Zephaniah. A little book of Zephaniah. I hope you read it. I'm sure
most of you did. I thought about this. You do know that the only word,
when the New Testament speaks about the Word of God, you know
what word is speaking in it. The Old Testament. The Old Testament,
or the New Testament, was being written and compiled as the Gospels
were taking place, as the epistles were being written. People didn't
have a copy of the, you know, all the New Testament, they had
the Old Testament. Whenever our Lord preached from
the Word, He preached from the Old Testament. He went on the
road to Emmaus. He was preaching from the Old
Testament. And the apostles preached. All
the sermons and acts were from the Old Testament, right? Because there are no two Bibles. It's all one. It's all one same
message. The Old Testament and the New
are one message. And the message is of the holy,
righteous, just God, our creator, our owner, our sovereign, our
judge, our maker. Man is sinfulness, is rebellion
against this good God. God's anger, wrath, and judgment
against sin, but God, He is merciful, loving, gracious, and kind, and
slow to anger, ready to pardon. And all that love and mercy and
grace and goodness and pardon of God, salvation of God, is
in one person, Jesus Christ. And the Old Testament, the whole
Old Testament, is about It's a prophecy of Him coming, God
coming to earth to save. See, had not God purposed to
save someone, He wouldn't have... well, He would have wiped Adam
and Eve out immediately and there'd be no Bible and there'd be no
mankind. The Bible is all about God's
mercy and grace and kindness in Christ to save these unworthy
Creatures. And it's all by Christ. Verse
1 says, The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah, and
it gives his lineage, the son of Cushiah, and Gedoliah, and
the son of Amoriah, the son of Hezekiah in the days of Josiah. Josiah was a wonderful king.
He was a great man, son of Ammon, king of Judah. But it tells us
specifically that the Word of the Lord came unto this specific
man, this certain man, this particular man whom God had chosen, and
He gave His Word to this man to declare and prophesy. And
that's the way it's always been. Peter wrote that no scriptures
have any private interpretation. Holy men, holy men, that means
men who were chosen by God, separated by God to this work of prophesying,
preaching. Holy men spake as they were moved
by the Spirit of God. And Paul in Acts, when he was
standing before the King of Rippa, I believe it was, he said this,
he said, Felix, he was before Felix. I confess, the way they
call heresy, so worship I, the God of my fathers, and believe
in all things written in the law and in the prophets. I believe
everything written in the law and the prophets is the Word
of God. The words of Haggai, the words
of Zephaniah, the words of Zechariah, the words of Micah, the words
of Nahum, were not the words of men, but the words of God. Do you know how few people believe
that? Few people. But the fact is, the Lord spake.
This is how the Lord chose to speak to people. It's through
men. Most would not hear them back
then. They said, you're just a man. They knew that. I'm just
a man. I have the Word of God. No, you
don't. That's just your opinion. So,
and it's the same today. God hasn't changed. The means
that God uses to speak to people is the same. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that the excellency of the power might be of God,
not of men. If we won't hear The prophets, the apostles, evangelists,
pastors, and teachers. He links them all together. Pastors
and teachers. He links them with the prophets. Why? Because a true pastor and
teacher is just saying what the evangelists did, and saying what
the apostles did, and saying what the prophets say, and saying
what God said. Just repeating. Just repeating. Thus saith the Lord. And if men won't hear these men
that God chose and raised up, they're not going to hear from
God. That's a fact. And our Lord said, they won't
even believe though one rose from the dead. He said, if you
won't hear Moses and the prophets, then you won't hear from God. So, the Lord begins all of these
with this. The Word of the Lord came as
Zephaniah. These are the words of God. And God hasn't changed,
man hasn't changed, the word to man hasn't changed. Words
of warning, warning, warning, warning. Words of promise. Promise
to those who heed the warning. Those who fear and those who
hear. Those who hear and those who fear and believe. And believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Words of warning. Look at verse
2. I will utterly consume all things from the land. Verse 3,
I will consume man. I will consume. I will cut off
man. Verse 4, I will stretch out my
hand. I will cut off. Especially verse 5, those that
worship idols. Verse 6, those that are turned
back from the Lord. Those that have not sought the
Lord, nor inquired of him. Verse 8, I will punish. Verse
9, I will punish. Verse 12, I will search out Jerusalem. I will, I know. Verse 17, I will
bring distress upon men because they've sinned against the Lord.
Verse 18, it says silver and gold won't deliver you. This
is the day of the Lord's wrath that he says He's going to devour
by the fire of his jealousy. We heard another prophet talk
about his jealousy. Chapter 2, verse 5, he says,
I will destroy, on the last line, I will destroy. There won't be
any inhabitants left. Now the world says this, that's
the Old Testament, and that's why men and women don't read
it much and don't preach from it. They think it's irrelevant.
Mindy this morning read it again, and she said to me, this is so
relevant to our day, and yes it is. Every prophecy is, because
God hasn't changed, and man hasn't changed. It's significant that
our Lord in the last prophet, Malachi 3, right before the New
Testament, He said, I am the Lord, I change not. One of the last things He said
before the New Testament, I don't change. When the world says, that's not
my God, that's not the Bible, we don't preach from that. We
just preach the New Testament. Everything's
changed since Jesus came. Now here, let me just quote,
turn with me to 2 Thessalonians 2. And I'll quote some other
verses for you when you turn to 2 Thessalonians 2. Our Lord
said in Matthew 10, you suppose I have come to bring peace on
the earth? He said, a sword. Didn't He? Now that's Jesus. Catholics,
I think, call Him gentle Jesus, meek and mild. He is gentle. He was meek. He's sitting on the throne of
glory right now. The Lord of glory. But, that
is gentle Jesus, meek and mild. He said, I am come to bring a
sword. He said, I am come to send fire on the earth. In Luke
12. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, look
at verse 7. You who are troubled with us,
rest. You who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall
be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord,
for the glory of his power. That's the New Testament. You
don't hear that anymore. You don't even hear preachers
quote things like that. They don't do it. Hebrews 10,
listen to this. In Hebrews 10, he talks about
shaking the earth. Hebrews 10, verse 30, the Lord
says, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense. The Lord
shall judge his people. It's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. This is the New Testament. Listen to Hebrews 12. This talks
about shaking the earth. It says, Once more I shake not
the earth only, but heaven. Shaking everything. Second Peter,
listen to him. He tells us, he tells his people,
know this, scoffers and mockers will walk in the last day. And
he says to his people, The day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night, and with a great noise the elements shall melt
with fervent heat, the earth and also, and the works therein
shall be burned up. That's what it said. When's the last time you read
Jude? My, my. You won't hear a modern preacher
preaching from Jude. It's too fearful. Because this
is God. This is the word of the Lord.
Old and new, the message is the same. Back in our text, Zephaniah
chapter 1 verse 14, and now Paul in Romans 9 talked about the
sovereignty of God. Romans 1, he says, Man just changes
the truth of God, the glory of God. Worship is a creature rather
than a creator. Romans 1 talks about the wrath
of God revealed from heaven every day against all other governments,
but men don't see it. They don't believe that. Not
God. No, He loves us all. That's Romans 1. In Romans 9,
Paul talks about God's sovereign election of the people. If he
hadn't, we'd have been like Solomon tomorrow. That's what he said.
If God hadn't chosen somebody, he'd have killed them all. Because
nobody has any interest in God whatsoever. Unless God, in mercy
and grace, chooses someone. That's a fact then. How do we
know that? Well, God says it. And we know
it because that was us. That's me. That's us by nature,
by God. And so in Romans 9, Paul says,
when people start arguing against God, he says, Who art thou that
replies against God? Shall the thing form, say to
him that formed it? You can't do that. Look at Zephaniah
1 verse 7. Look at this. Hold thy peace
at the presence of the Lord God. That's God's way of saying, stop
your mouth. Haggai, right before this, Habakkuk,
back a page in Habakkuk 2 verse 20, he says, The Lord is in His
holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him. Who art thou to reply against
God? So he says, hold thy peace. Look
at verse 7. This is wonderful. This is leading
into, we're going to get to the gospel here in just a few minutes.
The truth. You know, there's no gospel without
hearing of a holy and righteous and sovereign and just God who
will punish sin. Gospel doesn't mean a thing to
you if you're not a guilty sinner. If you don't fear God, the gospel
doesn't mean anything to you. Verse 7, Hold thy peace
at the presence of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at
hand. The Lord hath prepared a sacrifice. He hath bid his guests. Right there he tells us he has
some. Now, bid throughout the scriptures does not mean invite,
ever. It's never an invite. Kings don't
invite people to do anything. Won't you please come? No. The
law doesn't invite people to show up in court. It summons
them. You send in a subpoena. You will
show up. Yes, you will, or we will bring
somebody to bring you. We will fetch you. He bid his guests. That's what,
when the Lord said, he bid the people, it's a pronouncement,
it's a proclamation. Have they not all heard? Yea,
barely. And none of them would come. None would come. He made
the proclamation of the king's marriage and none would come.
It's a proclamation. They wouldn't come. Hear ye,
hear ye, thus saith the Lord. There's a wedding, come. None
would come. So what'd he do? Go compel them,
he said. Go out in the highways and hedges
and compel them. My father used to compel me to
do things. Did your father ever compel you,
Ron, to do anything? What'd that mean? You will do as I say, won't you? Yes, sir. And glad you did. You don't have sense enough,
we don't have the will, we don't have the want to, but God. It
speaks about the day of the Lord, verse 15, chapter 1, verse 14. The great day of the Lord is
near, it's near. Verse 15, that day, the day of
wrath. The day of the Lord is often
written throughout the scripture. We know that, you know that.
The day God walked upon this earth, the time, it doesn't mean
a particular day or 24-hour period, it means the time, time period,
the day when the Lord walked this earth, the time, in the
fullness of time, God sent forth His Son. And it's when He walked
this earth, He came here as a fire, yes He did, as a hammer, as a
sword, a sharp two-edged sword around His mouth, fuller's soap. He came to kill, He came to make
a lie. He came to wound, He came to heal, didn't He? The day He
hung on the cross, my, my. That's the day that the God of
this world was judged. His head was crushed. The judgment
of this world, our Lord said, now is the judgment of this world. The whole world was judged the
day Christ hung on that cross. Salvation to all His people and
condemnation to those whom Christ did not die for. It's right there
on Calvary's tree. Today. Verse 15 says it's a day
of wrath, a day of trouble, a day of distress. Our Lord said, now
is my soul troubled. Right before He went to the cross,
didn't He? A day of wrath. God's wrath.
If we don't have a substitute, the wrath of God abides on us. Not the love of God. A day of waste, desolation, darkness,
gloominess. A day when Christ hung on the
cross, the sun, it was dark over all the earth. Verse 16, a day
of the trumpet. A trumpet and alarm. That right
there, when Christ was hanging on Calvary's tree, God blew the
trumpet and said, This is He. Your whole everything
depends on Him. Look to Him. Bow to Him. There
was a day because of sin, verse 17, because they sinned against
the Lord. Didn't our Lord say, when the Holy Spirit comes, He's
going to convince of sin? Righteousness and judgment. Why? Because of Christ. It's
all about Christ. Chapter 2, now, chapter 2. He said there in chapter 1, I
bid my guests. Now, this is who he's talking
to, his guests, his people, his remnant. And he begins by saying,
gather yourselves together, O nation not desired, O undesirables.
These are God's people. They're undesirable. But God, in great love, loved
them and chose them. And he says, gather yourselves
together. Verse 2 and 3, before the decree,
bring forth, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you,
seek ye the Lord. In the meek of the earth, seek
righteousness. Seek meekness. Where is righteousness
found? What is righteousness? Christ. Do you hear the world ever mention
that word? He tells us, first thing, seek
righteousness. How blessed we are to know Jehovah's
sake. That's who we're married to.
That's his name and that's our name. He's made unto us righteousness. It may be you shall be hid in
the day of the Lord's anger. Seek to be hid. Hide me. That's one of our favorite songs.
Hide me, O my Savior, till the storms of life be past. Cover
my defenseless head. God's people know. and will be
found in Him, will be hidden in Him. Seek to be hidden, seek
to be found in Him. Who will? Who will seek the Lord?
Huh? The Lord looked down in Psalm
14 to see if there were any that did seek Him. He said, there's
none. But now, God said in Isaiah 65, I am sought of them that
ask not for it. I am found of them that sought me not. What
sent me? John's smiling. He knows exactly
what that meant. Because that was us, wasn't it?
We wouldn't have sought Him if He hadn't sought us. We wouldn't
have loved Him if we hadn't first loved Him. When David summed
it up in Psalm 27, he said, When thou said, Seek my face. When
you said to me, Seek my face. That's when I said, My face will
seek. Not until then. We will not seek the Lord until
He Seeks us and finds us and comes to us through the gospel.
All right, who will do this? The remnant will. Verse 7, he
talks about the remnant. Verse 7, the remnant of the house
of Judah shall feed. They lie down. Their God shall
visit them and turn away their captivity. The remnant. The remnant,
that's who. Look at verse 9, the last line
of verse 9. The remnant of my people. All
people aren't God's people. His chosen people are. And they're
a remnant. They're a remnant according to
what? The election of grace. The election of grace. They're
a remnant. That's who, that's who will seek
Him. That's who will gather themselves
together. That's who He will gather. And,
uh... Now look at, uh... Chapter 3. Chapter 3. And this surely speaks
of false religion. Woe to her that is filthy and
polluted, the impressing city. She obeyed not my voice. She
received not correction. She trusted not in the Lord. Verse 3. Her princes are rulers,
a roaring lion. Her judges are wolves. Verse
4. Her prophets are light treacherous.
Her priests are polluted sanctuaries. What's that? That's false religion.
If you go over to Revelation, and I was going to turn there,
but we don't have time, it speaks of Babylon. Babylon the Great. Great city, Babylon. And it talks
about it being the hold of every foul bird, every filthy, rotten,
vile thing that there is. That's religion. We know it's
true of Roman Catholicism, which some of that's been exposed,
hasn't it, for the perversion of perverts and pedophiles. It's
full of that. That's just the tip of the iceberg.
It's everywhere. Everywhere. And he says here
in Zephaniah 3, verse 6, He said, I'll cut off the nations,
verse 7. Surely they'll fear me. I'll
punish them. But no, I just corrupted all
their doings. They just didn't matter. That's Isaiah 1. He said, why
should you be stricken? You will revolt all the more. Now here's the Gospel. That's
the sad state of Mankind in a sad state of religion. Here's the
gospel. It's for His chosen people, His
elect. We say that all the time because
thanks be unto God according as He has chosen us in Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ according as He has chosen us. We know if God hadn't chosen
a people, nobody would be saved. Now here's the gospel. Here's
the mercy of God. Here's amazing grace. Look at
verse 8. He says, wait upon me. Talking to his people. Wait.
Wait. I'm going to assemble the kingdom.
All the earth is going to be devoured for the fire of my jealousy.
But verse 9, I'm going to turn to the people, my people, a pure
language. They're all going to call on
the name of the Lord and serve Him with one consent, one will. God's people are willing when? The day of His power. Blessed
is the man whom Thou choosest and causes to approach unto Him.
And they are the people that wait on Him. They look to Him. They are symbol. And they are
people of a pure language. Our language is grace. By grace are you saved. Most
every church we're affiliated with has the name grace in it.
That's who, that's what we preach. That's who we preach. Grace.
The gospel of grace. God of all grace. That's our
language. Everything we say, everything
we speak has grace in it. Salvation by grace. Our language
is of Christ and Him crucified. The gospel. The gospel. It's all of grace. That's our
language. It's a pure language. It's a language that the world
doesn't understand. Words like propitiation, justification,
sanctification, and on and on it goes. Pure language. Purely for the glory of God.
Pure Bible. Pure Scripture. And they all
serve Him with willing hearts. They serve Him, he said. They
wait on Him. They worship Him. Verse 10, he
says, from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my suppliants. That's those who make supplication
of the Lord in everything, by prayer and supplication they
make their request unto God, because they all know without
Him we can do Nothing. We're poor and needy. We need
everything from Him. We need Him to supply our every
need. And He does. He's made all things
unto us. We all know that. My dispersed,
the daughter of my dispersed. The dispersed. Throughout the
Old Testament it talks about those that are escaped of the
nations. The Lord calls you out of this world to
escape, flee from the wrath to come. There are little bands
here and there of escapees. That's what we are, a bunch of
escapees. And it says in verse 10, they
shall bring mine offering. Every one of them. They bring to the Lord one thing. Not their offering. My Lord. What's that? Christ. His own blood. That's what they all bring to
the Lord. That's the faith of God's elect.
Verse 11, they're ashamed. The day the Lord reveals Himself
to them, they're ashamed of their doing, because they transgressed
the writs of the Lord. He said, I'm going to take away
out of the midst of them that rejoice in thy pride, and there
will be no more haughty. He's going to make them humble,
meek, and lowly, and humble and ashamed of themselves. Because
that's the one God's going to look to. Poor and contrite. Humble and meek. That's who He's
going to show this gospel to. Verse 12, they're afflicted. And they're poor people. Blessed
are the poor. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Theirs is the kingdom of God. And they shall trust in the name
of the Lord. That's who's going to trust.
What's his name? The Lord Jesus Christ. They're the remnant,
verse 13, the remnant of Israel. They do no iniquity. Wait a minute,
no. They're holy and righteous before
God. They're creatures. They don't
speak lies, they speak truth, truth as it is in Christ. No
deceit out of their mouth. They'll feed, they'll lie down, and that'll make them afraid. Then he says in verse 14, don't
you love the rest of this? Let's just read it. Sing. O daughter of Zion, O Israel,
be glad, rejoice with all the heart. O daughter of Jerusalem,
the Heavenly Father calls us His daughter. Now that has a
special, that word has a special meaning to me. Whenever I think
of my daughter, I just well up. There's nothing, nothing I wouldn't
do for my beloved daughter. I mean nothing. God calls his people his daughter,
his daughter. And you know, we haven't been
good. My daughter was a good daughter, an obedient child,
and she never gave us any trouble. That wasn't us. That's not us,
is it? Here's what's so amazing about
it. All of God's daughters played the harp. See, this is why God's love is
so amazing. God's choice is so amazing. God's choice of children. God's choice of a bride. Now, I might. Oh, daughter, sing. Verse 15, the Lord hath taken
away thy judgment. There's no judgment, there's
no wrath, there's no condemnation to Him that are in Christ. He
cast out thine enemy. Who did? Christ did. On Calvary's
tree, that's what we said. On Calvary's tree, the world
was judged, the God of this world was judged, and His people were
judged, right there. The wrath of God fell on Christ,
like that ark. And they were all in Him at that
time. He hath cast out thine enemy,
the King of Israel, the Lord is in the midst of thee, thou
shalt not see evil any more. No evil shall befall thee. No,
every single thing that happens to his daughter is good. All
works together for good. And verse 16, in that day it
shall be said to her, fear thou not, let not thine hands be slack. It means strengthen the weak
hands, people. Paul said to the Galatians, he
said, your work in the Lord is not in vain. This is not in vain. None of this is vain. The Lord
thy God, verse 17, is in the midst of thee. He's mighty. How
mighty? How mighty is He, Sarah? Almighty. She reminded me that in Job,
the oldest book of the Bible, speaks of God being almighty
more than any other book. Thirty-some times. More than
any other book. He's referred to as God Almighty.
Christ said, All power is given unto me. in heaven and earth,
didn't he? One of the last things he said
before he went back to the... All power is given unto men in
heaven and earth. He said to the Father, as thou
hast given him power over all flesh, he's almighty. Oh, aren't you
glad? He will save. Verse 17. He will save. Whoever he purposed
to save, he will save. Salvation is up to the Lord.
You know, someone said, do you believe once in grace, always
in grace? Yes, sir, I do. Depends on whose grace it is. God's grace is not an offer,
it's an act. What's saved always depends on
who saves you. God saves you, you're saved.
God loves you, you're loved. God keeps you, you're kept. He
will rejoice over thee with joy. Our Lord for the joy set before
him endured the cross despite the shame, not ashamed to call
us brethren for the joy. He will rejoice over thee. Can
you believe that when that thief on the cross, when he died and
went into glory, all of heaven just erupted? Who's here? Who? God the Father said, everybody
give a cheer, the thief is here. There was joy over there. Like
the prodigal coming home. Would anything give you more
joy than for your unbelieving child and daughter or son to
To be broken and humble and contrite and believe on the Lord and get
in that Baptist church. Would anything give you more
joy than that? You'd give all the world, you'd
give your life, you'd give everything if the Lord would do that, wouldn't
He? That's exactly what God did.
That's exactly what Christ did. For the joy. Nothing gave Him
more joy. Nothing gives Him more joy than
to save a prodigal. He's the only one that can do
it. And that's why we give Him all the glory. All the glory. Oh, Jeanette loves this. He'll rest in His love. He'll
joy over thee with singing. He'll joy over thee with singing. You know, our Lord, right before
He went to Calvary's tree to be, that sacrifice, that bloody
sacrifice, right before He went to be beaten, beaten, beaten,
beaten, beaten, His ear plucked out, His face pummeled, His visions
marred more than any man, spit on, right before all of that,
spit on, And go to the cross and hang there for six hours
in indescribable pain. People mocking
and jeering and all the shame and ridicule and scoffing and
pain and all of that. And God forsook him. And all
along, right before that, he had that supper. And after supper,
he told his disciples, let's sing. They sang. He had them sing. He led them
in singing. We're going to sing in glory.
We're going to sing. We're going to rest. He rested, didn't he? He rested
in his work, in his love, and we're going to sing in glory
together. And verse 18, I will gather them that are sorrowful
for the solemn assembly. This is solemn. What I just said
is solemn, but, boy, it's joyous. How can it be solemn and joyful
at the same time? It just is. Solemn assembly. It was a burden
or approach. But verse 19, Behold, at that
time I will undo all that afflict thee. No more pain, no more suffering,
no more afflictions, no more trouble, no more trial, no more,
no more, no more, no more. I will save her that halteth.
Anybody in here prone to wander? Anybody in here ready to halt?
Anybody in here, anybody here ready to give up? God says, I'm
going to save her. I will gather her that was driven
out, I will get them praise. That is, I'm going to get praise
out of them. Wherever they've been put to
shame. Verse 20, At that time will I bring you again. I'll
bring you in. The time I gather you, I'll make
you a name and a praise among all the people of the earth when
I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord. This is what Peter called exceeding
precious promises. We heard the warnings, didn't
we? And by God's grace, we heed them. We believe them. It causes
us to fear. It causes us to call. It makes
us ashamed by doing it. And we've heard the Gospel. We've
heard, and God's gathered us to hear His voice, the Gospel.
And we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We know He's the sacrifice
that God gave for us to come to Him by. And we believe on
Him. And He's gathered us to hear
that. And now we hear these precious promises, thereby we might escape. escape. Okay. May the Lord bless
you.