May it please almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in his holy word.
Let's turn to the prophecy of Zephaniah, chapter three, and
we'll read verse 17. The prophecy of Zephaniah, chapter
three, and we'll read verse 17. Zephaniah 3 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. As we mentioned when we began
our reading tonight, Zephaniah was on the earth at the same
time that Jeremiah was. Indeed, we just have a very brief
reference to that in the 21st chapter of Jeremiah, where we're
told, the word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord when King
Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur, the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah. the Son of Messiah, the priest,
saying. And he was therefore clearly
at that time when Nebuchadnezzar came, because we're told in quiet,
I pray thee, of the Lord for us. For Nebuchadnezzar, king
of Babylon, maketh war against us. If so be that the Lord will
deal with us according to all his wondrous works that he may
go up from us.' Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus should he say. So we have the evidence therefore
that Zephaniah did live at the same time and God spoke through
Zephaniah as he did through Jeremiah and of course that time in the
history of Israel was a very sad time really because they
had turned their back, really, upon God. God, as we know, had
wonderfully blessed the Israelites. Well, really, from the time of
Abraham, and then Isaac, and Jacob, and then, of course, they
were carried down into captivity into Egypt, and there they spent
some 400 years, and eventually, the Lord graciously fulfilled
his promise, and the Israelites were brought out of Egypt. Moses was the man the Lord called
to lead them out, and they came out of Egypt, across the Red
Sea, and again there they came, and they disobeyed God, they
did not go up and possess the land of Canaan, when they'd been
in the wilderness for just about a year, and they believed the
lies of the evil one, And therefore the judgment upon them was that
they should stay in the wilderness for some 40 years, which they
did. But eventually God was faithful
and brought them safely into the land of Canaan and was with
them. Was with them then through the
reigns of the judges and through the reigns of kings and those
of course that followed Joshua. So there were many years when
God was with them and gradually although blessed with this wonderful
evidence of his goodness toward them, they turned their back
upon God. And then the prophets came, and
Isaiah came, and Jeremiah came, and they didn't listen to the
words, and they spoke very plainly, and they told the Israelites,
they would go into captivity if they did not turn and obey
God but they ignored those words and so it came to pass that Nebuchadnezzar
came and captured Jerusalem and took most of the people, not
all, but most of the people captive and took them across to Babylon
where he was king, many miles away, several days journey to
get there, but eventually they got there and there they were
for 70 years. Well, these words were written
before they actually went into captivity before Nebuchadnezzar
actually came and took them captive. And they were solemn words, really. You can read the other chapters.
The other chapters speak about what the Lord would do to them
because of their sin. And yet we see that on so many
occasions, as indeed in the prophecy of Jeremiah and in the prophecy
of Isaiah, There were many wonderful and beautiful words which were
spoken to them and recorded so that when the Israelites were
in Babylon for those 70 years, they wouldn't give up all hope.
They had clear words from God that he would remember them,
that he would bless them, notwithstanding all their sinfulness. And he
tells us in this chapter that we read in the 12th verse, it's
a very beautiful verse. It says this, I will also leave
in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall
trust in the name of the Lord. They shall trust in the name
of the Lord. So we see there then, the goodness
of God toward them. Although they were going to be
an afflicted and poor people, yet the Lord was going to deal
very graciously with them. What a wonderful mercy. And so
the prophet went on and said, the remnant of Israel shall not
die, shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies. Neither shall a deceitful
tongue be found in their mouth, for they shall feed and lie down
and none shall make them afraid. And then there is encouraging
words. When we think of it, it's quite
amazing that God should show his great love to his people
in this way. They turned their back upon him,
and yet he was showing them his great love. We may say, well,
why are such words recorded? Well, surely they are recorded
for the church of God. Down through the ages, for now
thousands of years, we have the goodness of God set before us,
that as we now walk upon the earth, and as we now often perhaps
may ignore God's word, ignore his truth, and go our own way,
sin against God, And yet, you see, the Lord is gracious. And he comes and he speaks these
words. He says, sing, O daughter of
Zion. Shout, O Israel. Be glad and
rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. We might think,
well, fancy speaking like that. Perhaps it may be like that to
us. We may not feel very good at all. We may feel very bad.
And yet here is an encouraging word to direct us. Really, it
means to look out of ourselves, out of ourselves, up to the Lord,
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to realise what he has done in
his great and wonderful work of salvation. He has not, and
he does not, And he will not deal with us as our sins deserve. Gracious is our God. And Isaiah really picks this
theme up in the in the, I think it's the 32nd chapter of Isaiah,
where he speaks very wonderfully and encourages the Church of
God. No, perhaps it's 58. Chapter
58 in the prophecy of Isaiah. And he says this, He says, Then
shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health
shall spring forth speedily, and thine righteousness shall
go before thee. The glory of the Lord shall be
thy real reward. You see, it is the promise of
almighty God. And it's a great blessing to
think that we therefore have such a God, such a kind and such
a gracious God to deal with us as he dealt indeed with his ancient
people. And he tells us, And if thou
draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul,
then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be
as the noonday. Well, that's a great blessing,
isn't it? To realize that we have such
a kind and gracious God. And so he goes on. in this third chapter and speaks
in this way. And he says, the Lord has taken
away thy judgments. He has cast out thine, to Jerusalem,
fear thou not, and to Zion, let not thine hands be slack. It's an encouragement to the
people of God, an encouragement to the church of God. Then once
again, we spoke, Lord, say evening about fear not, And here we have
another statement, fear thou not. And so we come to this 17th
verse. And here the Lord says, the Lord
thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He is a mighty God. He's able to do for each of us
far more exceeding abundantly than we can ask or even think. You see, nothing is too hard
for our God. Whatever the difficulties we
may be confronted with, nothing is too hard for our God. The Apostle Paul said, I can
do all things, how? Through Christ, who strengthens
me. There's the secret of the Church
of God. It always has been. It always
will be. Never to look to ourselves, to
our own ability. We'll fail. We are failures. But you see, we have a God who
never fails. A God who is not a failure. And
a God who is ever ready to hear and to answer prayers and so
just to repeat that which Paul said in the fourth of Philippians
I can do all things that was a humble confidence in his God
and it's good for us tonight to have a confidence a humble
confidence not in ourselves thing when I can cope with that situation
I can answer all those questions I I know what's right and I can
deal with that. No, says the Apostle Paul, I
can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. And what
does that do? Well, first of all, it encourages us. Secondly, it brings honour and
glory to our God. That's the great thing, isn't
it? You see, it's God that does it, not ourselves. And so here
we have this wonderful statement, the Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. Let us never forget that. He's in the midst of us, individually. He's with us. individually. He's told us, I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee. Therefore, we may boldly say
the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man can
do unto me. Sometimes we are fearful. Sometimes
we do fear what man can do. But you see, man cannot do what
the Lord does not permit. We have a God who's able to control
men. We have a God who's able to sustain
us in the midst of adversity. We have a God who is able to
strengthen and to revive us. Sometimes we may feel very low.
The Lord knows sometimes the Lord
brings us. into a low place so that he may revive us again,
so that his people then will rejoice in what he's done for
us, in strengthening us, in bringing us to that same position that
David was so many years ago. And he gives us a wonderful description
of that in the 40th Psalm. It's a very beautiful opening
to that Psalm where David says, I waited patiently for the Lord
and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. We're not told how long.
He had to wait patiently. We get a bit impatient. We expect
the Lord to appear today. Sometimes he does. But sometimes
he waits to be gracious. And therefore, we have a very
wonderful example here in David. I waited patiently for the Lord. He wasn't waiting for anyone
else. And he inclined unto me. and heard my cry. And it would seem here, this
is a very apt description of prayer. And as you know, I bring
the analogy sometimes to that of a babe, a little baby. It's not able to speak in words. So when the babe wants attention,
what does it do? It cries. And that brings the mother to
come and see what the matter and inquire and find out and
help and do that which is needful. And so truly the analogy is such
that God's people cry to God, perhaps not in very well formulated
words. Again, God knows about us. He knows everything about us.
He knows more about us than we know about ourselves. And therefore,
we don't have to spell things out in wonderful prose and wonderful
words. No, we can come exactly as we
are. The line of the hymn is very
suitable. I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and sad. It's a lovely invitation, isn't
it? That's how we can come. And so David came with a cry. He tells us, he brought me up
also out of a horrible pit, out of the maury clay. David had
fallen into a pit. We know something of David's
life, some of the sins that he was left to commit. And we know
therefore the pit that he would fall into, and he wasn't able
to get himself out of it. If you want a description of
how he felt, you can read the 51st Psalm, which is very clear. And here was David then, in this
situation. He tells us, with confidence,
he brought me, a personal experience, he brought me up, Also, out of
a horrible pit, out of the mahri clay, and you may understand
if you try to walk in clay which has had a lot of rain on it,
it becomes very mahri and very slippery and very sticky, and
it really is not easy to walk upon mahri clay. And if this
pit contained only Maori clay, it would have been very difficult
or impossible, perhaps, to climb out of it. That's why we have
a description. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of the Maori clay. But then there's the good
news. And set my feet upon a rock and
established my gaze. What does that mean? Well, we
can see the spiritual view here. The rock can be none other than
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the rock of ages. He does not change. He's always
there. And to think here that David
was taken up and he was placed upon that rock. Isn't that good? God today places his people upon
that rock. They may find it virtually impossible
to get onto the rock themselves. And yet God comes in this wonderful
way. He added up Mark and set my feet
upon a rock. And there on that rock, what
did God do to David? He establishes goings. What does
that mean in a spiritual sense? It means this. God established
us in the things of God. He establishes in the truth of
God. He establishes us in the doctrines
of God. That's what it is. There we are,
on Christ, being wonderfully established. Isn't that lovely? Isn't that strengthening to our
souls? And so David then, I would say,
he'd been in the pit, he'd been brought out of the pit and standing
on the rock. What does God now do to him?
He hath put a new song in my mouth,
even praise unto our God. Many shall see it. and fear and
shall trust in the Lord. And surely this new song is when
by faith we view the blessed Saviour, the Saviour of sinners,
who has taken us and delivered us from that pit of sin, brought
us to Himself. And there we view the blessed
work of the Saviour, We view the atonement. We view the wonder
of it. We bless God for it. We praise
God for it. We're so thankful that he has
done this for us. Well, says the prophet, the Lord
thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. What a wonderful thing
it is to know he is mighty. The words of Job. Job had a tough
life, didn't he? If you're familiar with Job at
all, you'll know that he had a very blessed life. He was a wealthy man. Everything
was going smoothly until the Lord allowed Satan to come and
to utterly destroy that peaceful existence. So he lost his family,
he lost his flocks, everything he lost. And we see the testimony
of Job. We see what his three friends
came and spoke to him about. But Job was not left to himself. And the Lord came to Job and
spoke to him. And what he's able to declare
to his three friends is this. In the 23rd of Job, you can read
the 10th verse, but he, that means God, he knoweth the way
that I take. Yes, God knows the way that you
and I take. We're not walking in a way which
is unknown, which nobody knows about. God knows the way he has
ordained for you and me. And each of us has an individual
path to walk. Job says, but he knows the way
that I take. And this is what he says. When
he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Easy words, what
it really means is that Job went through the furnace. That means
that's being tried. He went through the furnace and
all that was false In his religion, he had to leave and drop off. It was effectively burnt up. And what was left? Gold. Pure religion. That's what was
left. What a wonderful thing it was.
in Job's life. And you can read through Job
and as you come to the end, the 41st and 42nd chapters, you'll
find a description of how he described himself. He said, Behold,
I am vile. Didn't have a high opinion of
himself. No, but he had a high opinion of his God. And what
a blessing that is for us today to have a high opinion of our
God. And you will, if we're like this,
and say the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. And you see, Zephaniah was able
to go and to prophesy in the firmness of the words of the
gospel when he says, he will save. Yes, and as we read in
Hebrews 7th chapter, I think it is, He saves to the uttermost. Uttermost. God saves to the uttermost. No
one can sound too bad. God saves the uttermost. And
here were these words, you know, prophetic words to Israel. They hadn't gone down into Babylon.
They would do. And no doubt when they were in
Babylon, they would have this prophecy read to them. Weren't
they encouraging words? To know that the Lord was in
the midst of them and that he would save them. They were words
they could latch onto, weren't they? There were words that they
could hope in. There were words that they did
hope in. Praise God. The Lord thy God in the midst
of things is mighty. He will save. Again, it's lovely,
isn't it, to read the truth of God's Word. He doesn't say, well,
perhaps I'll save. Well, I might save. I'll think
about it. Not at all. He says these very
positive words. He will save. He will save. And then he says this, he will
rejoice over thee with joy. He does rejoice over those that
he saves. Why? Because his work of redemption
has been done to save their souls. And he sees his work then, his
work being fulfilled. He rejoices over it. That's amazing,
isn't it? To think that the great God,
the Lord Jesus, rejoices over us. If we've been saved and brought
out of that pit, that pit of corruption, the Lord saved us
and He rejoices over us because of it. Because it will be for
His honour and for His glory. It'll be for his prize. It'll
be a wonderful evidence of his love, a wonderful evidence of
his mercy. As the prophet goes on, he will
rest in his love. Yes, his love, which he's had
towards unworthy sinners. He rests in it. He rejoices in
it. He knows the fulfillment of it.
What a mercy. No one is lost who the Lord loves. No one is forsaken who the Lord
loves. Who once he loves. never leaves,
but loves them to the end. He will rest in his love and
then he will joy over thee with singing. Yes, he will joy over
thee with singing. He will sing joyfully because
of what he sees. in his great work of redemption. It's amazing, isn't it? You know,
when we think of that, we think of the glory of it, to think
that he sings, but no doubt these words are very true. And you
know, Isaiah, he speaks in similar words in the 62nd chapter in
the fourth verse. He says, thou shalt no more be
termed forsaken. And remember, this was prophecy
to Israel, and it's words for us today. Thou shalt no more
be termed forsaken. Neither shall thy land any more
be termed desolate or barren, but thou shalt be called Hepzibah,
and thy land Beulah, for the Lord delighteth in thee. and thy land shall be married. The Lord delights in his people. It's very humbling, isn't it,
to think of that? To think that almighty God, as
he sees us, sinners of the earth, and yet saved by grace, and he
delights in us. Oh, my friends, in return, may
we not delight in our God, because what he's done for us, in saving
our souls, in redeeming us, in paying the price for our redemption?
Oh, do we today delight in our God? Well, it's a mercy to be
able to enter in to the great truths of Scripture. And these
are some of the truths. And as I said at the beginning
of the reading, there is very much in the Word of God about
Israel and their journeys. Much instruction. We see how
they rebel. And we see how God was gracious
to them again and again. We'll just conclude, perhaps,
with a quotation from the 107th Psalm, which is a beautiful psalm. And David tells us about their
condition and situation. He says in the third, fourth,
fifth verses, And he gathered them out of the lands, from the
east and from the west, from the north and from the south,
They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found
no city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty. Their soul fainted in
them. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. He led them forth by the right
way that they might go to a city of habitation O that men would
praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to
the children of men. Amen.