Good morning, good to see everyone
here this morning. In Romans chapter 10 verse 13,
God declares to us that whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. You might recall we considered
that verse in the last message that I delivered here, and we
saw there that in the Bible, the name of the Lord refers far
more than just to a title by which he's to be addressed. And
in studying that previous message, I did a Bible search of that
phrase, call upon the name of the Lord. And one of the passages
I found caught my eye and it spawned the idea for today's
message. In Zephaniah chapter three, verse
nine, God speaking through the prophet says, for then will I
turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the
name of the Lord to serve him with one consent. So our text
for today is going to begin here at verse 9 and go through verse
13 of Zephaniah chapter 3. And these five verses, they speak
of the most wonderful blessing that could ever be bestowed upon
anyone, the blessing of eternal salvation, everlasting joy and
peace in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I certainly hope and pray
that's of interest to you. As this opening verse of today's
text indicates, this blessing of salvation is for a people
that God will turn to so that they might embrace a pure language. And it says, he will do so that,
or in order that, they may call upon the name of the Lord, the
name that whosoever calls upon shall be saved. You'll recall
also our Lord, when he gave his great commission in the book
of Mark, told the disciples to go and preach the gospel to all
the world, he said, and those that believe the gospel shall
be saved. So from these three passages,
we know then that this pure language by which these eternally saved,
blessed sinners that by which they're enabled to call on His
name, the name of the Lord for salvation, that is none other
than the gospel, the gospel of God's grace in Christ, the pure
language of grace, as I've so titled today's message. Let me
just share a brief bit of background on Zephaniah before we begin.
The prophet Zephaniah was a contemporary of King Josiah and the prophet
Jeremiah. He prophesied to Judah and Jerusalem
in the days that were leading up to their being taken into
the Babylonian captivity. And as we reach this third and
last chapter of Zephaniah, it opens with words of rebuke, which
in the immediate context we see are directed toward the inhabitants
of the city of Jerusalem. And so the opening verses of
the chapter begins to describe their evil. But when we get down
to our text in verse 9, we see clearly that God, speaking through
the prophet, he begins to address the eternal salvation of a people,
even a people as he had described as evil, sinful in those first
eight verses. So accordingly from the context
here, we know that those first eight verses there, that they
may also be applied in a broader sense, not only to describe the
state of Jerusalem, the sinful state of Jerusalem and Judah,
but they provide a commentary on all of fallen humanity by
nature. It describes us as we all come
into this world according to the scripture. That is, without
God, without grace, and without the truth. Well, after he had
described the depravity of fallen sinners in the opening verses
of Zephaniah 3, he goes on to warn that God is just. And he
says no sinner is going to escape God's just judgment against their
sins. Your sins, they were judged and
punished in Christ, who died as a substitute for all who are
saved. Christ, whose shed blood alone
could and did pay in full the penalty owed to God's holy justice. Either that's the case, or you
will be cast into hell's misery, eternally separated from God. See personally experiencing God's
just wrath against your sins. One way or the other, his justice
will be served. And yet, in spite of those warnings,
we were told in verse seven of this chapter, it says they rose
early, the sense being they rose early to participate in their
corrupt doings. That is, as if they could not
wait to get involved with their iniquities, which included the
practice of their religion. So therefore, it must be iniquities
or sin that they didn't recognize, they certainly would not have
done so in the name of their religion, had they recognized
it. It was a sinful practice, you
see, because it was based upon iniquity. You know, the word
sin and iniquity, as it's used in Romans 3.23, all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. It's a word that means to
miss the mark, to fall short. So it's that which is inequitable
in that It's to approach God, no matter what the religion might
be, with some expectation of God blessing you or accepting
you based upon something that does not measure up to what God
says is required, to that holy standard of perfection. It's
to miss the mark. So it's sin or iniquity. And in these opening verses of
Zephaniah 3, we have then the description not only of Jerusalem,
but a description of all of us by nature as sinners born, as
the scripture tells us, dead in trespasses and sin, in spiritual
darkness, fallen humanity. And when we get serious about
religion or start thinking about the things of God, we are hell-bent
by nature, so to speak, to eagerly try to meet that standard, to
essentially establish our own righteousness. And so we first
think, we come to a point where we think we're okay, spiritually
speaking. We make a judgment according
to our own standard. We're inclined to think we're
okay, that we will be accepted by God at a time And this is
true of all of us when we were first ignorant of, are not submitted
to the only righteousness by which any can be accepted before
a holy God. That's the perfect righteousness
which God tells us in Acts 1731. He says that's the righteousness
all the world's going to be judged by. He's speaking of the righteousness
of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, God here through
Zephaniah, he's telling us in the verses leading up to our
text that God's just and that all sin will justly be dealt
with. But there's good news. That's
what the gospel is, isn't it? It means good news. When we get
to our text in verse nine, God speaking through the prophet,
he begins to describe the wonderful eternal salvation experience
now by some from among such wicked sinners that he had been describing
in the prior verses. Beginning in verse 9 again we
read, For then will I turn to the people of pure language that
they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with
one consent. Here in verse 9 we see that in
salvation there is first the revelation of grace. God's gospel,
this pure language of grace, it must be brought our way. and
its life-changing message must be revealed and applied to our
hearts by God the Holy Spirit if we're to be saved. God says
here that he would turn to the people, a pure language. When
we get to the next verse, verse 10, you'll see that the prophet
speaks of those who were from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,
meaning beyond just the Jews of Jerusalem and Judea. Credible
commentators, they believe that That's a reference to the time
of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, when the Jews,
both in their own land and in the Gentile world as they had
been dispersed there, they would have the gospel preached to them,
but they would reject it. And that would occasion the apostles
to turn to the Gentiles, just as we saw God commanding in the
book of Mark in that great commission, to go into all the world. to
preach the gospel, meaning not just to the Jews but to the Gentiles
or non-Jews. Those who prior to then, see,
had been without the gospel and had only heard of perhaps judgments
against them by the God of Israel, but now they're going to see
a turn. There's going to be a different voice from God heard by them
in the gospel in this pure language of grace. It's a message they'd
never heard before. and they would hear the pure
language of love and mercy and grace and peace and pardon and
righteousness and salvation in another, in a suitable substitute,
the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And look, this describes the
experience of all who are saved. The gospel of God's grace in
Christ must be brought their way. Now, I want to tell you,
we are a privileged people to have the pure language of grace
preached consistently from this pulpit. It's a pure language
in that, first of all, it is a word of truth. It's God's truth
as to how sinners are saved, and that opposed to what we naturally
might imagine before we hear this pure language of grace.
It's pure. You know, something's pure. It's
not contaminated. It's not contaminated with our
natural human reasoning, the reasoning of self-consumed, independent-minded
sinners, just as Zephaniah had described them earlier in chapter
three, who imagine they can be saved apart from the one righteousness
of God in Christ that we must have. You know, like me in years
past, I think many attribute much of their salvation to Christ. But until God is pleased to reveal
this pure language of grace to us, we cling to the idea that
we have something to do with controlling and maintaining control
over our eternal destiny. That something found within us
or something about us typically some response or action that
we take makes the real difference in our salvation. Not Christ,
although his name is deceptively invoked by so many in Christendom,
as it's called. It's invoked alongside of what
they're setting forth as the real difference maker in your
salvation. And that's just natural for us
to think. That's the way this whole world
works. You study hard and you do well
in school. You work hard and you advance
in your career. You have something to do with
achieving rewards. And so we imagine that God could
bless us based on something we do. This pure language, though,
it's the pure doctrine of Christ. as mentioned in 2 John verse
9, where we read, whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine
of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. Now that doctrine
of Christ, as you've heard before, is simply the truth concerning
one who he is, both God and man, which uniquely qualifies him
to accomplish his work of salvation. that he could stand in our place.
God, that what he offered would be of the infinite value necessary
to satisfy the infinite holiness of God the Father. So it's the
truth of his person and his work, his accomplished work. And you
know, many scorn doctrine. I think sometimes when we just
hear the word doctrine, we go, oh no, here comes the theologian
in someone. It's, we say, I'm not concerned
with the doctrine. That's what many will say. All
I know is, look, I believe in God. I pray, I do my best. I'm okay. But we need to, it
doesn't matter what one thinks or what this one tells you or
that one or this one tells you. What matters, what God's word
says and hear God's word here. Embracing and continuing in this
doctrine of Christ. That's what it is to abide in
it. is evidence of whether one truly belongs to God or not. Now, remember this doctrine of
Christ. Setting forth his person and
his work is connected to his name. It's how he's identified. The name of the Lord that is
called upon by all who are saved. Notice again in the first part
of verse nine when it says, for then will I turn to the people
of pure language, it says that. in order that they may all call
upon the name of the Lord. In other words, the pure language
of the gospel, the doctrine of Christ is absolutely necessary,
if any, in order for any to be able to call upon the name of
the Lord in the sense that all who are saved do. Looking back
at that verse that I mentioned at the onset, Romans 10, 13,
we would see that vivid truth had I continued reading into
verse 14. In verse 13, we read, for whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now we've started to see
who they are. It's the same ones who abide
in the doctrine of Christ. It's the same ones referred to
by Christ and Mark who believe the gospel, that pure language
of grace. And then he continues in verse
14 saying, but how then shall they call on him in whom they
have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? There must be, see, the revelation
of Christ, his person and work, as it's set forth in the gospel
of God's grace. And that by God's determined
means, the preaching of the gospel, this pure language. See, by the
preached gospel, when it's effectually applied by the Holy Spirit, we
have revealed to us, listen, both the absolute necessity,
the all-inclusive sufficiency, and the certain effectiveness
of Christ's person and work to fully, completely get the job
done, to save sinners like you and me. And if the Spirit so
blesses you, with an understanding of that, with seeing the necessity
of that, you know at that point nothing else will ever do for
you again. But Christ must be revealed through
the preached gospel in order for anyone to call upon his name,
with that Holy Spirit given understanding of who he is and what he fully
accomplished to save his people, whereby what his name is magnified. That is, God gets the glory.
He is glorified. He's revealed as he is that we
might worship him as he is. As both a just God who shall
deal justly with our sins and a merciful Savior. Now back to
verse 9 again. It read, for then will I turn
to the people of pure language that they may all call upon the
name of the Lord. It says to serve him with one
consent. Your Bible may have a note as
mine does that that Hebrew word translated consent is a word
that means shoulder. This alludes to how believers,
Jews and Gentiles alike, how they're yoked together as brothers
and sisters in Christ with a common bond, as servants of righteousness. I guess you could say it's they're
putting their shoulder to the wheel of grace. See, having embraced
this language of grace, they serve, but now they serve not
in order to gain God's favor or remove his disfavor, but with
one consent, with one mindset, see, from the spirit of grace,
a motive of grace and gratitude. They're made of one mind and
they serve with one consent. Now look at verse 10, where we
see the very basis or ground of our salvation. It reads, from
beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my suppliants, even the daughter
of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering. I've already mentioned
the phrase there from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia means
beyond the Jews of Jerusalem and Judea, so as to indicate
the Jews who had been dispersed, the daughter of my dispersed,
as well as others from among all other nations, the Gentiles.
And notice it reads, my suppliants. They're the ones who bring this
offering. A suppliant, or as it's put elsewhere, translated
elsewhere, a supplicant, is a petitioner or a pleader. When we go to God
in prayer and ask things of him, we said to bring our pleas or
our supplications to him. So here we have described how
those blessed with eternal salvation are made to be suppliants as
a people in need. There's one hungering and thirsting
after the righteousness that's revealed in this pure language
of grace that's brought our way. As Christ said in Matthew 5,
6, blessed, meaning eternally blessed, saved, are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. They're
made to be mercy beggars. And how do I know that? I know
that by what they are said to bring. God says they bring mine
offering. They need mercy. It brings to
mind the story of Abraham, I know most of you are familiar with,
when he was going to offer up his own son Isaac to be killed
on an altar, as God had commanded him to do. That story is a beautiful
picture, of course, of the redemptive offering of Christ that he would
make at Calvary's cross. But in that story, when Isaac,
he saw the fire and he saw the wood and he turned to his father
Abraham and he said, I see the fire and I see the wood. But
he says, where's the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham
replied to him saying, God will provide himself a lamb. You know, I don't know if that
time Abraham knew just what he was saying, but he said a mouthful,
didn't he? And he certainly, that was put there for us as
inspired by God, we know in Genesis chapter 22. And sure enough,
as Abraham, he took his knife to slay his son in obedience
to God. And before he killed him, the
angel of the Lord appeared to him and stopped him. And there
behind Abraham, sure enough, there was a ram caught in a thicket,
which Abraham then took and he used for the burnt offering instead
of his son. And that's exactly what God did
for the eternal salvation of these suppliants, these mercy
beggars. He provided himself a sacrifice,
his offering. And that's what these blessed
with eternal salvation, that's what they learn of, that's what
they're drawn to value. and the pure language of the
gospel. They bring his offering as their
only plea. He calls it mine offering. That's
the offering of God the Father's only begotten son, the eternal
lamb of God. They come pleading the merits
of his doing and dying, the very righteousness that was rendered. in perfect satisfaction to God's
holy law and justice, that by his obedience unto death. You
know, Christ perfectly obeyed the law, and I say the law in
the sense of all of the Father's revealed will. He walked with
an impeccable perfection, sinless, on this earth. The law, he came
to satisfy the law not for himself. He was made under the law. The
scripture says that he might redeem them which were under
the law. All that he did, he was doing
as a representative and a substitute for those who were saved and
their sinners. And so the law's penal demands
had to be met in full as well. He had to die and shed His infinitely
valuable precious blood to satisfy the infinite holy justice due
to God the Father of the sins of His people, those for whom
He died. Let's look at verse 11. Here
we see that in salvation there's a reversal in how things are
judged. once this pure language of grace
is made effectual to an object of God's grace. And when I say
that, I mean upon their hearing and believing with the heart
God's gospel. And when I say that a change,
a reversal in judgment, I'm speaking of an entirely new frame of reference
that's given to those who are granted spiritual life. so that
they see their eternal salvation in Christ, their substitute,
based solely upon his offering, his redemptive work. The first
part of verse 11 reads, in that day, I believe the day it's speaking
of is when this pure language is effectually brought to you.
And the scripture says it's the day they're made willing, the
day of God's power. It's when you come to plead Christ
and His righteousness alone for your salvation. In that day,
and I don't think it's referring to a specific moment, but rather
when that has taken place, he says, shalt thou not be ashamed
for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me.
Now, that needs a little explanation. We know the Bible teaches that
believers are ashamed. They should be ashamed over their
transgressions or sins. And we know God's not contradictory. And so that tells us in this
context it cannot be referring to that shame that always arises
when we're given a sense of the evil of our sin before a holy
God, that having been convinced of sin by God the Spirit. Now here this, in the context
I believe, this not being ashamed speaks of the liberating release
they have from the bondage of sin. from its condemning power. You see where they're not ashamed
to approach a holy God. Here in verse 11, this reversal,
I think, in how the regenerated born-again believer comes to
perceive and judge things, I think it's described in two ways. And
here in the first part of this verse, we see this resulting
newfound freedom from the bondage of sin. It gives the believer
then every reason to be certain and sure of his or her salvation. See, the believer finds him or
herself complete in Christ, accepted by God in the Beloved, God's
Beloved Son, the Savior, Jesus Christ. The saved then come to
the Lord by faith to see that their sins have all been taken
away. their past sins, their present
sins, their future sins, the sins they didn't even know they
had committed, their sin in their federal head and representative
Adam, all of them pardoned, forgiven, the guilt for them all having
been fully paid. They see their eternal justification
before God by the death of Christ some 2,000 years ago as their
substitute. So they're declared not guilty. That's what it means to be justified
before God. And so they rejoice in knowing
that their sins were imputed or charged to His account that
He might fully pay the just penalty due unto them. Now if they've
been charged to Him, what does that mean? It means they cannot
be justly charged or imputed to you. As Paul quoted King David
in Romans 4, beginning in verse 6, he said, even as David also
describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth
righteousness without works. He puts righteousness to their
account based on no work of their hand, saying, blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Well, you're
blessed if God will not charge you with your sin. Now, I don't
want us to gloss over this reversal of judgment, this radical change
in our frame of reference that's experienced by all who are given
spiritual life, whereby they embrace the gospel. Because it
results in a real freedom. You know, the scripture says,
to be free in Christ is to be free in deed. free to boldly
approach God, knowing we will not be found wanting, not be
ashamed." I think the sense of this verse is communicated well
for us in 1 John 2 28 when John wrote, and now little children
abide in him, that is Christ, that when he shall appear we
may have confidence and not be ashamed before him that is coming. How could I be ashamed or found
lacking if my plea is none other than the perfect righteousness
of God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ? You know, this side of
God-given faith, I think many of us often wonder, why did we
ever cling to pleading the best that we could do as a sinner,
sin-tainted though it be, when we could plead and can plead
the impeccable perfection of God himself, the God-man, the
Lord Jesus Christ. That can't fail. In Zephaniah,
he's saying that one to whom God has brought this pure language
of the gospel to and made it effectual to his or her heart,
such a vile sinner, as describes us all by nature, can boldly
approach a holy God just as they are without one plea but that
his blood was shed for thee. It's sinners, but sinners saved
by grace. Sinners whose sins cannot condemn
them, for there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. Romans 8, 1. Who walks after
the Spirit? It tells us those who are in
Christ Jesus, who are made to see their oneness with Him, whose
righteousness that they plea is none other than His righteousness
freely imputed to them." Well, I've noted here in verse 11 that
we see a reversal in how the regenerated, born-again believer
comes to perceive and judge things, a reversal in judgment. And that
reversal is described in two ways. In the first part of verse
11, we've seen this resulting release from the bondage of sin
whereby we can come to Him for acceptance without shame. And
now look with me again at verse 11. It reads, in that day shalt
thou not be ashamed for all thy doings wherein thou hast transgressed
against me. He's saying they will not be
ashamed for or because then I will take away out of the midst of
thee them that rejoice in thy pride. And thou shalt no more
be haughty because of my holy mountain. Here we see there's
a newfound humility. that brings out true initial
repentance that always accompanies God-given faith. This here is
speaking of the removal of religious pride. So that's a pride we don't
recognize by nature. In fact, you know, I know religious
people who are outwardly far more humble than me, and they
appear that way. But this is a religious pride
that takes place that's concurrent with or a product of having this
pure language of grace revealed to you. It's the height of sinful
pride to dare to approach a holy God, expecting salvation based
upon something that proceeds from you, a sinner. That's not
God's way of salvation as set forth in his gospel. This pure
language, when its embrace enables them to call on his name, for
all of their salvation. Now that describes a way of salvation
by works, not grace. And yet many professing so-called
Christians and believing as many of us once did that Christ died
for all men and women who ever lived, you see, by the process
of elimination, they're exposed to be looking to something then
that must proceed from them, something they do or something
they refrain from doing to make the real difference in their
salvation. I mean, look, if Christ did, if he died for all, if he
did no more for those who are saved than for those who are
lost, who perish, then clearly something else has to be making
the real difference. Not Christ, no matter how much
you might, we might have called him our savior at that time.
That's what it is to be in spiritual darkness and blindness. We couldn't
see that. But God graciously brings spiritual
life and the faculties of life that we might see that which
we couldn't see when we were dead in our trespasses and sins. But as Zephaniah describes here,
those who are enabled to see through God's pure language of
the gospel to call on his name, as is true of all who are saved,
this eternally blessed group, it says, will not include those
who rejoice in their own pride, that is, who imagine as I once
did, that the ultimate crowning event, see, in my being saved,
the real difference maker was found here. It was either, for
some, it's in their decision for Jesus. For others, it's their
acceptance of Him, or their act of faith. For others, it's just
their belief that there's a God. Or perhaps it's in their religious
practices. We'll see a bit of that, some
of that as we go forward. In their praying, their church
going. Maybe just something, a judgment they make about where
they stand relative to others. It's anything other than looking
solely to the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
to look anywhere else is the ultimate manifestation of sinful
religious pride, and God hates it. You dare to imagine you could
do what took the doing and dying of the Lord of glory by your
own sentient work, whether that's your act of faith, your sincere
religious interest, your acceptance of Jesus, doing your best to
live a good life, whatever, that that could achieve. This is where
the pride, the sinful pride, the evil of it is shown forth
that you're thinking you could achieve by that what in reality
took the doing and dying of the God-man. God won't have that. But you know that sinful pride,
it's common to all of us. prior to spiritual regeneration
and conversion, prior to hearing and believing from the heart
God's pure language of grace. That's that grace where the message
set forth is that all the conditions and requirements for our salvation
have been single-handedly and fully met by the finished work
of Christ, his perfect obedience unto death on the cross as a
substitute for each and every one he saves. Now there in verse
11, those words, mine holy mountain, are believed to be referring
to the temple, which the Jews gloried in. And on account of
it, they considered themselves secure. They were glorying, see,
taking comfort from being assured in their religious practices,
their sacrifices, the very religious practices that God had commanded
them to do under the Mosaic economy. You see, and they offered those
up at the temple, or as it's called here, Mount Holy Mountain. They did that rather than glorying
in the one sacrifice of the eternal Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, which
those animal sacrifices were given to picture. The Jews, see
at least at times, were obeying the letter of the ceremonial
law of Moses But for the most part, most of them were doing
so with no regard for what was pictured. The scripture tells
us that that law was given to them as a schoolmaster to point
them to Christ, but their confidence was in their religious ceremonies
and practices. And so God, he removes our haughty
ideas that would have us look to our participation or our interest
in religions or in spiritual things, looking to our best efforts
to actually obey those things we think God would have us to
do, and instead to humbly come before him in repentance. A repentance
for having dared to imagine that those things, any of those things,
anything done by me, the sinner, could merit something from a
holy God. That's a repentance from what
the scripture calls dead works. Their works intended by the dead
blind sinner to be in obedience, to have some merit before God,
you see, but they're dead in that they're performed by a spiritually
dead sinner. They're dead in that we're relying
upon them for thinking it recommends us in some way to God or helps
us to find favor, perhaps even our salvation Our comfort of
being saved is derived from them. And that describes those who
are on the broad road that leads to destruction, eternal death. So dead works. In verses 9 through
11 now, we've seen that in eternal salvation, there's a revelation
of grace first. There's secondly his redemptive
offering that is pled. There's a reversal of how things
are judged from the new frame of reference where First, they're
released in their consciences from the bondage of sin and its
condemning power so that they can come before him unashamed.
And they experience a repentance from their former dead works.
It springs from an ashamedness over their sins in that day,
you see, or in that sense. A repentance from their former
dead works with this new God-given humility. Now in verse 12, we
see there's also a change or a reversal then in where they
place their trust. God, through the prophet, says
there, I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and
poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. Now,
in verse 11, God had said the proud and haughty would be removed.
and left remaining would be what he calls here an afflicted and
poor people. Those God saves are humbled by
the Holy Spirit under this pure language of grace so as to see
themselves as afflicted and poor, spiritually speaking. You see,
they discover the extent of their spiritual disease, the affliction
of sin, and so how spiritually bankrupt we all are in such spiritual
poverty that we have nothing to offer. Nothing that even comes
close to measuring up, see, to what it actually takes for such
depraved, ungodly sinners to find acceptance before a holy
God. It took God's own offering, mine
offering, He said, of His dear Son on the cross and with the
revelation of the pure language of the gospel, we learn we really
are destitute spiritually. That is, with no means to even
contribute one iota to our own salvation. That describes those
who truly plead and trust in Christ for all of their salvation.
Those who call on him and trust in the name of the Lord. Since
salvation by God's grace, we discover we desperately need
him, the God-man, whose accomplished righteousness now we must have
as our own, because being convinced by the Spirit from this pure
language of grace, we see nothing else will do. And oh, how that
will do. And so there's a reversal in
where we place our trust. Before this pure language of
grace was brought my way, you know, I thought I had a high
regard for Christ. I would have said I was trusting
in Christ. I knew that his death on the
cross had something to do. I believed it was an essential
part, see, of my salvation, but ultimately, when under the exposed
light of the gospel, this pure language of grace, my trust or
confidence that I was saved was exposed to being that which I
thought made the real difference. And you know, that was me doing
my part. I believed in a God, I believed
in my own concept of a gospel, and I thought that's what distinguished
me from the lost. They would not believe as I did.
So at that time, my trust was in my believing, faith in my
faith, not faith or trust in Christ and his finished work
alone. And it's sad to say, but multitudes remain so deceived. In his Sermon on the Mount, Christ
was describing these same poor and afflicted people as he spoke
of those blessed with eternal salvation in Matthew 5, verses
3 through 5. We read, blessed are the poor
in spirit. for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. You know, all are spiritually poor, but those who are poor
in spirit are those who become aware of their spiritual poverty. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Under this pure language of grace,
we discover we're indeed poor, poor and afflicted. We're made
meek so as to repent of our religious pride, as we've seen that we
have nothing acceptable to offer unto God as sinners. And so we
see our desperate need of Christ and his righteousness in whose
name we then place our trust. And then in the first part of
verse 13, we see another characteristic of those who are saved in that
righteousness is truly made to be theirs. God doesn't just pretend
you're righteous Those who are saved are righteous in Christ. As we read there, the remnant
of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies, neither shall
a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth. In the immediate
context here, the remnant of Israel would seem to be speaking
of God's chosen people unto eternal salvation, but out of the nation
Israel. They're called, you'll recall
in Romans 11, the election of grace. But as is the case with
the rest of our passage today, these descriptions can be applied
to all those chosen unto eternal salvation. The elect, those called
in the Bible the Israel of God, chosen from among all nations.
So what is said here is true of all those whom God graciously
turns to with this pure language of grace. And it says of these
that they shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, Neither shall
a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth." Now, we know from
the whole of Scripture this does not mean that they then live
the rest of their lives without sin. In fact, the Scripture says
if you say you have no sin, you're a liar. Those who plead the offering
of Christ's redemption To whom this revelation of grace is given,
who experience this reversal in judgment and in where they
place their trust, they're still sinners and they will be until
they leave this body of death. But they're sinners saved by
grace. So some then think that this phrase here means, well,
that means they don't persist in their sinning or that's not
the tenor of their life. And certainly we have scripture
that indicates to us, certainly, you know, flagrant immorality
and disregard for God's revealed will is not the tenor of one
who's been a recipient of God's grace in the gospel. We know
that's true. But I think here that when it says that they shall
not do iniquity, it may be in reference to two things, maybe
even both of them. One, it's in reference, I think,
to their standing in Christ. They have his perfect righteousness.
The Bible says of these sinners, it calls them holy, unapprovable,
unblameable. They're without sin before God's
justice in Christ, due to their oneness with Him. In Him, they're
representative. And I think, too, it's also conveying
here that they shall not do iniquity as they did before the pure language
of the gospel was heard and believed upon by God-given faith. As we've seen, see, the saved,
they come to experience this radical change in how they judge
saved and lost. So their plea and hope for salvation
is now in Christ alone, based on his perfect righteousness
being imputed to them. A righteousness, see, that does
measure up, which is equitable. It's not one that misses the
mark. It is the mark. They repent from having sinfully
expected to be saved based on something proceeding from them
that could not possibly measure up to that perfect righteousness
required. So they see that was inequitable. It missed the mark. That's iniquity. And in that sense, they shall
not do iniquity now. Now they don't speak lies nor
have a deceitful tongue. I think likewise in this context,
that's suggesting doctrinal lies. deceptions, falsehoods, pertaining
to the subject at hand that these verses are addressing. That is
how God saves sinners. See, their way, the profession,
the gospel of all true believers is no longer a false one in which
they were deceived. They've received the pure language,
the truth, see, of grace. It sets forth the true way of
salvation, God's gospel. So when they're believing this
pure language, In that sense, then, they no longer speak lies
so as to deceive themselves or others concerning this subject,
the one basis upon which God can and does save sinners. And
I think the latter part of this verse supports this understanding
as well, as it says, for they shall feed and lie down, and
none shall make them afraid. They've been enlightened by the
pure language of grace, so no longer deceived They are at rest. They rest in Christ their Savior.
So they lie down. It's like they take off their
working clothes and they put on the robe of His righteousness.
They stop their working, trying to be saved by their own efforts.
Instead, rest in Christ. You know, when Christ, He arose
to the Father, He sat down at the right hand of God. He rested. Now, God doesn't get tired. He
rested, meaning he took full comfort in a finished work. The work was complete, and so
they that trust in him rest in him, their substitute and savior. Well, we've seen today a description
from God through the prophet Zephaniah of that which all who
are saved come to experience by God-given faith, and I hope
it describes you. It all begins with the hearing
of this pure language, the very gospel of God's grace that's
been brought your way this morning. So I pray by God's grace that
all who hear this might be able to identify with these eternally
blessed ones as they are described here for us in God's word. So I pray that you too might
be able to call on the name of the Lord, pleading Christ in
his offering, his righteousness as your only hope Haven't embraced
the doctrine of Christ, God's gospel, the pure language of
grace.