We turn in God's inspired word this evening to the prophecy of Zephaniah, one of the minor prophets found near the end of the Old Testament. Zephaniah chapter two. Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired, before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment. Seek righteousness, seek meekness, It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. For gazes shall be forsaken, Ashkelon a desolation. They shall drive out Ashdod at the noonday, and Ekron shall be rooted up. Woe unto the inhabitants of the seacoast, the nation of the Karathites, the word of the Lord is against you. O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee. that there shall be no inhabitant. And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks, and the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah they shall feed thereupon. In the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening, for the Lord their God shall visit them and turn away their captivity. I have heard the reproach of Moab and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached my people and magnified themselves against their border. Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, surely Moab shall be as Sodom and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, given the breeding of nettles and salt pits and a perpetual desolation. Residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them. This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts. The Lord will be terrible unto them, for he will famish all the gods of the earth, and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathens. ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword. And he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria and will make Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wilderness. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations, both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lentils of it. Their voice shall sing in the windows, desolation shall be in the thresholds, for he shall uncover the cedar work. This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me. How has she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in, everyone that passeth by her shall hiss and wag his hand. Text which I call your attention this evening is found in the first three verses of Zephaniah chapter two. Gather yourselves together. Ye gather together, O nation not desired, before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, with great urgency did the prophet proclaimed the word of the Lord to the children of Judah. With great urgency did he warn them of God's just judgment. For they who laid claim to being the children of God had shown themselves idolaters, rejecters of God and of his word, holding back nothing Zephaniah boldly proclaimed all that Jehovah had given him to preach, to prophesy, and to this point, there had been no pleasant words. I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. God is coming in judgment. Jehovah coming to reveal his wrath especially against those who claim to be his children. Jehovah coming to search Jerusalem with candles, we read in the first chapter, to expose the iniquity and punish those who have settled on their leaves, who live as though God is not one who sees nor hears, The great day of the Lord is near. So proclaimed Zephaniah. And that word, God mercifully sent for the sake of his elect remnant. And that word continues to bear significance today and is proclaimed even now for our sakes For all who belong to God's afflicted and poor people in the midst of this world, who love him, who hear his word and will follow him. But having set forth the great and terrible truth of the coming day of the Lord, Zephaniah shows now in these first three verses of chapter two, the purpose of God in sending his prophet to preach these sharp words and warnings of judgment. Those who are indeed the people of God, not according to the flesh, but by faith, are to be called to repentance, that they might indeed show themselves as the people of God. The elect remnant must be called apart unto righteousness and meekness. We must be called to the salvation that is ours in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. The urgent call of the gospel comes to us in this text. It's a call to repentance and faith. You and I are called to seek Jehovah. And as we consider this urgent calling, I intend to follow the instruction of the text pretty much verse by verse. The theme of the text is called to seek Jehovah. And I ask you to notice from the text four things concerning this call. An urgent call, a particular call, a defined call, a fruitful call. An urgent call, as we see in the first two verses. A particular call, as it is addressed to the meek of the earth, in verse three. A defined call, which doesn't leave up to men to determine what it is to seek Jehovah, but spells it out. And then finally, a fruitful call, as we see in the last part of verse three. That's how we intend to preach this text. So in the first place, this call to seek Jehovah is an urgent call. Gather yourselves together, says the prophet. Ye gather together, O nation not desired. Having made proclamation of impending judgment, unavoidable judgment, Zephaniah issues the call to repentance. It's an urgent call, a serious call. It's the call of the gospel even as we continue to preach it today. It's the call of the gospel as maintained by all Reformed churches that continue to stand in the truths of the Synod of Dor. I refer to that great synod at which was adopted one of our Reformed creeds, the Canons of Dort. There under the third and fourth heads of doctrine, Article 8, we are told that as many as are called by the gospel are unfaintedly called. God earnestly and truly declares what is acceptable to him. namely that the wicked turn from their evil ways and live. And so we see here in the prophecy of Zephaniah, the great mercy of God is revealed here in this urgent call. Here is revealed a truth that when God chastens us and makes known to us our sins, Even when he sets before us his wrath, he does so for the purpose of calling us into his fellowship in the way of repentance, by faith in the way of repentance. Now that is not true of all who hear his rebukes and threatenings, you understand. In fact, If Zephaniah preached this word of God to the multitudes, the majority rejected it. They would not hear. But our canons also explain from scripture that response. In article nine of the third and fourth heads of doctrine, it is not the fault of the gospel Nor of Christ offered therein, and by the way, when the canons use that term offer, they use it in the ancient sense of that Latin word, presented or set forth in the gospel. It's not the fault of the gospel, nor of Christ presented therein, Nor of God, who calls men by the gospel and confers upon them various gifts, that those who are called by the ministry of the word refuse to come and be converted. The fault lies in themselves. Some of whom, when called, regardless of their danger, reject the word of life. Others, though they receive it, Suffer it not to make a lasting impression upon their hearts. Therefore, their joy arising only from a temporary faith soon vanishes and they fall away. While others choke the seed of the word by perplexing cares and the pleasures of this world and produce no fruit. This our Savior teaches in the parable of the sower, Matthew 13. And then we read this in Article 10, but that others who are called by the gospel obey that call and are converted is not to be ascribed to the proper exercise of free will, but must be wholly ascribed to God, who confers upon his people faith and repentance and rescues them from the power of darkness. In other words, beloved, this text before us this evening reveals to us that when the faithful covenant God sees us who are his rushing headlong toward destruction, he calls us back with sharp rebukes and chastisements and warnings, and so he tells us that when he chastens us, he will yet be merciful to us. When touched by his grace, we flee to him in the godly sorrow of repentance. So he calls those who are his. Gather yourselves together. That kind of gathering would be well understood by the people to whom Zephaniah preached, It would be the same kind of gathering to which the prophet Joel called the people, as we read in Joel 1 verse 14. It was to be a gathering where the people of God together would express sincere repentance, true repentance. Not that superficial outward appearance of repentance, but heartfelt, God-honoring repentance. Ye gather together, O nation not desired. Acknowledge before the face of God that you have made yourselves unworthy of his blessing. For all that he has given you by your place in the nation of Israel, his church, you've shown yourselves abominable, undesirable, worthy to be rejected. Gather yourselves in humility before Jehovah, for so God will magnify his grace. He will show favor to you who have altogether forfeited that favor. There is no reason that he should save you, yet he continues to call you to himself. Hear this urgent call. Seek ye the Lord. The urgency of the call is even enhanced in verse two. before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you. The prophet speaks of God's decree bringing forth, that is giving birth. He doesn't speak here of the hidden counsel of God, he speaks of the decree that God had already declared by the mouth of his prophet. It carries great urgency. And those who will be faithful preachers must preach with that urgency. For as it was in the days of Zephaniah, when the Jews thought all those threatenings would come to nothing, so it is in our day. Always there are those who come under the preaching of the gospel, with its rebukes and admonitions and threatenings, as well as its promises, and they treat that gospel as though it were nothing more than empty words. But the prophet makes clear, he and the rest of God's servants are not merely beating the air when God proclaims his vengeance upon impenitent sinners and calls them to repentance. We're not simply expending air from our lungs past our larynx and through our mouths. The preaching of God's word is a decree that is bringing forth. It is accomplishing his purpose. It shall not return void. As the unborn child lies hidden in the womb, only coming forth in due time, so God's vengeance, though hid for a time, shall come forth at that time appointed by God, and there will be no turning back. And once that time comes, there is no more room for repentance. Now is the day of salvation, says the Lord. Urgent is this call. Still more, You are to heed this call, says the prophet, before the day pass as the chaff. Again, an expression that emphasizes the urgency of this call. The day referred to is the day of Jehovah's fierce anger. It's the day when his righteousness shall be revealed before all men, when all shall receive the just reward of God's righteousness for all that they have done and said and stood for. And the prophet says, that day shall pass as the chaff. Some think They have all kinds of time to get right with God. I can do that later. The call is an urgent call. Some always have an excuse ready when confronted by that call. The word of God says, gather yourselves together unto repentance. before the day pass as the chaff. That day shall pass as the chaff, which the wind blows away. Think of how quickly chaff is consumed by fire or swept away by a strong wind. Hosea uses that same figure in Hosea 13, where speaking of the impenitent, he says, they shall be as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor and as the smoke out of the chimney. That's the figure now Zephaniah uses to point to the urgency of this call that he proclaims to the children of Judah, the church. Though God restrains for a time the outpouring of his full wrath, though he is long suffering toward us, toward his church, whom he will surely save, the day comes when suddenly there shall be no more salvation. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment. Notice now, as we move to my second point, that we have before us also a particular call. Zephaniah knows that God is not about to bring a great revival to the land. The promiscuous multitude is hardened in their iniquity. Their hearts are hard to the preaching of the word. Zephaniah doesn't look for great numbers to be brought to salvation by his preaching, nor do we. We desire that. According to our earthly desires, we long for many to be brought to repentance and faith, to the joy of salvation. but God has revealed that such will not be the case in the last days. Even now, as it was in the last days of the Old Testament, so in the last hour today, God will gather his church. He will do so by the faithful preaching of the gospel. The white horse and his rider go forth conquering and to conquer victorious as we read in Revelation chapter six, but we may not expect that God will gather multitudes in any particular place by the preaching of one of his servants. In fact, the days become more and more difficult and the preaching of the gospel more and more is held up to contempt. Even so, God will call his people. Here, too, there's instruction for us today. John Calvin, in his commentary on this text, points out that we are taught here that though ministers of the word may think sometimes that they sing to the deaf and labor to no purpose, they ought not depart from the course of their calling To preach the gospel faithfully and persistently, God will use the prophetic labors of his servants to gather his people. There will always be those, though it takes a long time in some cases, who will be wonderfully saved. So as not to perish with those who persist in their opposition to God's word, And Zephaniah surely preached in the confidence that God is powerful to save and that the prophetic office had not been committed to him, to Zephaniah, in vain. Although the greater part are given over to their own sin, God has a remnant that will surely be saved. They must be called. By name, they must be called. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth. Forget what the multitudes do or what they say or how they live. Don't use them for your example. The multitudes will not hear this call to turn from their evil way. Even where this call goes forth, many will not receive it. To them, this call is mere words, and they can easily shrug it off as they walk out the doors of the church. The significance of this call, the urgency, the way of salvation marked out by it is not revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. As Jesus said, many are called, but few are chosen. And so he says, Jesus prayed to his heavenly Father, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. When God raises his voice, as it were, with rebukes and warnings, And there are those who reject God's word and the judgment seen throughout the earth. You mustn't follow them. If you're going to run with the majority, you're going to find yourself in the wrong company come the day of the Lord's fierce anger. Because it's a simple fact and it's seen very clearly in our day. If you evaluate things in the light of the scriptures, God's inspired word, the majority reject God's word when it speaks of the sinfulness of sin and the holiness of our God. Great sins are made little sins. Little sins are made no sins at all. Examples can be multiplied. Taking the Lord's name in vain. What does that amount to in our day? Ignorance of the truth after sitting for years under faithful gospel preaching. That's not sin, is it? Blind, heartless devotion in God's service. That's not sin, is it? How dare one say a faithful churchgoer walks in sin? Back talk to parents and those in authority? Well, that's not sin, is it? That's standing up for one's rights. Fornication, said not to be sin if a young couple are meant for each other. Going to bed with another man's wife is not sin if they're divorced. Backbiting of fellow Christians, it's no big thing, is it? That's the thinking of the majority in our day. Some are simply ignorant of the scriptures. Others reject God's word and will not have his rebukes. And those who are hardened by the word rarely reject that word quietly. Why, almost invariably, they attempt to lead others with them in their rejection of that word. But the prophet turns away from them. He focuses his call upon those who will hear. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth. The meek, quite simply, are those who have been subdued by the Spirit of Christ. Those whose hearts, whose pride, that is, has been shredded by the grace of God. Their once rebellious natures have been reined in By the power of God's word, as that word explained the chastisements which God brought upon them for their correction. They are those who recognize God as precious, as Lord over them, who more and more love his precepts. Zephaniah calls all those who would be submissive to God, though they be but a remnant. Will you hear the word of the Lord? Will you submit to Him? Has the Spirit worked in you to subdue your rebellious nature to give you to recognize the greatness of your sin? You've wrought God's judgment. Do you know that? You have stoked his great wrath because of your sin. So have I. We are left without hope in ourselves. Do you confess that? Do you long to see Jesus? Then you belong to the meek. And I preach to you as those who are the meek of the earth. When you belong to the meek of the earth, it will also be seen of you that you have a fervent desire to humble yourself before God's word, to hear that word, to take it to yourself. When chastisements touch our lives, We know that we have received nothing beyond what we have deserved. And we are stimulated to greater diligence in our spiritual lives because we know we've never fully performed our duty before God. No matter how much we've devoted ourselves to seeking and serving God, we know that his word still applies very much to us Seek ye the Lord. But this calling to seek Jehovah, this urgent call, this one particularly addressed to the meek, is also a defined call. In the first place, let us notice the simple call to seek Jehovah. To seek him is to give him the place of primacy in our lives. to seek him calls our attention to him, to his word. It calls us to focus on him in the same way that a man would search for a diamond that is his or a gold piece that's lost in a pile of sawdust. He will sift carefully through that pile, section by section, seeking the precious possession that is His. You and I are called to do the same with Him who is our Savior. Involved in that calling to seek are several things that become clear when you study that term in the light of the scriptures. Take a concordance, and you will find more than 200 references to the term seek. Some of them, many of them, use with reference to seeking God. The biblical references teach us several things about seeking the Lord. We find, for example, in Proverbs 8, verse 17, that involved in such seeking of Jehovah is love. To seek Jehovah is an expression of love for him. It's an expression of the life of Christ already reigning in us. And the Lord tells us, therefore, I love them that love me, and them that seek me early, those that seek me early shall find me. Seeking Jehovah involves a fervent, heartfelt desire to fellowship with him. And so you and I are called to show by our lives that the song of the psalmist is our song in Psalm 63, verses one and two. Oh God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee. My flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. And so we also learn there that involved in this seeking of Jehovah is the meditation upon his wondrous works, his power and his glory. To seek Jehovah, therefore, involves study and meditation, activity of the mind. If you don't want to put your mind to work, you can't seek Jehovah. He doesn't bless laziness, not in our daily life. He certainly doesn't bless laziness in our spiritual life. To seek the Lord is also to look to him as the sovereign God who alone has given us this place among His people, the children of Israel, the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's to look to Him as our only Savior, the only one who gives us light in the darkness. But also involved in seeking Jehovah is this, that we humble ourselves before Him, acknowledging the greatness of our sins. We find that truth expressed in Daniel chapter nine where Daniel seeks the Lord. We read in Daniel nine verse three, and I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. He did so with heartfelt sorrow for sin. Sorrow which acknowledged the holiness of God. To seek Jehovah is to abandon our pride. No wonder those who are rebellious and hard-hearted will not seek Jehovah. Psalm 10 verse four explains it. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. But there's one more thing that we misunderstand. This seeking of Jehovah is a part of our life, the central part, only by the wonder work of God's sovereign grace. Else you and I will not seek him. God calls us, beloved, and when he calls us, when he calls us who are his, He calls us powerfully, irresistibly. He speaks to your soul and says, seek ye my face. And our hearts say unto him, thy face, Lord, will I seek. That we read in Psalm 27 verse eight. But more specifically, the calling to seek Jehovah is defined by the following two exhortations in the text. Seek righteousness. Now clearly, in the light of all scripture, that does not mean that you are to seek your own righteousness in yourself or your own works. The Israelites, long before, had proved that their own righteousness could avail them nothing. The righteousness which come by the works of the law had been seen as far out of their reach, pointed them to the need for Christ. The only way one could even begin to maintain an attitude of self-righteousness was by a very superficial and erroneous view of sin. And that we see in the example of the Pharisees. But that must also be understood by us, beloved. Our righteousness must be found outside ourselves in another. And that other is Jesus Christ, whom I set before you in the gospel. Seek for your righteousness in the Messiah, God's own son, come to save you from your sins. He alone has the righteousness that stands forever. The call to seek Jehovah is a call to seek him in the face of Jesus Christ, the only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. That, first of all, Then we may also see that the call to seek righteousness involves the calling to form our lives according to the righteousness of God's precepts. Christ first, obedience second, but the two are inseparable. Without Christ, there can be no true obedience. With Christ, There must be obedience to his righteous precepts. That's a spiritual necessity. That's seen in Isaiah 51, verse one, where the prophet speaks the word of the Lord this way. Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. You see, those two are inseparable. To follow after righteousness goes hand in hand with seeking the Lord. Repentance is seen by a conformity to God's righteous precepts. Love for God is seen by love for his word. The call is still further defined by this. Seek meekness. Seek meekness. Here, the prophet exhorts us to cultivate true humility, to place ourselves in willing subjection, not only to God's word, but to God's ways with us. The apostle Peter had the same thing in mind when he wrote 1 Peter 5, verse 6. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." Now bear in mind, the apostle is speaking this word to those who'd already been subdued by the Holy Spirit, by God's word and spirit. But they were also those who had their life in the midst of this world with all its present difficulties. He speaks to those who having examined their own lives and consciences knew that they were not without sin, even much sin. And they found themselves in a world that tried their faith continuously. It's not easy to remain subject to God in the face of all kinds of opposition and a multitude of temptations. And when we also are touched by the righteous judgments of God, we must not question God's ways with us. We must show ourselves the meek of the earth. That's your calling, beloved. Jehovah God sends his word calling you and me, even as he did his people through the words of the prophet Zephaniah. And that call continues to the end of the world. It's just as urgent, just as particular, just as defined. Hear the word of the Lord. This call is also a fruitful call. It may be, says the prophet, ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Now again, do not misunderstand. The prophet does not speak with doubt as though the faithful are uncertain of their deliverance by God. That expression, it may be, is an expression rarely used in scripture. But what it expresses is the powerlessness and unworthiness of man. We stand before a need that cannot be taken care of by us. We are dependent entirely upon the mercies of God for that deliverance in the day of his anger. But when all things appear desperate and hopeless, We must understand there is no deficiency in the love of God for the meek of the earth. Seek ye the Lord. Though by this same proclamation, the hard-hearted and rebellious must know that they shall surely perish You who are the meek of the earth are called by Jehovah unto himself. He's ready to pardon, ready to conceal you from his anger in the very bosom of his own dear son. That's the great mercy of our God. When this call of God is effective unto salvation, as is his good pleasure in those who are his, You shall be saved in the day of the Lord's anger. By the power of his spirit and grace, God calls you who are his. He says to you, seek ye my faith. Seek righteousness. Seek meekness. Hear his word, beloved. Then when the fan of His judgment blows upon the wicked and reveals them as chaff, Jehovah, looking upon you in Christ Jesus, will find that you are already fanned and cleansed by His Word, by His Son. You are sheltered by your Savior, Jesus Christ. And therefore you shall be taken to glory only your old nature being left behind, you shall be perfected with not a remnant of chaff clinging to you anymore. And as pure wheat in the heavenly garners and mansions of glory, you shall be seen reflecting the glorious golden glory of the grace of God, revealed in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. Heavenly Father, we once again stand before thy word, having heard the call of the gospel. When thou dost so reveal thyself to us as the righteous judge of all the universe, and as the one who's coming in the day of thine anger to execute judgment on all who oppose thee and thy word. We pray that thou will call us by thy word to righteousness and meekness, that we humble ourselves before thee, repent of our great and many sins, and find in thee the salvation that is ours in Christ Jesus, thy son, our Lord. So work in our hearts, O God, until we at last enter that blessed rest which Thou hast promised to us who love Thee. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.