Our text this morning will be
taken from the Old Testament. There's a little book over there
in the Minor Prophets called Zephaniah, and I'm going to speak
from the second chapter of this book, the third verse. Now, here's
the topic. It may be, it may be that you
shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Now, that's interesting,
don't you think? I ask God to give me much wisdom
and understanding in preparing and delivering this message today,
because I'm just certain that the things that I'm going to
say need to be said. I'm just certain that the things
that I'm going to say this morning must, they must be said by somebody
for the glory of God and for the good of this television audience. Somebody's got to say these things,
and somebody is not saying them. and they need to be said. Here
in Zephaniah, chapter 2, verse 3, now let me read the text.
Maybe some of you found it by now. If you haven't, just write
down the reference and read it later. But here in Zephaniah,
chapter 2, verse 3, the scripture says, Seek ye the Lord. Seek
ye the Lord. All ye meek of the earth which
have wrought his judgment, seek righteousness, seek meekness,
it may be. It may be, underscore that. Seek
the Lord. Seek righteousness. Seek meekness. It may be that you shall be hid,
that you shall have a refuge, that you shall be covered, that
you shall be protected in the day of the Lord's anger. Now,
you pray for me as I bring this message, as I pray for myself. I want to be a minister of God
for His glory and your good. I want to bring you a word from
the Lord today, a true word. Our paths may never cross again.
God may never speak through me again. He may never speak to
you again. So you listen to me for a little
while, will you? Now, here's the way I'm going to begin. There's
some things that I know from the Word of God. There's some
things of which I am absolutely convinced beyond a shadow of
a doubt. Now, here they are. Number one, I know that man is
a fallen and sinful creature. I know that. I know that man
is a fallen and sinful creature. The scripture says your sins,
speaking of men, your sins have separated you from your God. That's the problem. That's what's
brought about the warfare. That's what's brought about the
wrath and anger and enmity. That's what destroyed the peace
on this earth. Man's sins And death by sin and
condemnation passed upon all men because all sinned. God said
he looked down from heaven to see if there was any that did
understand. And he found that every imagination of man's heart
is only evil continually. God said there's none good. No,
not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. They're altogether become
unprofitable. Man at his best state, God said,
his best state is altogether vanity. And our righteousnesses
are filthy rags in God's sight. He said, all we like sheep have
gone astray. We've all sinned and come short
of God's glory. I know that. I'm not speaking
of the dignity of man. There's no dignity in the flesh.
We may brag on one another. We may compare ourselves with
one another. But that's just one worm bragging on another
worm. Before God, we're wicked. In the light of his perfect holiness,
we're perfect evil. In the light of his perfect love,
we're perfect hate. In the light of his perfect light
and life, we're darkness and death. We're the opposite of
God by nature, by birth, by choice, by practice. Men have fallen
totally depraved from the sole of the feet to the top of the
head. There's no soundness, nothing but open running sores. Our whole
heart is faint. Our affections are perverted
and corrupted without natural affection. We're in bad shape.
The fall has left us ruined. before God, separated from God,
loving darkness and hating light, loving evil and hating truth,
loving sin and hating holiness, by nature hating God. I know
that, and that's so, and no use for you to argue with it or anybody
else to question it. I know that from the Word of
God, and I know it from experience, and I know it from revelation.
All right, the second thing I know is this, that Almighty God has
purpose to save a people. Heaven will be populated. I know
that. Heaven is a holy place prepared
by a holy God for a holy people. Christ said, I go to prepare
a place for you, for somebody. God Almighty is going to save
somebody. Heaven will be populated. Moses
said to the Lord in Exodus 33, show me your glory. And God replied,
my goodness is my glory. I will be merciful. I will be
gracious. It pleased the Lord to make you
his people. Out of Adam's fallen race, God
will redeem a people. There will be a people, he said,
out of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue unto heaven.
Heaven will be populated. Somebody is going to walk those
streets of gold. Somebody is going to be made
into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Somebody is going to be an heir
of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. And my friend,
I'm interested in being one of them. Are you? I'm interested. All right, here's the third thing
I know. I know the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten, well-beloved
Son of God, left heaven and came down to this earth and was conceived
in the womb of a virgin by the Holy Ghost. And he came forth
from that virgin's womb, made in the likeness of sinful flesh. Bone of our bone, flesh of our
flesh. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Word of God, who
was with God and was God, and by him whom all things were made,
became a man. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. God said he sent his Son into
this world, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
those that were born under the law. He came into this world
to save his people from their sins. Mary was engaged to marry
Joseph. And before they came together,
she was found to be with child. Mary was engaged to Joseph, and
Joseph, being a just man and a kind man, wanted to put her
away privately so that nobody would know about this. And God
appeared to him and said to him, Joseph, don't be afraid to marry
Mary. That holy thing which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Ghost and shall be called the Son of God.
And you name him Jesus, Joshua, Savior, because he shall save
his people from their sins. I know that. I know that. I know
that he died on the cross to save us from our sins. I know
that he met the holy law of God and obeyed it perfectly, that
somebody might have a righteousness before God. I know he came into
the world to save sinners, Paul said, of whom I'm chief. I know
he came to seek and to save the law. Now that's a fact, and there's
no use arguing with it. And he's the only one by whom
God will save a sinner. He said, no man cometh to the
Father but by me. I'm the door. By me, if any man
enter in, he shall be saved. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. Other foundations can no man lay than that which is
laid. None are the name unto heaven given among men, whereby
we must be saved. That's a fact. All right, I know
this. Fourthly, the Holy Spirit is
sent of God to convict the world, to convict sinners, convince
them of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment. The Holy Spirit,
our Lord Jesus Christ said, if I go away, I'll not leave you
comfortless. I'll send you another comforter,
the Holy Spirit. And he shall convince the world
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. I know it's the
Holy Spirit that convicts men of sin. I can't break the heart,
but he can. I can't bring men to hate and
despise sin, but he can. I can't reveal Christ, but he
can. I cannot bring a man to repentance toward God in faith
in Jesus Christ, but he can because we are regenerated by the Spirit,
awakened by the Spirit, quickened by the Holy Spirit, made alive
by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Holy Spirit. It's a new
birth, born of the Spirit and the Word. And God sent the Holy
Spirit into this world to bring his people to himself, to give
them ears to hear. and eyes to behold the beauty
of Christ and hearts to understand. That's the miracle work of the
Spirit of God. Salvation is a spiritual experience. It's not just learning in the
head. Too much preaching is to the head and too little to the
heart. The heart's where the business is transacted. I know
the heart doesn't work apart from the head. A man can't believe
what he doesn't understand, but a man sometimes can hear and
reason what he does not believe. All right, here's the fifth thing.
God Almighty graciously invites sinners to come to Christ. I
know that. I know that beyond a shadow of
a doubt. He said back in the Old Testament, O everyone that
thirsteth, come to the water. Don't bring any money. Come without
wine. Come without price. Come without
money. Buy wine and milk without price. Come, if you just bring
an appetite. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor a fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth
to feel your need of him. He says, Come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. He says,
The Spirit and the bride say, Come. Let him that heareth say,
Come. Let him that is athirst come,
and whosoever will, let him take the water of life. God invites
men to clothe with Christ, to lay hold on Christ, to believe
on Christ, to receive Christ. God invites men. Our Lord, before
he ascended back to the Father, gathered his disciples around
him, and he said to them, All authority is given unto me in
heaven and earth. You go preach the gospel to every
creature. Preach this good news, glad tidings,
this gospel of God's grace, this gospel of redeeming work, and
he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth
not shall be damned. Now I know those five things,
but this is what troubles me. Today, under today's preaching,
One gets the impression, that is from the average preacher
today, now you listen to them and I listen to them, we get
the impression from the average preacher today as they hand out
their sure cures for sin, as they hand out their recipes for
redemption, we get the impression that God somehow is indebted
to the sinner. Instead of the sinner being in
debt to God, the average preacher makes it sound like God's in
debt to the sinner. And that God is obligated to
the center. I hear them say things like this.
Come down to the front. Come down to the front. At the
close of the service. And I'll guarantee you. Guarantee
you that God will save you. You can't guarantee any man that
God will save you. You don't know that man's heart.
You don't know his thoughts. You don't know whether his repentance
is genuine, his faith is genuine. You don't know whether he's been
quickened by God's Spirit. You can't guarantee for God unless
you think God's obligated, unless you think God's indebted, unless
you think God's standing on the sidelines just hoping that somebody
will let him do something. I hear other preachers say this,
believe what I preach and you're sure for heaven as if you were
already there. Now, my friend, that's nothing
but idle presumption. As sure for heaven as if you
were already there, greater men than you have stated things like
this. John Newton, no greater preacher
ever lived than John Newton. And John Newton wrote this, "'Tis
a point," he's the one who wrote Amazing Grace, but he wrote this,
"'Tis a point I long to know. Oft it gives me anxious thought.
Do I love the Lord or no? Am I his or am I not? John Owen,
that's another one of the greatest writers and theologians and preachers
of the last 400 years, struggled, struggled clear to his deathbed
with that uncertainty, wanting to know, wanting full assurance
of his interest in Jesus Christ. I don't see how we can use terms
like this, as sure for heaven, as if you already there, when
we know the deceitfulness of the human heart, how desperately
wicked it is, when we know the subtlety and craftiness of Satan,
when we know how that he lies in wait to deceive, when we know
how he goes about seeking whom he may devour, when we've seen
so many people just as energetic and enthusiastic and zealous
as we are, quit and lay down their arms and depart from the
gospel and from God Almighty. How can we be so presumptuous?
I don't understand it. I hear other preachers say, accept
my doctrine, and God will heal you, and God will save you, and
God will prosper you, and God will take you to heaven when
you die, as if they were God's private secretary, as if they
had some, like we used to be in the Navy, and we'd line up,
and the chief bosun's mate from the captain, the officer of the
day, would have our liberty slips. And all you had to do was get
in line. And when you came by the desk, you got a liberty slip,
just like everybody else, you know, just hand it out. And here
we are in line, and here this preacher's God's private secretary,
and he's handling out healing from cancer, and healing from
headaches, and healing from sinus trouble, and miracles, and he's
handing out wealth and he's handing out a fellow riches and he's
handing out a ticket to heaven and folks are walking by shaking
his hand taking the ticket and the little book he wrote and
headed down the road with a false refuge and a false hope and a
false presumption. And they get down the line about
three or four or six months or a few years and found out their
hearts are as empty as when they got in line. My friend, you can't
save anybody and you can't guarantee redemption to anybody. And you
can't hand out salvation to anybody. God Almighty is the Savior of
sinners. And that sinner is somehow going
to have to get by you so he can deal with God. Somehow he's going
to have to get you out of the way so he can deal with God Almighty
and get his assurance from the same place where he gets his
faith. Because of this type of thing, This God is obligated,
and God is indebted, and God's just waiting for you to let him
do something, and God's just standing on the sidelines begging
you to let him give you this health, wealth, and material
blessings in heaven when you die. Consequently, we have churches
full of people who have little or no interest in the gospel,
who have little or no love for Christ, who have little or no
love for one another, who have little or no fruit of the Holy
Spirit, who have little or no growth in grace, but who in their
harshness, and in their bigotry, and in their hatred, and in their
indifference, and in their carelessness, and in their out of presumption,
have complete confidence that when they die they're going to
heaven. They're short on grace, but they're full of confidence.
They're short on love, but they're full of assurance. They're short
on truth, but they're full of boasting and pride. Oh, I don't
find men in the Scripture talking this way. Such presumption is
unknown in God's Word. Read our text again, Zephaniah
2, 3. Here the prophet said, people seek the Lord, seek righteousness,
seek meekness. It may be. It may be. I can't guarantee it. I'm not
God's private secretary. I'm a sinner just like you, seeking
mercy just like you, a dying man preaching to dying men. But
it may be. It may be that you'll be hid
in the day of God's wrath. I do know he's the only source
of mercy. I do know he's the only hope of sinners. I do know
his blood's the only way to be forgiven. I do know that his
throne is a throne of grace. I do know those things. And you
seek him. It may be. Listen to Moses. Here's
Moses. The whole nation of Israel swore
by Moses. Well, they even challenged Christ.
They said, we have Moses. Well, listen to Moses. He says,
Lord, if I have found grace in thy sight. Show me thy way."
That doesn't sound like preachers today, does it? That doesn't
sound like church members. That doesn't sound like that
fellow sitting at home with his feet crossed who hasn't worshipped
God in six months, but swearing on a stack of Bibles he's saved.
That doesn't sound like him, does it? Moses, standing before
the very presence of God, speaking to him as a man speaks with his
friend, and yet he said, Lord, if I have found grace, in your
sight, show me your way." Better learn this language, my friends.
This is Bible language. And then David, even David. David,
of whom it's said twice in God's Word, he's a man after God's
own heart. David, the king. God put him on that throne. God
anointed him. God sent the prophet to him.
Sweet psalmist of Israel, listen to him. It may be, he said, it
may be, the Lord will look on my affliction. and requite me
good this day, it may be." We don't talk that way. We give
our 10% and expect a blessing. We go down to the church and
pat some child on the head and say, God bless you, and expect
to be made rich. We walk down an aisle and shake
a preacher's hand and expect to be healed from the top of
our head to the bottom of our feet. David, the man after God's
own heart, said, it may be that God Almighty will look on my
affliction. If it's in his will, he'll do it. If it can bring
him glory, he'll do it. Even Paul, listen to the Apostle
Paul. Oh, that I may know Christ. Oh,
that I may win Christ and be found in him. Oh, that I may
know Christ and the power of his resurrection, that I may
be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of
the law, but the righteousness which is of God through Jesus
Christ. Oh, that I might attain unto
the resurrection of the dead. He said, I've not attained, I've
not laid hold yet on that for which I've been laid hold of
Christ. I'm not perfect, I haven't arrived, but I sure do want to
be resurrected. That doesn't sound like just
raise your hand if you're sure for heaven as if you're already
there. Paul would have never raised his hand on that proposition.
Never, never. Then listen to Luke chapter 4
our Lord Jesus Christ went down to Nazareth now. Let me tell
you something Our Lord stood that that Sabbath morning before
that congregation of of Israelites And they were people who thought
they had a corner on God They had the prophets. They had the
ceremonies. They had the law. They had the
Bible. They had the Ten Commandments
They had the name they had all these things And here they sat
in their Sabbath morning worship, and the Lord of Glory stepped
into the pulpit. See, he was born and raised in
Bethlehem, but raised in that community of Nazareth. He'd come
back home, and they was all apt to hear him. And he stood before
that Sabbath morning congregation of Jews, of Israelites, who felt
that God was obligated to them because of who they were and
what they'd done. And God was indebted, and God
owed them all of his benefits and blessings because they were
Abraham's children they had the ceremonies and the exact doctrines
and the theology and their ancestors had contended for the faith and
there they sat and our Lord got up in front of them and He said
this He said he said that a prophets not without honor saving his
own country and in his own household But he said I'm gonna tell you
a truth. I'm gonna tell you one truth You're not going to hear
me because people at home don't hear prophets people of the household
don't hear prophets But I'm going to tell you something. He said,
in the days of the prophet Elijah, there were many lepers in Israel,
in the denomination, in the so-called people of God, in folks just
like you. And none of them, none of them
were healed, none of them. But a leper who was a Gentile
Assyrian by the name of Naomi, God was not obligated or indebted
to anybody because of who they were and what they'd done. He's
no respecter of persons. He'll show mercy to whom he will.
He'll be gracious to whom he will. Can I not do with my own
what I will, God said? Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel under honor and
another vessel under dishonor? And he said, I'll tell you a
truth. There were many widows in the land of Israel in the
days of Eliseus the prophet. None of them, none of them were
fed, none of them. God passed every one of them
by. And God fed a Gentile, a woman who was a Gentile. And when that,
and he quit, he closed his message. But what he was saying is what
I'm trying to say to you today. We think we've got a corner on
the truth and a corner on God, especially here in what we call
Christian America. And we go through the motions
every Sunday morning. We've got our theology and our
doctrine and our little easy believism and our presumption.
We've got our names on church rolls. We've been christened
or confirmed or catechized or whatever you call it. And we're
all fixed up for heaven. And if our Lord stepped into
the pulpits of our nation this Sunday, He'd stand and say, God's
indebted and obligated to no man. You seek righteousness. You seek mercy. You seek the
Lord. It may be. that you'll be healed,
because in the land of Israel not one leper was healed, not
one widow was fed. And they rose up in wrath and
anger, and they thrust him out of that synagogue and took him
out to the cliff on which their city was built, and would have
killed him had he not walked through their midst. The old
hymn writers put it this way, Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither
by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to
arrive at home. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Lord, let thy goodness like a
fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. I'll go to Jesus, though
my sin hath like a mountain raised. I'll say to him, I'm a wretch
undone without your sovereign grace. I can but perish if I
go. I'm resolved to try, for if I
stay away from him, I shall forever die. My friends, I'm encouraged
to hope for forgiveness. And I'm going to give you five
reasons why I'm encouraged to hope for forgiveness and offer
to you encouragement. I'm not going to give you any
guarantees. I'm not going to give you any of this you're sure
for heaven as if you were already there. I'm going to give you
some Bible reasons to hope for mercy and hope for forgiveness. And not on the basis of your
works, and not on the basis of your merit, and not because God's
indebted, not because God's obligated in any way, but solely on the
basis of His grace. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works that any man should boast. The wages of sin is death. We
earn that, we deserve that, we merit that, the wages of sin,
but gift of God. Now, here's the reason I hope
for mercy. I'm encouraged to hope for mercy
because it's the nature of God to show mercy. Yes, I know his
nature. I know his nature is mercy. He
says in Micah 7, 18, he delights to show mercy. He's plenteous
in redemption. I will be merciful, he said.
So I hope to be one of the recipients of his mercy because he delights
to show mercy. And then secondly, I'm encouraged
because he has declared that those who sincerely seek him
shall find him. He said, Blessed are they that
hunger, they shall be fed. Blessed are they that mourn,
they shall be comforted. I'm encouraged. He said, Seek
the Lord. And the things that he has commanded are the things
that by the Holy Spirit we aim to do. And then I'm encouraged
thirdly because Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
I look back and read about his journey through this earth And
I see him going down in Samaria, and I see him saving a sinner.
I mean a real bona fide sinner. I see him going into Jericho
and coming out with a Zacchaeus, into the land of the Gadarenes
and coming out with a madman, going to the cross, coming back
with a thief, and I say, hey, there's hope for me. There's
hope for me. Christ came to save sinners.
He said I didn't come to call the righteous but sinners. And
then fourthly, when I consider the character of those whom the
Lord's already called, Saul of Tarsus, Boy, he was a wretch. Abraham was an idol worshiper.
Just go on. Name those that God saved. And
then last of all, his great design in redemption is to display his
grace. Throughout eternity, he's going
to show off the trophies of his grace for his glory. I want to
be one of them by his grace.