Thank you, Joe. Let's go back
to that portion of scripture that he read to us from the book
of Zephaniah. This is one of the minor prophets,
not meaning by that that it's of less importance than other
prophets, but it's one of the shorter prophets. And it's a
book that really majors on the judgments of God upon the wicked. Judgment, the judgment of God
against sin is certainly proven just from the outset of the Word
of God. When God put Adam and Eve out
of the garden, when God washed away a multitude of people who despised
his name, saved just Noah who found grace in the eyes of the
Lord. He is the only righteous man
on the earth. That's what the scripture says.
God set up Noah, the only, the only, have I seen righteous. I wonder how many righteous people
in this world God sees now. Does He see you righteous? I'll tell you what, if you're
in Christ Jesus, you've made the righteousness of God in Him. You're everything that God, in
Christ Jesus, you're everything that God demands. everything God requires. We are
fully accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Beloved. You see, judgment of sin, that's... The Bible sets forth judgments
in so many ways. But non... None equal to the
judgment of sin seemed at Calvary. There God's beloved son, that one whom God said, my only
begotten son, a son in whom God was well pleased, there he had laid on him the
iniquities of all of God's people. All of our iniquities were made
to meet on the head of the Son of God. And God dealt with him
in the severest of justice. He didn't spare him any grief. He didn't spare him any pain.
He didn't spare him any suffering. Our Lord Jesus offered his very
soul as an offering for sin. Nowhere, nowhere is the judgment
of God against iniquity and sins and transgressions seen like
it's seen at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in that case, all of the
transgressions and sins and iniquities of the people of God had been
laid on him or charged to him, put to his account, reckoned
to him, reckoned to be his. We sing, he took my sins and
my sorrows and he made them his very own. He bore the burden
high far, all the way to Calvary, where he suffered and died all
alone. You want to know whether God
punished his sin or not? You don't have to go back to
the deluge in Noah's day. You don't have to go back and
see Sodom and Gomorrah smoldering from the after effects of the
very wrath of God falling upon those ungodly places. You don't
have to go back that far. Just go back to Calvary. And
you'll find out God's attitude towards sin. That was the only
way God could be just and justify folks like us. There's no other
way. I keep saying it and I pray that
God will enable people to hear. God had to do something about
our sins. And bless His name, He did. And
all the judgment of God regarding our sins, the sins of all of
His people, the sins of all of His elect, The sins of all His
chosen ones, all of the children of God, all of our sins laid
on Him. And justice dealt most severely
with Him. The offering of our Savior upon
the cross of Calvary shows God's judgment against sin. His holiness must punish sin. I said that this morning. And through these three chapters
in Zephaniah, over and over again, the Lord has words of judgment
directed toward the ungodly, those who die in their sins.
He says this, Look at chapter 1 of Zephaniah. Look at verse
2. God says, chapter 1 of Zephaniah,
verse 2, I will utterly consume all things from off the land,
saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast. I will consume the fowls of the
heaven. and the fishes of the sea, and
the stumbling blocks with the wicked, and I will cut off man
from off the land, saith the Lord. He just will not put up with
sin. See, these people were wrapped
up in idolatry. They didn't worship God by means
of a sacrifice. They didn't believe the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These were people who rebelled
against the Lord and would not worship Him. And God said, I'm
going to cut off all life. I'm going to kill man and beast. We have no idea of the fierceness
of the anger of God against sin. And we think most of the time,
I fear we think little of it. We think lightly of sin. God
hates it. And the only way he could put
it away was through the death of his
son. And our sins, the sins of all
of his people were washed away. Yes, this book teaches punishment,
judgment for sin. Here's the thing of it, and I
was thinking this afternoon, I was kind of looking over my
notes again. I was thinking about when Pharaoh
and the Egyptian army entered into the Red Sea and that path,
dry path, wide path through the Red Sea, and there goes the Israelites,
and they're going all the way to the other side, and here goes
Pharaoh, and here goes all of his army, his most powerful army
in the entire world. And Israel is escaped to safety,
and there they are on the far shore. By the way, that way of safety
and salvation, that's Christ our Lord. There's one way through
the judgment of God. That's the Savior. They're safe
on the other side. You want to be safe? I do. Christ is the way. Christ is
the truth, Christ is the life. No man cometh unto the Father,
he said, but by me. And there they all are safe.
Man, those waters on both sides, they just congealed. They turned
to jello. And there they were, and they
go right through dry ground. And there's that arrogant, wicked
king. who despised God and despised
God's people. He told his army, follow me,
we'll catch up with them. Israel's safe on the other side
and God just releases the water back together. In Psalm 15 it says, the sea
became still, everything was quiet. The judgment of God. God killed them. That's His judgment. But wait! That's not the end
of the judgment. That's just the beginning. Because
they perished in their sins. There's no end to that judgment. But for the people of God, there
isn't any judgment. Not for us. Because our sins
have already been punished in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me
show you something else here. Look at chapter 1. Let me read
a few more verses. Look at verse 14, chapter 1.
The great day of the Lord is near. It is near and hasteth
greatly. Even the voice of the day of
the Lord. You know almost every religion Almost every religion,
they believe in some sort of judgment. There are different
ideas about it, different standards of judgment, but most every religion
believes that you can't stand before some kind of God. Judgment
Day, people say, I hope I'm ready for Judgment Day. They don't
have any idea what it's going to be like. Because, you see,
the very standard of judgment before a holy God is righteousness. The righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter how you compare
with others. Judgment's not going to be you
being compared to the next guy. Well, I'm better than most people. Well, whoop-dee-doo for you.
I'm glad you are. But that's not the issue. You're
not going to be compared to other people. Preacher, I'm as good
a person as you are. Probably so. Probably better.
I hope so. Hope you're better than I am. I'm not the standard either. There are steps before us, that
One who had no sin, who did no sin, who thought no sin, that
One who is the very Son of God, who walked in total conformity
to God's law throughout His life, and then died under the wrath
of God, and He's been exalted for He buried the sins of all
of His people in His tomb, and He left them there, and He's
gone back to glory. He is our righteous Savior. He's
the standard. And when you stand before the
bar of God's justice, you will not be compared to other people. Not to the very best of people,
those whom you consider to be the finest examples of godliness
or holiness or whatever you want to call it. No, the comparison
is not between you and somebody else. It's how do you stack up
against Christ. And most people are going to
be like Belshazzar. He saw a man's hand writing on
a wall. He belittled, he mocked all the
vessels of the temple of God. Sent his messengers over there,
his servants said, well, we're having a party here and I want
to drink wine out of those vessels that come out of the temple in
Jerusalem. And he's having a big time. Then
he sees a man's hand writing on a wall. Nobody attached, just
a hand. And he didn't understand what
was written. Anybody know what that means?
Called in all of his soothsayers. Anybody know what that means?
What does that mean? I can't understand that. What
does that mean? Somebody said, you need to talk
to Daniel. They called Daniel in. Can you
help me with this? I can't decipher this. I don't
know this language. Nobody knows God's language but
the people of God. And Daniel said, here's what
it means. You've been weighed in the balances. and you found wanting, you don't balance out with Christ. Oh, my friend, judgment is according
to righteousness. That's what it says in Acts chapter
17. God's gonna judge the world by
that man whom they crucified, the Lord Jesus. His righteousness
is the standard. You going to balance out? Well, I hope I will then, preacher.
I tell you what, you won't balance out then if you don't balance
out now. Isn't that right? Those who are righteous in this
life are righteous in the Lord Jesus, and we won't be any more
righteous when we appear before the Lord. We won't be any more justified
then as we are now. We're either justified or we're
not justified. We're either righteous or we're
not righteous. That's just the way it is. There's
no in between. There are no different levels
of justification, different levels of righteous. You're either righteous
or you're unrighteous. And in the judgments, those who
are unrighteous, let them be unrighteous still. That's what
Scripture says. It's a judgment coming, folks.
This is what Zephaniah keeps on setting before us. He says in verse 14, the great
day of the Lord is near. It's near! Some of us are talking
this morning about when the Lord's coming back. I don't know, we've been looking
for him a long time. Saints of God have been looking
for him for years and years and years. We're up on the tiptoes
of faith saying, even so, come Lord Jesus. But he hadn't come
yet. But he will. And the only thing I can guarantee
is this, with every passing day, it's a day nearer. It's a day
nearer. Even the voice of the day of
the Lord, the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day
is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress,
a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess,
a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the of the trumpet,
an alarm against the fenced city, people who think they're safe,
and against the high towers. And God says, look at verse 17,
and I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like
blind men. Why is this? Why? Why all this
fierce judgment? Because they've sinned against
the Lord. And their blood shall be poured
out as dust and their flesh as the dung. And I tell you something,
all their money in that day won't mean a thing. Verse 18, neither
their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the
day of the Lord's wrath. See, salvation, it can't be bought. Not your silver, not your gold,
not your contribution. Say, preacher, I put money in
the box every Sunday. You can't buy your way into glory. You can't bribe God. The redemption, the very purchased
price of redemption has already been paid. The blood of the Son
of God. And you dare add something to
His blood? The fierceness of God's wrath
is going to search you out. It's going to find you. God said,
I'm the Lord. That's My name. I'm not going
to give My glory to another. The price of redemption for the
people of God is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not some kind of filthy silver
and gold that you think you can contribute and buy your way into
God's favor. The only way to be accepted by
God is to be accepted in God. The God-man. It says, the whole land shall
be devoured by the fire of his jealousy. He'll make even a speedy
riddance of all them that dwell in the land. Look at chapter
two, verse one. He says, gather yourselves together.
Come on now. Let's gather together. Yay, gather
together. O nation not desired. We're not
a desirable people. We're an undesirable people.
We're sinful people. Gather together and listen. Just
get people to listen. They're just too busy on their
way to hell. They're too busy to listen. Too
busy to listen to God. They're listening to all the
wrong voices out here and they won't listen to the Word of God.
But if you're not in such a big hurry to perish, would you listen? Would you listen? Verse 2, before the decree bring
forth, before the day of the passes the chaff, before the
fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the
Lord's anger come upon you, seek ye the Lord. all ye meek of the earth, which
have wrought his judgment. You deserve his judgment. Is
there anybody here who would be bold enough and foolish enough
to say, I don't deserve his judgment? If you was to say that, I'd have
to say you're a fool. You're a fool. All these other billions of people
who've died and perished in their sins. Aren't you one of the population
of the people who've defied God? Aren't you one of them? Sure
you are. I'll answer for you. And I am
too. Well, what should we do? Seek the Lord. That's what he
says. Seek ye the Lord. All you meek
of the earth, seek Him with a broken heart, with a contrite spirit. People who deserve judgment,
seek righteousness. Seek righteousness. Where can
I find righteousness? In Christ. He is the Lord, our
righteousness. Seek meekness. Watch this. It
may be It may be. You shall be hid in the day of
the Lord's anger. You say, well, that's not much
encouragement. It may be. I tell you what, I'm
gonna take it. I'm gonna take that little bit
of encouragement right there. It may be. Hey, others have found
mercy in the eyes of the Lord. Others have found salvation Other
filthy sinners have been washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus
and robed in the garments of God's great salvation. Why not
me? Hey, why not you? It may be. It may be that you'll be hid
in the day of the Lord's anger. Rock of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. I tell you what, where are you
going to hide? I'm going to hide in Christ. I'm going to hide
in Christ. Well, he goes on talking about
judgments, and then he gets over, and I've got to go quick here,
but he gets over toward the end of chapter 3. In the end of chapter 3, He's
got good news for, in verse 12 he says, this people that God's
going to leave in the midst, an afflicted and poor people.
He calls it in verse 13, a remnant. There's good news for a remnant.
There's good news for those who flee to Christ Jesus. There's
good news. Because for these people, it
says in verse 13, the remnant of Israel shall do no iniquity
nor speak lies. You say, well, we keep on sinning,
but when the Lord looks at His people, He sees us in Christ
Jesus. At the judgment, the sins and
iniquities of God's people will be searched out, but can any
of them be found? Isn't that something? Now that
totally destroys this idea of when you stand before the judgment
of the Lord, that He's going to, for the people of God, the
more good things you did, the more rewards you'll get, and
the more sins that you did, the less rewards you'll get. Well,
that totally knocks all that in the head. Because He's not going to see
any deceit in us. He's not going to see any sins
in us. Listen, our Lord Jesus bore all of our sins and He bore
them away. Away. I mean, He bore them so far away,
Bill, even God can't find them. And the Lord says, I have forgotten
them. Your sins and your iniquities,
this is a promise of the new covenant. The everlasting covenant
of grace. Their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. We remember a few of them. But God says, I'm not going to
remember them. I'll tell you what God remembers.
The sacrifice of his son. That's what God remembers. There's a remnant. Well, what
should this remnant do? Look at verse 14. We should sing, sing praises
to the Lord for His grace, for His mercy, for His salvation. Sing, O daughter of Zion, and
shout. Well, we're not a shouting church
preacher. We don't believe in shouting. You shout in your heart. Bless
the name of God in your heart. And rejoice with all the heart.
O daughter of Jerusalem, You see, and here's the title
of the message, judgments have been removed. Let's sing about
that. Let's sing of the blood. Let's
be glad. Let's rejoice. Say, I can't rejoice
because I've got so many problems in my life. You can rejoice in
the Lord, can't you? Rejoice in the goodness of God
to you through Christ, can't you? He wrote to the church at Philippi,
and he wasn't in such wonderful conditions when he wrote it.
Shackled to a soldier, I suppose. Not in the most pleasant circumstances. But he told me, he said, rejoice
in the Lord always. And again, I said, rejoice? Don't
tell me you don't have anything to rejoice about. Your sins,
which are many, are all gone. You once were blind, but now
you see. All of your sins are under the
blood. God looks at you and He sees the righteousness of His
Son. Don't tell me you don't have
anything to rejoice about. Well, things are so bad. No,
they're not bad. I like what Scott Richardson
said. He said, I hadn't heard any bad news ever since I heard
the good news. There's nothing bad, not for
the people of God. You think your Heavenly Father
can do something bad to you? That's impossible. It comes forth from His hand
to one of His children. It comes forth from a good God,
and it's good for us. I may not understand it, I may
not comprehend it, and I may weep because of it, And I may
hurt because of it, but it's good because God sent it. Look here what he says, and I'll
just read these. The Lord has taken away thy judgments. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. And he's cast out thine enemy.
Who's your enemy? Well, Satan, but he's been cast
out. The seed of the woman took care
of Him at the cross. And the demons of unbelief and
idolatry that filled your heart, they've been cast out. He's cast out your enemy. And
here's some more good news. The King of Israel, even the
Lord, is in the midst of thee. That passage in Revelation chapter
1, Where John hears a voice behind him, it's the voice of the exalted
Son of God. John turns to look, see where
that voice come from. It come from right in the midst
of the golden candlesticks. You know where the Lord is? He's
right in the midst of His people. I'll tell you, Jim, if the Lord
was with us tonight, I'd just be joyful. Well, then you can
turn your frown upside down and smile and rejoice in your heart,
because He is in the midst. Isn't that right, Alan? He's
with us. He's with us. The Lord is in
the midst of thee. Thou shalt not see evil anymore. Verse 16, in that day shall be
said to Jerusalem, to the people of God, fear thou not. While
I'm afraid of sickness, I'm afraid of dying, fear thou not. No room
for fear. David said, I'll fear no evil
for thou art with me. He says, desired, let not thy
hands be slack. It's time to worship God, folks.
It's not time for laziness. It's not the time to let your
hands be slack. And really, the meaning of this
is you mope around. Mope around like, oh me. Whoa,
it's me. I was just reading the other
day about how important posture is. And it's really something
that I'm aware of. I try to carry myself with good posture. You don't
look as old if you carry yourself with good posture. Don't let
your hands be slack. Somebody said, you just seem
to bounce up them steps when you come up on the platform.
Well, I feel it later. But don't let your hands be slack. In a spiritual way, don't be
downtrodden. Perk up, saints of God. Your
Savior's on the throne. He controls everything. As nothing
exists, breathes, moves, or wiggles but what it isn't under His control. Time to rejoice. Time to rejoice. Don't let your hands be slack.
The Lord thy God, verse 17, in the midst of thee, He's mighty.
Don't forget that. And He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. We're His delight. Isaiah 62, we're His Hepzibah. The Lord delighteth in thee.
That's exactly what it says. The Lord delights in you, Ron. Joe, I go around the building.
The Lord delights in you. He has pleasure in you. He'll rest in His love. He'll rest in His love. He'll
joy over thee with singing. Tell you what, the Lord, the
shepherd finds his lost sheep, picks it up, puts the sheep on
his shoulder rejoicing, and he goes home singing. He goes home
singing. He's rejoicing in his great work
of salvation fully accomplished. by substitutionary sacrifice
as evidenced by his resurrection from the dead. He's carrying
you home to glory with singing. You need to chime in too. You
need to sing too. No more moping around. Look what he says in verse 18.
He says, I'll gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn
assembly. Who are of thee to whom the reproach
was a burden? Behold, at that time I will undo
all that afflict thee. I'll save her that halteth, gather
her that was driven out. I will give them praise and fame
in every land where they have been put to shame. And God's
gonna say, behold, my people. The Lord Jesus is going to say
to the Father, behold, I and the children you gave me, look
at them. And he's going to put us on display
for all the world to see. Say, I wonder how many trophies
I'll get when I get to heaven. If you get there, you'll be one
of the trophies. were trophies of His grace. Trophies
of His grace. He says in verse 20, He said,
at that time I'll bring you again even at the time that I will
gather you for I will make you a name and a praise among all
the people of the earth when I turn back your captivity
before your eyes. The Lord's going to say to all
the world, these are my blood-bought brethren. Look at them. Give you one more thing. The
name of this book is, the name of the writer of this book, Spirit
of God uses, Zephaniah. You know what his name means?
Jehovah has treasured. Now you take this home with you
tonight. The Lord treasures you. The Lord God of grace treasures
you. Well, what do you do with a treasure?
You put it somewhere for safekeeping. He's put you in Christ. You're His special treasure.
And He's your special treasure. We're His portion. He's our portion. Oh, the mighty grace of God to
folks like us. Let's get a song. Let's sing
the closing song. I love the song 63.