to you. We're in the book of
Zephaniah chapter three today. You basically go to Matthew and
turn back about eight or nine pages and you'll find the three
chapters of Zephaniah. We're actually going to start
in chapter one. Like all the minor prophets,
Zephaniah is a prophet that is bearing the burden of the Lord
and must speak what the Lord hath given him. And we see every
single one of them had a message of judgment. Every single one
of them had a message of damnation is what they were speaking on.
Judgment has come, destruction, utter destruction, desolation,
and the things that will befall because Israel was unable to
honor the covenant of works that the Lord gave them under Moses.
They couldn't keep the law. And even when they tried to keep
the law, they profaned it with mixing grace and the law together,
trying to, just as men and women do today, they tried to bring
in the worship of different gods, something they could lay their
hands on. Well, that's a works religion, isn't it? That's what
men and women do. And so let's read the beginning here of Zephaniah
before I get too far ahead of myself. Zephaniah chapter one,
verse one, the word of the Lord, which came into Zephaniah, the
son of Cushai, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of
Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah. Now, most of the prophets that
we see don't give us their lineas like this. He went into a lot
of detail. The Lord permitted him to have a lot of detail in
order for us to know who's exactly speaking. This is what he has
to say, verse two from the Lord. I will utterly consume all things
from off the land. I will utterly consume all things
from off the land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and
beast. I will consume the fowls of the
heaven and the fishes of the sea and the stumbling blocks
with the wicked. And I will cut off man from off
the land, saith the Lord. I will also stretch out mine
hand upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place in the
name of the chimerims with the priests and them that worship
the host of heaven upon the housetops and them that worship, that swear
by the Lord, that swear by Malchim and them that are turned back
from the Lord and those that have not sought the Lord nor
inquired of him. Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord.
For the day of the Lord is at hand. For the Lord hath prepared
a sacrifice. He hath bid his guests." Now
that word bid means sanctified or prepared. The Lord, hold thy
peace at the presence of the Lord. For the day of the Lord
is at hand. For the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice and hath
sanctified his guests. That's what he just said. Brethren, there is a lie that
goes out in this world today, just as the lie was here with
the children of Israel. And the lie is that if you do
your best, God will accept you. If I do my best, God will accept
me. And that is not true. It is not
true. God knows. Men say, God knows
that you're going to mess up, but he loves everybody anyways.
He's able to overlook certain things. There's white lies, there's
little things, and the Lord understands. No, that's not true. That's a
lie. It's not true. The Lord doesn't
overlook anything. One of the biggest lies that's
going forth is what's something being pushed in our society as
well is that you're good enough the way that you are. Just the
way that you are. You're good enough. And that's
what people believe when it comes to the Lord. And that's not true,
is it? Now, when we look at our fellow man, knowing that we've
been made a sinner, we certainly don't look our nose down at them
in condemnation, do we? But we've been made to know that
we're not good enough for God just the way we are. just the
way we are. No, we have to be found in Christ. Christ is good enough just the
way he is. I'm not good enough the way that
I am and you're not good enough the way that you are. I need
a substitute. We need a substitute. And this is what the Lord's saying
here. He's not saying, well, you're good enough and you've
done your best Israel, so I'm going to help you out a little
bit. You've done your part and I'm
going to do my part. That's not what he said. He said, I'm going to
utterly consume every single living thing upon the face of
the earth. That's what the Lord's saying here. This is a message
of judgment because of their unbelief, because of their unfaithfulness,
because of their unwillingness to come to Christ, to come to
God. And that's exactly how we are
by nature. He says, when he says utterly
consume here, men would say, well, he didn't mean this, or
he didn't mean that. But he says, I'm going to consume man, I'm going
to consume beasts, I'm going to consume birds, and I'm going
to consume the fish. I mean, he's left nothing out.
He's telling us it's an utter consumption. And then he says,
I'm going to cut off man from off the land. Then he tells us
why. He tells us why he says these
words, I'm going to cut off from Judah. Now he didn't say, I'm
going to cut off Judah. There's our hope. And we just
read that the Lord prepares a sacrifice and those that he prepared it
for, his guests are sanctified. Well, that's the gospel right
there. The Lord has to do the preparation, but he tells us
why he's going to cut off the inhabitants of the earth. And
it's because from Judah, the remnant of Baal. Now we know
what Baal represents. It's the works gospel that's
not true. It's the false religion in general
that tries to mix God and whatever. Fill in the blank. It doesn't
matter. That's what Baal represents. And even these chamerims, these
are idolatrous priests, these priests that spoke on God's behalf,
but they were saying, no, here is Jehovah and giving them an
image. And this is what This is what the sin of Israel was. I'm thankful that he doesn't
say, I'm going to cut off Judah. I'm thankful that he said, I'm
going to cut off from Judah, the remnant of Baal. Then he tells us who he's speaking
to in verse five, he says, them that worship the host of heaven
upon the housetops and them that worship, that swear by the Lord,
that swear by Malcolm. them that are turned back from
the Lord and those that have not sought the Lord nor inquired
for him." Somebody asked me recently, they
said, you spend a lot of time talking about judgment and talking
about the negative things whenever you see these Old Testament prophets.
Well, Zephaniah spent more time speaking of judgment than he
did of grace, but he still spoke of grace. What causes us to run
to Christ more so than hearing that we deserve everything that
he's describing right here because of what we are? And yet the good
news is that Christ took our place. He stood in his people's
stead. He bore their sin and put them
away. And so everything that he's describing
here is what had to come upon Christ for you and I to be set
free. He had to consume the wrath of God in himself or be consumed,
but he wasn't consumed, was he? We would have been. He wasn't. He wasn't. He tells us he's speaking
to this Malchim. Well, that's the Ammonites God. And so what he's saying is, they
worship that swear by the Lord. They worship that swear by the
Lord and that swear by Malcolm. So they didn't just worship the
Lord, they also were worshiping this malchum as well. They were
mixing it, weren't they? Well, that's oil and water, isn't
it? That's light and darkness. That's works and the law. That's
in grace. You can't mix the law and grace.
You can't mix works and the law. These things are not possible
in the Lord's eyes. One of the scariest thoughts
are is this God of the Amorites, this Malchim, his name means
great king, and he's the same it, it's not alive, it's an it.
It's the same God that the children of Israel sacrifice their infants
to. This is how devout they were
to this false religion. This is how devout they were
to this false God and the doctrine that came there with. And this
is who he's speaking to. This didn't just happen overnight. This was not something where
the children of Israel were faithful unto the Lord one day, and the
very next day they were introduced to this and said, yeah, well,
let's throw out everything that we knew. No, this came subtly, didn't
it? Very subtly. Whenever the children of Israel
would marry, the Lord said, don't marry anyone but a Jew. Don't
marry anyone but of Israel. And they would go and marry a
Canaanite, or they would go and marry a Hittite, or in this case,
an Ammonite, and they would bring in their gods. Solomon did the
same thing. He had 490 wives. And most of them were not Jews. He had the Egyptian princess
that he married and made a temple for her gods and went in there
and burned incense. I mean, that man, he loved women and it brought
him down because of his inability to honor the Lord's word. And
we see ourself in the same light. If the Lord doesn't keep us,
we would do the same thing. So these things came in subtly.
It wasn't all at once. And I say that because we must
be very guarded about what we hear, what we listen to. We must
be very guarded about what I say. I have to be guarded what I say.
We have to always be on alert. We can't take this for granted.
We must preach the same gospel every single time and pray that
the very last time that we hear the good news before we die,
as the Lord's kept us the entire time for the same gospel, or
it'll sneak in subtly if our adversary can, The Lord gives
him permission. He'll start allowing a little
bit of law to trickle in here and there. He'll start allowing
a little bit of this to trickle in here and there. No, we have
to be guarded. We have to be guarded and look to Christ to
order and provide. These men and women became steeped
in tradition. The tradition happened and then
they would pass on the tradition and then they would pass on the
tradition. And as the tradition began to warp a little bit more and
a little bit more before you know it, they're worshiping a
false God completely. They're worshiping. something that was
not the Lord altogether, but they believed they were worshiping
the Lord. That's the scary part, isn't
it? They believed they were worshiping Jehovah, just as the children
of Israel at the base of Mount Sinai. They had saw themselves,
the Lord brought them through the Red Sea. And now they're
worshiping a golden image again. What other explanation is there?
But they thought that was their God. They thought that that was
Jehovah. That's scary, isn't it? That's
where we will find ourself as well. And it won't be that there's
a statue that's put up in our house. It'll be in here. See,
worship's in the heart. Worship's not a physical thing
that we do. It's in the heart. It's a way that worship must
worship in what? Spirit. And in truth, it's an
inward work that the Lord must do. Because they didn't have
the inward work done, they worshiped physically. They did things physically
by making sacrifice to this false god. Things that they could lay
hands on and see. The saddest thing, I don't know if
it's the saddest thing, I don't know if that's the right way
to say it, but it's saddening to know that this sacrifice that
men and women are doing that I just mentioned is still happening
today, but it's not a physical sacrifice like it used to be,
but it's a spiritual sacrifice where they bring their children
to a church that tells them that they can make a choice. They
can be God if they will. They can let Jesus in their heart. They're sacrificing their children
to false gods. That's what they're doing. May
the Lord keep us from that. They're swearing. I didn't mention
this, but they're swearing by the Lord, aren't they? This is
what these men and women are doing. They're swearing by Jehovah,
but they're also swearing by Malchim as well. They don't even
realize that's what they're doing. That's the scariest part. Now,
I'm not going to spend our entire time talking about scary things
like this. I'm just implying that Lord, don't leave me to
myself because if I do, I'll find myself worshiping something
thinking that it's you. Our flesh is so prone to want
to worship physically, something to latch a hold of, to have a
graven image in our home or to have a portrait. I remember growing
up and my grandmother had portraits of what they called Jesus all
over the house. And that's not it. Worship's in the heart. Worship's a spiritual thing.
It's in the heart. for the Lord's people. We know
that. Notice. What he says. In verse 6, them that are turned
back from the Lord. Notice that. Verb are that are
turned back or the the the phrase here that are turned. Who did
the turning doesn't say? that they have turned back from
the Lord. It says that they are turned
back. The Lord left them to themselves.
The Lord left them to worship whatever they wanted to worship.
And now judgment has come because they've been left to their self.
That's the scariest thought for the believer is, Lord, don't
leave me to myself because if you do, all you're doing is turning
us away from you. We'll never turn to you. We'll
never turn to the Lord and of ourself. He has to do it. Then
he says, them that have not sought after the Lord, that word sought
after, that word inquired, those that have not inquired of the
Lord means to see him as God, to see him as God, to seek his
face as he is, to inquire of him, not to ask for his opinion. Lord, what is your truth? Let
me see your face. Christ is truth. I've got to
see Christ. I've got to see your truth. They
weren't interested in the truth. They were content doing what
they were doing. Or don't let us do that. Don't let us be content
with ourself. Don't let us get comfortable
with the traditions of men because the traditions of men cannot
bring salvation, no matter how much we keep them. No matter
what we do, it doesn't bring about salvation. We've been made
to know good works do not merit salvation. And even our genuine
good intentions, our very best intentions, are iniquity. And the Lord says, I hate all
the workers of iniquity. Therefore, these self-righteous
wheel worshipers were left to desolation. See, judgment demands
justice. In a court of law, in our system,
in any law, any court that's ever existed that has a judge
that makes a judgment based upon the evidence whenever the verdict
is ruled guilty for the party at hand, for the one that is
standing on trial. If it's guilty, what must happen?
Judgment must happen. Justice must happen. And this
is the part where men and women don't want the truth. We can't
do anything to fix that judgment. We're guilty. We can't do anything
to change the sin that we are in the sight of God. Christ did. Christ did. He put away the sin
of his people. There's our hope that he stood
the judgment of the father, that he stood in my stead, that he
stood in your stead. That's our hope. Men say, we need to keep the
law, we need to work harder. All the law does is expose our
sin and it demands wrath. May we not get caught up in believing
the lie that we can fix, we can choose to fix our sin problem. There's nothing we can add to
or take away from Christ. I'm going to ask us this, this morning,
I was, as I was studying, I thought Men believe that they must contribute
something to salvation. That's what they mean by making
a choice or doing something. What did we contribute at the
cross of Calvary? What did we contribute? Well,
the only thing that we would have contributed, if you want
to look at it this way, would be our sin. I mean, God had to
do that. He took our sin, nailing them
to His own cross, but we didn't contribute anything, did we?
We didn't lend Him a helping hand. We weren't there cheering
Him on. No, we were the ones saying,
crucify Him. We didn't contribute anything whenever it came to
His crucifixion, and we certainly can't contribute anything when
it comes to His salvation. The Lord hath wrought his salvation.
The Lord hath accomplished salvation. It's all his. We can't do anything
in order to help him. He doesn't need help. God doesn't
need our help in anything. He doesn't need help in the saving
of his people. He doesn't need help in the calling
of his people. Boy, we need help, don't we? Lord, I'm dead in trespasses
and in sin. You're going to have to do all
the work. And he did. And he did for his people. He
did. I was going through the hymnal
the other day, looking for new songs, perhaps that I've overlooked
before or seeing some, and I've actually found two or three that
we're going to be able to sing. I'm excited about, I'll be able to,
I guess, put it to, it's already put to music, but I'm going to
learn it. Anyways, one that I came across is one that we used to
sing in the religion and it's called, Must Christ Bear the
Cross Alone? Must Christ bear the cross alone? And as I read that, I got nauseous.
It was that bad. Answer to that question is yes.
Christ must bear the cross alone. Whenever the Lord looked and
he says, take up thy cross and follow me, go sell all you have.
given to the poor, take up your cross and follow me. That's where
that verse comes from or that song. That's what they can misconstrued
when he says, take up that cross and follow me. What he's saying
is, is you're going to have to renounce your flesh. And the
cross is going to have to be what I did on the cross is going
to have to be all of your hope and salvation. That's what he's
talking about. Yes. Christ had to bear the cross
all by himself. We didn't help him. Not even
a little bit. We wouldn't have helped him. We know that to be
true. Don't wait. We know that to be true. We must be found looking, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Well, somebody
might say, well, isn't looking a work? No, no, because it's
what he's done. It's his work. If it's a work,
it's his. He gives us eyes, don't he? Eyes of faith that look to
him. He says live, then we open our eyes and we're looking. He
gets all the glory. Well, I'm looking to Jesus. If
you are, it's because he's made you and he's made me look unto
him. Isn't that good news? It's his eyes of faith and his
sight, his doing. And we see that if left to ourself,
we'll be just like these children of Israel, following after strange
gods in our heart, worshiping God halfway, not following after
him, but we need his sight. Lord, give me, don't leave me
to myself. They're blind. I need sight to see you. It's
his doing and it is good. We don't contribute anything.
What did Lazarus contribute when the Lord said, Lazarus, come
forth? Did the Lord say, well, if you take the first step, I'll
take the rest. See how silly that sounds? And
I'm not mocking. Well, yeah, I'm mocking them.
That's what Elisha did. Call on your God. See if he'd
be on a journey. Maybe he's using the bathroom
or something. That's why he mocked him, didn't
he? Well, our God is sovereign. He's seated. He's not trying
to accomplish anything. He said, Lazarus, come forth.
And Lazarus came forth bound hand and foot. Explain that to
me. How did he move if he was bound hand and foot? I don't
know, but he did. The Lord said, loose him. Loose
him. Let him go. Let him go. See,
we don't glory in mocking other people and when we preach or
anything like that, but we glory in Christ. And our only hope
is in this God, this sovereign God. We've been brought out of
that. Isn't that glorious? He didn't
leave us to ourself utterly like he did to these people in Zephaniah.
Salvation is all his work. And it's obvious in verse seven,
he says, hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God for
the day of the Lord is at hand. For the Lord had prepared a sacrifice,
he hath bid his guests. There's the gospel right there.
The Lord prepared the sacrifice, and the word bid there means
sanctified. The Lord prepared the sacrifice and he sanctified
his guests, those that's been invited. Now this invitation,
anytime the Lord says come, that's a command, isn't it? He's the
king, he's the sovereign king. Those that did not come to the
feast of the king, what happened to them? He cast them in outer
darkness, didn't he? Now this is a command. The Lord must prepare
the sacrifice, And he must bid those who are dead to come forth.
That's what he does for his people. The Lord must provide this sacrifice. Did you know, and I know you
know this already, but did you know that only that which the
Lord provides will he accept? The Lord only accepts what he
provides. He doesn't accept anything else.
It has to be perfect, and nothing is perfect but Him. Nothing is
good but God. We know that to be true. Everything
that He requires, He must provide, and He only accepts what He's
provided. Who did He provide? He provided
the sacrifice. We just read that, didn't we?
What did that sacrifice accomplish? Sanctification for His people.
Glorification for His people. Justification for His people.
This is what the good news of the gospel is. The Lord will
provide himself a lamb. That's what Abraham told his
son Isaac, didn't he? Whenever they had the wood, they
had the fire, they had the knife. Isaac said, Father, where's the
sacrifice? He said, God will provide himself a lamb. And he did. He provided the lamb
of God that took away the sins of the world, and he provided
himself that which he is pleased with himself, his person, he
provided that for his people. This is where we rest in the
lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I've titled this message,
Honest Sheep, Honest Sheep. I've given us different accounts
this morning of false religion and the truth. I've given us
different ideas of who Jesus is not and who Jesus Christ is. And only the Lord's people are
made honest sheep. Look with me a couple pages over
at our text in Zephaniah 3 verse 13. 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. This verse just told us what
the Lord's remnant is going to do. Those that are sanctified
by his sacrifice that we just saw in chapter one. He tells
us what they're going to do. What they're going to speak,
what they're going to eat, what they're going to rest in, and
that they'll never fear because of that. What they're going to
do, what they're going to speak, what they're going to eat, what
they're going to rest in, and that they'll never fear because
of that. The first thing is it says, here's
what they're going to do. They shall not do iniquity. They shall not do iniquity. Not
one thing to add to their salvation. Not one thing. that they produce
will be offered up as their righteousness. It's all Christ. It's all Christ. They shall not do iniquity. Now, understand something, iniquity
is trying to do something to fix our sin, to fix what we do. But it's not just what we do,
it's what we are. That's what iniquity is by definition,
what we offer up to God that says, this is good enough to
put away my sin. The Lord said that's iniquity.
Even our very, very best is iniquity in the Lord's eyes. I'm constantly
talking to people who ask me, I didn't know that, I guess different
pastors have different things to deal with in their area that
they go to culturally or whatever else. But a question I keep getting
quite a bit is what does the Christian life look like in your
church? I've been asked that half a dozen times since I've
been the pastor here. And I keep being amazed that that's the
issue. What does your congregation's Christian life look like? God,
the Lord gave me an answer to one man a long time ago, and
I keep using it. A bunch of dead dogs, sinners desiring a crumb
from the master's table. That's what it looks like. But
the Lord makes his people honest sheep. See, men are making a
noose out of works, thinking that it's gonna be their salvation,
but they're hanging theirself. That's iniquity. No, the Lord's
sheep are honest. There's not one good work I can
do. There's none good but God. I can't offer anything of myself
to him and him be pleased. It's impossible, impossible for
me to fix my sin. It's iniquity. And what does
the Lord say about iniquity? Jesus was speaking and said,
then while I profess unto them, they that come to me and they
that said, Lord, I did this good thing in your name. Lord, I cast
out demons in your name. Lord, I've worked this work in
your name. We don't stick our nose up to people who believe
that. We cry out for mercy. Lord, don't let us think that
we can do something to please you. We can't. Lord, have mercy
upon me, the sinner. If you leave me to myself, I'll
think that I can do a good work. That's what the flesh likes,
is that praise of man. And they believe that they'll
be able to offer up that work. And he says, depart from me, you
workers of iniquity. I never knew you. I never knew
you. Your name's not written in the
Lamb's book of life. I never knew you. You want to offer up
yourself. You didn't flee to Christ. You have no interest
in fleeing to Christ. I left you to yourself. Depart
from me. That's what the Lord's going
to say. Thank God God's people are made to look to his provision,
to his providing, to what he provided, to what he's pleased
with. Not ourself. It's his work alone, not ours.
That's why Paul said, rejoice not in iniquity. Don't rejoice
in what you're doing. The very moment you rejoice in what we
do, the very moment, the very second we rejoice in what we
do, it becomes iniquity. That's what Paul's saying. He
said, but rejoice in truth. Rejoice in truth. We read this
Wednesday night, but the disciples came to the Lord and they said,
even the demons are subject, even the spirits are subject
to us. Whenever we tell them to depart, they leave. We have
all this power. He said, don't rejoice in that.
Rejoice that your name is written in the Lamb's book of life. That's
where we glory in, is Christ Jesus and his finished work,
not what we do. Otherwise, we'll turn it right
into iniquity. I like the thought that God's
sheep do nothing. Absolutely nothing. See, resting
is not a work, is it? That's exactly the opposite of
work, isn't it? Resting. That's all we do. We
rest in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his truth. Do you know why?
Because he's made his people honest sheep. Now, the second
thing we see here is Israel shall not have iniquity, then nor speak
lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth.
And because of repentance and faith, what does God's sheep
speak? The truth, the truth, the truth
about the Lord Jesus Christ. We no longer have a deceitful
tongue. There is no longer lies in our mouth. Somebody might
be reminded, such as myself, that I kind of told a fib to
my wife to stay out of trouble the other day. I'm not afraid
of my wife, but I don't like contention. And so I said that,
and then I had to come back and say, okay, well, maybe I wasn't
entirely truthful about what I said. So what is he saying?
We don't speak lies anymore. We don't speak a lot, we don't
lie on God anymore. We speak the truth of who Christ is, what
he accomplished, and the truth about what we are. We speak the
truth, don't we? There's no deceit in our mouth
when it comes to him. Yes, we may doubt our salvation,
but it's not because we doubted that he wrought salvation. That's
not what we doubt. We know, you know that Christ
was successful, don't you? Just as much as I do. We know
that Christ was successful, so what do we doubt? We doubt ourself,
and we're looking to ourself in that. We're not looking to
Christ. We doubt, not that God was successful,
but we doubt that, Lord, I still see this deceitful tongue. And
it says, I don't have a deceitful tongue. I can't see that. The
Lord says, I do. I see that you don't have a deceitful
tongue. Why? Because I've sanctified you. In the first chapter, I've
provided a sacrifice that has sanctified you. I brought you
in Mephibosheth and sat you at the king's table when you were
lame on your feet. Now you get to eat at the king's table. You
no longer speak lies. You speak the truth. You speak
the truth. Made to declare Christ is all.
Made to say whatever he says. We just say truth, Lord. It doesn't
matter what he says. Doesn't matter what he calls
us. Truth, Lord. You're right. Truth. We just sung the song
a few minutes ago, and I picked that because I wrote this down.
False and full of sin I am. Thou art full of truth and grace. See, only the Lord's honest sheep
can say that. There's only one kind of sheep,
the honest kind. And everyone that the Lord died
for is his honest sheep. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
four, if you would, please. Look at verse 20. But ye have
not so learned Christ? If so be that ye heard him. you
have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is
in Jesus, that you put off concerning the former conversation of the
old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be
renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the
new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."
Now, the first thing he says is that you put off concerning
the former conversation of the old man. Now, that put off is
the same thing as casting aside, as taking a jacket off and throwing
it to the side, counting it, but dung, as Paul said, that's
what he's saying. But the second thing that he says is put on,
be renewed the spirit of your mind that you put on the new
man. Now that word put on, do you
know what that means? To sink into. to sink into. Boy, is it not true that we just
sink into Christ, whatever He says is truth? That's our only
foundation. Our desire is to be found in
Him, completely sunk into Him. That's our hope, that you put
on this new man, that we rest in Christ. We don't speak as
we did in false religion, according to the lust of the flesh. What
does he mean by the conversation of the lust of the flesh before?
Men say things to draw attention to themselves to get popularity
or to get power. He's saying don't do that. We
don't. We speak the truth of the Lord
now. We speak what the Lord says is truth. We don't want attention
to this flesh that we may consume the lust thereof. We need Christ. We need Christ. The Lord calls
me to put on the new man, calls me to sink into Christ, to rest
in him completely. That's what this new man cries
out for. And in doing so, he's crying out for righteousness
and true holiness. Now for him to say true holiness
means there has to be a false holiness. Am I right? True holiness
is what the Lord's people desire because they've been made honest
sheep. Lord, I need true holiness. Well,
what is that? It has to come through and by the blood of Christ
alone. That's true holiness. Anything else is a lie. Anything
else is false. It's not true. That's what the
new man desires. These men in the first chapter
of Zephaniah thought that they had true holiness, didn't they?
Men and women are in churches right now thinking they have
true holiness in what they believe, but only the Lord's honest sheep
know the truth about true holiness. Christ is all. Christ is all
in salvation. He's all in sanctification. He's
all in justification. Christ is all. Christ is all
our wisdom. Christ is all our righteousness.
Christ is everything to us. His truth is everything to his
people. Now back to Zephaniah 3. Third thing we see, verse 13
of Zephaniah 3, they shall feed. They shall feed. They won't do
iniquity anymore. They won't have a deceitful tongue anymore.
They won't be speaking lies anymore. They shall feed. What do we feed
on? What do we feed on as the Lord's
people? Is it not the lamb of God, the
bread of life? Is it not that we need daily
manna from him? Lord, I've got to have your bread,
your life-sustaining sustenance, lest I die. I'm reminded of the
account given in the scripture of the prodigal son. He desired
to have his inheritance. He was ready to go out into the
world on his own. He was ready to spoil his inheritance. He
was ready to spend it up, live it up, do whatever he wanted
to do. Tired of the rules of the house, perhaps, and the way
things were in his father's house. And he did get his inheritance
and he left. And when he had wasted, wasted
his inheritance, the scripture says, he found himself helping
the farmers by feeding hogs. feeding hogs, and would have
feigned to fill his belly with the hog's slop, with the husks
thereof. but no man took notice of him.
Now, I always thought that what that meant was is he desired
the husks and therefore he was eating it. He had to have permission
to eat the husks. He feigned, meaning he wanted
them, but nobody took notice of him. Nobody offered him even
the slop, even the husks that were there. Nobody even took
notice of him in that. When he came to himself, he remembered
his father had servants that had it better than he did. And
he went back home. He went back home to his father.
And what did the father do? Did the father beat him? Did
the father send him away? Did the father say, no, you've
made your decision. You can live your life the way you want to
live your life. I'm not taking you back. Father embraced him, kissed
him, put a ring on his finger. He said, bring the best robe. Here's my ring. This is my son.
He's returned. What a work of the Holy Spirit
causing us to come to ourself whenever we were in false religion. This man left the gospel for
a short time. This is what this represents.
And he went down and became a deacon at the First Baptist Church on
the corner eating the husks that the world has to offer in false
religion. He realized this ain't filling me. This isn't the gospel.
This isn't good news. No, I'm not a pig. I'm not a
goat. Lord, make us honest sheep. See, pigs and goats lead anything.
I've been around both of them to know. I'm sure that we can
have a conversation after, and you can correct me. Well, I know
a pig won't eat this or a goat eat that. I've seen a goat eat
a tin can. Goat eat anything. Sheep are more picky, aren't
they? Why? They're honest. They have to have what they have
to have, and the shepherd has to be the one to give it to them.
We have a shepherd in the Lord Jesus Christ that's made us honest
sheep, completely dependent upon him. Lord, I need your rod. I need your staff to to not just
guide me to where I need to go. Make me to lie down in green
pastures. Make me to lie down in your pasture
that that soft grass. That soft grass. We have time to turn there. Let's
turn to Psalm 23. Let's read that together. Lord's sheep has to have the
bread of life. And Christ said, I am the living bread, which
came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I give is
my flesh. We're speaking still upon what
do we feed on? That's the third point, but we're
about to take the Lord's table and it's a representation of
the Lord's body, isn't it? That's exactly what we're speaking
about. We must have Christ our bread,
the manna that came down from heaven. You know, I find it interesting
that the bread of life is speaking to men and women when he was
on the face of the earth. He literally looks at them and says,
this, this is the bread that came down from heaven. When he's
speaking to them, they could not see him. They didn't recognize
him. They didn't know him. And he
said, this is that manna that came down. You're missing it.
But you can't hear, you know why? You're not my sheep. My
sheep hear my voice. Psalm 23, verse one, the Lord
is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness. Here's why. For his name's sake. God restores his people with
his gospel in the still, small voice that is his spirit. gives
a drink of living water. The Lord gives us the manna from
heaven by his gospel. See, this is life and death,
brethren. This is not, we don't joke around or toy around with
this subject. This is life and death. If we
don't have this manna, we're going to die in our sin and we
are going to go to hell. If we don't have this living
water, we are going to die and be just like the rich man wanting
another drop of physical water rather than the fountain of living
water. This is life and death. I'm thankful David said another
part. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. Everything he does is good to
the Lord's people, isn't it? Why? Because he's given us life. He's given us bread. He's given
us water. He said unto us, live as he did Lazarus. He said, come
unto me. Prodigal son came to himself.
The Lord caused him to do that. He didn't just wake up one day
and say, okay, I'm going to make Jesus my choice. That's not what
happened. The Lord said, live. Look what you're wallowing in.
How long would he have stayed there? Forever. That's what the
children of Israel were doing, is they were wallowing with the
hogs whenever they were worshiping these false gods. Not the Lord's
sheep. No, they've been made to be honest
sheep. They've been made to see that they are the sinner and
He is the Savior. Thanks be to God. He causes us
to feast upon Him. You're still in Zephaniah three. I hope you held your place. I
forgot to tell you, but we're going to go back to Zephaniah three quickly. Verse 13. We just read this,
but I wanted us to see it again. The fourth thing he says is the
third thing is they're going to feed. And the fourth thing
is, is they're going to lie down. They're going to lie down. What
does lie down mean? It's to rest, isn't it? We're
going to lie down in green pasture. That's what we just read from
Psalm 23, that the Lord's people are made. He maketh me. Why do
you rest? I was made to. I was made to. Were you made to? That's the
only way that we'll rest. Otherwise we're going to work.
It's our nature to work. Our curse is that we would eat
bread by the sweat of our face. The only way we're gonna rest
in this gospel is if the Lord says, rest, rest, and makes us
rest. The good news is he does. He
does for his people. He makes them rest in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapter four tells us,
for we which have believed do enter into rest. As he said,
goes on to say, there remaineth therefore a rest, just one. De-rest
the Lord Jesus Christ to the people of God. There is no rest
in due, is there? There is no rest in due. There's
rest in done. There's rest in it is finished.
There's rest in there's nothing left for you to do. I've done
it all. That's the rest. I'm the sacrifice that came to
save my people and I have sanctified you by my own blood, by my own
death. You died in me. By my resurrection,
you were resurrected in me." That's the hope of the gospel
for the Lord's people. There's nothing left to be done.
He did it all. Only honest sheep can rest because they're made
to. The Lord makes His people lie down in green pastures. Aren't
you thankful it's not optional? If it was optional, we wouldn't
rest. I'd want to lay hands to it somehow, some way. I'd mess
it all up, wouldn't we? We'd mess it all up. I like where
he says he maketh. I love the old English, the King
James for that reason. ETH is continual, continual. He's making me now. He's making
me now. He's making me now rest in the
finished work of Christ alone. And if he doesn't, I won't rest.
He maketh me lie down in green pasture. And the last thing to
notice verse 13. He says, 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. Now the next hour, I'm titled
the message, Fear Thou Not. And we're gonna start right here,
but Fear Thou Not is later on also. So I'm not gonna elaborate
too much on this now, Briefly, the only reason that we have
nothing to fear, that none can make us afraid as the Lord's
sheep, is because He finished the work. He finished the work. That's the only reason that we
have risks. It wasn't us that did any work, it was Him. By
His own blood, He purged our sin. Everything required, He
fulfilled. Every promise, He kept. Every
law, He honored. Every ordinance, He performed.
He did it perfectly, offered up as the substitute charity
for His sheep. When he died, his people died in him, so that
now there is perfect union with his people, and he has perfect
union with his father. I quote this often, but the Lord
said, 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. No one is able to pluck
them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. So the
union that we have in Christ Jesus is the same union as we
have with the father. He says, I am in my father and
you are in me. Perfect union, perfect holiness,
perfect righteousness is how the Lord sees his honest sheep.
And the way God sees it is really how it is. No wonder Paul said,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justified. If we'd have justified ourselves,
somebody could still charge us, couldn't they? But no, he really,
really put away the sin of his people. They are gone. They've
never existed. The way God sees it is how it
is. They've never existed. He says, I can't remember. How's
God gonna forget? Cast them as far as east is from
the west. The Lord paid for them, putting them away. He's the only
one that's able to make something completely go away. And that's
exactly what he did with the sins of the Lord's elect, the
Lord's people. God be for us, who can be against
us? Who can be against us? It's God that justified. God's sheep rest in the finished
work of Christ as all of their hope for eternal life. God's
sheep are the only. The only people that are honest
in this world. The only people that are honest
in this world. The only reason that they're honest is because
God has made them to be honest, honest about who God is. Honest
about who we are. Honest about what Christ accomplished
and honest about what we are, who we are, what we've done.
And because He chose in His sovereignty to elect a people, to redeem
a people, to sanctify a people, now He calls His sheep by name.
They hear His voice, and they are honest sheep. See, there's
only one kind of sheep, and it's an honest sheep. There's only
one kind of sheep, and that's the ones the Lord called. All
sheep go to heaven because they're honest. He's made them thus.
All sheep are the Lord's, every single one of them. No goat can
become a sheep and no sheep can become a goat. But thank God
he chose to save a bunch of dead dog sinners that he chose to
make into his honest sheep.