Zephaniah chapter 3 and verse
8 reads as follows. Therefore wait ye upon me, saith
the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey, 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. 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. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,
my suppliants, even the daughter of my disperse shall bring mine
offering. In that day shalt thou not be
ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against
me. For 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. I will also leave in the midst
of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust
in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel shall not
do iniquity, nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue
be found in their mouth. For they shall feed and lie down,
and none shall make them afraid. Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord,
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. A pure language. These promises
towards the end of chapter three of the prophecy of Zephaniah,
these wonderful promises of the gospel, of God's grace to an
undeserving people, of God's promises to be in the midst of
that people, and to cause them to call upon Him and to save
them and to bless them, to be in the midst of a poor and afflicted
people, to deliver them from their transgressions. These wonderful
Gospel promises are, as with so many of the prophets in the
Old Testament, presented to us upon a backdrop of the rebellion,
the wholesale rebellion and iniquity of both the world in its entirety,
the wicked nations, and also those who profess to be the Lord's. The people of Israel, God's people,
those who take his name, those who say we are the people, those
who say we follow God, we follow Jesus Christ, their rebellion
and their iniquity would earn them, as with all around them,
the wrath and the judgment of God, but even more so because
their crimes are the crimes of those who profess to see when
they are blind, who profess to be right when they are evil through
and through, who take the name of God and take the things of
God and blaspheme His name and trample His things underfoot.
They are an adulterous people, though they take His name. This
was true of Israel back then. For generation, after generation,
after generation, time and time again, God would bring that people
back to himself, and time and time again, they would wander
away. and that is as true of that people
then as it is true of the professing church in our day. How many there
are who claim to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, who claim to have
heard his gospel, who claim to serve God, who claim to see in
the midst of a world of darkness, and who yet have adulterated,
have committed adultery, have turned from their God unto idols,
have taken His truth and dismantled it, have taken the Word of God
and both added and subtracted from it. They say they are gods,
and yet they do not know him and God's wrath is kindled against
them. This people, as described in
the early part of chapter 3 and the end of chapter 2, chapter
2 verse 15 we read, this is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly
that said in her heart, I am and there is none beside me. How has she become a desolation,
a place for beasts to lie down in? Every one that passeth by
her shall hiss and wag his hand. Woe to her that is filthy and
polluted, to the oppressing city! She obeyed not the voice, she
received not correction, She trusted not in the Lord. She drew not near to her God. Her princes within her are roaring
lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They gnaw not the bones till
the morning. Her prophets are light and treacherous
persons. Her priests have polluted the
sanctuary. They have done violence to the
law. What an account of a people,
a city, a woman, which says, I am and there is none beside
me. We are God's people. We are the
ones with the truth. We are the church. We're not like the world around
us. We've been saved. We've accepted
Jesus into our hearts. We've been washed by his blood. We will go to glory. I am and
there is none beside me. We're so sound in our doctrine
and our theology. The Lord is on our side. And yet at the same time God
says of them that they are become a desolation, a place for beasts
to lie down in. That they are filthy and polluted
and they are an oppressing city, they oppress those who come in
their midst. And that she, this people, has
obeyed not the voice, received not correction, and trusted not
in the Lord, and drew not near to him. Their view of themselves is so
different from God's assessment of them. They think they're gods,
they think they are and there is none beside them and he says
they're filthy, polluted, they've obeyed not my voice, they've
received not my correction, they've not trusted in me and they've
not drew near unto me. How can you get into such a state
where you think you're gods and yet you're so far off from him? I'll tell you how you can get
into such a state. Very, very easily. Left to ourselves
to grasp at truth with our own minds and intellect. We are absolutely
nothing. If God is not in the midst of
his people, if he is not their life, if he is not enlightening
their understanding, if he is not speaking to them, if he is
not guiding them, if he is not revealing himself to them, then
they are nothing. As soon as we run with our own
strength in religion, as soon as we turn from that state of
owning that before God, we are nothing. We know nothing. We see nothing. We can do nothing
but by Him. As soon as we rise up with some
pride, some sense of our own wisdom or ability, then He withdraws
and we fall, and we fall down flat, and we fall hard. It's often said, the greater
they are, the greater they fall. And the greater you are in the
things of religion, the more you think you stand, the more
you think you know, the more you think you are the people,
the greater will be your fall. I am, and there is none beside
me. How easily the religious rise
up in their knowledge, knowledge of the truth even. And how easy
they get into a state of finding out the faults of all around
them. I'm looking on these and looking
on those and saying I've not gone there I've not gone there
I've not fallen into that error they're wrong on this and they're
wrong on that I wouldn't do that and I wouldn't consider going
with them because they do this and they think that how wrong
they all are And slowly we begin to stand
in our own strength and our own wisdom. And God has gone and
God is not with us. How easily the spirit of Phariseeism
comes upon us. Because we've ceased to listen
to God's voice. And all we do is go to the scriptures
and read and bring our thoughts and our mind and speak with our
voice and want our voice to be heard. And we're not walking
with God, but we're walking, taking His things in our strength
and telling others what we think should be. She obeyed not the
voice. She received not correction. She trusted not in the Lord. She drew not near to her God. Her princes within her are roaring
lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They gnaw not the bones till
the morrow. Her prophets are light and treacherous
persons. her priests have polluted the
sanctuary, they have done violence to the law. How we see this in
the professing church, how those have come in, into leadership,
promoted to the positions of teaching others, who are ripping
them apart, who've brought in another gospel, who have subtly
led the people astray, and they are as roaring lions, wolves,
treacherous, polluting the sanctuary and they've come in by the by
and the people in their foolishness and pride haven't discerned that
these men who they have as their leaders have not been sent by
God but they have sent them to themselves and the words which
they bring though they may be so scriptural on the surface
are not the word of Jesus Christ. They speak not with the spirit. They discern not rightly. They come not with a pure language. But there will come a day when
God in the midst of his people His people will turn that people
to a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of
the Lord to serve Him with one consent. A pure language, a pure
language. This people obeyed not the voice,
received not correction, trusted not in the Lord. It was a people
who'd begun to shut its ears, her ears, to God's word. They may have had the scripture,
they may have had the written record of his word, but they
never listened to him. They took his words and added
and subtracted. and those words were no longer
pure they were polluted and it's so easy to take the
Word of God in the letter and bring our wisdom upon it and
try to discern what it means and add our theological terms
to it and take away the phrases that seem puzzling to us and
what we end up with is a system of theology which sounds so wonderful
but is impure there's drops here and there of poison and you drop
one drop of poison one drop of ink into a pure glass of water
and the whole thing's black and you put one drop of poison or
one bit of leaven in a loaf and it's all leavened it's all poisoned but God will turn his people
to a pure language to His word. He'll put His word in their hearts
that they will cry out under Him who speaks and call upon
His name and serve Him with one consent. Now where are you? And with what voice do you speak? Have you obeyed His voice? Have
you received His correction? Or have you shut your ears saying,
I know, I am, there is none beside me. Because when this people here
heard His voice outwardly, it came through prophets who He
sent to correct them. And because those prophets came
from outside their camp and were not amongst that number of princes
and judges and prophets and priests who they'd promoted within their
camp, because these prophets weren't sent by them, they shut
their ears to them and said, who are you? and they received
not their correction and rebukes. And as a consequence they heard
not the voice that came by those whom God sent, and received not
their correction, and trusted not in that Lord. But they trusted
in their own Lord, in their own idol that they had crafted and
set up in their midst. And that's a solemn and warning
word to us. Because we can be gathered with
those who say they love Christ. And they can read from a book
called the Bible. And we can think that we've heard
the word of God. when all we're hearing is the
word of men taking his words from the scriptures and rearranging
them and delivering them to us as an impure language, as poison. And we shut our ears to his word,
his gospel, his truth because we've learnt to put men
on a pedestal who are honoured by others. We've learnt to listen
only to those who are accredited of men, who have the qualifications,
who have the theology course, who have the learning, who have
the acclaim. And we've ceased to listen. and to judge what men say by
the word of God alone. Cease ye from man, whose breath
is in his nostrils. Cease ye from man, from the judgment
of man, from the acclaim of man, those that people lift up, those
that the numbers go after. Those who receive the popular
acclaim, either in the world or in the religious world, are
invariably those who come with a lie. Are invariably those who
will lead you astray. But those who are rejected, ignored,
despised, sidelined, silenced, are those whom God sends to his
church. like the Prophet Zephaniah here. She obeyed not the voice, she
received not correction, she trusted not in the Lord and she
drew not near to her God. Don't be like her. Don't hear and never hear. Don't
shut your mind to the correction. Don't think that you're trusting
and drawing near unto God if it's not the God who saves by
grace. If it's not this God. If it's
not this voice. If it's not the one who turns
his people to a pure language. But God here has not come to
simply deliver his judgment upon this people. He's come to bring
his people back to his gospel and through his gospel to bless
them. He says in verse 5, the just
Lord is in the midst thereof. And no matter what the people
around may do, no matter how foolish God's people may be,
no matter how deceived they may be by those who have entered
into their midst, no matter how many wolves may have come into
God's church to deceive and to devour his sheep, No matter what
prophets may have come in who are light and treacherous, no
matter how polluted the sanctuary may be by those false priests
who have come in alongside, no matter what the state, the just
Lord is in the midst of His people. He will not do iniquity. Every
morning doth He bring His judgment to light. He faileth not. but the unjust knoweth no shame. He says I have cut off the nations
their towers are desolate I made their streets waste that none
passeth by their cities are destroyed so that there is no man that
there is none inhabitant He shouts out in the midst of
his people, don't you know what I do with the wicked? You say
you stand, you say you're not like those wicked nations around,
you say you're not like those blind unbelievers, not like the
world around you. Well you better not be because
consider what I do, what I will do to those. who live in wickedness,
to those who reject my name, to those who won't hear my voice
and receive my correction, consider what their end is. I made their
streets waste. I destroyed their cities so that
there's no man left. And if you remain like them, If you are a child of wrath,
as they are, and if you have never heard my voice truly, whatever
your claims, that will be your end. I said, surely thou wilt
fear me. Thou wilt receive instruction,
so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punish
them. but they rose early and corrupted
all their doings. God, though his people rebel,
though the world round about them rebels, though they love
iniquity, he never departs. He's there yet, in the midst
of His people, no matter how rebellious and foolish they've
become, no matter how influenced by the world round about them,
no matter how much they've departed from His Word and His Gospel,
He's there and He's continuing to speak and to warn. He preaches
His truth and says, surely this people will hear. And by nature
they don't. By nature we don't. We come and
we go. We come into the meetings. We
heard the word of God preached. We heard the gospel week by week
by week preached. And we go off and we continue
in sin. We continue in our blindness
and our folly. And those of us who've made a
false profession, we continue to say, all is well with me.
All is well, I am and there's none beside me. And all the time
we've never heard his voice. We heard the words of the gospel
in the letter and we never heard him. How foolish, how wicked,
how hard-hearted we are. And yet the just Lord, the Lord
who is just and righteous, the Lord who must reward our iniquity
with judgment, the Lord who deals with people fairly and according
to uprightness and rectitude, the Lord who is jealous of his
law and his righteousness, All the time we hate, we hate, we
despise, we reject, we foolishly wander off in our rebellion,
we come near with our lips when our hearts are far from him and
all the time he remains in the midst speaking, suffering us
with his wonderful long-suffering grace. waiting preaching declaring
behold my son hear my voice all the time in the midst of an iniquitous
people in the midst of a rebellious religious people those who claim
his name he lifts up his son and says behold the lamb of god
which taketh away the sin of the world. Look unto me, all
ye ends of the earth, and be saved. Turn unto me, and I will
wash you clean. Turn from your ways, hear my
voice, receive correction, trust in the Lord. And we turn away. and we shut our ears and we close
our eyes and we run off to this vanity and to that vanity and
we go out the meeting on a Sunday afternoon and we go off on a
Monday morning straight back to the pleasures and the distractions
of this world though we say we follow the Lord and all the time He keeps preaching
his gospel and he keeps lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ. But can you hear him and have
you seen or do you keep shutting your ears and closing your eyes
and wandering off in your mind's eye? But he does keep preaching. He
gathered the nations to judgment. He warns his people. He warns
us of what will come if we remain in darkness. But he cries out,
Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up
to the prey. 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 for me,
because I am going to judge them. But then will I turn to the people,
to my people, to sinners such as you. I will turn to the people
a pure language, a pure language. I will allow you to go on for
so long, but not forever. I will persevere with your rebellious
heart for so many years. But there will come a day when
I will say enough and I will cause you to hear I will touch
your ears and open them. I will touch your eyes and make
you to see. I will touch your hard heart
and melt and break it. I will show you your iniquity. I will show you within your need
of judgment. I will reveal to you your state
before me. I will make you to know that
you are like those nations round about whom I slay. whom I devour
in my fierce anger and you will know that that is coming upon
you left in such a state but then you will cry out unto me
having nowhere else to go hearing my voice at last you will cry
unto me and you will cry unto me for the first time in your
life with a pure language You will call upon the name of the
Lord, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, all
quotes in Romans 10, shall be saved. Oh, you've called in the
past, but never upon my name. You've spoken of God, but never
me. You've spoken of following the
Lord, but that wasn't me. You've talked of my name but
you never knew my name for if you knew my name you'd know what
I'm like and what you're like and your state before me and
you'd know that salvation is of the Lord and salvation is
only of the Lord and it owes nothing to your will and your
wisdom and your works in which to this day you have trusted
For the Lord and the God that you cried out to was one who
saved you because of your works. The God you called upon, the
God you trusted in, the Lord that you followed, was one that
saved you because of your works and your will. You said I will
accept him and he accepted you in response. You were the trigger. You were the one who said now
I will follow. You have you as it were showing
mercy unto this little God that you created in your mind who
you can command when and how you will. When you want to live
like this, you live like this. When you say, now's the time
I want to be saved, you say, all right God, I'll have your
salvation. What sort of a God is that? What
sort of a lie to believe is that? Yet that's the God you followed. And that's the God you preach. And that's the God you take my
name and label him with. You take such an idol and you
take the name of Jesus Christ and say, this is Jesus. Lo, here
is Jesus, you say. You pick him up on your hand
and lift him out to a fallen world and say, lo, here is Jesus. Lo, there is Christ. And what
you hold out is not Jesus and is not Christ. You know not the
name of the Lord. But God says to these people,
if you know my name, you will know that my name itself declares
that salvation is of God. Jehovah saves. Joshua, Jesus,
God's saviour. God is the saviour. I am the
one that saves. I say who I will save. I say
when I will save. Your life is in my hands, not
yours. and when you're brought to this
day when I put upon your lips a pure language then and only
then will you call upon my name because you will cry out upon
the God who saves and say Lord please save me with no presumption
in your heart, with no assumption that because you've called He
will because you're so important but you'll cry out knowing you
deserve His wrath and judgement and you'll cry out because you've
got nowhere else to go. What else can you do but call
unto this God? But if you are brought there,
And if you do call upon the name of the Lord, He will save. he will hear because he's put
those words in your heart to cry out unto him he's turned
you from lies he's turned you from your lying ways and thoughts
he's turned you from the lies of men in religion he's turned
you from the lies of that false gospel in which you once trusted
and he's turned you to truth and to a pure language wait ye
upon me For then will I turn to the people a pure language
that they may all call upon the name of the Lord. Until he does
this they can't call upon his name. They cry out words but
they don't know him. But when he brings them to this
point and puts faith in the heart and brings them to life who were
once dead in sins then they cry out in a pure language They cry
out with words that He's put in their heart because the Word
of God has spoken unto them. They've heard His voice, they've
received His correction and they're brought to trust in Him and draw
near unto Him. She obeyed not the voice, but
these when they hear the Word of God, The Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, in His Gospel. These dead in the grave, when
they heard the voice of the Son of God, live. When they heard
the words of eternal life entering into their soul, with that life
they cry out unto Him in a pure language, calling upon His name,
Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner. Have you cried? Have you been
brought there? Has God put a pure language upon
your lips? Has he taken away the lies and
the refuge of lies in which you once trusted? Verse 13 tells
us the remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies. Neither shall a deceitful tongue
be found in their mouth for they shall feed and lie down and none
shall make them afraid. Oh the transformation that comes
in the gospel that takes liars like you and I and takes our
lies away and brings us to the truth Jesus Christ causes us
to hear the truth speak in his gospel unto us and causes us
in response to speak the truth and no longer lies and to walk
in his ways of righteousness and no longer be filled with
iniquity because he's taken it away Because when he came in
the gospel, when Christ came into this world of darkness and
sin, when Christ the man, God made man, God taken upon humanity,
human nature into perfect union with his divine nature and person. When God walked as a man in this
world, the man Christ Jesus, when he walked in this world
and went to that place of crucifixion and was nailed to it and was
hung up to die. And in the darkness bore the
sins of His people. And in the darkness was made
sin for them that they should be made the righteousness of
God in Him. When He suffered for them in
the darkness, He took away their iniquity. He took away their
sins. He took away their darkness. And He took away their lies.
And He made them in Him. to be the righteousness of God. He brought in a pure heart for
them, a new heart. And they put upon their lips
a pure language. They shall feed and lie down,
they shall drink and feed upon his gospel, they shall drink
the water of life, they shall feed upon the bread of life,
he shall be their food, and he shall be their rest, they shall
lie down. All their working, all their
will, all their working in religion, all their doing has come to an
end. And in Christ, who delivered
them, They lie down. They rest. They enter into that
glorious eternal Sabbath of rest in Christ. And all the warfare,
all the trouble, all the woe of this world of darkness and
sin in the flesh is done away with. None shall make them afraid. None shall make them afraid. Fear not. Fear not. Sing, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O Israel. Be glad and
rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken
away thy judgments. He hath cast out thine enemy. The King of Israel, even the
Lord, is in the midst of thee. Thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day it shall be said
to Jerusalem, Fear not, 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. Oh what glorious heights this
gospel reaches unto! And what glorious heights this
prophecy of Zephaniah reaches unto! Shout, O Israel, be triumphant
in the victory that God has wrought for thee in Christ. He's taken
away the judgment, all your sins, all the judgments you'd deserved,
you'd earned. All that lifetime of rebellion
which had brought upon your head so many judgments from God's
righteousness, so much accusation from His law. All has been taken
away by the blood of Christ, every last one, past, present
and future. He hath taken away thy judgments,
he's cast out thine enemy, thine enemy. Satan, the accuser, the
devil who comes alongside and finds out your every fault and
your every iniquitous way, who looks within you and says unto
you, what about those things you said and fought in secret?
That enemy, Christ took him and cast him out. That enemy bruised
Christ's heel and Christ trod on his head and bruised his head.
Yea, shout, sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, because
the King of Israel, even the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ,
God, is in the midst of thee. Thou shalt not see evil any more. How can you fear? How can you
be afraid of any when God is in the midst? We're surrounded
by a world of evil. We're surrounded by a world of
lies. We see it every day, from the
bottom of society to the top of society, how every single
person we come into contact with, no matter what people say of
them, no matter what their standing in society is, how full of lies
they all are. We see the politicians, how often
do you see these politicians telling others what to do as
though they speak the truth? Telling others what they're going
to do for them, which is so noble. And yet so often found out to
be unfaithful at home, unfaithful in their relationships, unfaithful
in business. So often found out to have lied
here and there and everywhere. And they expect others to believe
what they say. and what's true of them at the
top is true of everyone else in society we're full of lies
by nature and full of violence against the truth full of violence,
full of enmity against the truth for those who speak it and the
child of God walking through the midst of such a world and
such a religious world which says it sees and is in darkness. A religious world which has believed
lies and follows lies. A religious world which speaks
lies. A religious world which despises
the truth and those who declare it and hold to it and follow
it. The child of God in such a world can feel the enmity. He can feel the opposition. He can see the anger in others'
eyes. He feels the persecution, he
feels the hatred. When people come up to him and
feign love because he says he's a believer, nevertheless when
he speaks of the gospel and God's salvation by grace, when he speaks
of the free and sovereign grace of God, he sees the countenance
change. He sees the opposition. He sees
the anger. He sees the hatred. And how easily
he could be moved to fear. We've got no strength to stand
against them. We've got no strength in ourselves
to stand against them. We're not so clever and wise
that we can think of every answer to their every opposition. We're
nothing. Nothing but sinners saved by
grace. How easily we could fear. And
yet God assures his people, fear thou not, fear thou not. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. I am in the midst, I'm in the
midst of my church, my congregation, and I am in the midst of thee
believer. I dwell in you as you dwell in
me. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty, then what hast thou to fear? They could
take away your life and all they do is bring you into eternity,
into eternal glory with him sooner than you expect. They cannot
do a thing to the child of God to harm him. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He loves his people. That's why he saved them. That's
why he looks upon you, child of God, in mercy. He set his
love upon you before ever you were born, before ever you went
astray. And all the days of your rebellion,
he was merely waiting for that day. which he constantly spoke
of when he said unto you wait ye upon me he was merely waiting
for that day when he would turn you to a pure language to call
upon his name and be saved he will save and He will rejoice
over thee if you're His with joy, because He loves to save
His people whom He loves, and He will rest in His love, and
He will joy over thee with singing. God delights in showing mercy. He loves to save, and He's the
one who saves. He will save. He's a gracious
God. He's a gracious God. Have you
heard him? Have you heard his voice in the
gospel? And have you heard what this
God of grace who saves says? For this book concludes with
six I wills. Six I wills spoken unto us men
so frail, so weak. 6 is the number of man, and God
has this to say to man of his ways and his salvation. He says,
I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who
are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden. Behold, at
that time I will undo all that afflict thee, and I will save
her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out, and
I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have
been put to shame. At that time will I bring you
again, even in the time that I gather you. For I will make
you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when
I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord. What sayest thou unto this God
who says, I will say? Dost thou say, I will not? I
will not. I cannot, I will not. Well, he
says of his people, I will. I will. I will save. Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord. For then will I turn to my people
a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the
Lord to serve him with one consent. Amen.