May the Lord be pleased to bless
us together as we consider his word this morning. Let us turn
to the prophecy of Zephaniah chapter 1 and we'll read verse
12. The prophecy of Zephaniah chapter
1 and reading verse 12. And it shall come to pass at
that time that I will search Jerusalem with candles and punish
the men that are settled on their lees, that say in their heart,
the Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. If we are to take a broad view
of the words in the Bible, we will find that there are many
occasions when there are those situations which are pointed
out to show that the Church of God is not living in accordance
with the Word of God. And as we have so much of the
Word of God directed to this position, we should therefore
not think that such considerations are irrelevant to us today. We may sometimes think, well,
these things are very negative, and really I don't want to hear
negative things, I'm only really interested in positive things. Well, I'm sure that the truth
of God is such that as we are able to observe and to take to
our hearts those things which we may think are negative will
in fact produce in our heart a great positive evidence. And
surely that is what we really desire. And as I have sometimes
said, there is a large part of the Bible which is spent in speaking
about the period in history which occurred just prior to when Israel
or Judah went down into captivity into Babylon. We see the prophets,
to a large extent, spend a lot of their time speaking about
those things which existed and those things which would occur.
and what we of course notice is that for the most part the
Church of God in those ages ignored that which the prophets spoke.
It did not have the effect that we would think it should do and
I suppose therefore we should therefore not be surprised that
throughout the ages and even down to today as we have so many
words of instruction There is, to a large extent, ignoring such
statements and just continuing in our life as though those things
were irrelevant to our spiritual state and we are at liberty to
pursue our own lives as we see fit. Well, of course, that's
precisely what the devil wants us to do. He always has done.
Remember, he's always been that one who has set forth the untruth,
not the truth. The Word of God gives us the
truth, and the devil sets before us untruths. And the devil sets
before us untruths in this way. He sets before us doubt. He sets before us the ability
to think things out for ourselves and to walk in that way and to
therefore ignore the God's word and how successful he is. We
look back in history, we come to the present age and we find
how successful the devil's been and I suppose it would be unreasonable
to think that the day and age in which we live for the most
part is a dark age. We don't live in a spiritually
blessed time really, we have wonderful blessings of the Word
of God, but by itself the Word of God doesn't produce spirituality. What we need is the gracious
and blessed and wonderful work of the Holy Spirit of God. How we need today that to be
exhibited in our lives, individually. as a church and congregation,
as a nation and throughout the world, we need, once again, the
blessed evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit. And so may
we be concerned about that. Now, Zephaniah lived very shortly
before Nebuchadnezzar came up and possessed and conquered and
demolished Jerusalem and the temple and everything that stood
within. He lived, as we read, in the
days of Josiah. Now, Josiah was a good king. He was a good king. He lived
for some 30 years. He did many things which were
right. He tried to turn the people of God back to the things of
God. He took away many of the evil things. But we have to conclude
that naturally wasn't very successful. We say how God gave Israel, gave
Judah, rather, another gracious king in the form of Josiah. He was a young man and he came
and desired to do that which was right. And yet, sadly, sadly,
Israel didn't, or rather Judah didn't listen to those things
which he did and said. And that really is the scene
we have here in this prophecy of Zephaniah in the days of Josiah. And we have the statement that
Zephaniah makes in this first chapter. We know there's blessings
that he gives us in later, but in this chapter he sets before
the people the situation which will occur. And it's very direct. And it's very straight. My friends,
today God still is very direct and very straight and for the
most part people ignore the direction of the words of the Lord. So we have here what the Lord
says through Zephaniah. He says, I will utterly consume
all things from off the lands of the Lord. I will consume man
and beast. I will consume the fowls of the
heaven and the fish of the sea and the stumbling blocks with
a wicked, and I will cut off man from off the land, saith
the Lord. And I will also stretch out my
hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the
name of the Camarims and the priests, and them that worship
the host of heaven upon the housetops, and them that worship, and that
swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcolm, And then that I turn
back from the Lord, and those that have not sought the Lord,
nor inquired for him." Well, there's a list there of the people
which lived in Judea at that time, and it is a comprehensive
list, and we have the word of the Lord against those people. Hold thy peace at the presence
of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at hand. that
the Lord hath prepared his sacrifice, he hath bid his guests that it
should come to pass in that day of the Lord's sacrifice that
I will punish the princes and the king's children. He starts
there. He starts at the king. I will
punish the princes and the king's children and all such as are
clothed with strange apparel. Then he goes on and he lists,
he goes down as it were in categories. He says in that same day also
Will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which
fill their masters' houses with violence and deeds? And he goes
farther down. And it shall come to pass in
that day, saith the Lord, that there shall be a noise of a cry
from the fish gate, of a howling from the second, and a great
crashing from the hills. And he really is going round
the city with the gates. And he says, How the inhabitants
of Maktesh, that's one of the suburbs of Jerusalem, For all
the merchant people are cut down, all that bear other silver are
cut off." So again, as I say, it's a comprehensive word for
these people in this land of Judah and also in the city of
Jerusalem. Let me come down to this word
here this morning, and it shall come to pass. And remember, when
God speaks like this, when He says, It shall come to pass. It always comes to pass. Do not think that you can play
with the Word of God. Do not think that you can ignore
the Word of God. Do not think that you can avoid
such statements as this. Because when the Lord speaks,
when the Lord, what He speaks, what He says, He never fails. to bring to pass. It's not like
people. It always comes to pass. And
it shall come to pass at that time. That I will search Jerusalem
with candles. Well, we can imagine, can't we?
We've got the picture. And we can think then of what
a candle is. It gives a small light. But it
gives a light. And if you only have a candle,
to find things. It's not as though you've got
a searchlight to look for things. You've only got a candle and
you have to go around very carefully looking in every corner and cranny
to see what there is, what exists. It's a very careful examination. And so the Lord says here that
it will come to pass in that time that he will search Jerusalem
with candles. He'll go around very carefully. No one will be able to hide No
one will be able to get away from the Lord God as he comes
and visits Judah and Jerusalem. And exactly the same today, my
friends. You and I cannot hide from God. You can't hide from
God. Our actions sometimes evidence
that we think we can hide from God. We can't hide from God. God sees us all through. He knows
our thoughts. He knows our minds. He knows
everything. You can't hide from God. He'll
come and search you out. He'll come and find where you
might think you can't be seen. You might think that you can
ignore God. You might think you can carry
on in your life without God. God has said, come to pass that
there would be this searching, searching Jerusalem with candles. Now then, what would occur? What
would occur? Would the Lord come and say,
oh well, I've found you, you can just carry on, you're okay,
there's no problem? You have this very solemn statement. that he will punish. He will
punish the men that are settled on their knees, that say in their
heart that the Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. Now, we must recognise that here
was the Lord speaking to Judah, in particular to Jerusalem, and
quite clearly they had been ignoring God's Word. And it appeared they
got away with it. It appeared they were able to
continue living their life as it suited them. They'd heard
the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the other minor prophets. They'd heard what they'd said,
and they had been ignoring the truth of God's Word. And now they have a very clear
statement and they are told that the Lord will punish the men
that are settled on their lees. You might say, well, that's a
very strange expression. Well, it is a strange expression,
isn't it? For us today to be settled on our lees. It's an
expression which is also taken from Jeremiah. Remember, Jeremiah
lived at the same time. And Jeremiah explains it a little
bit to us. In the 48th of Jeremiah, the
11th verse, he speaks about Moab and he says, Moab hath been at
ease from his youth, and hath settled on his lees, and hath
not been emptied from vessel to vessel. Neither hath he gone
into captivity, therefore his taste remaineth in him, and his
scent is not changed." Now, just the point that, first of all,
he makes the point, he says, he has been settled, sorry, he's
been at ease from his youth. Well, I wonder how many of you
young people today who are youthful, you settle down. taking it easy. Now, what does this mean? Settled on his lease and not
being emptied from vessel to vessel? Well, wine in those days,
more so than now, had to be emptied from one vessel to another so
that the dregs, as it were, were left behind, and it was purified
through this process. It was gradually, wine was gradually
drained off from one vessel, put into another, left to stand,
and then the same process was continued until they got virtually
a pure vessel of wine. And what had been drained off
was the drinks and the rubbish. Now, if that was not done, what
occurred was, it settled down, it became a sluggish, it became
congealed really, and it wasn't possible to carry out this operation. And therefore it was a situation
which was familiar in this day and age, and they would have
known very much how necessary it was to cancel the wine from
one container to another. And so they were very aware that
this statement meant what it meant. and they shall punish
the men that are settled on their lease." That means there was
no action, they were settled there in the container, there
was no point of one to another, it just stayed as it was, there
was no effort to do anything, it became congealed and it was
in a poor state. And that's the picture here which
Zephaniah is giving to Judah and Jerusalem at this time. And
he's telling them It shall come to pass at that time that I will
search Jerusalem with cannabis and punish the men that are settled
on their leaves." Well, it's very easy, you know, to become
just like that, to be settled down. It's a very sad situation,
isn't it? There's no real health, there's
no real liveliness. We are just relatively content. And I say that relatively content. There may be perhaps a little
thought, well perhaps I shouldn't really be like this, perhaps
I should really be more concerned about my spiritual life, but
well I'm not too bad and I'm just carrying on as it is and
I'm just, well I'm taking it as it comes and I think that's
okay. Well you see, today we live like
that don't we? So many people today are as I
preached from recently, or not so long ago, about the Laodicean
church, referred to as the seventh church in the Revelation, who
were lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, not an acceptable situation
to the Lord. And so here we have then, this
picture here, before us this morning, and the solemn word
of God, which tells us he will punish. Now, did it come to pass? Yes, it did come to pass. It
came to pass in an exceedingly solemn way. Just think of what
happened. There was Judah, the tribe of
Judah, blessed with being able to inhabit Jerusalem. What was the great blessing of
being able to inhabit Jerusalem? There was a temple. There was
a place where God graciously came and dwelled. There was the
ordained place of favour and worship. And they'd enjoyed that. It had been a blessing of the
temple for several centuries. Did they appreciate it? Did they
really appreciate it? I'm going to say no they didn't. They didn't really appreciate
it. They got astray. They'd worship Baal. They were
worshipping the host of heaven upon the housetops. And they
were swearing by Malcolm. Heaven did all manner of things.
They weren't worshipping the true God. And the Lord said he
would punish them. And he did. He came. And Jerusalem was besieged by
Nebuchadnezzar and his army. Eventually that besieging resulted
in Nebuchadnezzar conquering Jerusalem. What happened? The
whole city was burned. The beautiful walls which surrounded
it were broken down. The fish gate which we read of
here was taken down. You can read about the rebuilding
of the fish gate in Nehemiah. You can see how these things
were repaired after those 70 years of captivity. But, you
know, they were never the same. They never came back to the position
that they enjoyed at this time. And we should never think, well,
I can just ignore God. I can just ignore His work, because
it may be The Lord may be saying to you and me, I will punish
you. And you will not have these blessings.
They will be removed from you. Because you have not appreciated
them. Because you haven't walked before me in my ways. You've turned your back upon
me. You've gone about pleasing yourself. And therefore they're
lost. They lost their homes, they lost
the temple, the place of worship, and they were moved far away
to Babylon. It wasn't just around the corner.
It was a long way away, right across the desert. What a place
of destitution it was for these people. Now, here was the prophecy. You think, well, surely, here
was a man of God. prophesying, surely they're going
to hear, they're going to listen. No, they turned away. They ignored
the Word of God. And my friends, today, many,
many people ignore God's gracious words. Do we ignore God's gracious
words today? Do we follow our own way? Do
we turn our back upon God? They will punish the men that
are settled on their knees, that say in their heart, the Lord
will not do good, neither will he do evil. They were really
sitting on the fence, as it were, sitting on the fence. How many
people today sit on the fence? They're not willing, as it were,
to nail their colours to the mass. They're not willing to
confess who they are, and whom they serve. They think God will
just carry on and just, he'll be alright, and I can just carry
on as I am. God won't be offended at me. God won't turn his back upon
me. I'm alright, I'm doing that which I think is okay. These
people were living in Jerusalem. They had the temple there. And
yet they were walking contrary to the Word of God. Well, it's
a very searching thought, isn't it, for us today. And we need
to be honest, don't we? And I'm not speaking against
any, but we have to look at ourselves. The Word of God comes to ourselves,
doesn't it? It may come to ourselves like it was when Nathan came
to David. David thought he was all right.
He thought he had hidden his sin. He thought it wasn't, well, people
had forgotten about it. God hadn't forgotten. My friend, God doesn't forget
you. If you're one of God's people, He doesn't forget you. You're
a marked person. And the time came when God came
and sent Nathan to David and explain to David through a parable
what the situation was. And in fact, this here is a parable
to us, to our souls today. And the effect was that Nathan
spoke to David in very straight words and he said, Thou art the
man. Don't look anywhere else. Don't
think, well that applies to that person. No. Nathan said, Thou
art the man. David knew it was true. The arrow of conviction went
into his heart. And it's a blessing when God's
arrow of conviction goes into our heart. So we don't look round
and think, well, now then, who's that word for this morning? We
realise, thou art the man. The word comes and affects us. So here we have this statement,
Well, we have a God who tells us, I am the Lord, I change not. You should not therefore think
that God is going to change his attitude. You're not going to
change his word as it were to accommodate our situation. We
think, well I've got a special case. My friends, we are all
part of this world. We all need to take care and
listen to the word of God. When the Apostle Paul was speaking
to the church at Rome, It was a very wide-ranging epistle that
he wrote. He wrote some very important
doctrinal statements. But he also spoke of some very
good and needful words. He tells us this in the 13th
chapter, the 11th verse, and that knowing the time, that now
it is high time to awake out of sleep For now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us, therefore,
cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armour
of light. Let us walk honestly as in the
day. That's a wonderful thought, isn't
it? You and I need to walk honestly with ourselves. honestly with
our own heart. Let us walk honestly, as in the
day, when the light shines. Not in rioting and drunkenness,
not in chambering and at-once-ness, not in strife and envy, but,
but, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. and make not provision
for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof." What a direct word
that is from the Apostle, isn't it? He's warning us, he's telling
us, it's high time that we changed our situation. It's high time
that we woke up. It's high time that we hear the
word of the Lord. and then the exhortation to put
on the Lord Jesus Christ. By comparison, not by provision
for the flesh, we may fear that by putting on the Lord Jesus
Christ, we'll lose much We won't be able to provide for our fleshly
lusts as we were once able to, perhaps as we are able to now.
We recognise if we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, we'll have
to give up some of those things which we've been used to doing. And that may have been a hindrance
to us. Well, the Apostle makes it very clear, and make not provision
for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof." I suppose if we're
honest, because of our human nature, we're always looking
to make provision for our flesh, rather than be concerned about
the health of our soul. So the Apostle makes this point
very, very clearly, doesn't he? And again he makes a very similar
statement when he wrote to the Corinthians. And in the 15th
chapter, which we again referred to very recently, he says, Be
not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good
manners. Awake to righteousness and sin
not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your
shame. I often find that a very searching
word. that people do not have the knowledge
of God, because we perhaps have been silent. We perhaps have
not spoken as we should have done. We perhaps have not honoured
the Lord as we should have done. So he says, some have not the
knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. as that comes home to us individually.
We find that we are caused to be ashamed of our spiritual life. Because we have not been that
witness that we should have been. We have not displayed the light
which God has given to us. And we are more concerned to
that men and women, boys and girls, think well of us, rather
than what God thinks of us. So the apostle therefore brings
these points to our attention, and punish the men that are set
on their knees, that say in their heart, the Lord will not do good,
neither will he do evil. And of course, This is something
which is only known to you and to me as we are individual because
the Lord is addressing our heart. It's what we're thinking. What
you're thinking, what I'm thinking. The Lord looks at our heart and
God's eyes penetrate. They penetrate beyond the surface.
You and I see each other, we see the surface. We see a prim
and proper person. But we judge people by appearance,
and we often make a wrong judgment. But God looks at the heart, and
God sees how we stand before Him. And as we stand before Him,
you know, it's as it were we're naked. We don't have anything
to cover us. We lose, as it were, all the
outward shell. There we are, standing before
a holy God. So we have this, let's say, in
their heart. God knows today what you and
I are saying in our heart. Not speaking to other people.
not speaking to other people, what you are thinking in your
heart before God. God knows. We need to examine
ourselves to think, are those things which I'm thinking in
my heart, are they good? Are they God-honouring? Are they
God-glorifying? Am I walking? Am I thinking? Am I desiring in my heart? to walk in the right way, to
be favoured, to do the will of Almighty God. Well, how important
it is. You know, Joel, a short little
prophet, who spoke earlier than Zephaniah, but a prophet of the
Lord, and he was called of God to speak very solemn and searching
things. You know what he was told? He
was told to blow the trumpet in Zion. That means that Zion,
of course, was Jerusalem, as it were, or part of Jerusalem.
He was told to blow it there. He was not told to go and blow
it amongst the heathen, although, of course, there is a right way.
He was told to blow it, the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in
my holy mountain. And the result was that all the
inhabitants of the land tremble, tremble. There's not much trembling
today, is there? There's not much trembling today
that we're offending God. We might tremble about offending
other people, but do we tremble today of offending God? sound an alarm in my holy mouth,
let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of
the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand." That's in the second chapter. That's the first verse. The twelfth
verse tells us, therefore also now saith the Lord God. Now. How we seem to ignore these
nows in the Word of God, don't we? We somehow think in our lives,
nows don't mean what it says. Therefore also now, saith the
Lord of God, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your
heart, with all your heart, with fasting and with weeping and
with mourning, and rend your heart, and not your garments. You see, it's that inward experience. It's not an outward thing. Red
your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord. What's the result? This is a
blessing, isn't it? For he is gracious, and merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repented him of the evil.
Who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing
behind him, even a meat offering and a drink offering, answer
the Lord your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify
a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the people, sanctify the
congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and those
that suck the breasts, let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber
and the bride out of her closet, Let the priests and ministers
of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar, and let
them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to
reproach, that the heathen shall rule over them. Wherefore should
they say among the people, Where is their God? Well, you can read
on in that prophecy of John. It's a very beautiful little
book and there's so much encouragement as we come towards the end where
he gives those wonderful testimonies of favour and blessing. So we
have the evidence of God's sermon, Joel. Then remember, as I said,
when we spoke about the wine being placed from one thing to
another, it was in Jeremiah's day. Well, Jeremiah again, when
he wrote his Lamentations, he also had some words of instruction
to us following these lines. He says, let us search and try
our ways and turn again to the Lord. It's a good thing, you
know, to search our heart. Let us search and try our ways
and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts with
our hands unto God in the heavens. That means to pray to our God.
We have transgressed and have rebelled. Thou hast not pardoned. Thou hast covered with anger
and persecuted us. Thou hast slain. Thou hast not
pitied. Thou hast covered thyself with
a cloud that our prayer should not pass through. Thou hast made
us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people."
And so he goes on to explain the situation which existed But
he also says, I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low
dungeon. And we know Jeremiah, he was
cast into the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice. Hide
not mine ear and my breathing at my cry. Thou drewest near
in the day that I called upon thee. Thou saidst, fear not. Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes
of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life. And here we have the
blessed evidence of God's mercy in redeeming our souls. How are
we redeemed? Well, let us never lose sight
of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us never forget that
we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. That's how we're
redeemed. That's how we're saved. That's
how we're delivered. And so as we may see our situation
today and have to recognise that much of what Zephaniah speaks
is true, then let's look out of ourselves to the Lord Jesus
Christ, to His finished work. My friends today, if you look
just at yourself, your despair, look to Christ. Look to His finished
work. Look to His salvation. Look to
the cross. Behold, by faith, the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sin of the world. If you come today
and say, oh, there's my hope. Be able to come and say, my hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. There's the place of deliverance.
There's the place of strength. There's the place of help. Give me Christ or else I die. My friends, these are great blessings
and great favour. Finally, just turning to the
Hebrews, where the Apostle Paul, as he wrote this epistle to speak
here of these words, he says, there remaineth therefore a rest
for the people of God what a blessing that is for he that is entered
into his rest he also hath ceased from his own works as he did
from his let us neighbour therefore to enter into that rest lest
any man fall after the same example of unbelief for the word of God
is quick and powerful and sharper than any torch sword piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit out of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do, seeing them,
that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God. Let us hold fast our profession. We may perhaps have been, as
it were, losing our grip. Let us hold fast our profession.
We have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with a feeling
of our infirmities. The Lord knows all about us.
He knows us all about us. He knows how you're feeling.
He knows your heart. He knows everything. He knows everything. Blessed
be God for that. He was tempted in all points
like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need." Well, there's encouragement.
And so as we hear these words this morning, and it shall come
to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with candles
and punish the men that are settled on their leaves, that say in
their heart, the Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil,
as we may trace out and see how that applies so often to our
situation. to then have that grace to look
out of ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, to realise there's
my hope, and to come unto Him, casting all our care upon Him,
for He cares for us, that we might find that open door, that
door of access, and the throne of grace, and we would pray unto
the Lord in the day of trouble, that He would hear us and deliver
us and send a blessing, even life, eternal life. Indeed, we may hear that word
as he passes by and says, live. Amen.