instruction in the book of Zephaniah,
chapter 3, that we can't read too often,
can't hear too often, can't think upon too often. It's a word of
counsel and instruction that God graciously gives us throughout
this book, both in the Old Testament and in the New. In fact, this
word of counsel, this word of instruction, pretty much summarizes
the message of the prophets and the apostles throughout the book
of God, that the Lord will give us grace to heed it. It will
be of immeasurable benefit to our souls while we live in this
world. Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 8. Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord. Wait ye upon me. Well, when's the Lord waiting? What's the Lord waiting? Wait
ye upon me." Brother Rex read the scripture and prayed for
us back in the office just a few minutes ago. In his prayer he
made a statement. I commented on it briefly when
it got done. He said, things are not as they appear. The reality
is Nothing on this earth, nothing, is ever as it appears to these
naturalized. Never. Wait. God's fulfilling
his word, and he'll show it. Wait ye upon the Lord. Now, the book of Zephaniah is
a prophecy. It is by and large a prophecy
of judgment. The first is the only book of
three chapters, and the first two chapters all the way down
through the eighth verse of chapter three is taken up with judgment.
Altogether, it talks about judgment. You see, guilt must be exposed
before grace will ever be sought. The sinner must be convinced
of his guilt before he'll ever seek God's grace in Christ. Our
ruin must be clearly set before us, or we will never seek the
remedy of grace that is found in the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus the Lord. This is the pattern followed
by all the prophets. Every one of the prophets, almost
without exception, begins his word of prophecy with announcing
judgment. And then he gives a word of grace
and mercy promised by God. And Zephaniah follows the pattern.
After announcing the certainty of divine judgment, he declares
the certainty of God's mercy, his love and his grace for his
elect, and the absolute certainty of the salvation of his elect.
Now, Zephaniah found himself in the midst of a terrible, terrible
day. We read about it in 2 Kings 22.
It was a day When God's professed church,
the kingdom of God, the nation of Judah, those who wore his
name, who professed to be his, was in a state of unprecedented
spiritual darkness and idolatry and moral decadence. We get some
idea of it as we read Zephaniah's prophecy. Idolatry was rampant
throughout the land. Pagan priests work side-by-side
with those priests who claim to be God's priests. Work side-by-side. Priest of Baal. Priest of Baal. I'm not talking just about now
the priest of the Pope. I'm not talking about the priest
of the Mormons. Priest of Baal. Much the same
thing, but it's priest of Baal. That would be like me bringing
in here some fellow who You found down in the heart of New Guinea,
who was worshiping a stump and called it God, bring it in here
and we're going to work together, we're servants of God. The priest
of Baal, along with the priest of Jehovah, labored together
in religion and in religious service in the temple of God.
the preachers, the preachers who spoke for Baal, and the preachers
who spoke for the Lord Jehovah, they all got together and formed
a nice, sweet, ecumenical, ministerial association, and they worked
in perfect harmony. In perfect harmony with one another.
Never had a cross word. They got along wonderfully. They
work together in perfect harmony to blaspheme God and destroy
the souls of men. The priest of Babel and the priest
of God. The people of Judah, for the
most part, are professing to be worshipers of God. They would
never ever for a moment think to say they worship some stump. They wouldn't think about it.
But God says, while they professed to worship him, they were worshiping
Moloch. See it in verse 5. There were
apostates throughout the land, people who had abandoned the
worship of God altogether, and yet they continued to profess
his name. They were people who wore his
name when it was convenient, but they never inquired after
the Lord. That's what it says in verse
6 of chapter 1. And of course, the inevitable followed. As is
ever the case, wherever idolatry rules, moral chaos follows. Wherever men and women are found
who abandon the worship of God and worship according to the
dictates of their own reason, their own thoughts, and their
own feelings, wherever God's word is ignored and his law is
despised, moral decadence is the result. no exception. Read your history book or read
your newspaper, whichever you prefer. Moral decadence is always
the rule, not the exception. We live in a society in our day,
the most religious society the United States of America has
ever known, and the most idolatrous and the most morally perverse.
Moral decadence always follows will worship, which is the essence
of idolatry. All idolatry is but man setting
himself up as God, and when you have yourself for a God, you
ain't got much. It's just moral decadence, you
follow? It doesn't matter what religious
name people adopt. It doesn't matter what religious
code they adopt, and they will adopt a religion. You see, man
is a religious creature, and he can't escape it. He will adopt
some kind of religion, but no matter what he adopts, the result
of his religion is moral decadence if he refuses to worship God
Almighty in Christ Jesus the Lord as he is revealed in this
book. Zephaniah describes his people
in the first verse of chapter 3 as a filthy, polluting, oppressing
people. They were a people, he tells
us in verse 2, who refused to obey God. They were people who
refused to receive correction. God had said his word, but they
would not hear it. God in his providence had corrected
their evil over and over and over again, but they would not
receive correction. They trusted not in the Lord.
And they would not draw near, that is, they would not return
to the Lord their God. And then after describing the
people of the land, the prophet of God faithfully exposes the
corruption of Judah's political and spiritual leaders. Look in
verse 3. The political leaders, all of
them, the political leaders were self-serving men. Men who used
their power, their influence, their position, to line their
own pockets, and did so no matter what it cost the people. The judges in Judah are described
as wolves. Wolves. Wild beasts who could
never be satisfied feeding upon human flesh. We're told in verse 4, we're
light and treacherous. Light and treacherous. What you
just described back there in office, Linda, rattling off a
card for folks who bring most people to church. Light. Don't
take anything seriously. All they do is they take seriously
their pocketbooks, they take seriously their names, but take
nothing with regard to the worship and word and honor of God Almighty
serious. Light. Light. And because they're
light, because they regard not the reverence and the glory and
the honor of God, because they regard not his word nor his law,
that makes them treacherous. Men who stand to speak in God's
name, but simply give out their own opinions in the name of speaking
for God. They're light and treacherous.
And Judah's priests, we're told in verse 4, polluted the house
of God. They did violence, that is, they
perverted the word of God, made it say whatever they wanted it
to say. Brother John, that sounds awful familiar. It should. Sounds
to me like Zephaniah might have lived in Danville, Kentucky,
in December 2003. or in London, England, or in
Washington, D.C. It's not like Zip and I are speaking
as though he were observing exactly what's going on in our day when
religion has turned altogether into idolatry and men claiming
to be God's servants are liars and treacherous, destroying the
souls of men and doing everything possible to destroy the worship
of God in the name of Christ. Well, why is that? Zephaniah's
prophecy was not just a prophecy about the darkness and the paganism
and the idolatry and the condemnation divested upon Judah in his day,
that day in which King Josiah was made to see how horribly
our forefathers had departed from God and disregarded his
word. The house of God in utter disrepair
and the worship of God cast aside. But it was also intended by God
the Holy Spirit to speak to any such day, and ours certainly
is such a day. Because of the spiritual and
moral chaos that was rampant throughout the land, Zephaniah
declares that the Lord God will judge the earth. He will utterly
destroy it in his wrath. And you read that clearly in
verses 2 through 6 of chapter 1. But look at verse 7. Look
what God says. He says to his prophet. He says
to all who truly worship him. I'm going to destroy this world.
I'm going to destroy your neighbors, your sons, your daughters, your
mothers, your fathers. I'm going to destroy this world.
I'm going to flat destroy it. Now watch this. Hold thy peace
at the presence of the Lord. Don't you murmur against what
I'm doing. Don't you argue with me. Don't you speak against it.
And he proceeds to declare plainly how that everything God Almighty
says in this book is according to absolute justice and truth. The God of all the earth must
and shall do right. He declares the Lord, in verse
7, hath prepared a sacrifice. Let us rejoice. The Lord has
prepared a sacrifice, his own darling Son, to atone for the
sins of his people, and he's called sinners to be his guest
and to receive his sacrifice, and all the benefits of grace
flowing to sinners through his sacrifice. Hold thy peace at
the presence of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at
hand, for the Lord has prepared his sacrifice. He hath bidden
his guest, and yet it is this very same sacrifice the Lamb
of God, the Christ of God, who himself shall execute the judgment
and the wrath that is described in this book. Look at chapter
1, verse 14. The basis of judgment is the
sacrifice, men's dealing with the sacrifice. The basis of judgment
is Christ Jesus the Lord, and the executioner of judgment is
this same sacrifice. There is no way on this earth
to interpret what Zephaniah says about God's judgment in its fullness,
except to apply it to the last great day, called the day of
the Lord, the day of his wrath. Look at verse 14. The great day
of the Lord is near. It is near, and hasteth greatly,
even the voice of the day of the Lord, the mighty man shall
cry there bitterly, verse 50. 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,
a day of trumpet and alarm against the thick cities and against
the high towers. In that day, this is how it's
described in Revelation 6, you can read that chapter later,
but listen to this. In that day, that day of terror,
of gloominess and wrath, men shall cry to the mountains and
rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth
on the throne, and from the wrath of the sacrifice, from the wrath
of the Lamb. that man by whom God shall judge
all the earth. Then Zephaniah 2 opens with a
call to repentance. This faithful servant of God,
this puppet of God, tells us that the only way to escape the
wrath of God in that great and terrible day is to turn to him
in repentance, acknowledging and confessing our sin, finding
a hiding place in this sacrifice before that great and terrible
day comes. Verse 1, gather yourselves together, yea, gather together,
O nation not desired, before the decree bring forth. And when
that day comes, when God finally executes his wrath, there'll
be no mercy. Gather yourselves now before the day bring forth.
Verse 3, seek ye the Lord, all the meek of the earth, which
have wrought his judgment. Seek righteousness, seek meekness.
It may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger.
The name Zephaniah, unlike the prophets we've looked at in recent
weeks, the name Zephaniah, you can't really pinpoint exactly
what it means. It means, Jehovah hides, or Jehovah
has hidden, or Jehovah's watchman. And all three meanings of his
name are clearly set before us in this prophecy. As Jehovah's
watchman, he faithfully warns us of judgment and wrath, and
of impending death, that which is certain to come upon the nations.
And he calls us as a faithful watchman to flee the wrath to
come. And he does so by assuring us
that the Lord God has some hidden ones in this earth, whose sins
he has hidden, and the Lord God will save them by his grace.
He declares the sins of the nations, And he exposes our own. He shows
what the sins of God's people are. And that needs to be understood. You and I, God's people in this
world, are no different from the people who perish under his
wrath. Not one speck different. No difference. We deserve his wrath just like
everybody else. We are as guilty as everyone
else. What evil have other men and nations done that we have
not ourselves done from our youth up, either in thought or in deed? The nature of the reprobate is
our nature. His heart is your heart and mine. His thoughts
are your thoughts and mine. His deeds are our deeds. All of them. But preacher, I've never done
that. You're a liar. You're a liar. Oh yes, you have. You may have
never actually took your knife out and cut anybody's throat,
but you sure have done it. You've dead sure done it. You
may have never committed adultery, but you've dead sure done it.
You're dead, you're done. His deeds are our deeds. And
yet while God pours out his wrath upon us, he pours out nothing
on his people except mercy, love, and grace, and hides their transgressions
by putting them away. We're told in verse 9 that there
is a people who shall serve the Lord and serve him willingly
with one consent. In verse 10 of chapter 3, we're
told that they will come to him trusting the sacrifice, trusting
Christ, bringing his offering to him. In verse 11, we're told
that these people shall be ashamed of their doings. They will acknowledge
and confess what they are, ashamed both of that which they pretended
and thought, and supposed to be their righteousness, and of
their wickedness. This is the Lord's remnant, we're
told in verse 12. The remnant of Israel whom he
will cause to trust in his name. And therefore the prophet calls
for assault. Look in verse 14. He calls upon
the redeemed sinners of this earth to sing and rejoice, even
in the midst of trouble. He says, Sing, O daughter of
Zion, shout, O Israel, be glad and rejoice with all the heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem. He says, To Jerusalem fear thou
not, and to Zion let not thine hands be slack. Then in verses
15, 16 and 17, the prophet gives us reasons for trusting
God, reasons for waiting on him, reasons for rejoicing in him,
and they are reasons that are just beyond description.
They are just beyond description. I read these things again today
and tried to study them and preparing this message. How on this earth
can I talk about these things to you? Let me just give them
to you and pray that God the Holy Spirit will write them on
your He says first, The Lord hath taken away thy judgment. He's taken them away. The rest
of the world, by reason of sin and guilt, is under the wrath
of God. But the Lord has taken away thy
judgments. Now that's good news. I'm not
talking about what the Lord wants to do, hopes to do, or tries
to do. I'm talking about what God Almighty
has done. And this is what we've declared
to sinners. Not, if you will believe, the Lord will, but rather
the Lord has taken away your judgments. If you believe, he's
taken them away. He has taken away our judgments. The Lord has taken away our judgments. By the work of his free, almighty,
sovereign grace, the Lord Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, has
taken away our judgments. In redemption, by the sacrifice
of himself, he's taken away our sins, the cause of judgment. Turn over to Psalm 103. Now this is redemption. Look at verse 10. I'll wait for
you to get there. Psalm 103, verse 10. He hath not dealt with us after
our sin. Has he? Oh, no. Bless his name. Nor rewarded
us according to our iniquity. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. as
far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions
from us. That's called redemption. Redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. In the new birth he's
taken away our spiritual death, all the consequences of judgment.
He's given us life. You have to be quickened who
were dead in trespasses and He came to you in your death and
gave you life. He came to you in your eternity
and gave you life. He came to you where you were
when you could not and would not come to Him and spoke life
to your soul. He's given life. And He's taken
away the curse of God's holy law, the sentence of judgment. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Can you get a hold of that? Redemption
was accomplished at Calvary 2,000 years ago. He took away our judgment. He took our sins in his own body
and nailed them to the tree, and with his blood he put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. And now he comes in grace at
the appointed hour of mercy and love and grace, when he comes
to his own, and he applies redemption to the heart of the sinner, and
speaks peace to your soul, and you declare, I've taken away
your judgment. I've forgiven your sin. I've
made you righteous. Look at the next line back here
in Zephaniah. He hath cast out thine enemy. Satan came into the land of Mansoul
by the door of sin as an invading enemy. But Christ, our mighty
man of war, the captain of our salvation, hath cast him out. God Almighty cast Satan out of
heaven. It's described for us as Lucifer
being cast down to the earth. when Satan lifted up his hand
in rebellion against God and his purpose of grace toward his
people. The Son of God broke Satan's usurped power and dominion
when he died upon the cursed tree. Satan had deceived the
nations of the world. He was going about to all the
nations of the world, Israel alone excepted, deceiving them
with blindness and darkness and corrupt, vile, religious idolatry. And now the Lord Jesus says,
I have cast him out. Now is the prince of this world
cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, speaking of the death he should die, I'll draw all
men unto me. So that Satan is described in
Revelation 20 as being that dragon That fiend of hell, who by the
mighty angel of the covenant is bound in a chain and cast
into the pit, so that the angel of the covenant binds him and
holds him in subjection, so that he no longer deceives the nation
and the gospel goes into all the world. And there is a day
coming, and Satan must be loose for a little season. But still,
hold your peace. Speak not a word. Wait on the
Lord. Because when he gets done with
it, the Prince of Peace, the King of Glory, our Savior, he
will cast Satan into the bottomless pit forevermore. He comes in
grace, in the time of mercy, and casts Satan out of the hearts
of the people. If you're familiar with Matthew
12, turn over to Isaiah 49. Isaiah 49. Our Lord says in Matthew 12,
if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God
is coming to you. He said, otherwise how can one
enter into a strong man's house and spoil his good? Except he
first binds the strong man, then he'll spoil his house. Look here
in Isaiah 49, verse 25. This is what happens when God
comes in conquering grace. This is what God Almighty does
for rebels when he conquers them by his grace. Isaiah 49, verse
24, shall the prey be taken from the mighty? Oh, yes. Are the
lawful captive delivered? Yes, sir. Thus saith the Lord,
even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the
prey of the terrible shall be delivered, for I will contend
with him that contendeth with thee. What did he tell Jehoshaphat?
When Jehoshaphat went out to face those mighty enemies, those
armies greater than he, oh God, we can't do this. He said, Jehoshaphat,
you won't fight in this battle. You won't even lift up your sword
in this battle, and don't let anybody else. But you go down
here to the valley of decision, and stand still, and I will fight
for you. And God says, I will save thy
children, and so it shall be. Now look, next slide, back here
in Zephaniah 3. The prophet says, the king of
Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of you. We're in him, and he's in us. He's in the midst of you. My
brothers and sisters, he's in the midst of you, saints of God. He's in the midst of you, church
of God in this hostile land. He's in the midst of you, you
who are enlisted under the banner of his grace. He's in the midst
of you. And being in the midst of you,
he says, Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am the Lord thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. Christ is always near at hand.
Paul said, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. He's always near at hand to supply
our needs, to support us in trouble. He's near at hand to assist us
and strengthen us, to protect and defend us. The Lord is in
the midst of me. What does that mean? I hear preachers sometimes, they're
more spiritual than the Spirit of God, and they are, they think
they are, and somebody prays in sincerity and says, Lord,
we come into your presence, and I've heard preachers get up and
just berate them, where do you think you've been? You're always in
his presence. Well, the prophet here says the Lord's in the midst
of you. The Lord's in the midst of you. He's right here. He's
right here. Because we need to remind him.
He's essentially present with us, of course. He is God omnipresent. He's everywhere. That's good. He's providentially present.
That's better. Because this omnipresent, omnipotent
God is determined to do us good. But here's the best thing. He's
graciously present. The Lord, your God, is with you. And his hands are full of grace. Just grace. Boundless, overflowing
grace. Now look at the next line. This
is what that means, just in case you didn't get it. Thou shalt
not see evil any more. The Lord's in the midst of you.
That means you're not going to see evil, no matter how much
you think you will. You shall not see evil anymore,
no matter how much you fear it. Quit fearing! Don't be dismayed!
The Lord's in the midst of you! You'll not see evil anymore.
There shall no evil happen to the just. The Lord God says this,
Prophet Isaiah, saying ye to the righteous, that it shall
be well with them. The Lord thy God is in the midst
of them. just in case you've got any doubt.
The Lord is in the midst of you, that means you'll not see evil
anymore. Now, just in case you've got any doubt about that, the
Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. I'm glad he remembered to put
that in. He's mighty. He's the omnipotent God. He who is in the midst of us
is himself the Lord Jehovah the being of beings, the eternal,
immutable, all-sufficient El Shaddai! He is the omnipotent,
all-sufficient God! He is the Lord our God. And he who is the Lord our God
is mighty, And he who is the mighty Lord, our God, he's in
the midst of us. That means he's able to save,
and he will. That means he's able to deliver
us out of the hand of all our enemies, and he will. That means
he's able to keep us in the midst of every temptation, and he will.
That means he's able to bring us at last safe into his heavenly
kingdom, and he will. He will save. You see that? He
will save. He's willing to. Our great Savior readily undertook
the work and the covenant of grace. He came here in the fullness
of time to accomplish it. He did accomplish it, and he
has wrought salvation for us, and he will work salvation in
us, and he will at last see to it that we are with him in his
heavenly glory. He saves freely, fully, and everlastingly. He saves from Satan the law,
from hell and from wrath. He saves us from every temple
and every spiritual enemy in time and in eternity. He will
save us. Sooner or later. He will save Israel from all
his troubles. From all his troubles. From all
his troubles. The ones you don't share with
your husband or wife. The ones you don't share with your son
or daughter. The ones you don't have to speak to God himself
about. He will save Israel from all the troubles here. From all
his troubles. Now stay with me. Look at the
next line. It just gets better. It just
gets better. I say to my grandchildren, it
just gets gooder and gooder. It just gets gooder and gooder.
Look at this. He will rejoice over his being with joy. What? Shall God Almighty, the
infinite, holy, righteous and just God, who is of pure eyes
and to behold iniquity? who charges his angels with folly,
before whose eyes the heavens are not pure, shall that God
rejoice over Don Portner with joy? He said so. He will rejoice over
thee with joy. He will rejoice over his elect
with exceeding, great, inexpressible joy. The prophet seems to be
searching for words to describe God's joy over his people. Isaiah describes it as the joy
of a bridegroom rejoicing over his bride. He says the Lord rejoices
over you just like that. I remember like it was yesterday.
I may get old enough that I don't always, but I do now. I remember
like it was yesterday, three o'clock in the afternoon, June
1st, 1969. They started playing that wedding
march, and I was standing there looking at those doors open up,
and here she came. And I was thinking, well, she's
mine. She's mine. And I was, I started saying,
a little proud, I was a whole lot proud. I was saying to the
rest of those fellas who tried to get her, eat your heart out, boy, she's mine.
She's mine. Rejoicing over her. And that doesn't even begin to
compare to the joy of God Almighty over me. Now there was lots of
reason in her for me to rejoice over her. Prettiest thing I ever
saw. Sweetest thing. And smartest. But I'm the ugliest. The meanest. and the most foolish
of God's creatures. And he rejoices over me, just
that way, as a bridegroom over his bride. Next line. He will joy, or he
will rest in his love. What on earth does that mean?
It means that the Lord Jesus Christ finds total complacency, total complacency, total satisfaction,
total delight in loving us and making us to know his love. It pleases him. It pleases him to love us. He solaces himself in his love
for us. He rests in his love. I dare say there is not a greater,
fuller, verbal expression of our Savior's love for us in all
the Bibles are this. He will rest in his love. He
says to us, Thou hast ravished my heart. Oh, this is infinite condescending
grace. God not only loves us, but he
loves to love us. His love is without cause, without
beginning, without condition, and without end. He will rest
in his love. The phrase might be translated
this way. He will be silent because of his love. He will not upbraid us over our
sins because of his love. He will never speak a word of
anger about us or against us, because he will be silent because
of his love. And he will fix us and nobody
else cares. He will silence all our enemies. There's the next
line. He will joy over thee And so the prophet says, Be glad
and rejoice with all your heart, fear thou not, let not thy hands
be slack. And then in verses 18, 19, and
20, I can't preach, I just have to read it to you. Zebaniah, this great, great prophet,
this watchman, he concludes his prophecy with six statements
by God Almighty in which God says, I will. And I sure like
it when God says, I will. I will. I will. That means it's
a done deal. I will. I will. That means nobody's
going to stop it. I will. But what about you? I
will. Doesn't matter what you will.
I will. And when God says I will, you will in a day, his power.
Look at what he says here. I will gather them that are sorrowful. I'll gather them. Behold, at that time, I will,
watch this, I will undo all that afflicts them. And if you think
you're going to have to take something in your hands, I will
undo all that afflicts them. And I will save her that haught
her. Those who can't walk on their
own, I'll carry them. And I will get them praise and
fame in every land where they have been put to shame. I'll say to all realms of creation,
look here, these are mine, a virgin, chaste,
pure. They never defile themselves.
They're holy, they're righteous, and they can never be defiled.
I'll give them praise and thanks. And then it says, fifth, at that
time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather
you. I'll gather you all to me. And
watch this. And I will make you a name and
a praise among the people of the earth when I turn back your
captivity before your eyes. He said, I'm going to do it,
and you're going to see it. So I'll send you home is the
word with which we began. Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord. Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord. These are matters as certain
as God himself." He said, I'll do it. Amen.