Please be seated and let's take our Bibles and let's go back to Zephaniah. I want to read to you a story about a man named Benjamin and Judah.
We put them together, just call them Judah. And so Judah was to be God's holy remnant. But a very, very wicked king and then his son Ammon, Manasseh was the wicked king, his son Ammon became king and they intentionally filled the land with wickedness, ungodliness. And then a son was born to Ammon, Josiah. He became king at a very young age. And I'm convinced the prophet Zephaniah discipled young Josiah because he was a godly king and a strong reformer to bring Judah, supposedly the remnant, the godly remnant, the kingdom of Judah back to God.
And he made great progress and great reforms. However, there were still many in Judah whose hearts were not right, who still loved sin and wickedness and lived that way. And the nation for too long had been plunged into iniquity. Even despite Josiah's reformations, God's corrective and fierce judgment is coming against Judah. And Zephaniah the prophet is prophesying about that.
But in the midst of all of this, it's going to come out strongly in chapter 3. God is showing that he will keep his promise to Judah. He will keep his everlasting covenant to draw them back, to redeem them, to bring their hearts and lives, to love him and be in line with him. And he would bless them and he would be their god and they would be his people. So amidst the fiery words of prophetic judgment is the sure, steady anchor.
We just sang about it, didn't we? The sure, steady anchor of God's faithfulness. Listen to me, to his chosen people.
All right, let's read it together for our first installment. Zephaniah chapter 3, verses 1 through 7. Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled the tyrannical city.
This is Jerusalem. She heeded no voice. She accepted no instruction. She did not trust in the Lord.
She did not draw near to her God. Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are wolves that evening.
They leave nothing for the morning. Her prophets are reckless, treacherous men. Her priests have profaned the sanctuary.
They have done violence to the law. The Lord is righteous within her. Here's God's faithfulness. He will do no injustice. Every morning he brings his justice to light.
He does not fail. But the unjust know no shame. I, God speaking first person now for himself through the prophet, I have cut off nations. Their corner towers are in ruins. I've made their streets desolate with no one passing by.
Their cities are laid waste without man, without inhabitant. What God is saying is I've done this to all your enemies to protect you, Judah. So verse 7, I said, Well, surely, I'll insert this for understanding, for surely now you will revere me. Now you will accept instruction so that her dwelling will not be cut off according to all that I have appointed concerning her.
But they were eager to corrupt all their deeds. Look back up at verse 5 as we introduce this. Right in the middle of the verse, every morning he brings justice to light. He does not fail.
God is saying no matter what you've done and where you've gone and how deeply you've rebelled and how thoroughly you've sinned against me, I have not forsaken you. I am with you. I am testifying before you. My presence is there.
My law is there. My faithful prophets Zephaniah and Jeremiah are there. No matter what you've done, I didn't leave. I didn't go away. Morning by morning by morning by morning, I rose up to do everything I could for you.
What a beautiful picture of love, unconditional love. We sing the songs, or the song, and it says, Morning by morning new mercies I see. Well, that's what the prophet's talking about. Now, it's an anthropomorphic expression as if God were a person, and he's not, but it helps us understand. God does not wake up in the morning because God does not go to sleep at night.
The prophet says, He who keeps Israel neither sleeps nor slumbers. But in a human expression, we'd say every morning we wake up and God's there with us. Morning by morning, I've entitled the message, New Mercies I See. Now, if you're going to understand the Bible, I'm going to do this more and more in my old age, because I realize the importance of it. And if you're going to understand the Old Testament prophets, you need to understand the broad purpose of God. And there's a couple of ways I try to say it. First of all, you'll remember this. We need to always remember these three little phrases, and that kind of gives us the overshadow of the totality of God's purpose that's revealed from Genesis through Revelation.
What is that? The priority of God's glory, the preeminence of God's Son, and the centrality of God's people. Every verse of scripture, Dr. Seal, our boys need to learn this in their preaching class, every verse of scripture need to be thinking, now what's this saying about God's glory? What's this saying about God's Son? And what is this saying about the priority of God's people? It's all in there all through the Bible. Now, I would say it this way for this morning, though, and that is we see a powerful expression of the priority of God's glory, that's everything's about the glory of God, and everything is about the good of God's people.
And I've been saying that to you, I don't know if you get that. Everything that ever was, that is, that ever will be is to the end of glorifying God and for the good of God's children. I don't know about you, but that kind of excites me. That encourages me. Everything. Everything. Now, two texts of scripture comes to mind when I think about everything's about the glory of God and everything's about the good of God's children.
Two texts come to mind. Now, this first text comes from the holy of holies. I'm not talking about the physical holy of holies that was in the temple in Jerusalem.
No, this is a higher and a greater and more holy holy of holies. It's the scene of which we call the high priestly prayer, when Jesus, just before he goes to the cross, communes with the Father. Because that moment is the pinnacle moment of all time and eternity. If you go back all the way through time, leave the beginning of time, Genesis chapter 1, and go into all eternity past, and then reverse yourself, you're ascending to higher and higher importance until you get to this moment, the cross. And then if you go all the way back over into eternity future, turn around and come back through eternity future to that point where time ends. You know, there's a time when time ends. The eternal state will start when Jesus comes again. So go all the way through eternity future, come back, come all the way through time, and you'll go through ascending steps until you get to this pinnacle moment. So whether you're going from eternity past or from eternity future, everything centers right here. This holiest of holy moments, what we call the high priestly prayer. All time and all eternity of the past pointed to this moment.
Everything that happens in future time and in future eternity depends upon this moment. Because here, God the Father and God the Son meet together in holy communion about the cross. As Jesus is in that time of communion right before he gets to the cross, we have John 17 that tells us something of what was discussed before he got to the cross.
It was discussed between the Son and the Father. And Jesus spoke these things in John 17 verse 1. Jesus spoke these things lifting up his eyes to heaven, and he said, Father, the hour has come. Not an hour of many important hours. No, the hour has come. The one hour, it doesn't mean literal 60-minute hour, but the one moment everything is about, everything points to, and everything depends upon is at hand. The holiest of all moments, the pinnacle of all events in all of time and eternity. And notice what Jesus says there.
The hour has come. Now, how does he finish this? Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. Notice he doesn't say save the children. Now, that's in the high priestly prayer, but that's not first. Because even saving us is about his glory.
Get amen there? We're God-centered here, not man-centered. It's wonderful beyond estimation what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. We glory about that. We sing about that. We believe that. But that is secondary to God being glorified through it.
That's the most important thing. So here in this pinnacle of all moments, the centerpiece concern of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is that God would be glorified, i.e. made much of, may be seen for the all-wise, all-beautiful, all-powerful God that he is. It's all about God's glory.
The second verse that points to the fact that everything God's ever done is about the good of his children comes from Jeremiah 31 verse 3, where the prophet says, and again he's a contemporary of Zephaniah, he says, I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have drawn you with loving kindnesses. Literally, he says, I've continued to pour out my loving kindness to draw you to me. I chose you. I elected you. In the time period it was written that refers to Abraham and the descendants of Abraham. He said, you're uniquely mine, and I continually, continually, continually keep trying to draw you back to me because you're mine.
I chose you. Why is it continual? Because his loving kindness, i.e. his drawing them back with loving kindness, flows out of his everlasting love that he has for them. Oh, praise God, his love is not like your love, and his love is not like my love. His love is like God's love because he is God.
It's divine. It's everlasting. As I say to you, often God's love for you never began because it's always been there. He's eternal.
He's always loved you. If you're saved, if you've repented of your sins, if your faith and trust is in Jesus Christ, God has always loved you with an everlasting love. Kylan Dalitz, the German Hebrew scholars, say that it means he preserved them by constantly pouring his grace upon them. The good of his people, his covenant chosen people, is always at the center of his heart. And now we take this over when we talk about the people of God to the completion, the pinnacle, the perfection of God's people, and that's the New Testament church, i.e.
that's us. And for time, until the eternal state, for time that means local churches, us, people who can meet together, fellowship together, challenge one another, encourage one another, edify one another, care for one another, correct one another, approve one another, rebuke one another sometimes, even if that's necessary. That's what we're doing together because we are the fruition, the completion, the culmination of what God was working toward, and it's all working out in his perfect timing. For example, to show us that he was not just talking about blood lineage Jews when he talked about God's people. I believe he was talking about blood lineage Jews, but he was also talking about the ultimate prophetic fulfillment of these Old Testament texts, and that is the church age and the local churches. Romans 2 28 and 29. Now, I'm still in my introduction, so this might be a two-parter.
We'll see how it goes. Romans 2 28 and 29, for he is not a Jew, i.e. he's not the child of God who is one outwardly, just because he's of the blood physical outward lineage of Abraham, just because he does the rights and the rituals outwardly that God gave the nation of Israel. You're not a true child of God who's one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew, a true everlasting child of God who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the heart by the spirit, not by the letter, and his praises not for men, but from God.
Wow! So Paul says, get this thing straight in your mind. God never had a plan to save all of Israel just because they were all blood descendants of father Abraham, but rather a remnant of Israel who truly came to faith in the coming Christ. You know, they looked forward to the cross in faith that God would save them through the promised Messiah. We look back on the cross, trusting this Messiah who's come died on the cross for us, ascended back up into heaven.
Our faith rests in him too, but it was never just all of national Israel. It's only those Gentile or Jew who've had the inward work of the Holy Spirit, i.e. under the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the word. The Spirit of God has regenerated their hearts, and they've come to repentance and faith, evidenced by they've made a profession of faith in believer's baptism, and they're now faithfully striving, imperfectly, but striving to serve God faithfully in a true local New Testament church. Are y'all confused?
Y'all okay? Everything is about God's glory, and everything is about the good of God's children. Now you can kind of grasp what the prophet's getting at better, because who is he talking to? He's just not making generic statements to the nations of the world. There's truth here for anybody that wants it.
Don't misunderstand me. He's writing specifically to Israel, here through Zephaniah, specifically the southern kingdom, Judah, about how God has chosen them, and all God is doing for them, and our God promises to do for them. So we look at these ancient texts of the Old Testament before Jesus even came, and remember what Paul said in Romans chapter 15 verse 4, for whatever is written in earlier times is written for our instruction. Isn't that something? All the Bible's for us.
He says everything that was written, that's the entire Old Testament, everything is there to instruct us, to help us as, if you will, the pentacle expression of what God's people really are. Not that we're special. Look, Alabama flesh is not better flesh than old Jewish flesh. We're all sinners who need salvation by grace through faith. We just happen to live in an age where the end product of God is now forming. You see, the only thing left to happen is for Jesus to come again. That's it.
There's no other major event. God is forming his final work. They're now assembled in churches all over the world. A lot of false churches to be true, a lot of counterfeits to be true, but there's true churches scattered all over, and then Jesus will come back one day, perfect his church, glorify his church, remove the present heavens and earth, create a new heavens and earth, and there we will reign with him forever and ever and ever.
Now, last word of introduction. Now, remember, I told you everything's about God's glory, and everything's about the good of God's children, but as you study the Old Testament, there are splashes of prophetic announcements that have their fruition, their final fulfillment in the future. Now, for sure, every Old Testament prophecy had a meaning for the people of that day, okay?
And that's what they did in that day, okay? You don't take an Old Testament prophecy and say that meant they couldn't understand any of that, but we understand, no, that's not true. They understood something of it, but yet, as the prophet gives a word for Israel or Judah in that day, there's also phrases and terminology that cannot be fulfilled in that day, actually can't be fulfilled until Jesus comes.
So we see Christ and his first advent and his work on the cross, his saving grace work spoken of, signs, types, shadows of Christ all through the Old Testament. So that's prophesied, but also, and I'm one of those who still believes that God has a literal, earthly, glorious plan for national Israel. That blood lineage Jews will turn to Christ, and he will return and reign with them.
It's called the Millennial Kingdom. I just cannot come to a peace that all of these specific promises to the followers of Abraham are only symbolic or metaphorical. I think if you follow that line of interpretation, you can explain away anything in the Bible. Well, I think there's a future plan for Israel, but in my way of viewing it, and I think this is systematically biblically balanced, it's sort of a warm-up for the reality, the final, the fruition, which will include all redeemed Israel, and that's the final glorified church age, or eternal age, I should say. So there's a prophecy about a coming plan for Israel on the earth. There's prophecies about Christ. There's prophecies about the coming tribulation and the antichrist that all splash over the earth. And then there's a splash over out of the contemporary setting of the Old Testament prophet and Shoah's portraits. I call them prophetic destinations. There's prophetic fulfillments out there in the future yet. So we'll splash some of them around, if you will, as we go through this.
All right, Roman number one. We're talking about morning by morning new mercies I see, but in the text as we unpack it, we'll see the wretched wickedness of the religious establishment. We see that in verses one through four. So Israel, Judah in particular, which is where Jerusalem was located, which is where the temple is located, was the center of religion for planet earth. It's the headquarters for God to be known and made known to the rest of the world. Israel was to shine forth God's light and God's truth to the whole world.
Now, they failed miserably, but that was their calling. So when I talk about the religious establishment here, I mean the whole of Israel, not just the religious authorities, but including the governing authorities. Because in God's truth, the governing authorities are religious men and the religious authorities are governing men. It's a theocracy in the truest sense.
And we see this splashed all throughout the ancient world because Great Britain or England has the, quote, church of England. And they're basing that off the theocracy of the Old Testament. And I think through largely good motives, they always thought that if we're going to have a government, we need the sanctifying holy effect of the church.
So we'll make government and church one thing. Now, they started a Protestant revelation in early Baptist. They didn't think that was quite wise because they saw how corrupt the church and the government could become. And it's a bad thing when the church becomes corrupt, but they have the government's authority and the police force as one with them.
So if you don't walk lockstep with their false backslidden views of religion, then you're in trouble. Thus, the persecution early followers of the Bible found as they broke out of these backslidden fallen church state situations and tried to just follow the scriptures. So that's been around forever, but God formed Israel to be a true theocracy. The civic authorities and the religious authorities, they were all one whole.
So I call it the religious establishment, if you will. Now, it begins in verse one with this word woe. And the word woe in verse one, woe to her who is the tyrannical city.
Now, this is Jerusalem to be sure. And the word woe is most often used when it's a pronouncement of judgment upon the wicked. It continues in verse one, he used the word rebellious. Literally, the Hebrew word there means to take your stand against. Now, understand, the prophet is saying you're not known for your purpose and striving to honor and please God and then made a mistake or two along the way. That's what Hebrews is referring to when it says if a brother is caught in a sin. The idea is he's trying to go along, but he's fallen. And the Bible says you who are spirit to restore him with the spirit of humility and meekness and gentleness. I'm amplifying there a little bit. It's not an exact verse, but that's what it means.
That's not what's happening here. Israel wasn't just going along with God and stumbled. Israel had fallen to the state of having resolved stance against their very God that made them and kept them.
Rebellious. He goes on in verse one and says, And they're defiled. Their rebellion had led to a cultivation of indulgence in sin. Thus, we have with the scholars often called the Jehovah Bell cult. They would still have their meeting places. It would have the outward veneer of true religion. They would keep some of the ceremonies in the hoop jumps of religion like the sacramental system, but on the inside, if you came into the church, what you find is they really brought Saturday night into Sunday morning. A lot like our churches today do.
They keep some of the trappings. If you heard some of the preaching, you say it's pretty solid, but you look at the totality of what they're doing and living, it looks just more like a cleaner version of the world. Brothers and sisters, we're not to be like the world.
We're to be like him. But that's where Israel just defiled, just plunging themselves head long. He says in verse two, They heeded no voice. They accepted no instruction. They had true prophets, Zephaniah and Jeremiah. They had probably a sprinkling of a few faithful priests, but they hated them. They didn't want to hear them.
They wouldn't heed any instruction. So they would heap up for themselves men who would tell them the pleasing things they wanted to hear. The day the majority of people say, when I hear Jeff Noblitt, I hear pleasing, soothing things that my fleshly heart loves, then I need to leave the pulpit. You don't come to church to be comfortable. Who told you that?
Who told you that? You don't come to church to have fun. It might be fun from time to time, but you come because God's done something in your heart, and you desire to cultivate and grow that new thing and not encourage the old things. But they had heaped up false prophets and false priests, and we'll look at that in a moment. Matter of fact, they had a practice in this day of murdering the faithful preachers, so they wouldn't have to listen to them. In Matthew 23 31, Jesus says, So you, now this is the Jews of his day hundreds of years later, but he's reflecting back on what their forefathers did. He says, So you testify against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Verse 2 continues on and says, She did not trust in the Lord, nor draw near to the Lord.
They were not repenters. They were not striving after God to find their joy and their pleasures in God. You understand, brothers and sisters, you have to work to find some joy in God, because you're still housed in fleshly, sinful humanity. You have to work to find joy in God, but boy, when you do, it's worth it.
Man, when you do, it's wonderful. But they weren't doing any of that. They didn't love God, and they were not grieved over their sins. Well, that's the condition of the governing authorities, if you will. Well, actually, the governing and the religious authorities. Let's break it down now as we get to the next verse. Starting in verse 3, let's notice the governing authorities and how he specifically now calls them out. Her princes within her are roaring lions. Here are the leaders who were supposed to be leaders of a godly nation, kings who honored God. They were to lead the people out of sin and vice and injustice, yet they themselves have become monsters of iniquity.
Notice the graphic wording he uses. Roaring lions. Your princes are like roaring lions. It means they were mighty in sin. They were bold in iniquity. They were ferocious in their sinning. He said, your judges, verse 3, your judges are like wolves. Now, the wolves in those days filled the hills, and every evening you could hear their hideous, horrifying howls.
He said, that's what you're like to the people. Like wolves, you kill, you run over, you destroy the weak among you like ravenous beasts. Man, the Scripture's just such a graphic illustration that he wants us to see here.
Now, a splash, I believe, a prophetic word here beyond their day. This does not remind us of someone that we've learned about at the end of the New Testament. The Antichrist. Why do you think he's called the beast?
Because that's what he is. He's like a roaring lion. He's like a ravenous wolf. He'll be the pinnacle expression—listen to me now—of governing authorities who use their power for wickedness, evil, vice, and injustice to those under them. He's coming, by the way. He's coming. It may not be far before he sets his feet on earth.
Who knows? And he'll be the full expression of this wickedness and this rebellion. He'll wear the cloak of genuineness. Church, religious authorities, and establishments around the world will honor him, that God will have a remnant that will say, we don't like the way this whole thing smells. We don't like what we're seeing. We don't think—I know everybody's clamoring after this charismatic personality. He claims to be a man of God, pulling the whole world back to God, but this just doesn't look right to us. But Israel in her rebellion gives us something of a picture, of a future final fulfillment of governing authority, which goes wicked and not in any way lines themselves with God.
Let me say this—are you listening to me for just a moment? The Antichrist is called a beast, but you understand to me, any person who severs themselves from God soon acts like a beast. What's a beast do? He gets up and follows his desires. Not what's right, just his desires.
Why do you think we have the homosexual stuff we have today? Because people have been told, you just get up and follow your desires. Brothers and sisters, if you leave a child alone, they'll get up and follow every wicked thing known to mankind, because we're born to brave sinners, all of us.
You become like a beast. Verse 3 talks about these governing authorities. They're like these wolves, and they're like these wolves. And here's a phrase in verse 3, they leave nothing for the morning. Again, the prophet's like, I've got to bring out the depth of their evil. They are so committed to self-serving, or so committed, I should say, to self-serving evil that they consume the poor and the helpless among them, metaphorically speaking, even down to gnawing and devouring the bones, so there's nothing left in the morning, as the prophet states.
Kinmer in his commentary says, here we see merciless ferocity. That's the religious, or rather the governing authorities. Let's go now to the religious authorities. All are one in a sense, but the prophet breaks them down, so we're going to break them down. Verse 4, the prophets are reckless, treacherous men. Her priests have profaned the sanctuary, and they've done violence to the law. Reminds me of what another prophet said. The prophets prophesy falsely. Oh, that's the kind they love. And the priests rule on their own authority.
Oh, that's what they wanted. Some of that who didn't say, thus saith the scripture, they said, here's what you want to hear, so here's what I'm going to tell you. The prophet prophesies falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority. Then he says, and my people love it so.
Well, you have to decide early on. You young preacher boys who listen to me, you have to decide early on, do you want to be popular, or do you want to be respected? Most Baptists will love you if you prophesy falsely, if you'll rule on your own authority. But the last phrase, what will you do in the end thereof? What does that come to?
I'm going to tell you what it doesn't do. I've just entered my 45th year here. You're not going to make it 45 years on fluff and falsehood and entertainment and gimmicks. You're not going to make it.
Young preachers sometimes look at our ministry and look what God's blessed us with, and it is unique, it is unusual. Brothers, that doesn't come from compromise. You can fail a lot along the way, trust me. You can blunder a lot along the way, trust me. You'll have to repent a lot along the way, trust me. You've done all of those, but you have to have a heart that says, I want to be true to God. And then there's no limit to what God might do. After all, it's not by might, it's not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. And if you're doing things as a leader that quenches the Spirit of God, God's not going to bless. And brother Matt, then we end up, okay, what's the next fun thing to keep these carnal people happy? Because the Spirit's not doing anything. All right, what's the next carnal thing we can do to keep the carnal coming because the Spirit's not doing anything? And that's the vicious reciprocal cycle you see in most evangelical and Baptist churches. Now, to be sure, there's some good and godly people in those churches, but I'm telling you what you find, Dr. Seal, what you find is they're grieved in their hearts. We've talked about that a lot.
They're grieved in their hearts as they see these congregations go to lower, lower things, bringing Saturday night into Sunday morning. Well, that's part one. It's all gone. I wanted to finish it, but we better not. We'll finish it next week, God willing.
But can I leave this with you? What track are you on? What path are you on? Would you be the godly remnant?
We're going to learn more about that in the next few weeks. Or would you be like the false professors who only have, listen to me, the outward veneer of the real thing, but inwardly you're more like a lion and a ravenous wolf about the things of God. And I charge you in love, but with authority this morning, turn to Christ. I say, Christ, would you take me? Would you take me? I come bankrupt.
I come totally bankrupt. Nothing to add, nothing to offer, but just save me, Christ. In your grace and mercy, just please save me.
And for you seniors that are out there, oh, in Christian love as your pastor, if you're not walking with God, I pray you will turn to him today. Don't sow any more seeds of rebellion, because God's judgment is sure, and God's judgment is certain. Just a few years ago, I was in a church, I was in a church, I was in a church, just a few years from after this prophecy was written, God sends his servant, quote-end-quote, Nebuchadnezzar, and the fighting legions of Babylon, and they crush right through Judah, destroy her, and take off the children into captivity, because they would not get right with God.
Don't let the situation be in your life, our life, my life, where God has to send Nebuchadnezzar to your house, and bring a destruction to bring you to your senses. The wills of justice, the wills of wrath might turn slow, but they do turn exceedingly fine. He will have justice. Oh, not to belabor, but all glory upon glory upon glory, that all the justice do me was laid on Christ.
That's my hope. All the justice of the wrath and the retribution and the punishment I deserve was laid on Christ. So come, you sinners, seek his grace, whose wrath you cannot bear.
Lead to the shelter of the cross, and you'll find salvation there. Glory. I could almost shout. I could almost shout. But it scares some of you, because there ain't no shout in you. Not because you're shouted out, because it never came up.
