In chapter three, in verse eight,
I'm going to get my subject and try to jump off from there. Therefore wait ye upon me, saith
the Lord, until the day that I rise up
to the praying, for my determination is to gather the nations that
I may assemble the kingdoms to pour upon them mine indignation,
Even all my fierce anger for all the earth shall be devoured
with the fire of my jealousy. Wait upon me, saith the Lord.
David said in Psalm 62, said, My soul waiteth upon God. Now, this waiting upon the Lord
doesn't mean that you sit down and just wait. What it means
is that God's going to do His will and He's going to do His
purpose. And we wait upon Him to carry that out as we go about
our lives. And God gives us grace in His
holy scriptures, and what a wonderful thing He teaches us to wait upon
Him. To wait upon Him. And if we'll
wait upon Him, and He's going to bring His praise to pass,
when He says, wait upon Me, He's telling us that, wait, and I
will execute judgment. You just wait. And that's what
I often say, you know, nobody's getting by with nothing. Just
wait. God will execute judgment upon the wicked, and you just
wait upon Him, and He says that He'll bestow His mercy upon His
elect. You wait. Both those things are
going to come to pass, and we just wait. He's going to bring
judgment. Nobody's getting by with anything,
and He teaches us to wait upon the Lord, and He's going to perform
His work. He's going to do what He says He's going to do. And
the first thing I want us to look at here, Zephaniah, is a
prophecy of judgment. Look over here in chapter 1 and
see what it says here in verse 1. Let me give you a few things
here quickly. Zephaniah, verse 1. The word
of the Lord came unto me, Zephaniah, the son of Cushiah, the son of
Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah. And he prophesied
in the days of Josiah. Josiah began to reign when he
was eight years old. He was a king after David Donahart. He was a good king. The son of
Adam and king of Judah. And that's when he found the
Word of the Lord. He said, I will utterly consume.
This is the prophecy. This is what he said the Word
of the Lord came to. 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, 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." So you see, he's this judgment. In the bulk of his
prophecy, he identifies the sins that men have against God, and
that God's going to bring wrath upon them. But God's the only
one, and he announces what awaits every rebel against God. Now,
what God does, and this is the way He always has worked. He
exposes man's guilt before he ever closes. He exposes man's
sinfulness. He always makes a man understand
that judgment, that he's under the judgment of God, that he's
under the wrath of God. And he convinces a man of his
guilt, and if he never convinces a man of his guilt and his condemnation,
And that's why we always, you know, he always brings judgment.
He always starts out with judgment. And when you tell a man and prophesy
and preach to a person, that's what Joseph and I is doing. God
is angry with you. He's going to consume you. Our
jobs are consuming fire. And when a man is brought to
that place, that's when you can tell him about the remedy. You
can tell him about grace, and then he'll be interested in grace.
He'll be interested in salvation of the Lord. He'll be interested
in where the remedy's at. And that's what he does. He starts,
first of all, pronouncing judgment, and then he ends up, what I read
to you tonight, saying, O Israel, saying, O Zion, shout and say. Judgment's pronounced first.
Then, when grace comes, you start saying it. You start saying it.
And so, and I'll tell you another thing else that he does here.
He speaks not only of a judgment, but he speaks of their idolatry.
Their idolatry. And I'll tell you, and you can
find this in 1 Kings 22, where Zechariah and Isaac, they found
the book of the Lord. And he says, the wrath of God
is upon us because our fathers did not hearken to the words
of this book, to what's written in it. And look what he says
here. Idolatry covered the land. Pagan priest and the Lord's priest
got together. Look what he said out in verse
4. Idolatry covered the land. Look who there's worshiping.
He said, I'll stretch my hand upon the hand of Judah, and upon
all the chapter 1 and verse 4, and upon all the inhabitants
of Judah, and I'll cut off the rims and a veil from this place. And the name of the Timurims
with the priest. That's two idol gods right there,
and they got their pagan priests. And them that worship the host
of heaven, them that worship the sun, the moon, the stars.
And they go in the house, and them that worship and swear by
the Lord. These false prophets and these
false priests were Jehovah's prophets. That's how they got
together, and they said, well, you go ahead and worship that
way, we'll worship this way, and we won't bother one another.
We'll just get along. and swear by the Lord, and they
swear at the same time by Malcolm, which is a false god. Idolatry
all over the place. Apostates everywhere. And look
what he said in verse 6, and here's what he said about those
apostates, and them that turned back from the Lord. They had God's Word, they had
God's prophet, and they turned back from the Lord. And those
who have not sought the Lord nor inquired of Him. So he speaks
of their idolatry. And then he talks about their
immorality. I'll tell you something, God
pronounces judgment, then he shows grace. He speaks of idolatry
and how, I'll tell you, idolatry is so rank in this country right
now. This country is full of idolatry. Right up the road here. Slavery
to Bethlehem, that's as idolatrous as you can get. You can't get
more idolatrous than that. Let me get these things out here
and read them to you. You can't get no more idolatrous than that. The biggest idol that men have
in this world today is their own will. That's their own will. Their own will has been set up
to be God. They made an idol out of Him.
And that idol will not allow God to do anything unless you
let Him. He won't let Christ save you.
He won't let God love you. He won't let anything happen
unless your will allows Him to do that. So that's the greatest
idol that's in this world today, that men have. And preachers
feed the fires of that idol. Listen to what it says here.
Mary wrapped the first Christmas present. The man who wrote that is worshiping
an idol. This week's sermon is, He is
coming to town. We share Jesus. You can't share
Him. And that's why he says this,
and wherever you have this idolatry, you'll end up in immorality.
Wherever idolatry rules, immorality follows, moral chaos follows.
This leads to homosexuality, leads to people in the priesthood
and in their churches, and in all the denominations now, they
allow women, they allow homosexuals in the pulpit, and all that stuff. You know, whenever you open that
floodgate, you're going to have immorality all around. And if
man's left up to salvation by his will, when he can't keep
up that, then he's going to go back into immorality again. But
look what he said over here in chapter 3 and verse 1. Speaks
of their immorality. We want religion, but oh my,
we don't want it to interfere with our lives. Woe to her that
is filthy and polluted to the oppressing city. She received
not the voice of correction, She trusted not in the Lord,
she drew not near to her God." So you see, they despise, they're
a pollutant. They ignore His word, despise
His law. And whenever that happens, immorality
has to come. And they refused God, refused
His correction, wouldn't trust in the Lord, wouldn't even draw
near to Him. And then look what He says about believers. He speaks
about their judgment, their idolatry, their immorality, and look at
their corrupt leaders. He said in verse 3 and 4, chapter
3, her princes within her are roaring lions. I mean, they're going to run this
out. If you're going to do what we say, we're going to law on
your bones. And her judges, the people who are the judges, who
make the law, they're like evening wolves. They're out here prowling
around looking for something to eat. They know not the bones
to the body. And O beloved, the judges are
as wolves. And behold what he says, the
prophets are like and treacherous persons. You know what that like
means? That means that they take nothing
serious. They don't take the Word of God
seriously. They don't take the truth of
God seriously. They don't take the Word of God
seriously. They don't take preaching seriously. They don't take talking
to men seriously. They just give their own opinions,
tell their jokes, make their illustrations. And that's what
makes men dangerous. And then look what the priest
did. And it says there in the last part of verse 4, her priests
have polluted the sanctuary and done violence to the law. They
polluted the sanctuary with their perversions and then they done
violence to the law, they perverted the Word of God. We sound like
we're talking about the land and day in which we live ourselves.
But then Zephaniah calls us to repentance. Look back over in
chapter 1. He says, Oh, God is so merciful
to call us to repentance. Look what he says, and oh, what
a blessed word this is. Zephaniah 1.7. Hold thy peace
at the presence of the Lord. For the day of the Lord is at
hand. For the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice. He hath bid his
guest. I've pronounced all this judgment.
But he says, now wait a minute. The Lord is fixing to come. And
you just hold your peace. Hold your peace. And when this
day of wrath comes, he says, don't fret about it, don't worry
about it, don't murmur about it, but to hold your peace for
him because the God of all the earth is going to do right. And
it says here he's prepared to sacrifice. What is that sacrifice
that he's prepared? Is he going to prepare a sacrifice
only that he will accept? So this sacrifice that he prepared
has to be his own blessed son. He prepared this sacrifice to
atone for our sins. And He calls sinners to be the
guests to this sacrifice and all the benefits of it. His blessings
of grace and salvation is by this sacrifice, and this sacrifice
is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And look what happens. This sacrifice
is going to be the basis not only of salvation, but of judgment.
And verse 8, it says, It shall come to pass in the day of the
Lord's sacrifice, I will punish the princes, the king's children,
and all such as are clothed with strange apparel." They don't
have the righteousness of Christ. Now let me tell you, salvation
is based on that sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the
same sacrifice is going to be the same one who God made a sacrifice,
is going to be the same one that God's going to bring judgment
upon this world through. The Lord Jesus Himself. Ain't
that what they said? Highest from the face of Him
that sent upon the throne from the face of the Lamb? And then
the other side of it is, not unto us, not unto us, but unto
thy name, O Lord, be glory. We sing the songs of worship
and redemption unto the Lamb. We don't want to be hit from
Him. But they will. They will. And I'll tell you
what, God, and I'll tell you, judgment will be fulfilled one
of these days. We talked about this today. God's
going to, when this world's over and done with, Christ redeems
this body and all the spirits and bodies are joined back together,
and we worship God in heaven, and that new heavenly city, that
new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven. as a bride adorned
for a husband, and God dissolves this earth and everything in
it and creates a new heaven and a new earth where He dwelleth
righteousness. You know why He's going to destroy
this first one? He's going to do it because it's
polluted, it's corrupt, it's under the curse. And His people
ain't going to dwell on a cursed earth, not in this new world.
But I said all that to say this, that beloved, when this judgment
day comes, that's it. You know who men are
going to face in judgment? People talk about the David throne,
the Godly throne, the Alpha throne, and every kind of throne there
is. But there's only one throne of judgment. There is one throne
of grace. And there's only one person that
sits on both of them. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, men are
going to face Him, and He's going to be the judge of all men. He's
appointed a day in which He's going to judge this world in
righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained, the Lord Jesus
Christ. The same one that sits on the
throne to save us, that went to that cross to save us and
now sits on the throne, is going to be the same one that's going
to judge people. And that's what He's saying here
about this. And how in the world are we going to escape the wrath
of God in that great and terrible day? How are we going to get
away from this wrath and find our refuge in Him? The same way,
beloved, by the same sacrifice that He prepared. That's how
we do it. Look what He said in chapter 2 and verse 1 through
3. This is the only way to escape the wrath of God. Look what He
said here. Gather yourselves together. Gather together, O
nation, love desired. Before the decree go forth, before
the day passes, the chance before the fierce anger of the Lord
come upon you, before the day's anger come upon you, what's what
he said? Seek ye the Lord. All you meek
of the earth which have brought you, seek righteousness, seek
meekness. And listen to this, it may be
you shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Oh, he says, listen, I've got
a place to hide you with my wrath, God. And that's in our Lord Jesus
Christ. Zephaniah, he promises salvation. And his name means Jehovah hides
or Jehovah has hidden. And I'll tell you, God has a
hidden people in this world, a remnant according to His grace.
And then, beloved, He hides all their sins cast him as far as
the east from the west, cast him behind his back, and then
not only that, but he hides us in the cleft of the rock, hides
us in his blessed Son. You see, God's elect. We deserve
wrath as much as anybody else. We're as guilty as the rest of
the world. We've had the same nature, the same heart, the same
thoughts, the same deeds, but while God pours His wrath out
upon others, He pours out oh, much love and mercy and grace. And that's why we say, who maketh
thee to differ? What have you got that you didn't
receive? And if you received it, then you keep gloating. And
that's why he says, God hath prepared a sacrifice. Come on,
gather round, seek ye the Lord. Now, look over in chapter 3.
Oh my, this is something over here. This is a message itself.
And there's a people. We're talking about, you know,
promises salvation. Oh my, he promised salvation,
pronounced judgment, idolatry, immorality, and then he promises
salvation. Look what he said here in verse
9. There's going to be a people
who are going to serve the Lord willingly. He said in verse 9,
But then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may
call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent. That means they'll serve Him,
all of them, when all of them, their consent to it, they're
willing to do it, they're glad to do it. And not only that, they'll come
to Christ, trusting Him, and then look what they'll do. In
verse 10, from beyond the rivers, He said, I'm going to give them
a pure language. They're going to call on My name. You've got
to have, God's got to give you a language to talk to Him. He's
got to give you the language. He's got to teach you how to
speak and what the language to go by. And then from beyond the
rivers of Ethiopia, my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed,
look what they do. They're going to bring my offering.
They'll bring Christ as their offering. And then look what
else they'll do in that day. In that day shalt thou not be
ashamed for all thy doings wherein thou hast transgressed against
me. They'll all confess their sin and their shame. Oh, we're
ashamed if we transgressed against you. Ashamed of it. And then
look what he says here in verse 12. And this is the Lord's remnant
that's going to trust in His name. I will also lean in the
midst of thee an afflicted and poor people. They shall trust
in the name of the Lord. Oh, bless His holy name. There's nine things here, starting
at verse 15. I want you to see. Zephaniah says in verse 14, Sing,
O daughter of Zion. Shout, O Israel. Be glad and
rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. And down in verse
16 it says, In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou
not unto Zion, let not thine hands be slack. Now here in verse
15, He gives us nine reasons to rejoice and sing and not to
fear and to be steadfast in the work of the Lord. The first one
there in verse 15. Look what it says. The Lord has taken away
thy judgments. That's enough to sing about.
Sin and guilt. The rest of the world is under
the wrath of God, but God in His free grace, God in His sovereign
grace, God through our Lord Jesus Christ has already taken away
all our judgment. Scott Regis has said one time,
and I'll never forget it, he says that men die and then face
the judgment. Christ faced the judgment, and
then He died. And because He faced the judgment,
died. Now when we die, we don't face
no judgment. Because Christ already did. Christ,
our Savior, has taken away our judgment. First of all, He's
taken away the cause of judgment. What's the cause of judgment?
Sin. What's in the end of the world
if he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself?
And, beloved, he's taken away the consequences of sin. What's
the consequences of sin? Death and condemnation. He's
delivered us from the power of darkness. He saved us from all... There's no condemnation to them
that are in Christ. He's taken away the sentence
of judgment, which is the curse of the law. Christ was made a
curse for us to redeem us from the curse of the law. And He
saved us from the bondage and guilt of sin because the blood
of Christ has purged our conscience from dead works to serve the
living God. There is something else He's
done here in this chapter, verse 15. Not only has He taken away
our judgments, but look what it says, He has cast out thine
enemy. You know what our worst enemy
is? Of course, it's sin. But there are so many enemies
that's against us. Satan's against us, the world's
against us, the flesh is against us, sin's against us, and every
enemy that's against us, he considers it all as one, and he has cast
them out. He's cast out sin, he's cast
out judgment, he's cast out Satan, he's cast out The power of the
flesh over us, and Christ has broken every power of every enemy
over us when He died as our substitute. And I tell you, beloved, look
what else it says down here. Not only has the Lord taken away
your judgment, He's cast out the angel. Listen to this. Here's
the third thing. The King of Israel, even the
Lord, is in the midst of thee. Ten beloveds gathered out here
tonight. Our Lord Jesus says, wherever I am, two or three again
in my name, I'm in the midst. Here He says, the King of Israel,
even the Lord is in the midst of you. Who's the King of Israel? The Lord, the King of His church,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is with us. He's in our midst. Even the Lord's in our midst.
That's why it says, don't you be afraid, don't you be dismayed,
for I am thy God. I'll strengthen you, yea, I'll
help you, I will uphold you with my right hand of righteousness.
Oh, now saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob that formed thee,
O Israel, fear not! I've redeemed you, I've called
you by name, you're mine. And O beloved Christ, Christ
will always, always supply our needs and always meet our needs
and always keep us cleaving and believing. I mean, He's always
in our midst. And oftentimes, beloved, He's
with us when we're by ourselves. Let me show you the next one.
Here's number four. Not only is the King of Israel
in the midst of thee, thou shalt not see evil, anymore. What's not safe? I've had no
bad news since I got the good news. Oh, there shall no evil happen
to the just, but the wicked shall be filled with mischief. Say
ye to the righteous, it shall be well with him. Oh my, no bad
news since we got the good news. And that really ain't. That really
ain't. We can, you know, God's hands
in everything. Oh my, the gospel. The gospel
works. The gospel we believe and preach,
it works. This is not a sham. This works. It works to live by daily. It works to save us. It works
to keep us. It works to strengthen us. It
works to live by. It works to die by. It works
to go through whatever you go through in this world. This gospel
works! That's why he calls it the great
power of God. It works! And oh, beloved, now look down
at verse 17. Let me give you the fifth thing.
Now, he said, the Lord thy God is in the midst of thee. But
look what he says. He says, you know, the Lord thy God in the midst
of thee. And he says, well, I need to
tell you something else about the Lord God that's in the midst
of thee. He's mighty. Oh, the Lord thy God, the Lord's
in the midst of thee. But he says, you know, I need
to tell you this about him. He's mighty. That one that's
in the midst of us is the eternal omnipotent, all-sufficient God
who never changes. He is Immanuel, God with us. He is able to save to the uttermost
them that come to God by Him. He is almighty, sovereign, eternal,
never changes. And oh, listen to the sixth one.
In verse 17, the Lord thy God, then, Mr. Be as mighty, listen
to this, he will save. He will save. He not only can, not only will, but he does. He will save. That's just a statement of fact.
He will save. The Lord thy God is in the midst
of thee. He will save. Huh? Oh, my. He delights in mercy,
pardons iniquity, passes by the transgression of the remnant
of his attachment. He voluntarily gave himself in
that blessed covenant of grace. He saves us from sin, saves us
from Satan, saves us from the law, saves us from hell, saves
us from wrath, and it won't be long, beloved. He'll soon save
us from all of our trouble. Now is our salvation nearer than
when we first believed. Oh, my. This is why, you know,
we read it the other night. This poor man cried unto the
Lord, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his
troubles. Then look what he says there
also in verse 17. Not only will He save, but now
watch this, He will rejoice over thee with joy. What? God rejoices over us and does
it with joy? Our Lord said, for the joy that
was sent before Him, that God looks at us, and you know what
He says? We're His crown of glory and
we're His diadem. royal diadem in the hand of God. Did God himself rejoice over
us? He told his disciples, and they
come back after casting out devils, he said, don't rejoice that the
devils have come. Rejoice that your names are written
in heaven. And he said, as Bruce preached it last Wednesday so
ably, he says that the angels in heaven rejoice when one of
his God's people is brought in. But here it says God himself
looks at us and he rejoices over us with joy. That's what he says. Come, thou blessed of the Lord.
Come and inherit that kingdom. Come thou faithful servant. Oh
my. I can't get it. I just can't
get it. I just, you know, that's just my flesh won't let me get
into that. That God rejoices over us. Huh? And we stand before Him on that
great day. You know what He'll do? He will
publicly own us to be His and rejoice over us and say, here
they are, Father, I and the children that God has given me. And oh,
what rejoicing that will be. Huh? Oh, there's a song that says
that. What rejoicing that will be. I don't remember. I'd say my mind is. Now look
what else he says about it. Not only rejoice over your joy,
but he'll rest in his love. You know what that means, he'll
rest in his love? That means that he finds great
satisfaction in loving us. And over in the margin, it says
he'll rest. That word means be silent. Because of His love, He'll be
silent because of His love. That means that He'll never have
a harsh word, never speak anger or wrath against us again. He'll
silence all of our enemies as well. And I tell you a lot, beloved,
He rests in His love for us. How we would rest in His love
for us is He rested in His love for us. And then look what He says, what
He's going to do. In the last part of that verse, number nine,
I told you benign things. He will joy over thee with singing.
Can you hear the Lord Jesus Christ singing songs to us? Rejoice over thee with singing.
What he's trying to do here is searching for words to describe
Christ's love for his people. Rejoice is over with your joys.
Rejoice is over with Singing? Oh my! God loved us, redeemed us, called
us, chose us. And these are things that just...
And then let me give you six things here in verse... Down
in verse 19, let me show you some things. In verse 18, just
wills. These are our wills. These are
our wills. These are the wheels, six wheels
that God will do for us. I will gather them that are sorrowful. And that, Nicodemus said in verse
19, Behold, at that time I will undo all those that afflict I will save her that halteth,
and gather her that was driven out. I will get them praise and
fame in every land. God's going to make people praise
us one of these days for what He's done for us. And then in
verse 20, At that time will I bring you again. And that time that
I gather you. And I will make you a name and
a praise among all the people of the earth. God says, I'll
do it. I'll do it. Six, six I wills. Well, I got six in my notes. I'll have to count them when
we get home. We'll count them when we get home. Because all my nine glorious
things, I'm going to come back in three or four years and preach
that again. 2 verses, Zebaniah 3. And y'all won't even remember
it. Y'all won't remember this a month from now, so I can preach
it a month from now. Because I don't even remember
what I say from one week to the next. But oh, that's worth saying
again, ain't it? Ruby tells me that all the time.
She says, you can come back tonight and preach that very same thing.
I said, that'll do for tonight, too. That's what the gospel does
for us. Oh, what a blessed gospel. The
Lord bless you.