Okay, well we come this week
to the prophecy of Zephaniah. Zephaniah, and the verse I want
to concentrate on, well two verses, verses 16 and 17 of chapter three. God in the midst of thee. These
minor prophets as they're called, these minor prophets from Hosea
onwards, not the major ones like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel,
they're regarded as major, but these are the minor prophets.
They're difficult to understand. When you read them, they're difficult
to understand because I think the historical context in which
they're set and in which the prophecies were given are obscure
to us two and a half thousand to three thousand years later.
The reason being some of the kingdoms have disappeared. Where
is Edom? Where is Moab? Where are they? They've gone.
They don't exist anymore. Where is Assyria? Oh gosh, Nineveh, Nineveh, that's
what I was trying to think of. And I couldn't let it go, I'm
sorry about that. But they've gone, they're just archaeological
sites now. But throughout all of these prophecies
is the recurring theme of judgment on sin. You heard it when Peter
read it earlier. And yet, as clear as the judgment
on sin is, There are very precious promises of salvation. This prophecy
of Zephaniah, sin brings God's judgment, absolutely clear. But
don't overlook the fact that God is a God of grace and a God
of mercy. He loves to be merciful. He is
the God who loves mercy and grace. And so Zephaniah continues the
theme. He lived in the same time as
Jeremiah in the days of King Josiah and one or two of the
other kings that followed on. And it's prior to the captivity
of Judah when Babylon, Chaldea, Nebuchadnezzar came and took
them away to Babylon for 70 years of captivity as is prophesied
in Jeremiah. And the reason why they were
taken into captivity, what was it for which they were being
punished? What was it for which God was
exacting the penalty due to them? It was idolatry. It was the worship
of false gods. The people who above all people
on earth were favoured with the blessing of God in the Scriptures
that they had. What advantage is there in being
a Jew, says Paul? Much every way, for to them was
committed the oracles of God. They had the Scriptures. Through
Moses the Pentateuch was given. The Scriptures of the Old Testament
were theirs, they had them. That's where it was. If you wanted
to find God, you would go to Jerusalem, to the tabernacle
that was there, and then the temple later. That's where you
would find the God of all the universe, for that's where He
said He would be, and that's where He said He would meet with
His people, around those things which portrayed the doing and
the dying, the redemption accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. But
what these people who had all the blessings of that did, was
they departed from the worship of the true God. That's what
they did, they departed. They worshipped idols under the
guise of true worship. Jeremiah puts it well, in Jeremiah
2 he says that God, by Jeremiah, says, this is what I have against
you, you have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters. God
says, you have walked away from me, the fountain of living waters. And what have you done? You've
dug out for yourselves, carved for yourselves cisterns to hold
stale water. But even that, they cannot hold
the stale water, for they're cracked and they're broken, and
they don't even hold that water. I tried the broken cisterns,
Lord, but ah, the waters failed. And even as I stooped to drink,
they mocked me as I wailed. That's what God says. to these
who were supposed to be his people in Judah, and before that they
were going into captivity. They'd worshipped idols under
the guise of true worship. How much of that is there today?
They'd made corrupt and wrong alliances with idolatrous religion
all around them. What they portrayed as the worship
of the true God, in truth in their hearts, was the worship
of Baal. It was the worship of the gods of the heathen, who
were no gods at all. It's summarized in chapter 3
and verse 1 of Zephaniah. Just turn to it, see what he
says. Woe to her, Judah! the people that were supposed
to bear the name of God in this world, you are filthy and polluted,
you are an oppressing city, you don't do the judgment and justice
of God, you do evil. Verses 3 and 4, her princes,
the princes of Judah within her are not kind, caring rulers. They're roaring lions out for
their own prey and their own good. Her judges are evening
wolves. You can't trust them. They're
vicious. They gnaw not the bones till the morrow. Their rulers,
their leaders are all judged. And they've done violence to
the law. They've done violence to the
word of God. End of verse four, they've done
violence to the law. They've corrupted the word of
God. Is that not exactly as it is throughout all time and no
less in the day in which we live? Zephaniah lists the indictment
of God against sin and against sinners and calls for repentance. But throughout, he holds out
glimpses of saving grace. In chapter 3 and verse 8, just
look there now. 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. A day of judgment
is announced. But then he talks, in verse 9,
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.
Ah, in the midst of that judgment he talks about a people that
will serve the living God, who will call upon the Lord's name
and serve Him willingly. He calls them in verse 12. He
calls them in verse 12 of chapter 3. I will leave in the midst
of thee, in the midst of this idolatrous... people that are
going into captivity. I will leave in the midst of
you an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name
of the Lord. A holy people, a set-apart people,
who rejoice in God's salvation and in his kingdom's king. The
king of his kingdom? His Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
God himself. This is God's redeemed people
who trust him for salvation in this wicked world. You know,
if you imagine Judah is like the whole world around us in
respect of its position in the judgment of God, to be judged,
it's awaiting that day of judgment, appointed to man to die once
and then the judgment. and yet he has a people in this
unbelieving, rebellious world, a people redeemed by the blood
of the Lamb, redeemed by the salvation that Christ has accomplished,
who trust him in this wicked world. To them he gives precious
assurances and he backs his assurances by solid reason. He gives them
reasons. So I want to look at verses 16
and 17 in particular of chapter 3. Let me read them now. In that
day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not, and to Zion, Let
not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty, He will save, He will rejoice over thee with
joy, He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing. In that day, in that day. It's
a recurring phrase throughout Scripture. If you just look back
at verse 11, in that day, it's again and again. If you've got
one of these online Bibles and you put in quotation marks, in
that day, and look, you'll see lots and lots of references come
back where the Scripture uses that term. In that day. What
day is he talking about? Well, I think it's pretty obvious
that above all in that day is speaking about the day of the
end of time, the day of judgment. We read about it last week. Paul said to the Athenians, God
has appointed a day, a day of judgment in which he will judge
the world. It's the appointed day when a holy God will meet
the guilty sinner, all the guilty sinners. That's the day when
the holy God meets the guilty sinner. And look what Jeremiah
says about it in chapter 30 and verse 7 of Jeremiah. Concerning
that day, in that day, that last day of judgment, he says, alas,
alas, oh, It's an expression of dread. Alas, for that day
is great, so that there's none like it. There won't be another
day. Read some other places where the scripture tells us about
that last day. Amos chapter five, verse 18. Amos chapter five, verse 18.
Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. You know, people
confidently boasting that they'll be all right in that day of judgment.
To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness
and not light. You who presume to be right with
God but are not, as if a man did flee from a lion, oh I've
escaped, no you haven't, there's a bear, a bear met him, or went
into the house thinking he's safe within the four walls of
his house, he went into the house and he leaned on the wall and
there was a serpent there and the serpent bit him. shall not
the day of the Lord be darkness and not light, even very dark
and no brightness in it? Yes, in terms of judgment for
sin, that day of the Lord, in that day, It is a day to be dreaded. It is a day when the sinner will
meet God who is a consuming fire, into whose hands it is a fearful
thing to fall. In Isaiah chapter 2 and verse
17, again, the loftiness of man, the pride, of man, his self-assurance,
he's so pleased with himself, it shall be bowed down. And the
haughtiness of men shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall
be exalted in that day, in that day. Then in Zephaniah, the very
prophecy we're in this week, in chapter 1 and verse 14, The
great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly. You know, the day of the Lord
is at hand. You say, well, it's been thousands of years and things
continue as they've always done from the beginning, as the scoffers
said. Peter said this in his second
epistle. Scoffers will say, it's just,
he's not coming, it's just carrying on as it always was. But don't
forget that a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as
one day with the Lord. The day of the Lord is at hand.
The mighty man shall cry there bitterly, that day is a day of
wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation,
a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
Some might say, listening to this, oh, here he goes again,
a preacher of hellfire and damnation, a preacher, I hope, trying to
say what the Word of God says. This is the Word of God to us. Will we hear it? Will we listen
to it? Will we heed the warning? This
is what the God of the universe, who created all things, who made
us, to whom we must give an account. This is what he says. that there
is a day of judgment coming for sin. It's a dreadful, fearful
day of God's wrath against sin and against sinners. You know,
there's a great balancing has got to be done. I'm not a very
good physicist. Yes, I did a physics degree,
but compared with others who are much brighter and cleverer
than me, I barely scratched the surface. But nevertheless, I
do know this, that as creation, this world, this universe in
which we live, it must balance all of the accounts of mass and
energy, and anything else I might have forgotten. But they all
must be balanced, you know, if they say everything came from
a point as far as physics is concerned, and it ends at a point.
Everything must be balanced. One of the great conundrums of
physics is that the mass in the universe doesn't seem to add
up to the energy, according to the theoretical physicists. It
all must balance up, and the One must have its mirror image
balancing it. So, God's justice, God's holy
character, must balance all sin debt with its mirror image, its
double in retribution. The holiness of God, the perfect
holiness of God, must have a balance, a mirror image, a double in the
sins that have to be punished and paid for. It's essential
in the character and nature of God, just as mass and energy
in the physics of the universe must all be balanced at the end.
Such was the day, the day of judgment, when God poured his
plagues on Egypt. But to Israel, that same day
was a day of liberty. You know, the final one, the
final plague, was the slaying of the firstborn, of everybody
in the land of Egypt. And that edict that all the firstborn
had to be slain, including the firstborn of the Israelites,
That was an edict of God's justice. There had to be a balance for
God's justice against sin, and so every firstborn was to die,
but in the houses of the Israelites, the balancing was accomplished
by the death of a lamb. take a lamb, a perfect lamb,
14 days examined, Passover lamb, and kill it, and paint its blood
on the doorposts, and when the slaying angel comes through the
land, he says, when I see the blood, I will pass by, I will
pass over, hence the Passover. To Israel, that day was a day
of liberty, because the Lamb had paid the penalty that the
justice of God required. It was a day of deliverance.
It was a day of rejoicing. There were two sides to the one
coin. The one coin was the justice
of God. And both sides of it were from
the hand of the Lord in strict agreement with His justice. The
same day of dread and peril for the one is the day of salvation
to the other, and both in exact accord with the justice of God. Both. Why is one a day of great
deliverance? Because the justice was satisfied. in the surety of those people
in the Son of God. The day when we must all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ, that's twice in the New Testament
it says that, it should fill one with terror, the one who
stands with his own sins to give an account for, and the other
whose sins have been paid for by the blood of the Lamb of God,
it should fill that one with excitement. I've heard people
claiming to give the truth of the Christian gospel and saying
that true believers ought to dread standing before the judgment
seat of Christ because we're going to be called to give an
account of all the slip-ups and all the things that we've said
in error that will cause embarrassment and shame before the judgment
seat of Christ. Not a word of it. That's not
what the Scripture says. It doesn't say it. I defy anybody
to find it. I do, really. It doesn't say
that because Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.
What's the word of God from the judgment seat of Christ to the
people of his choice, the people he has redeemed? It's this. And
Jesus himself said it. Come, ye blessed of my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. To some, he will say,
they say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do this, that, and the other
for you? And he'll say, depart from me. I never knew you. No,
there's an afflicted and poor people, verse 12, I leave in
the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people whose trust is
in the Lord's name. What is it to trust in his name?
It's to trust in his character. It's to trust in what he's done
in salvation. To know that their names are
written This afflicted and poor people, they know that their
names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. So when the books
are opened, the only book that matters for them is the Lamb's
Book of Life. Read it in Revelation 20. The
books for everybody else will be opened and every sin committed
will be examined against the justice of God. But for those
whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, their sin
debt is paid in full by their surety, by their substitute. We know this. Jeremiah says,
the sins of Judah and Israel, representative of that people
of God, will be looked for in that day, in that day, and they
shall not be found. Why won't they be found? Because
they're removed. As far as the east is from the
west, which is as far as you can get. How are they removed
that far? By the fact that Christ has taken
them. has borne their penalty, has
paid for them, and the justice of God, as Romans 8 says, 33-34,
who shall bring any charge to God's elect? Christ has died.
Christ has paid the penalty. There is no charge left to answer
in the court of divine justice for the sins of His people. No
charge can be brought against them. No accusation can be brought
against them. You know who accuses the brethren?
Satan, the accuser of the brethren. Ah, he's cast down. He says that
his war with Michael in heaven was that there are these Old
Testament saints that shouldn't be there. You've let sinners
into heaven. You're not a just God, is what Satan, the accuser
of the brethren, says. And Christ the child comes from
the woman. and redeems his people from the
curse of the law, and returns to heaven. And Satan is defeated,
because in the moment of his apparent triumph in strength,
and the defeat of the child in his weakness on the cross, Christ
defeated Satan. Christ disarmed Satan. Christ took away his ability
to accuse the brethren. He has no more with which he
can accuse them. No sin shall be found that needs
to be paid for. Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world, but for the rest, for those outside of that innumerable
number of the elect of God chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world, every violation of the holiness and justice of
God will require a penalty to be paid. And the justice of God
is strict and utterly unbending and sweeps nothing under the
carpet and lets nobody off just because God is a God of grace.
No, the only basis on which the God of grace forgives a sinner
his sin is because of what Christ has done in the place of that
sinner. Now, they will experience firsthand
the consuming fire of the living God, but Jerusalem will hear
only encouragement. In that day, verse 16, it shall
be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not. There's a dreadful day of
judgment coming, but don't you be afraid, Jerusalem. And to
Zion, don't let your hands be slack. Don't be quaking and weak
in fear. Who's he talking about? Jerusalem.
What does he mean, Jerusalem? He doesn't mean that pile of
ancient stones in the Middle East, on the eastern end of the
Mediterranean Sea. where so many religious folks
love to go and pay homage and bow down to that place in the
middle of what they call the Holy Land. As far as holiness
is concerned, it's no different from this patch of land that
we're standing on here or wherever you happen to be this morning.
No, the Jerusalem that is meant here is clear. It is what Paul
calls in Galatians 4.26, Jerusalem which is above. Not Jerusalem,
the pile of stones, the city in the Middle East. That was
just symbolical. That was just a picture. That
was never the reality. The reality is the Jerusalem
which is above, which is free, which is the mother of us all.
You know, Christ came from the woman, the mother. gave birth
to a child which was the man-child which was the one who would redeem
his people from the curse of the law. Jerusalem which is above
is free, is the mother of us all. It's the church of God.
This is Jerusalem. Don't be afraid. True church
of God. Not you that call yourselves
the church of God. You that have reason to believe
you are the church of God. The elect of God. Why do you
know? How do you know? You believe
the gospel of God. You believe the truth of God.
You were betrothed. You know, betrothal is committed
in marriage, a promise of marriage before the world's foundation.
Look at Hebrews chapter 12. See where you'll come. As a people
blessed of God. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
22. But ye are come. You're not come
to Mount Sinai. You won't find peace with God
at Mount Sinai in any of the laws of Moses. Don't think for
one minute that if you live your life with the law of Moses as
the rule of your life, you will be right with God. You just haven't
even begun to understand the gospel of God. It says this,
you're not come there to Mount Sinai, you are come to Mount
Zion. Don't worry when it says Sion
with an S in our New Testament, it's based on the translation
from the Greek as opposed to Zion from the Hebrew. You are
come unto the city of the living God. What's the city of the living
God? Is it not that city? which Abraham
looked for, the patriarchs looked for, they sought a city which
has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. It's the city
of the living God. It's the heavenly Jerusalem.
Not a pile of stones in the Middle East today. You are come to an
innumerable company of angels. You are come to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,
in the Lamb's Book of Life, no doubt. and to God the judge of
all, and to the spirits of just men, justified men, made perfect,
and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling, his blood of sprinkling. That blood speaks
better things than that of Abel. Abel's blood speaks for revenge. Christ's blood speaks for forgiveness. The payment is made. That's where
you are come. That is the Jerusalem to which
you are come. Not the old, but the new Jerusalem,
as it says in Revelation 21. Just right at the end of the
Bible, I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming
down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride for her husband. That's what John saw in the vision.
God says to you, his redeemed people, you have no reason to
be afraid or to be weak. Fear not, say to Jerusalem, it
shall be said to Jerusalem, fear not, and to Zion, let not thine
hands be slack. Everything you need for that
day of judgment for it to be a day of rejoicing to you, and
not a day of dread and fear, all has been provided by your
Savior. Again, in Hebrews chapter 12
and verse 12, he says, wherefore, lift up the hands which hang
down and the feeble knees. The salvation which is revealed
to us in the scripture is so clear, is so potent, if I can
use that word, There's no need for weakness in the human spirit
amongst the people of God. But, you know, that's about that
day as the day of judgment, the final day. In that day it shall
be said. But, you know, I think it isn't
just speaking about the final day of judgment, not at all.
It's the days of trial that we all encounter on our earthly
walk to glory. You know, we're told to follow
the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. There's no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus, who walk, who live this life, not
in the flesh but in the spirit. We encounter in our earthly walk
trials, days of trials. In those days of trials, in that
day, in those trials of life, the trials of life that come
along, you know the trials of family issues, the trials of
financial concern, of careers, of homes, of all sorts of things. I mean, this world, this Western
world, is facing, if you believe the news reports, things that
ought to make men and women quake for fear. The way the economy
is going, what the stupidity of man has done over the last
two or three years, is bringing all to an end. And people ought,
rightly, to be quaking. And those days of trial will
affect the children of God as well, to some extent. We're told
we're not immune from them. As in times of war, the children
of God, the people of God, the church of God is not immune from
the effects of those things. Nevertheless, The days are shortened
for the elect's sake. These days of trials of life,
these days of temptation when the flesh is so strong, because
you know we always in this life live in bodies where the flesh
wars against the spirit. There's such an apprehension
of future uncertainty. God says to his people, don't
be weak and fearful, remind yourself, he causes all things, we know
this, he causes all things to work together for good, all things,
all things, for those who love God, who are the called according
to his purpose. He promises In the book of Job chapter 5 verse
19, he shall deliver thee in six troubles, yea, in seven there
shall no evil touch thee. What's that saying? It's just
simply saying this, the care of God for his people just goes
on and on. In Isaiah 54, just turn there
with me if you will, Isaiah 54 and verse 9, For this is as the waters of
Noah unto me. For as I have sworn that the
waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I
sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. Why
does he say that? Because Christ has died. Christ
has paid the penalty. Oh, you say this was the Old
Testament. He hadn't then. he's the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Yes, in history he had to come
into time when the fullness of the time was come. God sent forth
his son made of a woman, made under the law to redeem those
who are under the law. So now he is not wroth with his
people. For the mountains shall depart
and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee. You know, we read last time in
Jeremiah about God knowing the thoughts that he thinks towards
his people. Thoughts of care and protection and to give you
a good end. Neither shall the covenant of
my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold,
I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations
with sapphires, And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy
gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be
taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children.
In righteousness shall thou be established. Thou shalt be far
from oppression, for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for
it shall not come near thee. glorious comfort to the people
of God. This is the God that cares for
his people. This world is ripe for God's
judgment. His justice must be satisfied. But if you are among his people,
trust in the name of the Lord, it said in verse 12, didn't it?
A people who trust in the name of the Lord. This is what he
says to you. to His new Jerusalem, don't be fearful or dismayed,
don't be weak or cowering, and then He gives us reasons why
we can trust Him. And that's what I see in verse
17, the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save,
He will rejoice over thee with joy, He will rest in His love,
He will joy over thee with singing. Just briefly then, just in a
few minutes, your God in the midst of you is mighty. Believers,
while God pervades all of creation, such that as Psalm 139 says,
where can I go from his presence? There is nowhere to hide from
the presence of God. There is nowhere that your sins
can be hidden, that he will not see them. Yet he is especially
with his people. Does he not say, where two or
three? Didn't Christ say, where two
or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst? He is
with his people in a special way. In Revelation chapter 1
and verse 13, we read about Him in the midst of the seven
candlesticks. The seven candlesticks represent
the churches of God, the true light of God in this world. And
there was one like the Son of Man. He is with His people in
this world. He is with us here. He is with
you if you believe Him, where you are this morning, wherever
you are, gathered together, two or three, or even more. He is
with us. That's His promise. In the midst
of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man. Christ
is with his believing people in this world. Do you know he
was in the time of Daniel, which is very similar to the time of
Zephaniah. Daniel's a bit later because
it's when they were in captivity. And you know the three men, the
three friends of Daniel, who were given their Babylonian names
of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And they wouldn't, I forget exactly
what it was, but read Daniel chapter three. They wouldn't
do what, was required, and they were cast into the burning fiery
furnace. Because they said to Nebuchadnezzar,
they said, whatever you want us to do, it's an act of idolatry
as far as we're concerned, and we're not doing it, for we worship
the one true God. And you can cast us into that
fire, and it might well consume us, but our God will preserve
us through it. He will take us into his eternal
kingdom. And whatever happens, you will
know that there is a God in heaven. And they threw them into the
furnace that had been heated very, very hot so that no flesh
could stand it. The people that threw them in
were burned. The people that bound them and
threw them into the furnace were burned up by the heat from the
furnace door. And Nebuchadnezzar was told to
come and look from a distance into the furnace. And he said
this, Daniel 3 verse 25. He said, I see four men loose
walking in the midst of the fire. Didn't we throw three men in
there? I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and
they have no hurt. The flame which has just burnt up to a
cinder, the men that threw them in there, is not doing any harm
to them. And the form of the fourth, this
is Nebuchadnezzar, mind you, the emperor of that great empire,
the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. He's with his
people. God, in the midst of thee, is
mighty. It's the mighty God that's in
the midst of thee. We read it in 2 Corinthians chapter
6 and verse 16 towards the end, as God has said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they
shall be my people. Did you hear that? This is what
God says to you and to me. It's the same as promised to
Israel via Moses. I'll read these to you, you don't
need to turn to them. Exodus 29 verse 45, God says
this, I will dwell among the children of Israel and I will
be their God. And they shall know that I am
the Lord their God that brought them forth out of the land of
Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. Psalm 46 verse 5, God is in the
midst of her. God's amongst his people. She
shall not be moved. God shall help her, and that
right early. Have you sensed the presence
of God with you as His child, or even as a gathering of His
people? Have you sensed the presence
of God? I'll just make one more reference. In Genesis chapter
28 and verse 16, you know, when Jacob was in that place in Bethel,
and he'd made stones for his pillows. And when he awaked,
verse 16, Jacob awaked out of his sleep and said, Surely the
Lord is in this place. And I knew it not, I didn't realise
it at the time. And he was afraid and said, how
dreadful, how awesome is this place. This is none other but
the house of God. And this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the
morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillow and
set it up and poured oil on the top of it and called the name
of the place Bethel. God is in this place. Have you
ever had that sense of God being with his people? God, who is
personally with his people, in every day of trial that they
encounter, now and then in that great day of judgment. That God,
who is with his people, is mighty. He is mighty. Read my article
in the bulletin. We so often reduce the might
of God in our own weak imagination. And we so often think, oh here
comes a problem, I must sort it with the strength of my flesh.
God in the midst of his people is mighty. We're talking of the
one who spoke at creation. and it was good, it was done.
We're talking of the one who by the word of the power of the
Lord Jesus Christ upholds all things now, holds this universe
together, the laws of physics, he holds it all together. He
is the one who speaks the word and it is done. He is the one
whose will cannot be stopped or averted or deflected in any
way. It will be completed exactly
as He has determined. If this God is for you, as Romans
8, again I mention Romans 8, if this God is for you, what
can possibly, who can possibly be against you? Can your own
weakness be against you? His strength as we know, 2 Corinthians
12, His strength is made perfect in your weakness. He will save. Look there, the next thing. The
Lord God in the midst of you is mighty. He will save. It is certain. It is certain
that He will save. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. That's Mark 16 verse 16. There's
not the slightest doubt. Let me read you another one.
John 10 verse 26. You believe not because you are
not of my sheep. This is what he said to the unbelieving
Pharisees. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them
me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. You
see how strongly the scripture underlines again and again, He
will save, this God who is mighty in the midst of His people will
save. He settled it before time. 2 Timothy 1 verse 9, God hath
saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to
His works, according to His own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. He will rejoice
over thee with joy." I'm going to be very quick with these things,
but think of it. Think of this. The immense God
of the universe, who can comprehend Him? Who can comprehend Him? He says, concerning the people
of His love, those He chose in Christ before the foundation
of the world and redeemed with the blood of the Lamb, He will
rejoice over them with joy. God saw all His work of creation,
that it was good. It pleased Him. But it's only
the objects of His love and grace in salvation over which we read,
He rejoices. Can you imagine? We think of
an enormous power, but he's got emotions. He rejoices over his
people with joy. God is filled with eternal joy. I'm not speaking blasphemously
when I say this because the Spirit of God has revealed it to us
in his word. He's filled with eternal joy
in his people whom he has qualified for heaven by the triumph of
his son over Satan. His son in weakness over Satan
in his apparent strength. He says he will rest in his love. He will rest in it. It won't
change. It was love in the heart of God
that brought salvation. God is love, says John. God is love. It was love in the
heart of God that brought salvation and nothing will change that
love. Like the eagle, I won't for the
sake of time refer to it, but Deuteronomy 32 speaks of an eagle
fluttering over its little chicks in the nest. This is how God
is with respect to his people. Joy over thee with singing. You
know, song gladdens the heart, lifts the spirit, stirs the emotions,
so God's Spirit pictures him to us, gives us a picture of
Him being so in love with His people and so caring for His
people that He sings about it. The God of the universe sings
about His salvation of His people whom He loves. Child of God,
this is how your God portrays Himself to you as you face whatever
day it might be, right up to that final day of judgment. What a blessed place to be, in
Him. Amen.