Turn with me this evening, if you will, to the prophecy of Zephaniah. While you're turning, I should have mentioned this morning, but Lord willing, both this coming Wednesday and next Lord's Day, I'll not be with you. I'm planning to attend a pastor's conference in Charlotte in the middle of the week. So certainly appreciate your prayers for some refreshing and good help in teaching there. And then over the late week and weekend, Carolyn has spring break with her kids and Well, Grandma and Granddad are going to help a little bit with that. So Derek will be taking these meetings. We appreciate your prayers in our absence. I am tempted tonight to do something I did with our ministers at a week of prayer a lot of years ago, and that is to have us read the whole of this minor prophet, not Zephaniah, with the ministers. It was Habakkuk. I was looking at with them a lot of years ago now at a week of prayer, and just felt led to read the whole prophecy rather than them hear me for the whole. I had one man each, myself just being the last to read a chapter, each of the three chapters going through. But I'm going to not quite give in to that temptation tonight. I do want to read all of chapter 1 together with you now, and then we're going to come to read a significant part of the third chapter later. in the message. But Zephaniah 1, this evening. The Word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gadaliah, the son of Ammariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Ammon, king of Judah. 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 Chemerim with the priests and them that worship the hosts of heaven upon the housetops and them that worship and that swear by the Lord and that swear by Malcolm and them that are turned back from the Lord and those that have not sought the Lord nor inquired for Him. Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God For the day of the Lord is at hand. For the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, and hath bid His guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice that I will punish the princes and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. And the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit. and it shall come to pass in that day, said the Lord, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and then howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills. How, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down, all they that bear silver are cut off. And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with candles and punish the men that are settled on their leaves that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil. Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation. They shall also build houses, but not inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof. 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, 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 the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men that they shall walk like blind men because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath. But the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy. for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land. We'll end our reading there till we come to that later section, but we trust the Lord to bless the public reading of his word. Let's bow our heads and our hearts together. Our Heavenly Father, we tonight come with special thanks as we have been able to join our voices together, to speak to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our heart to the Lord, especially that Gospel testimony with which we closed. We confess again, not merely the words of a hymn, But the truth of Your Word and the amen of our own hearts, none but Jesus can do helpless sinners good. But the work Jesus has done for us is perfect. Nothing lacks of all that He has sought to accomplish. He will bring us tangibly to glory. Though now we, in the certainty and surety of His promise, are already seated together with Him in the heavenlies. Help us tonight, even as we consider sober things, to be mindful that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And so grant us help tonight as we turn these pages of Your Word. We ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. I ask you to turn tonight to the prophecy of Zephaniah. I would expect that if you were to seek a part of Scripture that you would announce for people to turn to, that Zephaniah might be one of the first things that comes to mind if we think of a hard place to find. We're looking at the minor prophets, not minor with regard to importance, minor with regard to the length of their books, Zephaniah is a shorter one of these books and it's just tucked away in that section where sometimes, well I heard a preacher once preach on it, find Matthew and then just start turning back and a few pages you'll be there. Zephaniah is Well, I guess in that way, obscure. And perhaps in a series such as this, going through just a survey of the minor prophets, he could be obscure as well, because by the time we come to Zephaniah, in many ways the themes of the prophets, and the theme that will encompass this one we look at tonight, territory that we've already touched. Territory that will and should be familiar. And yet, the Lord yet sent another prophet to bring these themes and this word to His people. Zephaniah's name means either the Lord has hidden or the Lord protects. Scholars wrestle a little bit with the root that is underneath his name. He ministered during the reign, as we read, of good King Josiah. Most likely he ministered in the earlier part of Josiah's long reign. perhaps somewhere in the years or between the years of 640 BC and about 620 or 621 BC. Of the minor prophets, those that we label, and perhaps we haven't used this label yet in our study, but of the pre-exilic prophets, those would be the prophets that preached before the exile, Zephaniah, there's none that is later save Habakkuk. Habakkuk is just before Zephaniah in the canon. And Habakkuk's message last time is really not a message so much to the people, it's a recording of the struggles of his own heart that he's given to put to the people. All these things with regard to capturing judgment that God has threatened. Habakkuk came to know that not only was he going to be one of those to live through them, And he said, as we read, Lord, I've heard thy speech and was afraid. And of course, we saw last time the struggles and the ultimate victory in the heart of the prophet Habakkuk. Zephaniah is ministering about 15 to 30 years before Habakkuk's prophecy that the time is actually now. It's upon us. But Zephaniah nonetheless preaches to Jerusalem in a season in which the captivity is inevitable. Judgment is already sent forth, as it were. It only has to arrive. Zephaniah makes use of, if we could suggest, the terminology the theology, and perhaps better, the phenomenon of the day of the Lord. We've looked at this theme already. It's introduced to us by the prophets. Amos, perhaps the earliest of the prophets to mention it and bring it to our attention. It's a common theme as we have seen. And Zephaniah makes this theme the focal point of all of his prophecy. Let's be reminded. There are multiple days of the Lord in Scripture and in history. The day of the Lord simply is a description, a scriptural designation of a time of a season in which God so intervenes in the affairs of men that the normal things are put aside. It isn't normal. God's intervention is so powerful, it is so noticeable, well, that it just can't be denied or ignored. Problems in looking at the day of the Lord, and it's a problem that existed among the people of the Lord. Remember when we looked at it in Amos, well, a couple centuries now before what we're looking at here, The people of God, the professing church, were eager for the day of the Lord. They wanted it to come. It was going to be the time in which they were going to be blessed and all the other nations were going to put down and all the wealth and the prosperity of the world would belong to them. They had little grains of truth in there that they were clinging to. But what did Amos have to tell them? Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord, Amos said, is darkness and not light. There are two aspects of these seasons of intervention, shall we perhaps better say, noticeable in the affairs of men. One is that of blessing. The blessing of His people. The other is that of judgment. The judgment of his enemies. The problem is that sometimes those that are judged call themselves God's people, and they really aren't. and Amos held before the northern tribes in his prophecy. And that's obviously what's true in the days of Zephaniah's prophecy where Jerusalem, Judah, the last remnant as it were of the old kingdom is about to go into captivity. These various days of the Lord that the prophets describe are particular points in history seasons of God's intervention. It was a day of the Lord and the Assyrians to captive the northern tribes. It was going to be and was a day of the Lord when the Babylonians came and took Jerusalem and took captive the people of the south. But all of these and there are others, there are days of the Lord against pagan nations as we read in other of these prophets and have found along the way. But all of these ultimately are harbingers They are preludes to the ultimate day of the Lord that culminates all of history. Well, as we've said, one of the key aspects of the day of the Lord, again, that's often forgotten over these two sides of judgment and of blessing. What I'd like to do tonight, since Zephaniah has taken that as his theme repeatedly, spoken of the day of the Lord and of the day and all that it brings. I just want to look at those two aspects of Zephaniah's preaching of the day of the Lord and ask the Lord to give us grace to apply them to our own hearts and our own lives. So the first aspect of the day of the Lord is that of judgment. Again, Zephaniah is going to speak of a day that will come upon them of temporal judgment, of chastening, of captivity, of the violence of being taken captive and overthrown. may come as we look at the post-exilic prophets to review some of the material Dr. Barrett gave us with regard to the pagan nations. What God prophesied through Moses, that if Israel were to obey, they'd be blessed, no one could stand before them, they'd be a light to the Gentiles and the nations of the earth. But if they transgressed, He would scatter them abroad among the Gentiles. None of the Gentile nations and ultimately empires had taken people captive before the Assyrians came along. The Assyrians came along and thought they had a great idea. Hey, when we conquer a country, let's bring the people back and that way they won't regroup and overthrow us and we'll have servants back at our place. It'll be a great thing. Lo and behold, just when it was time, For God's people to be taken into captivity as God had prophesied would happen to them, the world got an idea. Let's take captives. And then after a couple of empires had come and gone, Persians, third in that line with regard to succession of Gentile nations and empires that had sovereignty over Jerusalem. They said, you know, there'd be a lot of goodwill toward us if we started sending people back to their homeland. These people that have lived here for such a long season might even be of help to us if we send them back home. All of a sudden, a Gentile emperor got a great idea that just happened to fulfill exactly what God centuries before had said would happen. God is on the throne. Zephaniah is preaching to a people that are on the verge of the Babylonian captivity. That siege of Jerusalem that the Lord described to Habakkuk that we saw last time, and anyone that would hear of it, both his ears would tingle. The violence with which they would come. The descriptions of judgment are devastating. We read them here in chapter 1 of this prophecy. If you look in verse 14 and following, there's just a repeated refrain. 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 men shall cry there bitterly." And then this six-fold repetition. The day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasting and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm. Commentators have suggested perhaps an echo of the six days of creation where all things were good. The six-fold refrain here is not that things are good, but that judgment is coming. If you look in verse 17, after this six-fold refrain, the Lord says, I will bring distress upon men that they shall walk like blind men because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood shall be poured out as dust and their flesh as the dung. We can read that and we may be somewhat familiar with prophetic language, the terminology of Scripture. But this is quite literal. The devastation of the judgment. Such a nature as we go to Habakkuk to hear such description, such prediction from the mouth of God. We could hear such speech and be afraid. Judah, Jerusalem, we're going to be devastated. This is that judgment aspect of the day in which God intervenes more directly. What are the reasons? We could read further in the prophecy with regard to descriptions. They are, as with the other prophets, awful indeed. But what are Zephaniah's statements with regard to the reasons? If you go back a little bit in the chapter, read with me again from verse 4. I'll also stretch out mine hand upon you. The opening description is with regard to the day of the Lord and the world itself, the world as a whole. but I will stretch out mine hand upon Judah, upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I'll cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chimerim with the priests, them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, them that worship and that swear by the Lord, that swear by Malcolm, That's simply their king, its implications here, and them that are turned back from the Lord, and those that have not sought the Lord nor inquired of Him. It's a description, it's a vast description of the people and their wickedness, and in particular, idolatry and what we speak of as syncretism are present among the people. It is very true, we find it in Israel and Judah, that God's people in their apostasy went so far as to completely forsake professing even the name of the Lord and worshiped Baal. Worshiped other deities by their own names, by their own practices. It becomes particularly striking when you think of the worship of Moloch. which included child sacrifice. I think before I've shared with you reading some historians that have remarked about some of the ritual, the music that was accompanying it, and they surmised that the drums and the volume of the music was intended to perhaps muffle something of the cries of the children as they were placed in furnaces and burned. People that had their Bibles, people that knew the truth, abandoned the truth, and were so given over to that reprobate mind we read of in Romans 1, that these became their practices. But there were some that were not of that ilk. They would not go so far as to just worship the pagan deities in their own rites and in their own rituals. They still would be called by the name of the Lord. They wanted to be called worshipers of Jehovah They just wanted to mingle some idolatry in with their worship. I think I mentioned a week or so ago in a morning message that interests me at times to read recently comments after news stories. People of, shall we say, more advanced years that I can identify with. And even some people that were celebrities and leaders in the sexual revolution, the culture shift that occurred in the 1960s. Those are the people that are in charge now, you know. Some people are speaking out against how far things have gone. They see our whole society crumbling. Violence everywhere. They wanted to be able to pick and choose. Let's just cast off this part of God's law. And let's ignore this part of God's law. This part's okay. We don't want people killing and we don't want people stealing. But adultery and the other stuff, we can take a little bit of that on board. We don't have to go all the way to some of the extremes of the nations that surround us. Let's just take some of their idolatry on board. Some of their more pleasant practices on board. We can control it. We can handle it. That's really what we mean when we talk about syncretism. It's not full-blown idolatry. We're going to name God's name. We're still going to claim to be God's people. We just want to bring some of the world's stuff in with what we're doing for our God. You could go a long way filling in illustrations and applications of that in our modern context, could we not? Some perhaps innocently incorporate some of these things because they've... well, that's a hard way to phrase it. Some haven't known anything else from the house of God than mixed worship. It's a sober thing that few voices are raised against it. The reasons I say for this judgment that awful aspect of the day of the Lord named here, idolatry and syncretism. They certainly are with us in the modern church today. If you look at verse 12, there's another reason we discover here. It shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with candles and punish the men that are settled on their lees say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil." That settled on the leaves is a description of kind of the residue in the bottom of the vats where the grapes were crushed and impurities were present and ultimately it was just a stanchion, an unclean thing. Settled on the leaves. But it says here, they say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil. We could suggest here, if we seek a summarizing term, an apathy. Perhaps not some in the full-fledged idolatry that we've seen earlier in the chapter, but enough carelessness, enough apathy to come under this condemnation of God. Perhaps they were among those that had that false definition of the day of the Lord like Amos described. They kept waiting on the day that Israel and Judah would be blessed and be in the world and all the world's riches would come to them. It didn't happen. The backstories and judgments and the ups and downs of Israel's history are before them. They don't settle back Go back to the Word to find out what's going on and why. One of the things of Josiah's day and his reforms, they found the book of the law in the temple. And they took it to the king and presented it to him. Some of the liberals seize on that and they think that's when Deuteronomy was written. You know, let's write something new and tell everybody Moses wrote it and we can try and fix things that way. Hmm. Jesuitry. Liberals suggesting that's how we got our Bibles. The king was to have the law read before him. The people were to be present at the feast and the public reading of the law. They would just sing and commit to memory the Psalms of Israel. Instead of searching, believing that there is a God, there is such a thing as truth, and going in a troubled time to find that truth and find that God, they just say instead, the Lord is not going to do good, neither do evil. And so they just go with the flow. Don't make any waves. What could we do anyway? And they care not. These are among those upon whom God will send His judgment. If you look down to verse 18, I think we see another underlying cause. Neither shall their silver nor their gold be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath. Prosperity and pride. You remember, it was true in Amos' day, referring to Amos because he was so early in bringing this theme of the day of the Lord. But the northern tribes were prosperous in his day. They had regained territory they hadn't known since the time of David. The little interval between giant powers, the political situation allowed them to be in the middle of everything, to be on the trade routes, to take a few tariffs as commerce went through the land. They had winter houses and summer houses. Mortgage interest rates were high enough that they could do that. The prosperity and pride that they Think of it. You know, I think sometimes it's sadly true when they say the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Other truths that sadly are accurate with regard to the church. Sometimes it's easy for us to take hard times. And it is to take good times. Because in the hard times we're forced to admit our need. We're humbled by external means instead of internal means. And we cry out to God for deliverance. Would to God we had hearts that cried to Him in prosperity. Would to God we had hearts that recognized we needed Him when we have Abundance of earthly things were not built up with pride, self-sufficiency, and ultimately departure from the things of God. These people upon whom the day was coming had known silver. They possessed gold. But in the day, their silver and their gold would not be able to deliver them. As Zephaniah has gone on, we could read more into his prophecy with regard to both the causes and the outworking of that judgment aspect of his day. But turn with me, if you would, to chapter 3. And I want to begin reading in verse 11. Here's where in some ways I want the reading of the Word to be the sermon. Come now to that other side of the day of the Lord. The side of blessing. In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings wherein thou hast transgressed against Me. For then I will take away out of the midst of them that rejoice in thy pride and thou shalt no more be haughty because of My holy mountain." Think of them. When He preached the coming destruction, they said, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. The northern tribes can get captured. All the surrounding villages from Jerusalem and Judah can get captured, but Jerusalem itself can never fall because this is God's house. And remember, Jeremiah said, what happened at Shiloh? where the tabernacle and all those furnishings were. The Philistines took the ark of God. It's a giant phrase just to read and pause. So the Philistines took the ark of God. It's a historic reality and occurrence that should really make you stop and search what was going on and why. Well, here the Lord says with regard to such days in which they had pride and they were haughty because of His holy mountain, verse 12, I'll also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people. And they shall trust in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel shall do no 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. Sing, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, and hath cast out thine enemy. The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee. Thou shalt not see evil and calamity anymore. And that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not, and to Zion let not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. I will gather them that are sorrowful, for the solemn assembly were of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden. Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee, and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out. I will get them praise and fame in every land where they've been put to shame. At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you. For I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord." Well, I think that what we see here is one of those occasions where the prophecy looks forward from these historic days of the Lord to the ultimate. day of the Lord to close even of this age. I would suggest what we've read in this closing part of the third chapter is what Paul at length describes in Romans 9-11. Israel still is cut off and being chastened and provoked to jealousy by the Gospel being shared with us poor Gentiles. But there's a day coming in which if God has so blessed the Gentiles through Israel's chastisement, what will it be for Israel and the rest of the world? when He revives Israel in that day. But what are the aspects of this blessing? Just a few things and we come to a close. These things of idolatry and syncretism and apathy and pride and prosperity that were causes and accompaniments to that judging aspect of the day of the Lord. What will be the things that accompany the blessing? Look in verse 11. And that day shalt thou not be ashamed for thy doings wherein thou strands rest against me. I'll take away from thee the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride. Thou shalt be no more haughty." Humility is going to accompany the people that are blessed. Of course, this is a gospel truth. These are, well, the very things that Christ preached in the Beatitudes as He opened His public ministry. We read in verse 12, "...I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord." What's going to accompany Him alongside of humility? Faith. It will be a believing people. Or as the psalmist says, thy people shall be willing. in the day of thy power." How can Israel, how can God's people of any nation, of any age, expect to be blessed when they're pumped up with pride and have no gospel hearts? But for a people to be humbled, a people to be brought savingly to faith, there is a day of blessing. I've said it often in prayer. I don't remember very much recently using the phrase, but if we borrow that psalm, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. We can pray for revival. We can pray for blessing, for God's putting down of the ungodliness that surrounds us. If we're praying for God to move in blessing, We're praying for changed hearts. Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power. It's easy for us in the church to see how bad the world is and pray against all that and think somehow that there's no change that's needed in us. A blessing that will accompany the day of the Lord. It's going to be marked by humility among God's people. It's going to be marked by faith. It's going to be marked by changed lives. Verse 13 as it continues, "...the remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, nor have a deceitful tongue in their mouth." There's that ultimate fulfillment of the New Covenant. God's law written in our hearts. If you read through those verses, sing, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O Israel. Be glad and rejoice with all thine heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments. He hath cast out thine enemy. The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee. These are the blessings of revival. Again, that will accompany His advent. It's been a long time since we've looked at it, but Isaiah's servant's song and that pinnacle of Old Testament prophecy is really a prophetic psalm. It's Israel's penitential confession in the day of that ultimate blessing, that ultimate revival that is His second advent. And then those verses that we read, God, His power, His joy. Think of these things. It's easy to think of power. Omnipotence is one of the attributes we memorize in Sunday school as little ones in our catechisms. God has power, but God has joy. God has love. God will rejoice over His people with singing. There's gospel communion. There is fellowship that cannot be excelled. These are blessings that come and that still await the people of God. We must have sung a good bit because it's not often I look up on a Sunday night and see the clock where it is now. So if I've preached too long, I apologize. If you sang too long, I don't apologize. That was a blessing. But we've just skimmed through pieces. His theme, the day of the Lord, the two sides of that divine intervention. But I think there's food for us as we've certainly hinted all through the message and before within these prophets. There are a lot of people today, a lot of preachers, getting their prophecy charts out, stirring things up with regard to the last days and all this stuff. We may be near. I don't know. Neither do they. But we do know this. The Gospel is always the need. So let us in troubled times, let us in praying for the day of the Lord, pray that those reasons for the judgmental aspects of the day would pair us and the aspects of the Gospel blessing would more and more belong to us as we see the day approaching and wait for their final and ultimate fulfillment when we see Him and we're made like Him, for we see Him as He is. Let's bow our heads together. Our Heavenly Father, tonight we come We confess it is not difficult to read among these minor prophets and see conditions that prevailed in Israel and Judah through those closing decades and even centuries of the years of the kingdom. Or to see parallels in the history of the church and to see a low point in the days in which we live. Lord, give us wise and gospel hearts. Lord, we can pray against the idolatry and the syncretism, the mingling of your worship and that of the world. Lord, preserve us even from the apathy, just drifting as if it doesn't matter. and give us gospel hearts to be a faithful and true witness. If we become overwhelmed and perplexed at what seems to be on the horizon, then let us be a sabbatic. Let us stop and think. Let us go back to the basics. Let us apply those gospel basics to the problem. and let us with Zephaniah soberly hold before our generation these words of truth, words of gospel. Grant us grace. Lord, help us as we go our separate ways. Bless us in our homes, in our debt, in our uproar. Lord, bless us in the privacy of our own thoughts. And give us help to be lights in the midst of this generation. Thank you for this Lord's Day together. May the Living Word that we've considered together find a lodging place in these hearts and minister to us still in the days of this week. We ask and pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.