Chapter 3, Zephaniah chapter
3. And the title of the message this
morning is A Call to Sing. A Call to Sing. As we have studied in this passage
of Scripture on Wednesday evening, we were looking at the first
chapter of this book, and it's a word of great sorrow. This book does not begin with
singing, but rather it begins with a word of judgment. It says in Zephaniah chapter
1, It says in verse 2, I will utterly consume all things from
off the land. I will consume man and beast.
I will consume fowls of the heaven and fish of the sea and the stumbling
blocks of the wicked. I will cut off man from off the
land, saith the Lord. This we know historically of
the conquest of Babylon. How that Babylon came in and
conquered the known world. And this was especially for the
people of God a great trouble, a great trial. But this spiritually
has its significance in the greater destruction of God concerning
the fall of man. The fall of man and the curse
of God upon man. Because of man's sin, death,
Spiritual death consumed the whole race. The whole race. Therefore, Paul writes in Romans
3, in verse 10, there is none righteous, no, not one. In Romans 8, in verse 7, he says,
the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, he
talks about the natural man receiveth not the things that be of God. For they are foolishness to him.
Neither can he know them because he is spiritually discerned. Spiritually, the word discerned
means judged. He has been judged of God. What
is the verdict of God's judgment? It is the curse. Death is the
verdict. The verdict of all upon all men
for sin is death, spiritual blindness, spiritual deadness. Why then is the flesh so opposed
to the things of God? J.D. and I were talking. I'm
going to use you a lot, J.D., because you've talked to me now.
So if J.D. talks to me, and he probably
won't talk to me anymore since I'm using him. But we talk of
the physical struggles that we have concerning the worship of
God, concerning prayer, concerning those things of God. Why is it
that the flesh all of a sudden runs out of strength when it
comes to serving God? You've not found that out? You've
not seen that? You can have all the excitement
in the world when it's something the flesh is desiring. You could stay awake for days,
but come to the worship of God and oh, it's so tough. The flesh despises the things
of God. It does. Naturally, carnal flesh
is enmity. It is hatred against God. And yet, the voice of the Savior
comes so sweetly to the ears of such rebellious sinners, such
hateful man, and says, Come unto me! You that are weary and heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Come to Me and you'll find rest. You that are burdened with sin,
come and welcome. Come to Christ and believe on
Him. You that cannot break free from
your sin. Have you found sin to be a chain
that you cannot free yourselves? He says, come to me and I'll
set you free. I'll set you free. Salvation. Reconciliation with
God. Pardon from sins. can only come by the obedience
of Jesus Christ. And only redemption comes by
the blood of Jesus Christ. There is nothing you can do to
merit it. There is nothing you can do to
earn it. It has all been accomplished in the Son of God, by the Son
of God. And come to Him alone. Come to
Him without merit. Come to Him without hope. Matter
of fact, Jesus said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. To what? Repentance. Sinners to repentance. And yet this same Lord, who commands
us to come, understands completely our inability to come. He understands
that. He's not devoid of that. He says,
those people were starting to murmur. He said, I'm the bread
of life that came down from heaven, and they began to murmur among
themselves. They didn't want it. They didn't
understand it. And he said, don't, why are you
murmuring? Don't do that. It's futile. No man can come unto Me, except
the Father which hath sent Me draw him. Do you realize that
if you come to Christ, it is because the Father hath drawn
you with His irresistible grace and pulled you in by His power? He said in Psalm 110, He said,
Thy people shall be willing, when? In the day of thy power. in the day of thy power." If
you've come to Christ, that's a miracle of grace. That's not
an effort of your decision or your will. It is a miracle of
God's grace. The Lord Jesus Christ, He bids
men to come even though we're impotent to come. Unable. The fall of man, friend, is no
small bruise. No small bruise. I know a man
just called me recently. He said, I fell off of a ladder
and I ruptured my Achilles tendon. And he said, the problem was
I was only two foot off the ladder. He was only a few rungs up on
the ladder when He fell off. But I tell you, man's fall was
no simple bruise. It was no simple fall by which
men can shake the dust of their sins off and be accepted. That's
what most of us do, just shake it off. You figure you fall,
you shake it off. And you can get up and go on.
That's not the fall I'm talking about. When God sent the curse,
when God Judgment fell on man. The curse ran so deep that no
man could recover himself from it. People say, well, preacher, I
know I have sinned. I know my family is a mess. I'm
in trouble. I've got all kinds of problems
because of my sin. You know what? I'll just pick
myself up. I'll just pick myself up and I'll just move on. That's
what I've got to do. I've just got to press on. I'll
start doing things right. I'll join a self-help group.
I'll get a good job. I'll become a good citizen. I'll
start voting. I'll tell you what, I'll come
in and I'll go to church and I'll be baptized and I'll join
the church. I'll do a lot of things. Great.
You know what, that gets a lot of points with me. I like that. And you may like that. That gets
you no points with God. None. All your goodness is nothing
but sin. Did you get that? All your best
deeds are altogether filthy in the eyes of God. That will do
nothing. Men do not need to turn over
a new leaf They need new life. They need life. O sinner, forsake
your thoughts, forsake your works, forsake your sin, and come now
without merit. Why would any of you wait? Is there a reason to tarry? When Christ says, come to Me,
sinners, and I'll give you life, is there any reason that you
would tarry? Come now! Believe now! Trust
now in Christ! And forsake everything else. Being devoid of merit is no reason
to stay away. Matter of fact, that's a reason
you should come. You should come. come to him by faith in his person
and his work. Jesus said, I am the bread of
life. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal
life. What does that mean? What does
that mean? He's telling us that I mentioned
this morning, eat his flesh and drink his blood. What is that? His flesh speaks of His person. His person. I tell you, there are not many
of the billions of people upon this planet that have not heard
or even professed faith in Jesus Christ. I tell you, in this religious
generation, I find very few I find very few who, I was speaking
to a man this morning, and he goes nowhere to worship, has
no desire to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, and yet he says,
I know Him, I know Him. No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't. If he knew Him, he would desire
to hear Him. If he knew Him, he would love
Him. If he knew Him, he would love his people. And yet he has
no desire for any of that. That man does not know Christ. Yet, he says, I know Him. What
does he mean? Well, he knows a lot about Him.
He knows a lot about Him. But he doesn't know Him. How
many of these billions of people actually know Jesus Christ? Many profess to be saved by Jesus
Christ, but have no understanding of who He is or what He's done. The scripture is very clear.
In Romans chapter 10, it says, Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. That's pretty clear, isn't it?
I've told you to come. Christ said to come. If you're
a sinner in need of mercy, he says, come unto me. But how are
you going to come unto him and believe on him if you've never
heard of him? That's what the apostle says.
How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on
Him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? Do
you not see the necessity, the means that God has provided by
which men hear and believe? He said, Faith cometh by what? and hearing by grandma, grandpa,
is that what it says? No, by the word of God, the word
of God. When I come up here, do I make
up stories to tell you? I don't spend my time trying
to make up stories. I got enough to preach out of
this book that'll last me a lifetime. Behold, I am preaching this morning
to you a person, the great person of Jesus Christ, who was God,
manifest in the flesh. He said, I am the bread which
came down from heaven, even because He is God, blessed forever. I am preaching God, the Son of
God. John says, in the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And down in verse 14 of that
same chapter, he said, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Consider the Son of God was made
flesh. God was manifest in the flesh. Paul said this is a mystery.
It's a mystery. Now, we who know God believe
in the sacred trinity of His persons. Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. One God. One in will. One in essence. One in decree. Yet, three distinct persons who
manifest themselves in the salvation of men. Isn't that how we know
of God? God the Father. What is the work
of God the Father in saving His people? It is election. The Father
hath chosen a people for Himself. Out of His sovereign, eternal
love, the Son agreed to save them by shedding His own blood. by redeeming them with His own
blood, to being their representative. And the Holy Spirit, He purposed
to give the elect life and faith, and to keep them until He brings
them safe into heaven. You see, salvation is completely
then the work of the living God. But behold the Son of God, the
Son of God, To have redeemed his elect must have been made
flesh. The sins of the elect, my friends,
are very real. My sins are very real. I am no
pretend sinner. I am truly a sinner. I thank God every day you cannot
see into my heart You would have nothing to do with me. I know that I am a sinner, and
my sins are real. Therefore, my Savior must have
really paid for my sins. The Savior must have come in
the flesh and suffered as a man in order to represent me, the
sinner. You see, He must become flesh
to be made the second Adam or the second representative. In
Romans 5, verse 19, it says, "...so by the disobedience of
one." Many were made sinners. By the disobedience of Adam,
we were made sinners. Even so, by the obedience of
one, many should be made righteous. This is how God purposed to save
sinners. Christ's obedience. in the flesh
was accomplished to accomplish righteousness, to merit righteousness
on the behalf of His people. This is what He came to do. This
is His work. This is His person that He came
to represent us in the flesh. I'll ask you, do you need righteousness
that you continually fail to merit? I need it every second of every
day. Are you weary of striving in
religion to be righteous? Then come now and find rest from
your labors." All that work you're doing, it's
useless. Put it down and come to Christ
and rest. Rest in His complete righteousness. By the obedience of one. Not by your obedience. By His. You obtain righteousness. Come
now and believe on Christ and you shall never be without righteousness. You'll never lack righteousness. You who are in Christ. You'll
never lack it. This is what it is to eat His
flesh. It's to rest on His obedience. That's what it is. Eat His flesh
is to trust in His righteousness. What is it to drink His blood?
To drink His blood is to believe in His work of atonement. Atonement
for sin. The election of the Father, get
this, the election of the Father did not redeem anyone. Do you realize the power of the
Holy Spirit redeems no one? It is the work of the Son of
God alone to redeem His people from their sins. It was His work
alone. Only blood, only blood could
redeem us. The Father could not bleed. The
Spirit could not bleed. Only the Son was made flesh and
could bleed. Only the Son was made flesh and
can bleed. This is why He was prepared a
body, so that He should shed His blood for the remission of
sins. You know, I hear of cancer patients. You know what the greatest word
for them is? Remission. Isn't it? Your cancer
is in remission. They like to hear that word.
But this word goes much further than just like remission of cancer.
That means that their sin is shrinking or their cancer is
shrinking or getting smaller. Your remission, believer, is
that it's gone. That's what it is. Your remission
of sins means that they're gone forever. Never to be seen again. Never to be seen. When the high priest entered
into that presence of God on the great day of atonement, he
could not enter without blood. Otherwise, he would die. He would
die. Aaron and his priests of the
law, they entered into that blood with blood of bulls and goats.
But I tell you that Jesus Christ has entered into the most holy
place, not with the blood of bulls that could never take away
sin. He entered into the heaven of
heavens, into the presence of God with His own blood. With His own blood. He entered with His spotless
blood, with His sinless blood. And God looked upon His blood
and could not find any fault in it. And He said, That's enough. It's
finished. And Jesus, to let us know before
He died, said, It is finished. Done. That's a good word, isn't
it? Done means it's finished. It means it's done. It means
it's complete. It's finished. This is the work
of the atonement. And to drink His blood is to
believe and trust that it is finished. The work of redemption
has been wrought forever by the blood of the Son of God. That's
what it is to drink His blood. Behold Him, who is God manifest
in the flesh, has obtained both righteousness and redemption. I'll tell you, there are many
who say they believe that. All the while, they sit and hear
of someone that I have no idea who it is. They talk of His name,
they say His name is Jesus. But I have no idea who this person
is because they speak of a Christ who died for sinners but actually
saved no one. Here's a great difference between
the true Christ of the scriptures and the false Christ of men's
religion. Was he successful? Was he successful? Did Jesus Christ actually redeem
and atone for sinners? Only those who are called of
the Father to see our sin, to see our inability, we are called
to behold and believe Jesus Christ who has accomplished salvation. False religion boasts of a Jesus
blood and righteousness that makes salvation possible. Listen,
that Christ does not exist. Jesus, my Christ, the Savior
of my soul, did not make salvation possible for me. He actually
accomplished salvation for me. For me. Men say that He made it possible,
and if they'll do this, and if they'll do that, and if they'll
exercise their will, if they'll just accept Him, then His blood
shall be made effectual or powerful to save them. No. No. I tell you, there is no cause
for singing in such a Savior. Now go back to your text, and
I'm going to be quick. Sing. O daughter of Zion, shout Israel. Be glad and rejoice with all
the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. We sing and we rejoice only in
a successful Savior. Look what he says here. The Lord
hath taken away thy judgments. Sing, O believer, for our Lord
Jesus Christ hath obtained both righteousness and redemption
for all of his elect. wall of His elect. Therefore,
all who are called to faith in Jesus Christ, sing and rejoice,
for we serve a risen Savior. We serve a living Savior, a holy
Savior who has redeemed us. And because of His success, God
raised Him from the dead and exalted Him to heaven where He
sits on the throne of glory. We serve a risen Savior who has
finished our work of redemption. Sing and rejoice, because He's
taken away thy judgments. The Scripture says, "...the reproach
of them that reproached thee fell on Me." The reproach that I had against
God fell on Him and not me. The judgment of God fell on Christ. fell on Him. The hell we justly earned, Jesus
freely endured. The hell we justly deserved,
He freely endured it all. Therefore, we sing in the midst
of our doubts. Now, which believer here does
not have doubt? Who has such faith as to not
have any doubt? I'll tell you, when your doubts
come, you should sing. You should sing because the Lord
has taken away your judgments. I like this song, it was written,
From whence this fear and unbelief Hath not the Father put to grief
His spotless Son for me? And all the righteous judge of
men Condemned me for the debt of sin Which the Lord hath charged
on thee. Complete atonement thou hast
made, And to the utmost farthing paid. What e'er thy people owed? How then can wrath on me take
place, if sheltered in thy righteousness, and sprinkled with thy blood? If thou my discharge procured,
and free thee in my room endured, the whole of wrath divine payment
God cannot twice demand. First at my surety's hand, and
then again at mine. Do you see that? That God cannot
demand twice payment. Is that not great? If your judgment
has already been procured by Jesus Christ, already been endured
by Him, He cannot come on you! He cannot! He's just! He's holy! And if my sins were
paid at Calvary, He cannot come to me again and demand twice
payment. Isn't that a relief? Isn't that
cause to sing? It is, if you've been washed
in His blood. It's great cause to sing. And
sing secondly, because He's cast out your enemy. Look at that.
He hath cast out thine enemy. The enemy of thy soul is Satan. I tell you, He walketh about
as a roaring lion, seeking whom He may devour. And listen to
me, He will never devour you, child of God. He will never touch
you. I tell you, He will tempt this
flesh, and He does at times bring us low. But I tell you, He's
already been cast out. Have you ever been accused? I know I accuse myself quite
often. Many times the enemy would tempt
us to sin, and when we do, he points at our conscience and
says, look, look what you've done. Look what you've done. Surely you can have no right
to stand before God. Surely you have no right to claim
to be a Christian. But consider this, it's God that
justified. It's Christ that died. Who is He to condemn us? He's
nothing to condemn us. Now you start looking to what
you've done to try to find justification, He'll condemn you all day and
find every reason to cause doubt in your soul. But I'll tell you
this, point Him only to the blood. And He has no right to say anything. The enemy is cast out. Sin shall
not have dominion over you. Is that not a blessing? I'm glad
for that promise. Therefore, the Lord is in the
midst of thee. He, even by the Holy Spirit,
dwells in us. Is that not comforting? Does
that not cause you to sing that He will never leave you? If I
could have left me, I would have left me a long time ago. I would
have left me. There's no reason for me to stick
around with me. I despise me. I'm the worst company. And I've
got to be there all day with me. But he won't leave me. Matter of fact, he set up camp
right here. And he ain't going anywhere. Know you not that the Holy Spirit dwells in
you. Christ said, we will make our
abode with Him. Yes, the old man of sin still
remains. He's present with us, constantly
before our eyes, but instead of glorying, Now our hearts despise our sin,
and we cry and weep to our beloved. Sin breaks our hearts and we
long for it to be ever removed from us. But thou, beloved of
God, may sing, even in your midst of your doubting, even in the
midst of your warfare, for the enemy has been cast out and God
takes up residence. God has taken up residence in
you. Therefore now, know this, that none of his accusations
shall stand against us. None of the enemy. And sing for
this, number three. Look at what God says in the
latter parts of verse 15. He said, the Lord is in the midst
of thee. Thou shalt not see evil anymore. Believer, take this promise and
sing it as loud as you want to. You shall not see evil anymore. Nothing, nothing that happens
to the believer is evil against you. Everything God does, He
does for you. Everything that happens in time
and providence is directed by the hand of God who loves you. In Jeremiah 29, God says, I know
my thoughts for you. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil. Yes, but I'm dying. You shall
not see evil anymore. I'm sick. That's not evil. My child died. That's not for
your bad, that's for your good. Do you not see you have plenty
to rest and to sing of? God intends it for your good. Now I can't tell you how it's
going to work together for your good, I can only tell you that
it will. You shall not see evil anymore. Therefore, in that day it shall
be said to Jerusalem, Fear not, and don't let your hands be slack."
In other words, don't mope. That's what he means by hands
slack. Oh, when you just lay your hands down. Oh, and I'm
just weeping. He said, don't let your hands
be slack. Don't let them hang down. Don't
be afraid. Listen, the Lord thy God is in
the midst of thee is mighty. Listen to His promise. He will
save. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will rest in His love. This word rest, I thought it
was really good that you should know this. It means silence.
The Lord is going to be silent because of His love. In other
words, all of your sin He shall never mention ever again. even because it's not there. It's been removed. He shall joy over you with singing. Now, I'll tell you what. I pray the Holy Spirit to give
us such hearts to see this. Your God sings for you. When I was dating Cheryl, I have
no good voice to sing. But I always wanted to sing to
her. I did. If I had a song that had meaning
and purpose, and I wanted her to know how much I love or care
about her, I would sing her a song. And this is the song that God
has sung to you. It is His Word. Here is His song. Here is His hymn book. Christ
is the subject and the substance of the hymn. And the Spirit has
sent His orchestra of preachers out with a melody. A melody of grace. For undeserving, unworthy sinners come to Christ. For God sings over you who come. He sings. Can you imagine the voice then
of that song? It's an eternal song. It has the highest melody. It's
a melody of free grace. now you should come and rest
in it you should come now and rest
now may God ever give us a heart
to sing and to be so thankful for his grace for his son May God, the Holy Spirit, give
power to the Word. Apply it to your hearts. Let's
stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.