who gives his saving help to me People of God, we now come to the opening of God's Word in a particular way. Our text of focus, as we pick up again in Zephaniah, now at the beginning of chapter three. It's right around page 1,000 in the Pew Bibles. And if you're looking in your own Bibles again, it's probably easiest to find Matthew 1 and work some pages back, backwards till you get to Zephaniah. We will read one through 10, will most likely return to verses nine and 10 as they're kind of finishing one section and also starting another section. So you might also say that we have two and a half points instead of three points this morning, but we'll read the first 10 verses. And look, especially at 1 to 8, but even all 10. So people of God, let us hear the word, beginning at verse 1, chapter 3. Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city. She listens to no voice. She accepts no correction. She does not trust in the Lord. She does not draw near to her God. Her officials within her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves that leave nothing till the morning. Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men. Her priests profane what is holy. They do violence to the Lord. The Lord within her is righteous. He does no injustice. Every morning He shows forth His justice. Each dawn He does not fail, but the unjust knows no shame. I have cut off the nations, their battlements are in ruins. I have weighed-laced their streets so that no one walks in them. Their cities have been made desolate, without a man, without an inhabitant. I said, surely you will fear me and will accept correction. Then your dwelling will not be cut off according to all that I have appointed against you. But all the more they were eager to make all their deeds corrupt. Therefore, wait for me, declares the Lord. For the day when I rise up to seize the prey, for my decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour upon them my indignation, all my burning anger, for in the fire of my jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed. For at that time, I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord. From beyond the rivers of Cush, my worshippers, the daughters of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering." So far the reading of God's holy Word and dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ. I think we can feel the back and forth chaos of this book. Jerusalem is condemned. The world is condemned. Jerusalem is condemned again. The world is condemned again. Jerusalem is condemned again. And that's what we have here at the beginning of chapter 3. Nineveh, the exultant city that lives securely, chapter 2 verse 15, has just been condemned. Their destruction has been described. The aftermath of ruin. And now we come to chapter 3 and we return to Jerusalem. Because what is the oppressing city of chapter 3 verse 1? Well, this is the city that should have had love for God because they had revelation. They should have drawn near to God. They should have listened. They had the revelation, but they put it aside. They are the ones who had the relationship, but have discarded it. Yes, in a broad way, we know there was at least one generation of Nineveh that had some repentance when Jonah came, but it is clear, especially at this time in history, this can only be describing Jerusalem, even though the name Jerusalem is not given in Zephaniah 3, 1 to 4. And so the back and forth continues. Then we might say the world is mentioned again, seven, eight. And then we come to verse nine and we hear the word for. And we might think, well, here we go again. It's just gonna continue, right? Jerusalem, the world, Jerusalem, the world, and condemned and condemned, even with the words of how to seek the Lord, of how to repent in the middle of all of this, as those who have been with us have noted, chapter two, verses one to three, but we think, well, here we go again, verse nine, four, we're gonna... But then verse nine is the beginning of something different, isn't it? The description of the day of grace rather than the day of wrath, because the day of the Lord has both of these things. The day of the Lord is not only a day of wrath, the day of the Lord is also a day of the great pouring out of grace. And so we'll begin to see that also this morning. And people of God, it is clear and is clear that those who care not for justice will feel God's divine justice. But we'll also begin to see that God pours out His gracious justice on the world as well. And so we'll consider our three points this morning. First, the evil of man, and then second, the response of God wrath, we could say the just wrath of God, and then third, the response of God, grace. And His grace is also a just grace, according to the offering. But first, let's look at the evil of man in verses one to four. because we might say, haven't we gone through this back and forth enough? Haven't we heard enough? But Zephaniah continues to describe what makes man evil, and so we must continue to hear what makes man evil. And that first verse is a comprehensive verse. It attacks the three major levels, we might say. who is rebellious, defiled, oppressing. It's quite clear in the connotation of the English words and even more clear in the connotation of the Hebrew words. Rebellious, what is that? It's rebellion against something. It's rebellion against God. So they're committing evil at that level. They are rebelling against God. What about defilement? Well, We can get that sense even from the English, but it's especially clear from the Hebrew verb. It's a personal defilement. There's personal sin involved. That's part of the problem. And what about oppression? Well, certainly that implies the oppression of others. Right? And certainly the Hebrew verb does that as well. It's the oppression of others which is in view here. So just in a few words, Zephaniah is saying, look, you're sitting at all levels. You've got rebellion directly against God, you've got personal defilement, and you are oppressing others. Even as we understand all sins are ultimately sin against God, the first commandment is the foundational commandment, we can still understand these distinctions. And why? What has brought on this every level of sin? Sin at every level, in every relationship, in every direction, we might say, whether vertical or horizontal or personal, She listens to no voice. She accepts no correction. And then once again, within verse two, we see multiple levels of this. It's just broadly speaking, she doesn't listen to any voice. She doesn't listen to any correction. And more particularly, it's that she does not trust in the Lord or draw near to God. Human nature does not like to be corrected. But we must open our ears to correction that is from God's Word, which is in accordance with God's Word. So we can ask it this way, are you in a general sense one who accepts correction? Remember, even in a general sense, they don't listen to anyone. So is there anyone you listen to, right? Your boss would probably be grateful if you at least listened to someone. It would help things go more smoothly for you. But more importantly, more particularly, do you hear the correction of God and of His Word? And the correction which comes from the voice of man in a sense, but which is in accordance with God's Word. Right? We are to hear correction. Otherwise, we bear the mark of this sinful city. And that's what the her is, her, right? She's the oppressing city. She oppresses others. But then it's not only the city itself, but it's even more particularly the leaders. And we've had this back and forth, Judah, the world, Judah, the world, but we've also had this back and forth between the population as a whole and the leaders. We can remember that especially from that first section. We might say verses two to six of chapter one. And so we get that back and forth again. The city as a whole versus one and two, but the leaders in particular versus three and four. And leaders are, called to a particular standard. And the very image given here is a reminder that it's leaders who are abusing their power. Man is not to use power in the same way that animals use power. But these leaders of Jerusalem are using power in an animal-like predatory way. They are roaring lions. They are evening wolves that leave nothing till the morning. You know, wolves will sometimes eat their fill and then leave part of the carcass for other animals to basically fight over. So the wolves, they come in, they pick on the weak, and that's what wolves do. They're disheartening, disorienting hunters. They take the weak. A leader should be the one who gives special attention to the weak and lifts them up. But a predator is one who seeks out the weak and destroys them for their own advantage. That's the image of a predator. And wolves do this. But sometimes, if wolves aren't that hungry, if things have been going well, they'll leave part of the carcass for others. So they'll make the kill and then some will be left for the birds and the coyotes. But other times, if the wolves are hungry, they take it all for themselves. Those are the kinds of wolves described here. Evening wolves that leave nothing till the morning. We've said this before for those who have been with us for this walk through Zephaniah. The images of judgment and of injustice, we can go to scripture for the starkest images, can we not? They violate the law. They use their position for their own predatory ends and chaos ensues. Fickle, treacherous, not standing up courageously against corruption, but instead a major cause of the corruption. The city as a whole is an oppressing city. and that comes from the character of their leaders. Now let us think for a moment about what a leader should be. Lord willing, we'll consider the Fifth Commandment next Sunday evening as we continue to walk through the Catechism through the Ten Commandments. So we could pull examples from right, employee, employer, from government, but let's pull an example this morning from parents, the basic building block of human authority. Fifth Commandment, obey your parents. So a mother is one who has an authority. Now imagine if a mother was self-serving and had this kind of predatory nature and rules constantly changing and only doing things all for herself. Well, that's hard to even hardly imagine, because if a child is being kept alive, a mother is, at least to a certain degree, being a servant leader, isn't she? I mean, just to bring a child from the womb to the world is a sacrifice. It's a kind of servant leadership, not preying upon the weak, but giving yourself up for the weak. And so a mother who would even give herself up for nine months to bring a child from the womb to the world is displaying a proper servant leadership, not a predatory leadership. And then once that baby is in the world, just to keep that baby alive, it needs food all the time. It wakes up in the middle of the night. That's a servant leadership. That's the opposite of predatory leadership. A mother must give herself up in a particular way to keep the child alive. This is an example of good, serving leadership. One who has an authority, but gives herself up for those who are under her authority. And this is what all true leadership ought to look like. Not only for the mother, but also for the husband and the father. To have authority, yes, over wife and child, but to have an authority which is the authority of a servant leader. not to pretend that everything revolves around him, not to be the predator who would see those under him only as something that's for his own good and for his own service, to do violence, to manipulate things to his own end, no. That's the mark of an oppressing and predatory city. Husband the father is to be a servant leader. Oh, the danger of false leaders. Remember the aftermath at the end of chapter two of Nineveh? The aftermath of Nineveh is that once the people are wiped out, the animals move in. As Maatjer, the Reformed commentator, has said for the beginning of chapter three, in Jerusalem, the animals have already taken over. We do not get our directions for moral living from the might-makes-right order of the post-fall animal kingdom. We are made in the image of God, and we are called to live by the standard of God, not to sink down to the level of animals. And certainly in his leadership, Christ himself, the head of the church, demonstrates a servant leadership, does he not? Giving himself even over to death for the sake of his people. That is not a predator, that is a protector. Certainly, Christ is the ultimate leader. And the response of God is the righteous response to injustice. And we'll see first that there is a response of wrath. In verse 5, we see many direct contrasts to the cities and to the city of Jerusalem and to the leaders of Jerusalem. The city does not trust, middle of verse 2. But the Lord, the Lord himself, is trustworthy. In him there is no injustice. The city does not draw near to God, the end of verse 2. But that's not God's fault. God himself is always within her. He does no injustice. The leaders of the city, they fail to fulfill their duty. They are roaring lions. They are wolves that use the evening for destruction. But the Lord, every morning, shows forth. Shows forth His justice. And each dawn, He does not fail. The leaders do violence to the law, the end of verse 4, but the very next words, the Lord within her is righteous. The Lord is not responsible for evil. The Lord is nothing like sinful man and the sinful cities of man. May we say with the Psalm, Psalm 123, 1, Lord, to you I lift my eyes. Oh, you are enthroned in the heavens. And may we say as the astonished crowd said at one point in Mark chapter seven, he has done all things well. The crowd said that in response to some particular miracles of Jesus, but in maturity, we can look at all that Jesus does and say, he has done all things well. It is man who is evil, Lord is just, in him is justice. It is man who is unjust and knows no shame. It's not always easy for us to understand how the wrath of God and the goodness of God simultaneously go together. But a starting point to understand this is to know it is man who is responsible for evil. And surely it is true that the wrath of God is a just and deserved response to that evil. That's what we have, the contrast between the evil man and the justice of God in verse five, and that leads us into verse seven, where the Lord says, surely they would have, they would fear me, they would accept my correction, but they did not. Instead, evil man, even upon hearing me again, call them to repentance. At the end of verse 7, is only all the more eager to make all their deeds corrupt. And again, this is comprehensive. In verse 6, we do go again, one more time at least, from Judea to the world, from Judea to the world, to the world again. I have cut off nations, verse 6, comprehensive language, whether it's the military might of man, their battlements are in ruin, whether it's their structures, the streets are laid in ruin, the cities are made desolate, and so not a single man, not a single inhabitant is left. The wrath of God is deserved, and so Verse 8. First, we have this wait for me. It's telling us that something is coming. It's telling us that verse 9 is coming, but we're not there yet. Because what is the Lord going to do? He's going to seize the prey. Verse 8, third or fourth line. He's going to seize the prey. Who is the prey? The prey are the ones that he's going to gather, that he's going to assemble to pour out indignation, to pour out burning anger. In other words, the prey of verse eight is the predator of verse three. In God's just wrath, predators become the Lord's prey because he will not let it go unpunished. And now the day of wrath has been described by the prophet. But remember, he said, wait for me. And so even as the day of wrath is comprehensive, there will be wrath across the whole world to all who are in rebellion against God, But now we come to comprehensive language, the beginning of the language of that the day of the Lord is also the day of grace. And I rejoice that we'll get to look at this in detail in the next week, two weeks, however long it takes us to get to the end. But but already here we have to see that that verse nine, we get this for and we might think, oh, we're going to hear more words of wrath. We're just going to bounce back and forth again. But no, we're not. because the Lord has said wait for me and now we hear the description that it's not only wrath which is poured out on all those who are all who are unjust across the whole world to Cush and way beyond Cush to to the farthest reaches of of the those who disperse from from Babel and the the grace of God At that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve Him with one accord. The grace of God and His gracious response is also for all. This should not surprise us. Galatians chapter 3 quotes from Genesis. chapter 22. The plan of the Lord's favor and grace to be poured out on the sons of believing Abraham has always been a promise to go out to all the nations. Galatians chapter three, beginning at verse seven. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. And we see that as the description of the grace of the day of the Lord begins in verse 9 and essentially runs in a beautiful, comprehensive way to the end now of the prophecy, this is not an only Jerusalem grace. This is a speech for the peoples. This is a speech which, verse 10, is to impact those who are beyond the rivers of Cush. My worshipers, the daughters of my dispersed ones. What does beyond the rivers of Cush mean? Remember Cush is like the most distant land that Zephaniah knows of, right? He can't pull out a Google map and look at Google Earth. He knows of Cush. He knows there are people beyond Cush, but he doesn't know what those people are called. And this language is saying, look in Cush, but also beyond Cush. All my dispersed ones. So in this context, what is the dispersed ones? This isn't the dispersion of the exiles of Judah. This is the dispersion of Genesis 11. And this word, dispersion, is used in the Old Testament for both in different contexts. It's used in Genesis 11 to describe the dispersion of those who went out from the Tower of Babel when language was confused. And it's also used in the particular context of the dispersion of the exiles of of Israel but it's clear here the context here is is is parallel with Genesis 11 not with not with Ezekiel or the end of Ezekiel or something. This is the context of those who are beyond. All my dispersed ones, all the Gentiles to the farthest reaches of the world, I will, yes, I will have wrath on all those who are unjust in all of the world, but I will also have grace and mercy poured out to the end of the earth. That's what's going on in verse 10. Those dispersed ones. Us dispersed ones. I'm a Gentile. I will unify. I will make pure speech. That's another hint, by the way, that this is a kind of babble reversal. It's a pure speech. It's a unity of service. The problem in Babel wasn't that they were all speaking the same language. The problem in Babel is that they were all speaking the same language to not serve God, but to serve man and to build their high tower. Now, am I saying I know for sure that there will only be one language in heaven? I don't know that for sure. If someone was going to try to argue that, you should probably turn to Acts chapter 2, when Pentecost reverses Babel, and to Zephaniah 3. But I don't know if we can quite go that far. But we can say there will be unity of the speech. In other words, even if there's not only one language, everyone will understand each other. Everyone will be in unity, not just speaking the same language, but more particularly The unity of worshiping and praising and serving God. That's the unity. That's the pure speech. Serving Him. Calling upon Him. Prayers will be made, not only in Jerusalem, but also... I mean, we really are on the other side of the world from Jerusalem, aren't we? Prayers will be heard in Waupon, Wisconsin. and my dispersed one shall bring my offering." What offering are we speaking of here? Well, it's partially the offering of service, right? We might think of Romans chapter 12. We are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. And that's Romans 12, verse 1. If we turn just a few more pages in Romans, we'd see that this was particularly the mission of Paul, that the Gentiles would also give that offering. Here, Romans 15, verse 16. Romans 15, verse 16. I have been called, and then he comes to verse 16, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, we know With a better understanding than Zephaniah, who did not have the full revelation of God, ultimately we know that it's the perfect offering of Jesus Christ which makes the offering of both Jews and Gentiles acceptable. That's the perfect offering. The offering of Himself on the cross for our sins. And whatever offerings we are called to give, through whatever fire we may be called to give our offering and service, to think of 1 Corinthians 3 language, Our offering, our sacrifice, can never be greater than the offering and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which was an offering that removes the sins of others by Jesus Christ taking the penalty of sin upon Himself. That's the perfect offering. People of God, in Zephaniah, we see that there's no basic difference between the judgment which comes against unjust Jerusalem and the judgment which comes against the unjust of the world. They both suffer under the fire of his jealousy. The end of verse 8, and that's mentioned also in 1 verse 18, regards to the world. But we now also begin to see that the offering, the giving of His Son by God, that is a gracious gift in which there's no discrimination between Jerusalem and the world. Why did He send His only Son? Because He so loved Jerusalem? No, because He so loved the world. There is no great difference between the unjust of Jerusalem, between the unjust of the world. There's no great difference between the dispersed and gathered exiles of Judah and the dispersed and gathered exiles of Babel. The grace of God is for Jew and Gentile alike. So, believe in Jesus Christ, no matter which part of the earth you stand on. His offering is the perfect offering, which can make your offering acceptable. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God of all, we rejoice that you have given us your word, that you have made it clear, you are just. And we rejoice that you not only respond in wrath to judge sin in a just way, but that you have also poured out your grace, that this is done to the ends of the earth, And we pray that we would be your gathered people, and that we would live to serve you. This we pray in Jesus' name, who gave himself the perfect servant leader. Amen. People of God, our song of response 291. Let's sing together stanzas 1 to 3, 6 and 7. 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 of 291. Standing to sing. to sing my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. My gracious Master and my Goddess, ♪ Through all the earth abroad ♪ The honors of my name ♪ Jesus the name that charms our fears ♪ That bids our sorrows cease ♪ Tis music in the sinner's ears ♪ Tis life and death Dear hippy, deaf is praise ye dumb, Your lucent tongues employ, Ye blind behold your Saviour come, And leap ye lame for joy. God of glory, praise and love, be now and ever given, by saints below and saints above the churches. Amen. People of God, it's now time for our morning gifts and freewill offerings. Our offerings this morning is for the building fund. Following that, benediction, then the Doxology 567. People of God, if you would stand. Stand, if able. Let's hear God's benediction. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. all creatures you you