All right, brethren, let's go
back now to Zephaniah. This is a book full of judgment,
beginning almost to the end. Zephaniah declared that God was
going to judge the whole land and all the people and destroy
all the living from off the land. And He's particularly speaking
to those that refuse to believe God and rest in His Son. He describes them throughout
the book as a filthy, polluted people. They were religious people,
but they were worshipping idols, worshipping the works of their
hands. They were oppressing. They were casting out the weak,
those that they deemed weaker. They were shaming them. They're
described as walking in pride and being haughty, obeying not
God's voice, to trust in the Lord. It was a very religious people,
but they wouldn't draw near to God, they would not hear His
instruction, they wouldn't heed His correction, they would not
rest in the Lord alone. And this is really a description
of all sinners as we come into this world. And the truth of
it is, Zephaniah declares here God's grace upon a remnant. He
speaks of a remnant that he will save that's going to be brought
to believe on Christ and trust in His righteousness alone. And
the truth is that this remnant God saves are no different than
those God justly judged. There's no difference in them,
in themselves. The sin nature in the reprobate
is the same sin nature in those God saves. The only difference
is the grace of God. The only difference is God chose
a people, Christ redeemed them, the Spirit regenerates them,
and God keeps us. Christ continues to intercede
for His people. You think about this, that in
themselves, Peter's denial of the Lord Jesus was no different
than Judas Iscariot's betrayal of the Lord. It was both sin,
and they were both guilty. The difference was the grace
of God. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
Peter, I've prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. That's the
difference. The difference is he came to
Peter and restored him. And that's so of all his people.
There's no difference in those God saves and those God passes
by except for the grace of God. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What hast thou that thou didst not receive? We have
no reason to glory in anything. Everything is of God's hand,
everything. God gives a new heart in his
child to make us see things as they really are. He makes us
know the Lord Jesus Christ and he makes us to know he is indeed
all our salvation. He makes us to know he alone
is our righteousness. And at the same time, He makes
us to know we can have no confidence in our flesh. Absolutely none. He shows us that our flesh has
nothing good in it at any time. and we have to entirely trust
Christ, and it gives you a heart to want to be found in Christ
alone. He makes you, because of this
new man and by His Spirit, He makes you hate your sin nature,
He makes you hate your sin, He makes you strive against your
sin, but we have to confess, still in our flesh dwells nothing
good. We want to be found in Christ
Jesus alone, and the only difference is the difference the grace of
God has made by the doing and dying and the intercession of
our Lord Jesus Christ. But for each of the children
God's brought to rest in Christ, this is a word of promise He
gives to us. This is good news for His people. If we meet that description of
being those that rejoice in Christ alone, worship God in the Spirit,
and have no confidence in our flesh, then this is a word of
comfort to His people, right here. He says in verse 14, Sing,
O daughter of Zion. Shout, O Israel. Be glad and
rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. This is for Christ's
church. It's spoken of this gospel day
in which we live. This is God's promise to every
chosen sinner that's been brought to rest in our Lord Jesus Christ. This is His promise of grace
to us as He sends us forth to preach the gospel. This is what
He promises us, what He has done for us, what He is doing and
what He shall do. The first word removes our greatest
fear. This is the great fear that He
brings His child to have when He first begins to teach us something. And this is the great good news
He gives us. He says in verse 15, The Lord
hath taken away thy judgments. The Lord hath taken away thy
judgments. When He brought you to cast it
all on Christ, to rest in Christ, this is the good news. The Lord
hath taken away all thy judgments. You remember Barabbas, and he
was in prison, and he knows he is about to go under the judgment
of the law and be executed. He knows that. And the rulers
asked, what do you want us to do? They asked, who should we
release? And the people cried out, Barabbas,
Barabbas. And that's all Barabbas heard.
He heard his name called and you know that got his attention.
And then they said, what do you want us to do with this one Jesus
of Nazareth? And the people cried out, crucify
him, crucify him, crucify him. That's all Barabbas heard. Barabbas,
Barabbas, crucify him, crucify him. And that jailer came and
he unlocked the door and he said, you're free to go. This one,
Jesus, the Lord Jesus, He's going to take your place. He's going
to bear judgment today and you're free to go. And that's the good
news of the gospel of Christ, the substitution wherein He went
under the law for His people and He bore the judgment His
people deserved. And so He took our judgment away
in righteousness. In righteousness. Hebrews 9.15
says, For this cause, he's the mediator of the New Testament,
that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the First Testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. We saw recently in Hebrews 9,
he said, Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. It's appointed unto
men once to die and after this the judgment. That eternal judgment,
that second death we're talking about. Men have to face it. All
men are going to have to face it. But for His people, one time
He went and He bore that judgment for His people. He bore the sins
of many. He answered the justice of God
and satisfied it and honored God. And now the scripture says,
to them that look for Him shall He appear a second time without
sin unto salvation. This is the first word of good
news that God gives us. Our judgments are taken away.
And then Christ sent the word to us. And He made us to know
in our conscience that the judgment is taken away. There's no more
curse. There's no more condemnation.
Paul said in Hebrews, he said if those sacrifices they offered
would have taken away sin, if it really would have taken away
sin, there would have been no more conscience of sins. But when Christ sends the Spirit
and He enters in, the blood of Christ purges the conscience
from dead works. And the Spirit bears witness
in our spirit, teaching us. God says, your sins and iniquities
I will remember no more. And where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. And this is what settles
us on Christ to stop trying to work for acceptance with God
and to soothe our conscience. He's made reconciliation. He accomplished redemption. Your
judgments are taken away. That's the good news. Peace with
God. Peace with God. And so, having
our bodies washed with pure water and having our conscience purged
by the blood of Christ, now we draw near with a true heart.
in full assurance of faith, knowing by what Christ has done, we have
boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. We have
a Lord Jesus Christ who's risen, who is our great high priest
ever living to make intercession, and we know this by the grace
of God. And then he tells us this good
news. What about the devil? What about our great enemy? He
says there in Zephaniah 3.15, he hath cast out thine enemy. When our Lord was speaking of
the death that He would accomplish on His way to the cross, our
Lord said, Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the
prince of this world be cast out. And if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all unto Me. He was lifted up on the cross
and He put away the sin of His people and He's lifted up now
to God's right hand. And when our Lord was lifted
up and began to reign on His throne in glory as the victorious,
triumphant Redeemer, having accomplished redemption, having put away sin
of His people, and He sent forth the Spirit, there was a marked
change that happened in this world. He broke the devil's power
over all people. and he's spending out his spirit
and he's calling out his people and the devil has always been
under his power, but the devil's on a chain and he is truly, he
has cast him out. He has cast him out in that sense.
For us personally, when he came to us and taught us the gospel,
as Ephesians says, we were under the power of the prince of the
air. And that's the strong man He spoke about. And the Lord
Jesus comes and He binds the strong man. And He enters in
and He takes dominion in the heart of His child. And thus
saith the Lord, He said, even the captives of the mighty shall
be taken away. We were captives of the mighty.
We were captives of the devil. He said, even the captives of
the mighty shall be taken away. And the prey of the terrible
shall be delivered. We were the prey of the terrible,
the devil. but he came and delivered us
from his dominion. For I will contend with him that
contendeth with thee, our Lord said, and I will save thy children. That's his covenant that he entered
into with the father and that's what he accomplishes for each
of his people. In the end, which it won't be too long, our Lord
is gonna return and he's gonna cast out the devil for good.
And he tells us in Romans 16.20, the God of peace shall bruise
Satan under your feet shortly. Well, by God's grace, he declares
to every believer that we're now citizens of a new nation
with a new king. He says in verse 15, the king
of Israel The king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst
of thee, thou shalt not see evil anymore. I've just gotten to
where I try my best not to turn on the news and try not to read
anything about politics or what's going on. But brethren, don't
let the rulers of this earthly nation trouble you. Our king
rules all lesser kings. He rules them all. They're only
doing what He's pleased for them to do. He rules all lesser kings. But here's the good news of our
text. The Lord Jesus Christ is our King. And He's translated
you who believe into a new kingdom, His holy nation. And that's the
kingdom we belong to. Colossians 1.12 Paul said, We
give thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet. He made us
fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. That's
done in Christ, our perfection. Who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son. He's translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son, our King. in whom we have redemption through
His blood, even the forgiveness of sin. After Paul preached in
Ephesians 2, we saw how he said Christ is our peace, and he told
us Gentiles, we were without Christ, we were foreigners, we
were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel. We had no part with
the true Israel of God. But now, he says, because Christ
accomplished our peace and because he preached peace to us and worked
this work in our heart and has translated us into his kingdom,
he says, now you're no more foreigners. You're citizens. Citizens. We're citizens of a heavenly
kingdom. We're citizens of Christ's kingdom. And Christ is the king. And he says here, and be sure
to get this, Christ our king is in the midst of thee. I believe
that. I really believe this. He's in
the midst of thee. I know this is so. I know it's
so. You know it's so. He's ever present
with us, brethren, at hand. He's ever present. He is our
sovereign God in heaven who is everywhere. Omnipresent. And He's at hand. He's in the
midst of His church. And He's in each of His people,
individually, personally, present with us. And that's His promise
to us. The King of Israel, even the
Lord, is in the midst of thee. And because He's in our midst,
He promises this, Thou shalt not see evil anymore. Thou shalt not see evil anymore. There shall no evil happen to
the just. Those he's justified, those he's
made righteous, there shall no evil happen to the just. He says, say you to the righteous,
it shall be well with him. It doesn't mean we won't face
trials. It doesn't mean we won't suffer.
It doesn't mean we won't sin and falter and fall. It doesn't
mean that. But it does mean that nothing
our Lord permits to come to pass that happens to us or anything
He purposely brings to pass for us, none of it will be evil to
us. Christ will work it all together
for our good and for His glory. Every bit of it. Good will come
out of everything that happens to you and I who believe. That's
so. Go to Hebrews 13.5. Hebrews 13, 5. He says, let your conversation,
your conduct, your daily life be without covetousness and be
content with such things as ye have. For he hath said, I will
never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say,
the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man shall
do unto me. I weakly speak with brethren
in other places, some way out west, some in the
south, some in the mid part of this country and the eastern
part. No matter who you speak with,
brethren you speak with, we all have trouble. We all have trials. And it seems like when we speak,
what we're always talking about is some sort of trial We talk
about our sin, we talk about how we just simply can have no
confidence in our flesh, and how that Christ always brings
good in everything He does for us. And this is something that
I hear, this is something that I think I see, and something
that I hope I'm seeing a little better. Most of our fretting,
most of our problem, is discontent at God's providence. Most of it is. It's discontent
at whatever it is that God has given us or withheld from us. That includes people, jobs, stuff,
everything. That's typically at the heart
of all our trouble. But everything is of His hand,
everything. And the purpose of it is to grow
us to depend on Christ alone. He's growing us more and more
to see we cannot trust ourselves. We cannot have confidence in
ourselves. We have confidence in Christ
alone. You think about, think about
true growth in grace. You think about this. Just look
at it from a physical standpoint. Our bodies are declining, declining,
declining, declining until they turn back into dust. They're getting weaker, weaker,
weaker. If we live to be an old age, they're gonna get weaker,
weaker, weaker. We're gonna take our last breath, they're going
back to the dust. And as believers, we're gonna open our eyes immediately
and Christ is gonna be all. Look at that from a spiritual
standpoint. Isn't that exactly what growth and grace is? We
see ourselves more sinful, more sinful, more sinful and we grow
down, down, down and Christ becomes all, all, all until that day
when we open our eyes and He is perfectly all. He teaches us that contentment
is Him and He teaches us to more that we experience that He's
our help, that He'll never leave us nor forsake us, so that in
everything, no matter what He gives or takes away, He is our
contentment, our consistent help, our consistent deliverer, our
consistent all with us all the time. Look at Philippians 4.4. This is why he says, and you
know Paul was in prison when he wrote this. And he had been
taught this. And he says Philippians 4, 4,
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. He's talking
about in everything. Let your moderation, your patience,
That's what the word is, your patience, your contentment. Be
known unto all men the Lord is at hand. The Lord is at hand. Be careful, be anxious for nothing. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication, with all thanksgiving, by prayer and supplicating, begging
the Lord, and thanking God for whatever it is that he's hurting
and making us sorrow. Let your request be made known
unto God, and here's his promise, and the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. We saw it Sunday. He's going
to keep our mind stayed on Him that He might keep us in perfect
peace because we trust Him. And He's doing this to teach
us He is our helper. He is at hand at all times. So no evil is happening to us.
Whatever it is, it's not harming. It's working for the good of
you and for the good of the whole church and for His glory. Everything
He's bringing to pass. Everything. Now go back with
me to Zephaniah chapter 3. And so he's making us, by this
good news, he's assembling us and he makes us spread his gospel. He says in verse 16, In that
day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not, and to Zion let
not thy hands be slack. In this gospel day, Christ has
accomplished redemption. He's ascended on high. He's ruling. He's reigning all things. He's
called us to believe on Him. And as He rules everything with
all power in heaven and earth, He says to us, Fear thou not,
and let not your hands be slack. And the purpose here is not just
to be busy, the purpose is whatever He's put in our hands to do for
His cause in spreading His gospel. He's saying, don't faint. Fear
thou not and don't be faint. Don't faint. We're sheep and
sheep become fearful. And the only thing that will
keep the sheep from being fearful is a shepherd. And He is our
faithful shepherd. He says in Isaiah 41 10, this
is what we just sang. Now Thurman found a, we could
have sang that twice. That's good enough to sing twice. Fear thou not, I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. And so He says, let not thy hands
be slack. When He strengthens us, when
He upholds us with the right hand of His righteousness, that's
when we lift up our hands. That's the only way we lift up
our hands. That's the only way we have strength
to go forth spreading His Word and not faint. He gives us strength
by Him to lift up one another's hands. That word to lift up the
hands that hang down and strengthen the feeble knees is not just
for us personally to do it to ourselves, it's to help our brethren
lift up their hands and strengthen their feeble knees. And how do you do that? By pointing
to Him who is our strength. Appointing to Him who is our
strength. Paul said, He was talking about preaching, but this is
true of all of us, brethren. When this gospel goes forth,
he said it's either it's a savor of life unto life or death unto
death. That is so very serious. That is a weight that comes down
on you and is serious. There's no neutral ground here.
And Paul said, who's sufficient for this? There is no sufficiency
in any man for this. But he said, our sufficiencies
of God. He made you and me, each of his
people, his assembled church. He made us able ministers of
the New Testament. He did it. Same way he called
us in power. Same way that he keeps us looking
to him. Same way he came and restored
Peter and said, now Peter, go and teach your brethren what
you learned through this. He keeps strengthening us. He
keeps us. He is our strength. And so Paul
comes to 2 Corinthians 4 and he said, therefore seeing we
have this ministry, as we have received mercy, the same strength
by which we receive mercy is the strength by which we faint
not. That's the word in our text.
Let not thy hands be slack. If you have a marginal reference,
you see it says faint. Let not your hands be faint.
So who's our strength that's gonna make this gospel effectual?
We see he's our strength for us so that we go forth preaching
his word, but who's our strength that's gonna make it effectual
and keep it effectual in our hearts? Verse 17, the Lord thy
God in the midst of thee is mighty. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. Our assurance is not us. Our
assurance is not in us. As far as our success and our
continuing and persevering, our assurance that it shall be so
is our Savior. He's mighty. The Lord thy God
in the midst of thee is mighty. That's all the more reason to
make this gospel be heard far and wide. That's all the more
reason to not faint. That's all the more reason in
the face of every opposition, every trial, every trouble, everything
that would make us just faint and wilt and falter to make us
send this gospel forth. And He's the only one that can
make us do this. But He said He will make it effectual. Cry
and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One
of Israel in the midst of thee. He came and He spake to His apostles
and their trouble, their hands are weak, they're fainting because
our Lord's leaving. He's going to glory and they're
not going to see Him visibly anymore. But he came back to
him and he spoke to him and he said, All power is given to me
in heaven and in earth. As the glorified God-man, he
said, All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. And he
said, Go forth therefore, because all power is mine. Go forth and
teach all nations. He is saying, Let not thy hands
be slack. Lo, I am with you always. Notice
in our text, He accomplished this work in His people. He will
do it. He says there in Zephaniah 3,
He says, The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty.
Verse 17, He will save. He will save. He's willing to
save all His people and He's able. He will save. He was willing
to enter covenant for His people. He was willing in the time appointed
to come into this earth and be tried under the law for 33 and
a half years. He was willing to go to the cross
and be made sin for His people and lay down His life under the
judgment of God. He was willing to call you and
me and give us grace to believe it. and He's been willing to
keep us and preserve us, He will save His people. He's willing.
He will. He will. And He'll bring us to
glory. And it says here, He will rejoice over thee with joy. We got every reason in the world
to rejoice over Him. We got every reason in the world
to rejoice in Him. Always. But He says here, He'll
rejoice over you. He will rejoice over you. He
said in Jeremiah 32, 41, Yea, I will rejoice over them to do
them good. I will plant them in this land
assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. And then catch this. He says
in verse 17, He will rest in His love. The margin says he
will be silent in his love. That's what the word means. Silence. He will be silent in his love. This word is expressing the greatness
of Christ's love to you who believe. To his bride, to his church.
He's saying It's to be speechless in His love to you, His bride. When you see your bride and you're speechless
for love, He says, I'll be silent in my love for my bride. In the Song of Solomon, chapter
4 and verse 9, Christ says this of you and me, believer. Listen
to this. Thou hast ravished my heart. My sister, my spouse,
Thou hast ravished my heart. That's what he saw talking about.
Speechless in love. How can that be? Well, He done
everything to present us to Himself without spot, without wrinkle,
or any such thing. Righteous and holy by what He's
done. He robed us in that white linen of His righteousness so
that He beholds us now and says, I'm silent toward thee. Speechless. Speechless. That's amazing. Talk about amazing love. That's
amazing love. Even when we didn't love Him. Even now when our love is not
remotely what it ought to be toward Him. Christ's love for us is without
a cause in us. It's without beginning. It's
without any change. and it's without end. It's everlasting. It's perfect commitment with
no change and no variableness whatsoever. And this is what
he says, he will joy over thee with singing. There's only two
places in scripture that I can find where Christ is spoken of
as singing. One of them is in Hebrews, where
he says, because he and his brethren are one, and he's not ashamed
to call his brethren, he will sing praise to God in the midst
of the congregation. And this is the only other place.
And here, he's singing and rejoicing over you, who are his church. Oh, you know, we should rejoice
always. We should never have a long face
about anything. We should be rejoicing always. Because this
is his word concerning his people by what he's done for us. And
it's without change. It's without change. If we could
just know how, what it means to be complete. If we could just
find out what it means to be complete. And view our brethren
that way. View one another that way. and
be content with His sovereign hand and what He's doing and
what He's done to teach us He's everything and He's our help.
We wouldn't have any trouble. Every trial would be a joy. But
it's to teach us this over and over, isn't it? So this He promises,
He's going to gather each one and at last gather us all to
glory. Verse 18, and I just want you
to see the I wills in this. This is all of Him. I will gather
them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of Thee,
they're part of You, they've got to be called, to whom the
reproach of it was a burden, a burden by this world's reproach. Behold, at that time I will undo
all that afflict Thee. Vengeance belongs to the Lord,
brethren. There's coming a day He's going to undo all that afflict
thee. And I will save her that halteth
and gather her that was driven out, the weakest believer. There's going to be some that nobody would have thought
He would save that are going to be saved. Her that halteth
and gathereth her that was driven out, who'd been shamed and driven
out by the proud oppressors He spoke of in the chapter. Christ
is going to gather them. He said, I will get them praise
and fame in every land where they've been put to shame. And
at that time will I bring you again, even in the time that
I gather you. For I will make you a name and
a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your
captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord." That's God's promise.
In other words, beginning to end. Salvations of the Lord. This is what He's doing for His
people, in His people, and with His people. And He shall not
fail. And so, hearing these promises, let's go back and see what does
He tell us? What does He command us to do,
brethren? Verse 14, He says, Sing, O daughter of Zion, be
glad and rejoice with all your heart. That's what Paul was referencing. Rejoice always. Again, I say
rejoice. Whatever it is, be rejoicing,
be singing. The Lord's doing this. It's good. And then He says in verse 16,
Fear thou not. No evil is coming. Fear thou
not. If you can say, truly, I have
no other confidence but Christ. He's all my salvation. Rather
than I'm telling you, he says to us, fear thou not. And he
says, verse 16, and let not thy hands be slack. He's given us
something to do. Proclaim Him. Preach Him. He says don't faint. And He'll
be your strength. Amen.