Turn with me in your Bible toward
the end of the Old Testament to the little book of Zephaniah.
Fourth book back from the Gospel of Matthew. Zephaniah chapter
3. I want to look at one verse.
I want to consider one verse this morning. Back in 2016, we
looked at this verse together, which is all about, as this whole
book is, the Lord thy God. Zephaniah, excuse me, chapter
three, verse 17. Now, according to verse 17 here,
the Holy Spirit gives us six wonderful things in this verse. Let me give them to you quickly. The Lord thy God is in the midst
of thee. God is everywhere all the time. He's omnipresent. The Lord thy
God is mighty. He's the almighty God. He is
a sovereign God. Had a fellow one time say, you
preach the sovereignty of God. There is no other God. He's a
sovereign God. He's almighty. He does what he
will in the army of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth
and none can stay his hand. Surely not puny man. Thirdly,
the Lord thy God, he will save. He will have mercy on whom he'll
have mercy. And whatsoever the Lord is pleased
to do, whatsoever he, whosoever he's pleased to save, that is
who he saves. Fourthly, the Lord thy God will
rejoice over thee with joy. What an amazing thought that
is. Jesus Christ, who is the author and the finisher of our
faith, the cause of our believing, who for the joy that was set
before Him, He endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down on the right hand of the throne
of God. Fifthly, from this one verse,
the Lord thy God will rest in His love. What an amazing thought. Not in our love for Him, It's
not what it says, but His love for us. And then sixthly, the
Lord by God, He would joy over thee with singing. That's just
how delighted Christ is with His people, with His own righteousness
upon them and His own grace within them. God rejoices in His work
of redemption for His chosen people. So much so that he sings. Boy, now there's a special I'd
like to hear. Wouldn't you just love to hear
the Lord sing? Six marvelous, amazing, overwhelming truths
concerning chosen sinners who are found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now to those of you that have heard me preach for a while now,
you know that one of my favorite subjects in all the teachings
of the Bible is the finished work of Christ. And I hope you
know why that is. It's because that's where all
our comfort and all our peace and all our rest and assurance
lies. Only in Christ accomplished work
of redemption. Every bit of it lies within those
things. Without Christ's finished work,
there is no comfort. There is no peace. There is no
rest or no assurance. How many times have I asked you
this question? When can a man or a woman, a
sinner, rest? Quite a few times. And you know
the answer, don't you? The answer's always the same.
They can only rest when their work is finished. I was talking
to Glenn this past week. As you know, he and Jerry are
trying to get moved here. And this is what Glenn said.
He said, I really don't have a deadline, a target date to
finish moving. I just want to get it done and
get it behind me. Well, I know Glenn well enough
to know what he meant was, I can't rest. I can't relax. I can't
take it easy until the move is finished. And I can't stop moving
or I can't stop working until I'm moved. And don't you wish
folks could learn that in a spiritual sense? Wouldn't sinners be able
to rest if they could just get a hold of that? Yet many sinners
keep working to be saved, not knowing that the work of salvation
is already finished and accomplished. I never get tired of talking
about that. Many employed working men and women look forward to
the weekend or a day off to relax and rest, but they can't really
rest until certain responsibilities are completed. You know what
I'm talking about. The woman of the house may say,
well, I'm going to sit down and relax and kick my feet up this
afternoon when I finish cleaning the house. And the man of the
house may say, well, I'm going to finish mowing the yard this
afternoon so I can sit down this afternoon and watch the game
or, like me, lay down and take a nap. We can't truly rest until
our work is finished. How much more is that so and
is that true concerning salvation? The Lord Jesus, heir of all things,
by whom made the world, who being the brightness of God's glory
and the express image of his person, God's person, upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. When did he sit down? When his work was finished. Hebrews
10 verses 12 through 14 tell us, but this man, the Lord Jesus,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. Just as Christ as God in the
beginning rested from his work. We've looked at this passage,
let me read it to you again. Genesis 2, verses 2 and 3. And
on the seventh day, God ended his work which he had made, and
he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had
made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, set it
apart, because that in it, he had rested from all his work
which God created and made. Now I have to show you this again,
so hold your place there in Zephaniah chapter three. We haven't even
looked at it yet, and I already turned on you, but look at Hebrews
chapter four with me. We're coming right back to our
text, but look at Hebrews chapter four. I want you to see this
in your Bible. I don't want to just read it
to you, I want you to read it with me. Beginning in verse one,
Hebrews chapter four, verse one. Hebrews 4 verse 1, let us therefore
fear lest a promise be left us of entering into his rest. Any of you should seem to come
short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit
them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we
which have believed do. enter into rest. As he said,
I have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter into my rest, although
the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise,
and God did rest the seventh day from all his works." What
we just read in Genesis 2. And in this place again, if they
shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore it remaineth that some
must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached
enter not in because of unbelief. Again, he limiteth a certain
day, saying in David, today, after so long a time, as it is
said, today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest,
then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that
entered into his rest, he also hath what ceased from his own
works, as God did from his. So let us labor therefore to
enter into that rest." Isn't that something? Let's labor to
rest. And there is a labor to rest.
Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man
fall after the same example of unbelief. So I want us to again
consider just one of the points from Zephaniah chapter three,
and that is this one. Turn back there with me, verse
17. It says, God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, will rest in His love." Boy, chew on that for just a
minute. He will not rest in our love
for Him. After all, we love Him because
He first loved us. He, God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
will rest in His love. What an amazing thought and what
an amazing truth. The Lord Jesus Christ, our near
kinsman redeemer, will rest in His love. Isn't that what Boaz,
Ruth's near kinsman redeemer, did? Speaking of himself, Boaz
told Ruth, he said, for the man, speaking of himself, me, Boaz,
will not rest until he hath finished this thing, this day. He's talking
about Ruth's redemption. He's talking about going to the
gate, meeting with the elders and redeeming Ruth. He was her
near kinsman redeemer. He's talking about redeeming
her and making her his bride. That's what Christ did for us.
Isn't that what Hosea did? You remember Hosea? Oh, love
the story of Hosea and Gomer. Thou shalt abide with me many
days. Thou shalt not play the harlot.
Thou shalt not be for another man. That's what I'll be for
thee." That's what Hosea said to Gomer. Well, she was a harlot
from the time they were married until he redeemed her on the
slave block. She was unfaithful to him. What
a picture she is of you and I by nature. Hosea didn't rest in
Gomer's love. He rested in His love for her.
The Lord Jesus will rest in His love. Not might rest, not maybe
rest, but will rest. Having loved His own which were
in the world, He loved them until the end, John 13.1. Having loved,
well, He always loved them. Having loved His own, not everyone
in the world, but loving those that God gave Him. Where were
these that He loved? They were in the world. That's
why God so loved the world. He loved the world because those
that He loved was in the world. How long did He love them? He
loved them till the end. Till the end of their life? No,
beyond that. Way beyond that. He loved them
for eternity. He loved them forever. He loved
them from everlasting to everlasting. Because with the Lord, there
is no end. He's always loved them. I have loved thee with
an everlasting love. My, my, and because of that,
therefore with loving kindness, He's drawn us. God draws us in
time because He loved us from eternity. Now as a just judge
of justice, he will rest in his love. Isn't that an amazing thought? He with whom we have to do will
rest in his love for us. Christ satisfied justice and
he justified sinners. And he did so according to justice. That's the only way that he could
justify us and remain just. He is a just God and Savior.
He is both just and justifier of them who believe. That's why
He can rest in His love. An earthly judge, one who cares
about justice, and I know there's some crooked ones, but there's
also some good ones. Such a judge may toil and may
labor and worry and fret about making the right judgment, the
right decision in a big case. But the judge of all the earth,
he shall always do what is right. Always. And solely because of
what Christ Himself has done, he will rest in his judgment
and his justice. Why? Because it's based on Christ's
love. Not on our love. Oh my, our love's
so fickle, it's here, it's gone, it's up, it's down. But His love,
oh, He can rest in His love. Christ's love for His Father
and Christ's love for His people. And many in our day preach that
God may set His love upon a sinner and then later withdraw that
love. Where is there any comfort for a believer in that? Do you
find any comfort in that? If the Lord can love me one day
and not love me the next, I would constantly be thinking about
him not loving me. Why? Because that's what I don't
deserve is love. The promise of our text is that
Jesus Christ, who is God, will rest in his love. He'll always
rest in his love or it wouldn't be true love and it wouldn't
be true rest. And if that is so, then the apostle
Paul would have been wrong, if God doesn't rest in His love,
Paul would have been wrong when he declared that he was persuaded
that neither death nor life nor angels, principalities, powers, things to come, height, Death
nor anything else in creation should be able to separate his
people from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. But he wasn't
wrong, because Jesus Christ will rest in his love. Was Paul mistaken? Was his words his own? Were they
uninspired by the Holy Spirit? No, no. Can sin ever make Christ
cease to love his elect? No. That's what preachers today
tell us. Because of sin, we backslide.
We slide back into sin. Sadly, we never left it. Thankfully,
Christ put it away. never to be remembered by God
again. Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. How can one who is
dead to sin live any longer therein? He said dead to sin, not dead
in sin. We're dead to sin. We're dead
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6, 11. It's eternal rest because it's
eternal life. Did our Lord not say, I've loved
thee with an everlasting love? He didn't say, I've loved you
with a partial love. I'm going to love you today,
but tomorrow I may not love you. He didn't say that, did He? No,
everlasting. Everlasting. There's no end to
His love. Therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn you. No end. No end. And it's because of our union
and our oneness with Him. He's always loved us. He always
will love us. That's why our Lord said, I will
never leave an evil nor forsake thee. Why? Because He loves us. And He rests in His love for
us, and we certainly must rest in His love for us. Is there
any iniquity that I could commit that would divide me from Christ's
love? If so, I would have been separated
from Him a long time ago. He could have rightfully said,
well, you're unworthy of me, because I am. And therefore,
I will be unmindful of you. But that's not what He said,
is it? If the Lord had intended to cast us away because of our
sin, why did He ever agree to love us and redeem us in the
first place? He knew what we were. God chose
the scoundrel Jacob before he was born, before he had ever
done any good or evil. Why? That the purpose of God,
according to election, might stand not of works, but of Him
that calleth. Romans 9-11. If the Lord had
intended on abandoning us and casting us away, would He have
ever accepted us at all? Did He not know how hideous we'd
be? He has an omniscient eye. He
chose us as we were. That's why just as I am, I come
to Him, without one plea, without any excuse. I am a sinful, wretched,
depraved man. Yet He says, come unto Me, and
I'll give you life, and you'll have it more abundantly. Oh,
if the Lord had intended to divorce us, would He have ever espoused
Himself to us? Would the Lord have ever adopted
us, His unfaithful child, if our unfaithfulness would cause
Him to cast us away? Can tribulation separate us?
What about distress, persecution, famine? What about nakedness,
peril, or sword? No, sir. All these things do
will manifest His love for us more. All these things are incapable
of dividing us, separating us from His love. That's why He
can rest in His love, and that's why we can. He doesn't rest in
His power. He certainly could. He no doubt has great power. He built the heavens. He stretched
out the earth. He upholds all things by His
power. But it's not His power that He
rests in. He has great wisdom. It even
rests in His wisdom. He can unravel mysteries. He
can foretell all things. His ways are past finding out.
He knows all things, past, present, and future. But it's not His
wisdom that He rests in. He's a God of honor. He's honorable in all things,
but this is not where He rests. He rests in His wisdom. in the midst of his people. It's
there that he is eternally satisfied. That's where his solace of heart
is found, in his love. You know, a war breaks out with
a neighboring nation, and a man and his family's freedom and
safety is threatened. So out of love for his wife and
his children and his country, this man enlists in the military
and goes to war. He fights on the front lines,
and he's seriously wounded in the battle, yet the war is won. He returns home, and what does
he do? He rests in his love. The love
for his wife, the love for his children, the love for his country.
He doesn't rest because of his wounds. He thinks not on his
pain. He doesn't rest in the sacrifice
that he made. He rests in his love. How much
more so is that true of God our Savior? The Lord Jesus left His
high throne in heaven. He disrobed from His glory. He made Himself of no reputation,
the Scripture says. He took upon Himself the form
of a servant. He put on the attire of man's
flesh. He was made in the likeness of
men, the likeness of our sinful flesh, yet without sin. He wore
the uniform of a soldier. a man of war. He fought on the
front lines for thirty-three and a half years, and he took
the sin of his people upon himself. His love for them oppressed him,
so as it were, he sweat great drops of blood to the ground
in Gethsemane's garden. And in the final battle fought
upon Calvary's mountain, upon a cross, he was wounded for the
transgressions of his people, he was bruised for their iniquities,
the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes
we were healed. And it was there that his love
for his people caused him to bow his head and to give up the
ghost. What caused it? It was his love
for the child of God that made him to do so. It was love for
those that God gave him that caused him to redeem them and
pay their debt of sin. And now the very thing that drove
him to battle, to labor, now makes a pillar for him to rest
his head upon. He who had no earthly place to
rest his head, now rest in his love. And he rests because his work's
finished. We rest because his work's finished. We rest in his
love and so does he. He now sits in heaven until he
makes his enemies his footstool. And my enemies are his enemies. The world, Satan, the powers
of darkness, the last enemies, death and the grave, they are
all defeated because of His love. His love for His people. Death
now has no sting. The grave now has no victory. The judge of all the earth rests
in His love, even through all eternity. You know what that
means? It means everything's alright.
Forever. I don't know about you, but I
have a bad habit when things are going good, I can't hardly
rest in it because I think it's just a matter of time. Something's
going to raise its ugly head. We can't enjoy the rest because
we're worried about what might happen. Well, let me tell you
something. You can rest in His love because it's going to be
alright, and it's going to be alright forever. Now, do you
believe me? That's what this book teaches.
That's what God Himself said. He will rest in His love. Lastly, that word rest in our
text, you know what it means? If you have a marginal Bible,
you probably see it. It means to be silent. God the Son will be silent in
His love. Immediately comes to mind that
instance when the scribes and the Pharisees caught a woman
in the very act of adultery. Remember that? They unmercifully
dragged her before the Lord Jesus to tempt Him concerning what
the Lord should have done to her according to the law. They
said to Christ, the law says that she be stoned. What do you
say? But the Lord didn't speak a word. Not a word. He just listened
while he, with his finger, wrote upon the ground. They asked him
again. He didn't say a word, just kept
writing. Then he spoke and he said, he
that is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at her. And then they didn't say nothing. And then again, he stooped down
and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it being
convicted by their own conscience went out one by one, beginning
at the eldest, even to the last. And Jesus was left alone and
the woman standing in the midst, just him and her. And when Jesus
lifted himself up and saw none but the woman, he said to the
woman, where are your accusers? And she said, hath no man condemned
me? No man, Lord. And Jesus said
unto her, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Oh,
he rest in his love. When God saves a sinner, he's
silent. He's silent about our faults.
He's silent about any accusations against us. He's silent about
our sins. He's silent of any reproof. He's
silent of any correction. He's silent of any condemnation. Why? Because he's resting in
His love. In our society, the law does
not demand a spouse to give testimony or evidence against the other. And certainly the Lord Jesus
Christ will never give any evidence against His spouse because He
will be silent in His love. There won't be a word of accusation
of judgment against us from Him. Now we say of ourself, I'm all
black, and He won't deny it nor confirm it. What glorious silence! Yet when He stands before the
bar of God's justice and the books are opened and our crimes,
the crimes of His bride are read against her as her judge, the
one to whom all things have been committed against. All our sins
against Him, against Him and Him only have we sinned. There'll
be nothing but silence. He'll be silent in His love.
But when she is asked to give an account for her sin, it's
then that He speaks in her place. And He says, I'm the sin offering
on her behalf. I am her substitute. I have been
punished in her room instead. And if she spoke for herself,
she'd have to confess just that. I'm a sinner. I'm all black.
But her heavenly husband speaks and says, I'm her righteousness. You know, in the realm of time,
in this life, we continue to fight, but in the spiritual realm
of eternity, the work's finished. And that work was finished upon
the cross when the Lord Jesus said it was. He said it's finished,
and it was finished. So, let us also rest, be silent
in His love. There's no work for us to do.
There's no credit for us to take. There's no boasting of what we
can do. Lord, haven't we? Haven't we done many wonderful
works in your name? Haven't we cast out devils? Haven't
we laid hands on the sick? Haven't we preached here and
preached there? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? And what did he say? I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. All your work is iniquity. Anything that we do to try to
replace what Christ has done for us is nothing but iniquity. So we're silent. And we rest
in His love. May God make it so for our good
His glory and for Christ's sake.