All right, let's look again at
that portion of scripture that Brother Ron just read. Zephaniah. Prophet Zephaniah, chapter one. Very short book, the prophecy
of Zephaniah, but a full book, full of truth, as we've seen
in so many of these minor prophets, as they're called. Minor, again,
not because of their message, but because of the length of
their prophecy. The title of the message this evening is Judgment
and Sacrifice. Judgment and Sacrifice. And I'll show you where I got
that title from in just a moment. But about a hundred years before
Zephaniah, Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah and the prophet Micah
spoke often about the impending judgment that would come in the
future upon Judah, the nation Judah, the southern kingdom,
that God was going to punish Judah. He was going to destroy
Israel, the northern kingdom, but he was going to punish Judah
by bringing in a foreign invader, the Babylonians, and that he
would take them into captivity and About a hundred years after
that, the prophet Jeremiah, he spoke of it. Jeremiah was a contemporary
of Zephaniah. They prophesied about the same
time. Jeremiah, he lived during that
time, up until the time of the Babylonian captivity, when Nebuchadnezzar
came down in three different ways and took the people of Judah
into captivity. And Jeremiah prophesied that
that Judah would be in captivity for 70 years, and that was the
exact amount of time that they were in captivity. And that's
when Zephaniah prophesied also. Zephaniah was some call the last
of the prophets before that captivity, being a contemporary of Jeremiah.
Their message is the same, even though Zephaniah's is the shortest.
Zephaniah's name means Jehovah hides. Or Jehovah has hidden. Or some interpret it this way,
Jehovah's watchman. Now his name doesn't indicate
anything to the like that Jehovah is off hiding somewhere. We know
that, for example, the things of God are hidden to the natural
man because the natural man will not receive the things of the
Spirit of God. But the significance of Zephaniah's
name, I believe, is found in chapter 2 of verse 3. Look at
verse 3 of chapter 2, and this states the theme of the book
of Zephaniah. He says here, Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the
earth. Now that's all whom God makes
humble in conviction of sin. to seek the Jehovah, the God
of salvation. And he says, which have wrought
his judgment. You understand his judgment.
Seek righteousness. You're going to seek righteousness
from God. Where are you going to find righteousness
from God? Only in the Lord Jesus Christ
and by his finished work. Seek meekness, submission to
Christ and his righteousness. Romans 10 and verses 1 through
4 speaks of that, how the Jews were not submitted to the righteousness
of God. But they missed Christ, they
rejected Christ, they stumbled at the stumbling stone. For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And
here's what it says, it may be you shall be hid in the day of
the Lord's anger. And that's the significance of
Zephaniah's name. Jehovah hides. And the point is, is that God,
the God of all grace, the God of salvation, the God who justifies
the ungodly, He hides all His children from His own wrath under
the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You want
to be hidden from the wrath of God, if you want to be safe from
the wrath of God. Don't turn to the fenced cities
or the high towers or the big armies or the wealthy or anything,
or man's religion and idolatry. Turn to Christ. And that's the
theme of Zephaniah. That was his message to Judah.
To Judah. As Jehovah's faithful watchman. He warns of judgment and he warns
of wrath. In fact, most of this book, this
little book, is taken up with the message of God's wrath against
sin. Against the sin and the idolatry
and the unbelief of Judah. The real, there's some positive
things before them, but the real positive part of this book doesn't
even start until Zephaniah chapter 3 and verse 9. And then he becomes
engulfed in the promises of salvation that God has for his people.
But his message is a call to the people to flee from the wrath
to come. That's what verse 3 of chapter
2 speaks of. He also assures us that God has
his hidden ones in the earth. God has a people. And I always
think about the prophet Elijah, you know, on this issue. Paul
talks about him in Romans chapter 11, how he thought he was all
alone. He couldn't find any fellowship
of truth and grace in Christ anywhere. And he complained with
God about that. And you remember, God revealed
to him, he said, don't get discouraged, Elijah. I have 7,000 who have
not bowed the knee to Baal. Baal, that false god. So God
has his hidden ones in the earth whose sins he hides from his
wrath and whom he will save by his matchless grace. They're
a remnant according to the election of grace, but God has... I'm
going to tell you something. You can rest assured that as
long as this earth is spinning and people are walking around
on it, God has his people somewhere. Though they may be few, they're
here. Because I believe when that last
one is taken home, I believe that's when the Lord comes back,
when that last one is called into the family rather, called
into the church, the called out ones. Well, let's look at chapter
1 here. It says, the word of the Lord,
that's Jehovah, the name Jehovah, again the God of the covenant,
the God of promise, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the
God of all grace, The God who saves sinners through His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the word of the Lord,
not the word of Zephaniah. It came under Zephaniah, he was
the human instrument. And then he gives his lineage.
Now there's something important here you need to see. He's called
the son of Cushiah. We don't know much about Cushiah.
He says the son of Gedaliah, that was his grandfather, the
son of Amariah, and then the son of Hezekiah. Now Hischiah
is Hezekiah. that famous king of Judah in
the days of Josiah. Now, he's the son of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was his great-great-grandfather
and he prophesied during the reign of Josiah, King Josiah,
who was the son of Ammon, king of Judah. So it tells us that
Zephaniah was of the royal family. Some believe that Isaiah, a hundred
years before, he was of the royal family too, and may be so, but
Zephaniah was, as Hezekiah was his great-great-grandfather.
Hezekiah ruled Judah for 28 years, and he was a godly king, even
though he was lax in some areas of obedience to the law. and
bringing the nation under the rule of god you know the royal
line of the kings of judah their main task was to lead the people
in the ways of god that was their main task that's what they were
put on the throne for and they were to be they were to realize
as david did before them that they were pictures of the ultimate
king of kings, the coming king, the lion of the tribe of Judah.
The scepter would not depart from Judah until Shiloh come.
They were to be aware of that, that they were pictures. And
they were to act in that way as a picture of Christ, the promised
Messiah, the Savior King. And they were to lead the people
in the ways of God. But very few did. Very few did. Hezekiah was one who did for
28 years, but as I said, he failed in many ways. And his son, Hezekiah's
son was a man named Manasseh. Now if you don't know who Manasseh
was, I'll tell you what, I'm going to show you where I'm going
with this, and I want you to do some reading. And this will
be your homework. I heard of a preacher one time
who said a fellow left his church, he made a statement like, and
a fellow left his church, and he asked him, why'd you leave?
And he said, well, I want to go somewhere where they don't give homework.
So, not like our students, you know. But I want you to think
about this, and I want you to read about it. You can read about
Hezekiah over in 2 Kings 21. And you can also see it in 2
Chronicles 33. You know, The Kings, the book of the Kings,
that's the history of Israel from the royal point of view,
the point of view from the throne. And Chronicles is the history
of Israel from the tabernacle, the priestly point of view. That's
what that's all about. They teach the same message,
it's just a different point of view. But you can read about
King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20 and 2 Chronicles 29. You can read
about Manasseh, who was an evil king. In fact, Manasseh was probably
the most evil king that Judah ever knew. And listen, he reigned
for 55 years. You just can't get rid of people
like that, can you? But that's the way it was, 55
years. He was one of the most evil kings.
And you can read about him in 2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33. And then his son Ammon, Ammon
came along. He's mentioned here in verse
one. And he only reigned for two years because he was killed,
but he was an evil king also. And then along came Josiah. And
when Josiah began to reign, he was a very young, young man,
a child almost. And you can read about him in
2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34. But he reigned 29 years and it's
during this reign that Zephaniah prophesied and it's during Josiah's
reign that many reforms came about in Judah because Josiah
was a godly king. He ruled the people in the ways
of the Lord. That's what he did in the ways
of the covenant. And so, read that and just think
about it because it gives you context and helps you to understand
what's going on here. What's happened here is in Judah
at this time, there was so much idolatry, so much moral decadence,
so much materialism, unbelief. It was so bad because of Manasseh. and ammon and their reign of
of evil And God promises that He's going to bring judgment
upon this nation. The first thing He says here
is He's going to bring judgment on the whole world. Now He says
this for this reason, that God is making sure that they understand
that He's not just picking and choosing when it comes to this
thing of judgment. God is a just judge. He always
judges according to truth. And where sin is imputed, God's
judgment is coming. Look at it in verse 2, he said,
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. Now those stumbling
blocks are idols, that's what that is, that was a way in this
context of referring to idols. Because an idol for man is nothing
more than a stumbling block. It's a trap. That's what that
literally is. Like a trap to catch an animal in. And that's
what an idol is. Man who trusts in idols. Man
who trusts in himself. Man who trusts in his own work.
That's a stumbling block. That's a trap. And it's going
to end in destruction. And he said, I will cut off man
from off the land, saith the Lord. Kind of reads like Romans
chapter one there, beginning at verse 18, where he talks about
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all sin and
all unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
And he brings in all the whole world guilty before God. Listen, from then on he brings
in Jew and Gentile guilty before God without Christ. That's the
only way that man can stand before God without Christ. Guilty. Subject to the justice
of God's wrath. That's the only way. And this is God's righteousness
in judgment, but it also shows that all men and women by nature
born of Adam, fallen in Adam, ruined by the fall, We need salvation. We need to be saved. That's a
universal need. There's not one person. You pick
the best person who ever lived, the best human being born of
Adam who ever lived on this earth in any given time, or the worst. We all are equally in need of
salvation. And we're equally in need of
salvation by God's grace. There's no way out of this but
grace and mercy. We're all mercy beggars. Some
of us just don't realize it. We only realize it when God shows
us our sin and brings us in guilty to shut our mouths. Whatsoever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before
God. The scripture hath concluded, how many under sin? All under
sin. for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Man is in need of righteousness
which he cannot produce even by his best efforts." I don't
care who they are. That's what this shows. Man is
in need of Christ. The blood of Christ for the forgiveness
of my sins. And here Zephaniah is prophesying
to Judah. This is the place where Jerusalem,
the city of God, the city of peace was at. This was the place where David
and Solomon reigned. This is the place where the temple
was, and yet it was a place of religious idolatry, it was a
place of compromise, it was a place of pride, religious pride and
self-righteousness, and it was a place of moral decadence. That's
what it had become. Now that's man on his own. That's
man as well as he can improve himself as far as a state and
standing before God. And look at verse... And so what
God does here, He brings judgment now on Judah specifically. Look
at verse 4. He says, I will also stretch
out mine hand upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He said, and I will cut off the
remnant You see, what he's showing here now, God's gonna bring judgment
on the whole world for sin, but being a Jew under the Old Covenant
would not save them. It would not make them righteous.
God is still righteous in his judgment. And he talks about
it here. He says, I will cut off the remnant
of Baal from this place. You know who Baal was. Baal was
a Canaanite idol, the priest of Baal. There were priests of
Baal in Judah at that time. You remember, Baal worship was
introduced into the northern kingdom by Jezebel. That's who
Elijah had to stand against, the prophets of Baal. Remember
when he prayed that, what is it, 62 or 63 word prayer? And
God consumed that offering. And that's who he stood about.
They were Canaanite idols. And it says here, I will cut
off the remnant of Baal from this place and those who were
supposed... What happened here is the priest
of Baal, And those priests who were supposed to be the priests
of Jehovah, they formed an unholy union and worked in perfect harmony
with one another to blaspheme God and destroy men. It was a
real ecumenical movement here going on in Judah. That's what
it was. Let's just forget our differences.
We all worship the same God. You call Him Baal. We call Him
Jehovah. That's what they would say. That
was the reasoning. It sounds like our day, doesn't it? We're
all going to the same God, we're just going different ways. And
that's what it was. He says in verse four, he says,
and I will cut off the name of the Kimarims with the priest. Now that word Kimarim, literally
it means people of the gods. It's talking about idol worshipers.
The Hebrew root word means black. And some say that it was because
of the black robes that they wore. But that's what it is,
it's idle priests. They wore black garments. Sometimes
false preachers and false prophets are readily exposed just by what
they wear and what they say. Other times, it's more subtle,
isn't it? They come disguised as wolves
in sheep's clothing. Either way, the difference is,
is God's true preachers point sinners to Christ for all salvation,
for all righteousness, for all eternal life and glory. And do
it consistently and constantly and often. Look at verse five,
he says, and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops,
their housetops were flat, as you know, and they'd go up there,
and they would worship the host of heaven, the sun, the moon,
and the stars. That's what they did, they made
their homes, they turned their homes into places of idolatry. And he says, and them that worship
and that swear by the Lord, they would do it in the name of the
Lord. They would worship idols in the name of Jehovah. Think about that. And then he
said, and that swear by Malcham. Now that Malcham is commonly
thought to be another name for the Ammonite God, Molech. He
was an Ammonite idol. And during the reign of Manasseh,
let me tell you how bad it got in Judah. They even began to
sacrifice their children. They got involved in astrology. They got involved in sacred prostitution. That Moloch, he was an idol. When they carved him out, he
was an idol and had his arms stretched out like this and there
was a fire underneath his arms and they would get that fire
really hot to heat up his arms and they'd lay their children
on his arms. Now that's how bad it got. Now
people sat in there listening and said, well I would never
do that. Thank God, if you never would, because by the grace of
God, that's exactly what we are and what we do. I'm telling you.
We don't know and understand the depths of depravity that
we would go to if God would turn us loose completely. You think
about it. These were people who had the
Law of Moses now. These weren't just ignorant,
heathen hot-and-tots dancing around a mountain in Africa or
somewhere. These were the people who saw
the temple. The temple was not yet destroyed,
you see. They looked at the Temple of
Solomon. Isaiah described it even in his day to a point, he
said, this is in, I believe it's Isaiah chapter 48 and verse 1,
let me just read it to you. And see this, so this went on
for a long time because this is a hundred years after Isaiah.
He said, "'Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by
the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah,
which swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the
God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness." That's
religion today, my friend. I'm telling you. They swear by
the name of the Lord, but not by God's truth, and not in righteousness,
for without Christ you have no truth. Without Christ, you have
no righteousness. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. No man comes unto the Father but by Him. We don't even
know God if we don't know Christ. So the issue here is compromise,
acceptance of other ways, allowing them to worship in our worship
services without truth and without righteousness. Look at verse
6. He says, And them that are turned back from the Lord those
that have not sought the Lord nor inquired for him." Now there's
the problem. Men have not turned to the Lord.
They've not repented from their dead works and idolatry and turned
to Christ. And men and women do not inquire
of the Lord. They follow other men. They follow
the crowd. They follow their own instincts
and emotions and feelings instead of inquiring of the Lord. looking
into his work what does god's word say about this issue about
this matter that's the that's what we should do now in verses
seven and eight this is where i took the title of the message
from judgment and sacrifice he speaks of the sacrifices of judgment
and listen to what he says verse seven he says hold by peace at
the presence of the lord remember what habakkuk said over and Habakkuk
chapter 2 and verse 20, the Lord is in His holy temple, let all
the earth keep silence before Him. Now this is something, what
he's saying here is this, something, something big is coming, this
is something amazing, this is something, it may be devastating,
it may be marvelous, it's the terror of the Lord, something,
hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord. God's here, He's
always been here. He's everywhere. He's omnipresent.
But here's a special visitation of the Lord. It's like you say,
he's coming to our house. And he says, for the day of the
Lord is at hand. Zephaniah in these three chapters
uses that term more than any other prophet, the day of the
Lord. Well, what's he talking about? He's talking about the
day of judgment. the day of sacrifice. Listen, he said, for the Lord
hath prepared a sacrifice and he hath bid his gifts. That word
bid means he has prepared, he has sanctified, he set them apart.
That's what he means. And what's he talking about?
For judgment in righteousness. He's talking about He has prepared
a sacrifice and the sacrifice is the people upon whom He's
going to bring judgment and wrath. They're going to be sacrificed
to the wrath of God because of their sins. And God has prepared
them for it. And then look at verse 8, He
says, And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice.
He says that I will punish. And that word means to visit.
This is a visitation of wrath. He said, I will punish the princes
and the king's children and all such as are clothed with strange
apparel. Now, literally, that's probably
a reference to the judgment of the kings and their families,
their royal line, who failed to lead the people in the ways
of God, the ways of truth, the ways of grace, the ways of mercy,
the ways of the prophecy of Christ, of salvation by grace. and obedience
to the commands of God, but also to their unholy alliances with
idolatry and foreign governments." That word, strange apparel, that
means foreign, foreign apparel. In other words, they had aligned
themselves with foreigners against God. Now that will be the end. What he's telling here, judgment
and sacrifice now. God's judgment and ungodly men
and women will be the sacrifices to that judgment." That's what
he's talking about. And that'll be the end of all
who meet God at judgment without Christ. Now I want you to turn
to Matthew chapter 22 with me. Turn to Matthew 22. One of the best illustrations
of what he's talking about here is this parable of the king's
marriage feast. And this is the issue, and this
is what Zephaniah is telling these people. Turn to the Lord,
he says, you meek of the earth. Seek righteousness, seek meekness,
and it may be you'll be hid from the wrath of God. But listen
to this parable. I preached on this before, Matthew
22. What he's talking about in judgment and sacrifice, this
is a good illustration of it right here. He says, and Jesus
answered and spake unto them again by parables, and again,
the kingdom of heaven is likened to a certain king, and that's
the father, God the father. These parables are symbolic,
as you know. This king here is a symbol of the father, which
made a marriage for his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
know that marriage is the marriage between Christ and his church. He's the husband, the church
is his bride. And we were chosen before the
foundation of the world in Christ and given to Him. And He came
and He took on Him our name and our nature without sin and paid
the price, the redemption price of His bride. And the redemption
price was what? It was His blood. And He wove
for us in His obedience unto death a wedding garment. The
imputed righteousness of Christ. That's the righteousness that
we seek. We seek the wedding garment. We seek Christ submitted
to him and his righteousness. And so the king made a marriage
for his son. Verse 3 says, he sent forth his
servants, gospel preachers, to call them that were bidden to
the wedding and they would not come. That's man by nature right
there. That's man on his own. That's man of his own will right
there. He will not come. And again, he sent forth other
servants saying, tell them which are being behold, I've prepared
my dinner. I've prepared the supper. That's
the gospel. It's a prepared supper. It's
a prepared feast. You don't bring, it's not potluck. It's not covered dish. Don't
bring your works. Don't bring your efforts. Don't
bring anything that you've done. It's already prepared. Christ
prepared it on the cross. All the forgiveness that God
has has been prepared through the blood of the Lamb of God. All the righteousness that God
requires of me has been prepared by the death of the Son of God.
Nothing else, see? Nothing to me. I prepared my
dinner. Verse 4, he says, my oxen and
my fatlings are killed. Blood was shed, you see, because
law and justice has to be satisfied. All things are ready. That's
the gospel. Don't bring your efforts and
worth. All things are ready. Come to Christ. Receive out of
His fullness and His goodness and His power. He says, come
unto the marriage. But they made light of it and
went their ways on one to his farm, another to his merchandise.
And the remnant took his servants and entreated them spitefully. There was a small part of them
that did this and slew them. Now, many believe that this is
symbolizing the Jewish nation when when Christ came and when
his disciples came and preached the gospel, they were persecuted.
And he says in verse 7, But when the king heard thereof, he was
wroth, he was angry, he sent forth his armies, and destroyed
those murderers, and burned up their city. That's when God brought
his wrath down upon Israel by the Roman government in A.D.
70. And he says, Then saith he to his servants, The wedding
is ready, but they which were bid were not worthy. And my friend,
none of us are worthy except as we find worthiness in where?
In Christ. Worthy as the lamb that was slain.
So he says, go ye therefore into the highways and as many as you
shall find bid to the marriage. That's the gospel going out to
the Gentiles. So those servants went out into
the highways and gathered together all as many as they found, both
bad and good. That's in the eyes of men. Listen. Christ saved a prostitute and
a publican. Christ saved a Pharisee. Christ saved a Roman soldier.
All kinds of people. You see, because, listen, in
God's sight we're all sinners and deserve nothing but wrath
and judgment. Christ saves all kinds and He
says, "...and the wedding was furnished with guests." They
went out and they found them and they got them and they brought
them. Now look at verse 11, he says, when the king came in to
see the guest, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment. In the visible church, there's
all kinds of people, there's stony ground hearers, thorny
ground hearers, wayside hearers, and there's good ground hearers.
And in this feast where the gospel is preached, there was a man
who had not on a wedding, he had on strange apparel. Remember
Zephaniah said that. He had on a foreign article of
clothing to cover him. And he saith unto him, Friend,
how camest thou hither not having a wedding garment? And he was
speechless. Let all the world be guilty before God. Every mouth
may be stopped. Then said the king of the servants,
bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer
darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth for many
are called, that's the general call of the gospel, but few are
chosen. That's the elect of God who are
brought in who have on the right wedding garment. They're clothed,
they're washed in the blood of Christ and clothed in his righteousness
imputed. That's what Zephaniah is illustrating
here, that very same truth. That's why he says, hold your
peace at the presence of the Lord. Lord, if thou shouldest
mark iniquities, who would stand? Not me, not you. Don't come boasting
of who you are, or your heritage, or your pedigree, or your accomplishments,
or anything. Just come with your mouth shut.
Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord. The day of the Lord
is at hand. and the Lord's prepared to sacrifice
it. We come pleading the one sacrifice
that can remove God's wrath from sinners, that God hath prepared,
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was foreordained,
He was prepared for this. That's why He was made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.
You see, here's the only sacrifice that counts when it comes to
the salvation of a sinner. The Lord's sacrifice. And in
that sacrifice, He brought judgment. Judgment for my sins. upon that
sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ who bore my sins in his own body
on the tree. Judgment was fully satisfied,
righteousness fully established, sin was entirely paid for by
the Lord's sacrifice, the one he prepared. And then he hath
bid his guest His guests are His elect, His church, His redeemed
ones, justified in Christ, regenerated and called by the Holy Spirit
irresistibly and invincibly to the marriage of the King's Son. Isn't that something? Look at
verse 9. The rest of this chapter, basically,
God describes the judgments. that he brings upon Judah. Let
me just read through it. He says in verse 9 of Zephaniah
1, In the same day also will I punish all those that leap
on the threshold which fill their masters' houses with violence
and deceit, talking about those who plunder houses or cheat people
to get gain. That was going on. He said in
verse 10, It shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord,
that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate.
You know the fish gate? around the walls of Jerusalem.
It's called the Damascus Gate today. It was a place where they
brought the fish in from the Sea of Galilee. It was a place
of merchandising, a place of selling. And he's going to bring
a great cry from that and a howling from the second place. That's
the second place. That was another place right
after the fish gate where they had a market. Great crashing
from the hills. How ye inhabitants of Maktesh. Maktesh means mortar. And it
was an area in the Valley of Siloam where they met to do trading. For all the merchant people are
cut down, all the cheaters, all the bribers, see, all they that
bear silver are cut off. Their hope is in their money.
Their hope is in their riches. It's not going to work. He says
in verse 12, It shall come to pass at that time that I will
search Jerusalem with candles, God's light, see, His Word, punish
them that are settled on their lease that means they are complacent
that means they're comfortable that means everything seems to
be going well for and they that say in their heart the Lord will
not do good neither will he do evil he's not gonna do anything
don't you don't have to worry about that it's like an atheist
didn't it he's not gonna do good he's not gonna do evil Think
about it. They say that in their heart.
That's where their heart is. Verse 13. He says, "...therefore
their goods shall become a booty." Like somebody conquered them
and took them. "...and their houses a desolation. They shall
also build houses, but not inhabit them." It's like the man who
built the... who always dreamed of having
the biggest house in the best place in town. He finally got
it built, and before he turned the key to go in the front door,
he dropped dead of a heart attack. What good did it do him? And
they that plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof, they
won't get the fruit of these things. Verse 14, the great day
of the Lord is near, it's near, and hasteth greatly, even the
voice of the day of the Lord. The mighty man shall cry there
bitterly, even the strong man will not be able to save you
then. Let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the
wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the rich man glory in
his riches, but let he that glorieth glory in this. that he knoweth
and understandeth me, that I am the Lord that exercise loving
kindness, judgment, righteousness in the earth. Jeremiah said that
same time Zephaniah was prophesying. Rejoicing Christ, have no confidence
in the flesh. Verse 15, that day is a day of
wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness, a day of
desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds
and thick darkness. Talk about a preacher of doom.
Well, that's the way it is without Christ, isn't it? Verse 16, a day of the trumpet
and alarm against the fence cities, the walled cities won't be enough
to save you. The only city that'll save you
then is the city of refuge, the Lord Jesus Christ and his blood
and righteousness and against the high towers, they won't save
you. Man's fortresses will not save
him. Verse 17, I'll bring distress upon men and they shall walk
like blind men. That's what they are. Blind with
ignorance, blind with self-righteousness, blind with unbelief and idolatry
and self-importance. Blind to the things of the glory
of God. Remember what Paul wrote in 2
Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 3, if our gospel be hid, it's
hid to them. hid to them whom Satan hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not." He says, because they sinned
against the Lord. Now, we're all sinners, aren't
we? But the issue here is, how is that sin going to be removed?
How is God going to save and justify a sinner? Well, they've
sinned against... You see, men even sin against
the Lord in their supposed, imagined, self-invented ways. of trying
to take care of the problem of sin, false religion, self-righteous
works. He says, and their blood shall
be poured out as dust and their flesh as the dung, worthless.
Their life's worth nothing. A life lived without Christ,
a life lived without the glory of God. Young people, hear what
I'm saying now. You're going out into this world,
you're going to Tackle many challenges. You're going to accomplish many
things. God's the one who gifted you to be able to do that. Remember
that. But a life lived with the best job and the best schools
or the best places, without Christ, without the glory of God, is
as worthless as dust and dung. It really is. And then verse
18, neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver
them in the day of the Lord's wrath. Silver and gold won't
do it. We're not redeemed with silver
and gold. We're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
But the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy.
That's the glory of God. God's jealous of his glory. Because
he's the only one who has the right to be jealous of his glory. And any religion or any life
or any endeavor that doesn't glorify God in Christ Receives
the fire will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy For
he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the
land