying. So I'll just lift them up and
wipe my eye. This illuminates the reason this
marginal reading actually here says something important. He
will rest in His love. The marginal reading says He
will be silent in His love. What does that mean? This illuminates
the reason for His rejoicing with joy over His people. His
love for them brought Him to this world and is why He went
to the cross to die in their room instead and put away their
sin and was made to be their righteousness. His loving silence
is in the realm of accusation. He will never accuse His people. Ever. Do you often feel accused? It ain't Christ doing it. It ain't Christ doing it. He
even fixed it so no one else will be able to accuse you and
it will stand. There is therefore now no condemnation to him that
are in Christ Jesus. Why? Because He came into that
sinful flesh and put away our sin. So there is no condemnation. He says in Romans 33, Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is Christ that
died. Who is he to condemn him? Or
it is God that justifies. Who is he to condemn him? It
is Christ who died. Yea, rather, it is risen again who sits at
the right hand of the Father. Look back at verses 11 through
14 of this chapter. In that day thou shalt not be
ashamed for all thy doings. Well, that's what it says. And
if God says it, that's so. Thou shalt not be ashamed for
all thy doings wherein thou transgressed. This is their transgressing doings
against me. For then I will take away from
the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride. He's going to humble
you. Humble you. And I haughty, and
I haughty because of my holy mouth. You see, one of the things
about election and carnal understanding, this is why religion has such
difficulty with the concept of it, though they believe it and
they understand it. Don't think that people don't understand
these things. They're so simple, a fool could understand them. Election. High doctrine. High theology. Way up yonder
in the schools of academe. That's where theologians sit
around and find out how many angels can dance on the head
of a pin. And they talk about higher things
like election. Election. What does that mean?
God chose His people. Boy, that's difficult to understand. Predestination. Hard business. So confusing. You shouldn't preach
that. You'll confuse people. What's to be confused about?
Predestination. You did it about 40 times before
you got here tonight. How did you get here? Well, I
just closed my eyes and turned around three times and said,
zippity-doo, and I was here. No, that's not how it happened,
is it? You got up this morning and you thought, I'm going to
church tonight. predestination. This is the route I'm going to
take. This is the car I'm going to drive. This is the key I'm
going to put in the ignition. This is the door I'm going to
open. This is the place I'm going to. And when you arrive, you
say, that's the door I'm going through. All of that is predetermined. You're predetermined every bit
of it. You don't understand predestination? Of course you do. But the carnal
view of these things, And it's a natural, reasonable response
to election. And you've heard it when you've
preached it. You've heard people that disagree with you. They
say, you think you're special. That's the carnal view of election.
And it's also the carnal view of those who believe they are
elect but are not. They believe they're special.
And so when Israel felt like they were entitled to God, And
they were special to God because they themselves were special.
And so they were full of pride. And God said, I'm going to wipe
that out. I'm going to bring that down because of my holy
mountain or in my holy mountain. He said, I will also leave in
the midst of thee an afflicted and a poor people. Who wants
people like that? That's what we all are. Spiritually,
we are afflicted and poor. Our souls are afflicted. We even
afflict our own souls. That's what we do. How do you
do that? By taking a lash and beating yourself on the back?
That's your back. That ain't your soul. How do you afflict your soul?
By saying over and over again, I have nothing to do with my
salvation. I have nothing to do with my salvation. And don't
think the flesh don't rebel against it. My flesh will rebel against
it right now. I have nothing to do with salvation. That's
the affliction of the soul. Afflicted people and poor people,
poor in spirit, rich in Jesus Christ. And all of those afflicted
and poor, they're going to trust in the Lord. Every one of them
are going to trust in the Lord. I ask you, could he so rejoice
if one he came to save was lost? Listen further. The remnant,
there it is, of Israel. shall not do iniquity. Now, wait
a minute, preacher. They shall not do iniquity. Now,
we're not talking about some part of us that don't sin. I
know people talk about that, but I don't know where that is.
I ain't got no dotted line drawn down the middle of me, and I
just don't know. But before God, these wretched, unclean, undone,
vile sinners whom Christ has saved Before God, they don't
sin. Before God, you don't sin. You
say, well, I know I do. Well, who am I going to believe?
Have you ever told a lie? Of course you have. God ever
told a lie? No, He ain't. I'm going to believe Him. He
said, they do no iniquity. And a deceitful tongue is not
found in their mouth. Why? Because. What a strange
reason. Because they shall feed and lie
down, and none shall make them afraid. What do they do? What do they do? Well, they work
to Jesus They get out and hand out tracts. They're on the streets
preaching. They're doing something all the
time. They're busy for the Lord. They're super Christians. What
do they do? They feed. They come on Wednesday night
and Sunday morning and Sunday night. Brother Bird and Brother
Gary, they stand up in the pulpit and they say the same things
over and over again. The same old report. It doesn't
change. And we're not saying something
new. We're reporters. That's all we do. We report what
has been recorded. and finished. And that's all
we do over and over again. They feed on that. Crazy people,
these people, these saved sinners. They feed on words. They feed
on divine communiques from God. And they feed on that and it
enriches their soul. And they go through those doors to serve. They lay down and rest. Why? Because this Word
that they feed upon them assures them that the work of salvation
is finished. And there is nothing left to
do. They shall feed and lie down,
and none shall make them afraid. It just doesn't hardly get any
better than that. Could the mighty Savior be singing with such joy
if one for whom He suffered should perish? No, the Great Shepherd
sings and bid His beloved ones to sing along with Him. Join
the chorus, our Lord says. I am singing and rejoicing with
joy. Sing, O daughter of Zion, O Israel. Be glad and rejoice
with all thy heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. O daughter of Jerusalem. Why? This is the psalm of Zion. The Lord hath taken away thy
judgments. That's what He's done. And He
hath cast out thine enemy. We don't fear the judgment, because
as Christ is, so are we in the world. Perfect love casts out
that fear. As far as the East is from the West, so far hath
He removed our sins from us. That's something to sing about.
Scripture says He was a manifest to take away our sins, that there
is no sin in Him. In Him. He has cast out the enemy. Oh, I remember reading this somewhere
in the Gospels that there was a strong man who held me captive.
And his palace was in peace. Evidently, I liked being there.
I didn't mind being held captive by him. And I remained in that
horrible escape except a stronger than he came in and bound him
and spoiled his house and took his spoils from him. He has bruised
the serpent's head, you see. No weapon formed against us shall
prosper. The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst
of thee. He says where two or three are
gathered in His name, He is in their midst. He said, Lo, I am
with thee always, even to the end of the earth. And then He
says this, Thou shalt not see evil any more. Tim and I were talking about
this a while ago. All kinds of crazy things going on in this
world, ain't there? Scary things. Things that make
us mad. Politics. Lawlessness. Tolerance of the worst, worst
kinds of things. But He said, Thou shalt see evil
no more. How can it be in a world of woe
where evil abounds on every walk of life? And in the old man of
every believer who himself proclaims in sad humiliation that the Prince
of Sin thinks all that he does and is, even when he would do
good, evil is present with him. But God says, Thou shalt not see evil any more. Now, if God says it, It's so. It's so. How can that be? How
can that be? First of all, it's so because
God says it. Secondly, it's so because God is sovereign in what
may appear evil and what is indeed evil in the realm of men is right
now, at this moment, entirely working together for good to
them that love God. Look at it. You can't see it. It's there. It seems evil. And
it is evil in this world of men. But it's for our good. You won't see evil anymore. Everything
evil out there is for your good. Everything that goes on in the
world is for your good, for those who are called according
to His purpose. You see, in the new creation, God saw everything
and He said it was good and very good. Thou shalt not see evil
anymore. Right now, as you look to the
Lord Jesus Christ, as you're thinking of Him. This is when
we do it best, isn't it? When we're together worshiping
the Lord Jesus Christ and we see Him. And in those moments
when we see Him in His glory, in the majesty of His presence,
in the greatness of His deity and His humanity. In those moments,
I tell you, we have no trouble. There is nothing that troubles
us when we see Christ. So why do we have so many troubles?
We are looking elsewhere. We are looking elsewhere. When
you look to Christ, this is so, you will see evil no more. Oh,
Scott Richards used to say, Oh, if our eyes and our vision so
could be filled with Jesus Christ, We would not see anything evil
ever. Everything would just be good
and very good. How is this all going to come
about? Look back at verse 9. How are you going to find out
about it? Then I will turn to the people a pure lip, or a pure
language, that they may call upon the name of the Lord to
serve Him with one consent. Before, in our sin, our religion
was a religion of impure language. Polluted language, if you will. Language that said to us, You
must obey in order to be blessed. Language that declared you guilty
on every hand. language that Paul says was against
us, not for us. But this pure language is the
gospel of God's grace. And it declares that Christ has
obeyed for you. Christ accounts you as not guilty. but accepted and free. The gospel is pure, singular
and unpolluted. And this promise is to wretched
sinners. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in his love He will
joy over thee. We're saved. God bless you.