Well, aren't you glad that's true? Praise the Lord. Zephaniah, let's go back there this morning.
This will be our third installment. Go to Matthew and go back four books and you get to Zephaniah, one of the minor prophets, probably the most neglected of all the minor prophets. And I don't know why that would be because it's wonderful what God lays out for us in this book. And as we execute the text, particularly this morning, we're going to weave into it lots of applications for us in our day, but we're going to strive to understand with clarity what the prophet was saying to ancient Judah in his day. Again, in Old Testament prophecy, there's always a message that meant something to the immediate audience, although there's always a future full fulfillment, if you will, of the prophecy in Christ, in his church, and in his coming return. Zephaniah, chapter one, verses one through three.
The word of the Lord, which came to Zephaniah, the son of Cushai, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amoriah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, son of Ammon, king of Judah. I will completely remove all things from the face of the earth, declares the Lord. I will remove man and beast. I will remove the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea and the ruins along with the wicked. And I will cut off man from the face of the earth, declares the Lord. Zephaniah prophesied sometime after about 611 BC, he prophesied under the reign of godly young king Josiah. Josiah was a great king in Judah's past. He instituted radical reforms throughout the country to turn the people back to Yahweh worship, back to their true one and only God. Yet Josiah's efforts, though genuine and very thorough, were not enough to cleanse the people's hearts of sin and wickedness and idolatry. So though Zephaniah the prophet and Josiah the godly king are trying to get Israel, Judah particularly, back on track, there's a remnant of wickedness that remains in the land. Their reforms and certainly something of revival among the people was not enough to stay in the earth, to stay God's hand of judgment. And so we see this powerful catastrophic, if you will, declaration of judgment coming upon not only just Judah, but in the expressions of verses two and three upon the entire earth.
Let's outline it this way. Roman numeral one, the Lord has spoken. The Lord has spoken. Simply verse one says, the word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah. That phrase the Lord has spoken is a common phrase. The word of the Lord is a common phrase. It's typical of the Old Testament prophets. When you see that phrase, the word of the Lord, it speaks of the authority and of the uniqueness of the prophet's message. His message is simple, it's clear, it's explicit, it's pointed, and the people will understand it. He, here Zephaniah, had heard from God and he's delivering that which God gave him.
As I've heard often in my preaching ministry, pastors need to remember and the church needs to remember that I am not the editor, I am just the delivery boy. And that's what Zephaniah was. He'd heard, it's not his word, he'd heard the word of the Lord. Actually that phrase, the word of the Lord, occurs 242 times in the Old Testament.
It was very common. But once the word of the Lord was spoken, the issues at hand are both clarified and settled. When God gives his word on any matter, then the matter is settled. And his word will accomplish all that God intends for it to accomplish and it will accomplish it with perfection and precision. His word does not return void. The scripture tells us that the word of the Lord is, quote, good, end of quote. Eternal, end of quote.
Holy. It creates. It's the hammer that crushes the rock. It's a burning fire. And it stands forever.
And it can be removed. All two belong to a congregation where God has put before the people a man who does not bring the word of the Lord because he's removed it. You see, that's the other side of the coin. We talk with great emphasis on the weakness of the preaching and the truth and the even following the dominoes, that the churches are not building on the truth of the pulpit. And then there's a point which is reached where God says, you don't really want my word.
I'm not going to give you a man that'll really give you my word. And God is, in effect, removing the word from the people. It's a part of God's judgment. If they refuse to receive it, if they refuse to heat it, then God, as a pattern, will remove it. Amos 8, 11, and 12 tells us, Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land, and not a famine for bread or thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the Lord.
People will stagger from sea to sea and from the north even to the east. They will go two and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. But God has given a special covenant, personal word to ancient Israel. It was unique in that day. You'll not find any other religions of antiquity that have that concept of the word of the Lord came to us.
It's unique to Israel. Now the next little phrase I want to talk about for just a moment that really excites me and stirs my heart is the word of the Lord which came, which came to Zephaniah. The Hebrew scholars tell us that phrase, which came, actually has a weighty emphasis in it. It literally means experienced. Zephaniah experienced the word of the Lord.
That means something. It became meaningful to him. It became a living reality to Zephaniah. There's an old adage I heard early in the ministry, and I found it to be so true, that every sermon has to be born twice. It has to be born once in the pastor's heart, in his study, then it has to be born again when he preaches it to his people.
I think that's the idea here. The Spirit of God came upon Zephaniah, and the word of the Lord did something to him. The word of the Lord needs to do something to you before it gets through you.
Young pastors, I'm afraid today, have a terrible temptation in front of them. It's called artificial intelligence. Miss Pam sent me down there. She said, I want to show you something. And she clicked a bunch of buttons on the computer, and she told that woman in the computer, we need a sermon outline. I forgot the topic. And we need it from the writings of John McArthur, John Piper.
She may have said one other person. We need outlines and illustrations. And I mean immediately before us was the most powerful outline sermon.
Rock solid, doctrinally sound, illustrated, everything you would possibly know. I mean, a young man, that's why I can't use computers good, because God knows I don't need that temptation. A young man in the ministry can use artificial intelligence, AI, and get a sermon in five minutes, study it for 30 minutes, and 90% of you will go away saying, man, that was a great job.
But it doesn't mean the word got a hold of him. You know what we need today? Are you listening? We need discernment.
Not everything that looks and sounds great really is great. There is something to the man of God wrestling through the process of studying and reading and praying and meditating. That's what melds the word into the preacher's heart and soul, which came to Zephaniah. It came upon him. And I believe in this modern age when I'm saying this because I've had some young pastors I've worked with, and I've seen how well they did in the pulpit, only to learn later, they just about buried Dr. Seale about 98% of everything they said.
That might be better than what they said had they not barred it. But listen to me, that kind of stuff, listen to me, that won't last 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years. The word of the Lord, which came to Zephaniah, God did something in Zephaniah that did something in Zephaniah's heart. Zephaniah waited before God, and God worked it into his heart and then worked it out through his mouth to the people. I sometimes think of it like a branding iron. You know, for these cowboys to put a brand into these cattle, they need a certain kind of wood because they need a very hot fire.
So it's got to be the right wood, and it's got to be very hot, and they got to lay that iron in the fire a long time till it's burning red, glowing red, and then they can sear it into the hide of that cow, and it'll be there for life. If you want to preach and preach a way that God will use it to change men and women, boys and girls, young and old folks' hearts, and transform them to treasure Christ, you need something that's going to burn into their hearts. One of the most important things the elders ever did here decades ago was basically tell me, Pastor, you get with God, you pray, you plead, you meditate, and you preach, and we'll try to get somebody else to do all the other stuff.
It wasn't that way from the very beginning, but we finally got there. The word of the Lord which came includes that Zephaniah, he received the word from God, it did something in his heart, he understood its meaning, and he could preach it with authority. He felt its weight, its gravitas, his heart was on fire because God had spoken to him. Well, the Lord has spoken. Number two, Roman II, a coming global judgment. Now, of course, this has application for ancient Judah, but its ultimate fulfillment, it's a foreshadowing, a prophecy of becoming final judgment when Jesus returns on planet earth.
Let's read it again, verses two and three. I will completely remove all things from the face of the earth, declares the Lord. I will remove man and beast, I will remove the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea, and the ruins, along with the wicked, and I will cut off man from the face of the earth, declares the Lord. So actually here, total devastation, total destruction is the theme. As God is coming in Christ eventually, he's coming not to fix the earth, he's coming to remove the earth in judgment. Total destruction, at least the the meaning of total destruction is mentioned several times throughout this text.
God will come and make a sudden end of all things. I think one key thought here as you look at verses two and three, we see a reversal of creation. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, he created the animals, he created the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, a day and night, and then he created man last.
But here we have things in reverse order. It's an uncreation if you will. But he begins with man, I will remove man and beast. Now he ended with man in creation, in judgment he's beginning with man. Then I removed the birds of the sky, verse three, the fish of the sea and the ruins along with the wicked. Literally when he says completely removed there in verse two, it means swept away. It's a shocking picture of just cleaning everything off, just sweeping it all away. I'm done with it. Again he starts with man, he reverses the order of creation. I think there's something there for us to talk about it.
I want to add to that in a moment. Even here though the fish of the sea are judged and thrown away. Everything is contaminated and polluted because of man's sin. But the fish were not judged in the flood of Noah in that judgment, but they're judged here.
Again the emphasis is on the thoroughness and the severity of this time of judgment. You see God made creation to benefit and bless mankind. Originally God created man to be the monarch of the earth, to rule over everything. Man was made to be earth's king, if you will. Genesis 1 26 reminds us, then God said, let us make men in our image according to our likeness and let them rule over, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over the cattle, and all of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Now isn't it interesting that in our day, our godless day, we keep bringing up the creation to make it as valuable as man or as sacred as man. Now we should love our animals and take care of our animals, but we should love them as animals.
I went in a pet store the other day. It was astonishing. It was the most elaborate, sophisticated type of stuff. And I'm not saying that's all bad, but I thought I would never have dreamt of such a thing when I was a child. We get warped in our thinking as we get away. You see, the book keeps you in balance. The Bible keeps you in the proper perspective of these things. So man who was made to rule over all things, to have dominion, if you will, over all things, he was to do so in service and in honor and worship unto the Creator. But instead, he starts worshiping the things created and not the Creator. Romans 1 25, for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever.
Amen. So here man is and is fallen in weak condition. He ends up in not enjoying the beast and the birds and the fish and creation in general, using it all with gratitude and worship unto God his Lord and King. But he began to worship the things themselves and he made them idols along with all the created order. And man began to worship these things God had given him instead of God himself. He worshiped these things in the place of God. So God says, okay, I'm going to remove them. The birds, the fish, the beast, gone.
And man too. Because of your idolatrous love of the things and not honor of me. You know, I think very often when you think about we are blessed in the United States today, when you think about we are blessed in the United States of America, we have so many nice things that past generations and other countries simply do not have. And as we have these nice things, I think it's more important to God, not that you paid a thousand dollars or eight hundred dollars or whatever the item is or whatever it costs, but do you thank God for it? Do you see the blessings of your creator in it? Or do you forget God in the stuff God's given us? That's the primary sin here.
Matter of fact, I got two sub points here under this coming global judgment. First one is the root issue. The root issue here is found in this word wicked. And the ruins, he's talking about removing anything. He's going to remove the ruins along with the wicked. One Hebrew scholar said the word wicked here has the idea of the ordinary badness of man. That man is just in his natural state, ordinarily bad. He's what the theologians would say, totally depraved. His wicked heart leads to his wicked behavior. He's polluted by sin. He's thoroughly contaminated by sin. He's awash in sin and in corruption before a holy God. And mankind in this condition is very prone to serious errors and mistakes.
For example, he's very prone to what we call a syncretism. And my, we find this throughout the land. We're going to mention this a lot because it's a perfect parallel to these passages, how Israel would try to syncretize Jehovah worship with Baal or Chemosh or Asherah or whatever it was, mixing the sensuous indulgent pleasures of the world with serving and worshiping God. And today in so much evangelicalism, you're called a great and wise pastor if you can hold on to orthodoxy, but give the people fun stuff, worldly stuff that they all will enjoy. The purpose of the church is to help you find your joy in Christ. Now you don't start that way. You start with a little of it.
You start with a little germ of it. But the goal is under the preaching of the word and your own personal devotional time and the fellowship of the saint to increasingly grow to treasure God. We don't need to muddy him up with the world. We don't need to make Jesus more attractive to these people of the world. Let Jesus be who he is.
As Spurgeon said, he's like a lion. Just release him. He'll get the work done. Just preach Jesus.
He'll get the work done. So man in this fallen quote wicked, that's the word here translated the wicked, it has the idea of man's inherent or ordinary badness. He's prone to try to synchronize good and evil. And by the way, once you mix some evil with God's good, you lose the good. Secondly, just abject idol worship. That's throughout the land of ancient Judea here.
They just put up shrines and statues and high places of rocks and wood and stone and other things so they could worship these pagan deities. We'll talk more about those as we go on. But also in our wicked condition, man has the inability to worship God. But also in our wicked condition, man has the inability to rightly discern or judge that which is proper and right and that which is not proper and right. They begin calling evil good and good evil. They begin to believe that God could not or God would not send the kind of judgment that Zephaniah is prophesying of. Completely, verse 2, removing all things from the face of the earth. Removing man, removing beasts, removing birds of the sky, fish of the sea, all the ruins and all the wicked.
I'll cut off man from the face of the earth. I read somewhere where in 1939 in Britain, a pastor who was of the liberal wing of the state church was preaching to his congregation on Zephaniah chapter 1, the very verses I'm preaching on. And he began to tell his people, you know, I don't think this is really God's word. Actually, John 3 16 is more of God's word. And I believe Jesus would disagree with this categorical, catastrophic destroying of men and wrath and judgment. And while this liberal professor was preaching these things in Britain, just across the English channel was developing what is called Nazism.
And eventually it would take the entirety of the allied forces to sweep it off the face of the earth. If you look at history, it'll teach you something about the accuracy of God's word and his truth. Well, not just the root issue, which is man's inherent badness, which comes to this idol worshiping of the creation and leaving God out, or at least trying to mix God with their idol worship, which is even worse. But now we come to a second some point that is that God hates stumbling blocks. Look at it there in verse 3 again. In about what the fourth phrase of verse 3 says, and the ruins, I'll remove the ruins along with the wicked.
We talked about the wicked. I don't know why it's translated ruins because every scholar says it means stumbling block. I'm going to remove all the stumbling blocks. Probably, possibly the word ruins is there because Josiah had torn a lot of them down already.
Maybe that's what it is. But the altars, the statues, the temples, the shrines, the pagan worship that had popped up all over God's land by supposedly God's people, he said, I'm going to remove all those stumbling. I'm cleaning all of them away. You know, Jesus says something about this when he returns in judgment. Matthew chapter 13 verse 41. The Son of Man will send forth his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks. I believe he's talking about Jesus, the final fulfillment of Zephaniah chapter 1 verse 2. I'll gather and get rid of all the stumbling blocks.
Here I think it means people and things. I'll gather and get rid of all the people and things and those who commit lawlessness. Matthew 18 7. Our Lord again, woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks. For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes. Brothers and sisters, we should ask God, God keep me anchored in truth. Keep me walking in truth.
I don't want to be a stumbling block because you hate stumbling blocks. Would someone watch your life, would someone being exposed to your life desire to know Christ better? Would they desire to love him more deeply?
Would they desire by being around your life, want to serve him more faithfully? Or are we a stumbling block? I guess it would be true as we're housed down here in this weak, corrupted, sinful humanity package. We're not yet fully redeemed, are we?
We're not yet glorified. I guess it would be true of all of us that from time to time we are a stumbling block, but you don't have to put yourself in it, but you don't have to purpose to be a stumbling block, and it doesn't have to be the pattern of your life to be a stumbling block. God says I'm removing all of them.
And here's, well you talk about application. I could preach for two hours on this. Jesus is especially condemning of those who are a stumbling block to young people. Matthew 18, verse 6. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Let me just say this. It may be tough on judgment day for all of us to be for all these cool churches, and it always begin with the children's and the youth departments. And they begin to do the most worldly things to keep the kids interested that they might make Jesus attractive. That's not what they say. That's what I'm saying.
That's what they're doing. If we can just make this place fun, entertaining, and by the way, we do some fun things, but we don't put our ministry on fun things. If we could just bring a superstar athlete in or maybe an actress or somebody to show our young people, you can be one who gets the praise of the world and still love Jesus. And you can be popular in the world and still love Jesus. I get that.
But the premise of selling Jesus because really people you idolize love Jesus is wrong. It's a stumbling block. And you know what happens? Are you listening to me? They've done the work. They've done the research.
They've done the surveys. We are losing young people when they graduate from high school at like 85 to 90 percent of our kids, not necessarily our kids, but across evangelicalism. When the 85 to 90 percent of them after they graduate high school don't come back to church.
You know what? They know it ain't real. They know you didn't teach them to love Christ. They know you didn't teach them to carry the cross. They know that you didn't teach them if it takes it you become unpopular to honor Christ. You told them right the opposite and they knew that wasn't right. We've had more than a few young people, Ms. Pam and I, through the years, especially when we worked with young people, who would actually come to us and tell us, I wish my parents would tell me no. I wish they would tell me you can't go to this event or that event. Some of them being quote Christian events because they were not sound. They were stumbling blocks. And now things have evolved over the years and now it's not just youth programs and children's programs that are filled with wacky worldly nonsense. Now the worship services look like that. The prophets prophesy falsely.
The priests rule on their own authority. But what will you do in the end thereof? The Bible says. Where's that going to ultimately get you? Oh let's don't be stumbling blocks to our young people. Let's tell them the truth.
Let's love them. Let's teach them the joy of Christ and the pleasures of Christ. Let's don't tell them that Jesus will let you be worldly and still love him. It could be that our young people have to suffer for Jesus. That's okay. The Bible teaches that. But we can teach them as older folks. We've done some of that too and it's worth it.
It's worth it. Roman numer 3. Getting quiet in here on this Sunday morning. The last phrase in verse 3 the prophet says, and I will, that's God, I will cut off man from the face of the earth declares the Lord. I told you earlier up there in verses two and three that we have the uncreation. God created things in a certain order. Now God's going to return in judgment and uncreate.
Do a reversal if you will. I'm removing man. I'll start with man. I ended with man in creation. But now that I'm removing I'll start with man and then we'll go to the birds and the beast and the fish and everything else.
But that leads me to another thought. I mean with the balance of biblical truth I just can't stop there because judgment is never God's final word to Israel and judgment is never God's final word to his church, our child of God. So in our verse here we have creation. Then there's coming a reversal and a removal in judgment. But then comes the re-creation. The re-creation.
God is going to do a great work. Now there's a re-creation for Israel. God promised Israel and often in the prophetic text when he's talking about restoring Israel he's talking about them coming back from captivity and inhabiting the land again and being blessed in the land.
And of course the ultimate fulfillment of that for Israel is the coming millennial kingdom for Israel. But there is a foreshadowing, a prophetic word for more than just Israel in that it foreshadows and it pictures Jesus Christ and his coming kingdom and it's gathering together his glorious church and the coming eternal state. So after this reversal and removal and judgment there is a re-creation coming. It's not in our text.
Matter of fact it is in the text in chapter 3. We have powerful prophetic foreshadowings of this but I couldn't help but bring you out now. There's a new thing coming back.
In fact the new thing is already starting. Just some of the ways this is emphasized in the scriptures. The Bible talks about a new wine. The Bible talks about new teaching. The Bible talks about this new covenant we have in Christ.
The Bible talks about the new self when we're born again of course. The Bible talks about the new way and there's a new heaven and earth we'll one day inherit. We follow new commandments. There's a new Jerusalem and one that I really like.
There's a new song and we got a new piano. God is doing new things. 2 Corinthians 5 17. Therefore if any man be in Christ he's a new creation, a new creature. The old things have passed away behold all things have become new. So every single one of us who are genuinely saved the new thing God is doing through Christ has already started in you. You're part of the final eternal new thing God. He created. He's going to reverse creation and remove it all in judgment and then he's going to establish his new thing, his recreation.
Whoo that's good stuff. It's already starting. Isaiah in fact prophesied very clearly of this. Isaiah 48 verses 6 and 7. You have heard look at all of this and you will you not declare it I proclaim to you new things from this time even hidden which you have not known. There's new things coming the prophet says that you old testament saints got a glimmer of.
You got a glimpse of it. You could see it like through a glass dimly but boy those of us on this side of Calvary the new stuff's getting a lot clearer and clearer. And that's one of the reasons why we need to stay with the stuff in our churches so that we can learn to joy in all that's going to be in the new order. Some of you God's going to have to clean you up a lot to get you in the new order.
Sometimes I feel like I may have to be cleared up cleaned up a whole lot myself. Jameson, Fawcett, and Brown comments on Isaiah 48 and says this plan is not going to be in the new order. Jameson and Brown comments on Isaiah 48 and says this points to the new things of the gospel treasury. There's a treasure that is ours that we're now enjoying which is the final new thing God is doing with this ultimate fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see he's making us new creatures in Christ Jesus individually through the gospel saving us and then he puts us together in local churches because he wants a new people. He said I'm going to make people go to put them together as churches and make them a people and then I'm going to return again and make them glorified and they will be with me in a new heaven and a new earth as new people as new creatures purified perfected glorified with me forever and ever and ever. Pointing to this new eternal state one of my favorite phrases in the scriptures, Revelation 21 says, and he who sits on the throne said behold I am making all things new.
Glory, glory, glory. I am making all things new and you and I by the power of the gospel, the work of the Holy Spirit, being new creatures in Christ Jesus are the beginnings of the new thing God is doing. Then he's coming again.
Text says he sits on the throne. Maybe he's looking at the angels and says are y'all ready? We've been waiting on this a long time. I'm about to put the finishing touches. I'm about to finish up what we started long ago. We're going to banish all that we're going to remove all this nonsense that's anti-god and ungodly and worldly and all this syncretism of mixing my worship with pagan worship and all of these idol temples and all this wickedness on that we're going to remove all of that and I'm going to make a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells. I'm going to glorify you and I'll make you get all brand new. That's where we're headed.
That's where we're headed. Now don't don't tune me out. Have you been made new? Have you been made new? Has there been a change in your heart? Has spiritual life come into your soul? I don't mean you're perfect yet, but something different is in your heart now and you've started that journey of new things are attractive to me and new things are drawing me and a new kind of people is the people I want to be around and a new kind of fellowship is the fellowship I want to be in.
The church. If you haven't been made new then you are one of those who will be, in the prophet's words, swept away. In one sense I have been swept away. I've been swept away by grace. I've been swept up in grace and God started a new thing in me. It's called the new birth. It's called being born again and you can be too. Look real quick at Zephaniah 3-12.
It's going to be hard to stay out of Zephaniah chapter 3 because Zephaniah chapter 3 is where he brings us around to his grace work of restoring Israel which is a prophetic statement of how he's gonna keep all of us and restore all of us in Jesus. But in Zephaniah 3-12 But I will leave among you a humble and lowly people. You know who the humble and lowly people are? The people who are saved. They know what they are. They know they're a wretched bunch of sinners and God shouldn't have saved them. They're just humbled by it. Look at this phrase though.
This is what I want to look at. We're done. Last phrase verse 12 Zephaniah chapter 3.
And they will take refuge in the name of the Lord. All my stars in heaven. This is one of those times when I'd like to run out through the door right back by Doss Borden back there. Just run right by Doss. Come in and come over here.
Run right by Chris. Have y'all seen that video meme where they had one of them holy roller churches? I don't mean to decry them but this one old boy gets up runs around and then he jumps in the baptistry. Those who take refuge in the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord means the Lord's character, the Lord's work. So we look at Jesus and we say, Jesus, it's all about you.
It's all about your work. It's all about you dying for me, rising for me, interceding for me, shedding your precious blood to cleanse me. I think I'll take refuge under you.
Praise his name. Is your refuge there today? Is that your resting place?
Is that your security today? Oh, may it be. May it be that this morning from your heart you say, oh, Christ, I take refuge in you today because I know you created everything. And I know you're coming in holy justice and divine wrath and you're going to reverse the creation of the world. And divine wrath and you're going to reverse the creation order and remove all things. But you're going to recreate something and I want to be a part of that recreation. Let me be a part of your eternal glorified family that you might get the honor and the praise for all eternity.
