Taking Comfort in God’s Love for Salvation for Sinners

INTRODUCTION

I have confessed to you all that I am a Boy Dad who had a girl and is now learning how to somehow become a Girl Dad.

What I have found is that girls cry more. Like a lot more.

And sometimes there is a minor injury that yields major tears.

What my wife is graciously teaching me is that my wife needs a bit more than my boys did. I often responded to them with, “You’re fine.”

But my daughter seems to require hugs and some level of reassurance that though she has hit her elbow on her dresser--I do still love her and everything will be okay.

It turns out that in times of distress, a daughter just needs to know that their father is their father and that he loves her.

That is what I am learning.

And as a Christian--it shouldn’t be so hard to learn this!

After all--this is what we so often want to know when we are hurting.

We know we know that our Father is our Father and He loves us.

Well--for the next month, we will be looking at different Old Testament passages and seeing us that.

We will see that our Father loves us.

We will look to the Old Covenant for truth about God’s love and we will take comfort in it.

We will take comfort in the passages.

We will take comfort in the character of our Father and His pledges of commitment to us as His children.

This morning, we start with what many call the “John 3:16 of the Old Testament”--Zephaniah 3:17.

There we will see “God’s Love for the Salvation of Sinners.”

CONTEXT OF ZEPHANIAH

Before we read the passage, let’s spend a few moments understanding what is happening in the book of Zephaniah.

Zephaniah is one of the least preached books of the Old Testament.

It is often neglected. Rarely mentioned.

Maybe that is because of the size--it is a short book of the Bible.

Maybe that is because of the location--it is tucked away in the collection of Minor Prophets at the end of the Old Testament.

Or maybe it is the content.

Zephaniah is a book of judgment.

The prophecy comes from God during the time of Josiah.

Zephaniah 1:1 ESV

The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

In the year 931, the nation of Israel split in two.

There were ten Northern tribes

There were two Southern tribes

The South had the honor of claiming David’s throne.

Jerusalem--the city of the King--was in the South.

And when judgment fell on the Northern Kingdom of Israel and they fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC, the people in the South must have thought, “That can never happen to us. God will never let Jerusalem fall.”

And to be fair, things looked hopeful during the reign of Hezekiah (715 BC-686 BC) in the South.

He was a godly king and he seemed to be doing everything he could to keep the Southern Kingdom from suffering the same fate as the Northern Kingdom.

But the king after him was evil.

Manasseh (686-642 BC) led the Southern Kingdom of Judah into darkness.

He brought prostitution and human sacrifice into the worship of the people.

He repented at the end of his life, but the damage he had done was too severe.

After him was his son, Amon.

He was evil like his father before him.

He was assassinated after two years.

And after his assassins were executed, Amon’s 8 year old son became king. His name was Josiah.

By the time Josiah was 16 years old, he started to seek after the God of David.

By the time he was 20, he was smashing idols and reforming the nation like Hezekiah before him.

2 Chronicles 34:3 ESV

For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, and the carved and the metal images.

Josiah reigned from 640-609 BC. He died in battle.

Zephaniah seems to be prophesying toward the end of Josiah’s time on the throne.

And his ministry is in support of the king.

His preaching is warning Judah of the judgment to come if they do not heed the reforms of Josiah.

They would end up like the neighbors to the North--defeated and in Exile.

But Zephaniah did not just preach judgment. Like the other prophets, he preached two sides of the same coin--judgment and salvation.

When they warned of the Day of the Lord--a great day of judgment--they would also preach a message of redemption and restoration.

On one hand--God is a Warrior-King coming to judge every wrong.

But on the other hand, He is a Warrior-King coming to make things right.

This is what Zephaniah 3 gives us.

After intense warnings of God’s judgment upon His disobedient children, He makes a promise to His faithful remnant.

Those promises will give us Gospel comfort from the Old Covenant this morning as we see God’s love for the salvation of sinners.

TEXT --these are the very words of God

Zephaniah 3:14–17 ESV

Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

We are going to take a tour through these verses this morning.

We’ve all been on tours. We know what it is like.

There are certain things on tours that you simply must see if you are going to say you got the full experience.

Well there are some things we must see today.

OUTLINE

1. We must see God’s promise of a singing Savior.

2. We must see God’s love for saving sinners.

3. We must see God’s provision for suffering saints.

GOD’S PROMISE OF A SINGING SAVIOR

Let’s start with the first point and the one that might be most beautiful.

1. We must see God’s promise of a singing Savior.

Now, we will see the singing Savior in just a moment...

THE PROMISE OF VERSE 15

But before we get to what is promised v. 17, let’s look at v. 15.

In Zephaniah 3:15 we can see the two-pronged promise that God gives to His people during the days of Josiah.

He will deal with their fear by taking away their enemies via the King of Israel

He will deal with their sin by taking away their judgments

TAKING AWAY THE ENEMIES VIA THE KING

First of all, let’s talk about how God will deal with their enemies.

This is a big deal.

When you have seen your Northern neighbors go into Exile...

When you have foreign threats bearing down on you...

And when you are being warned of Exile...

...You would be very encouraged to hear God say these words.

Now, what we know is that Judah would not repent and they would indeed end up in Exile in Babylon.

But what will happen to those Babylonians?

God will see to it that they are quickly dispersed by the Persians

As quickly as He raised Babylon up to crush Assyria, He will cut her down with Persia and then use Persia as a tool to send His people home

But I don’t think this is all that v. 15 is saying. The language of the verse tells us that we are talking about more than what will happen when Persia defeats Babylon.

Zephaniah says that God’s people will never again fear evil and this is because The King of Israel, the Lord, is in their midst (a phrase repeated at the beginning of v. 17).

To never again fear evil points way beyond the end of Babylon the Kingdom.

It points us to Revelation 18 when the whole evil world is depicted as Babylon as it falls. And right afterward, in Revelation 19, Jesus appears in heaven on a white horse with many crowns on His head, ready to judge every enemy.

Revelation 19:11–12 ESV

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

The King of Zephaniah 3 is the King of Revelation 19.

He is Faithful and True.

He is the King of Israel--the Lord--Yahweh in the flesh.

And He will not just eliminate the enemies of God’s people to the point of providing them with a rescue from Babylon and rest in Jerusalem.

He will ultimately provide them with a rescue from this world and rest in the New Jerusalem--the true Zion.

TAKING AWAY THEIR JUDGMENTS

The second part of the promise in v. 15 is that He has taken away their judgments.

Due to their sin, Judah was under the judgment of God, but He has taken that judgment away.

The question is--how has He done this?

Well in one sense, He has taken away their judgments by clearing out their enemies.

After all--the enemies are there due to judgment for sin.

But there is an enemy greater than Assyria or Babylon and that is the last enemy to be destroyed.

1 Corinthians 15:26 ESV

The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Death is an enemy that is in the world due to sin being in the world.

Romans 5:12 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

But will be defeated because God has another Man--His Son Jesus--who has come and suffered death on behalf of His sheep.

By paying for our sin on the Cross and offering us the free gift of righteousness, Christ is undoing the work of Adam.

In Adam, death reigned. In Christ, death is defeated.

Romans 5:17 ESV

For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

This is the Gospel. Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is salvation from enemies of sin, Satan and death itself.

And salvation comes from a King who comes down from heaven.

A King in our midst.

Through Him, God takes away all of our judgments.

PAST TENSE

And notice something about how Zephaniah prophesies about these things in v. 15.

The promises about defeated enemies and cleared out judgments are spoken of in the past tense.

They are spoken of as if God has already done it.

Exile has not even happened yet.

Christ has not been born.

The enemies of Judah were alive and well.

But despite those undeniable threats, and the reality of Judah’s own sin, Zephaniah speaks as if it is already done.

Why?

Because that is how powerful the King in the midst IS.

He is in control of all. What He says goes.

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but if it is Yahweh’s Word--it will stand forever.

It is as good as done.

THE SINGING SAVIOR

Now--this brings us to v. 17.

This is where we see the Singing Savior.

There are three “He will” statements at the end of v. 17. Unlike the promise of v. 15, these statements are in the future tense.

In light of what is as good as done, here is what Yahweh will do.

The Lord your God will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exult over you with loud singing.

I want to dive into the language deeper in a moment, but before we do that, let’s just look at the big picture.

This is the way we would expect to hear someone talk about someone who is a worshipper.

We are seeing God rejoicing and exulting with loud singing.

It is reminiscent of David’s God-exalting joy as the ark of the Lord returned home:

2 Samuel 6 says that as the ark came into the city of David, the King was leaping and dancing before the Lord.

Even as they approached the city, the Scriptures say David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn.

Why did David react this way?

Because he was a man after God’s own heart and the ark represented the presence of God with the people of God.

David was shouting and dancing because he was joyful.

The ark was where it belonged. God was with His people.

Similarly, God is rejoicing in Zephaniah 3.

God’s people have been disobedient and unfaithful to Him.

They have been harassed by enemies on the inside and the outside.

They are facing the severe, but just discipline of Exile in Babylon

In short--they are weary in the wilderness of the world.

Well God loves to rescue His people from that desperate situation.

God loves to take away the judgments.

God loves to clear away His people’s enemies

God loves to the Savior in the midst of His people

And since God loves these things, God rejoices and exults with singing over His people that He has redeemed through His Son, the King.

APPLICATION

Two weeks ago I went to a conference.

It started on a Thursday, so I left Seaford after our Members’ Meeting on a Wednesday night.

I would get to Charlotte around 2am, grab 5 hours of sleep and head to the conference.

Well, on my way out of the church parking lot, I backed into a church member’s car and put a dent in it the size of a mini-football.

Then, halfway to Charlotte, I stopped at a gas station in Henderson, NC and locked my keys in my car.

I waited for 90 minutes for the Pop-A-Lock guy to come.

I got to Charlotte around 3:45am. Registration opened at 7:30am.

Sometimes, it isn’t your day.

We have spiritual versions of that, don’t we?

We have these days where we:

React to everything poorly

Speak to people harshly

Don’t pray enough--if at all

Forget to read our Bibles

And we get to the end of it and say, “Well--I just messed that up, didn’t I?”

And God loves us enough to let us feel that.

He lets us feel what life without Him is like so that we will hate it and desire more of Him.

But let me encourage you brothers and sisters--

On those days, the promises of v. 15 are still true.

And on those days, the promises of v. 17 are still true.

God is no less a Savior when you are struggling as a sinner.

On the days when I am failing, He is still the One who takes away my judgments and clears away my enemies.

And on the days when I am faltering and I come to Him confessing my sin--He still sings over me.

HOW CAN THAT BE?

It is all because the of the King of Israel.

He has come down in our midst and won salvation for our souls through His Cross and Resurrection and when God looks at me, He sees the righteousness that Christ has earned for me and given to me.

He looks at me and no longer sees a sinner needing salvation, but a sinner who has been saved.

And that means He looks at me as one who by faith possesses the very righteousness of His Son.

And this compels God to rejoice and sing from His throne.

Now, let’s dive into that further by moving to our second stop on the tour...

GOD’S LOVE FOR SAVING SINNERS

2. We must see God’s love for saving sinners.

We know that the Lord is a singing Savior, but to really grasp His love for saving sinners, we need to look closer at the three “HE WILL” statements of v. 17.

HE WILL REJOICE OVER YOU WITH GLADNESS

God loves saving sinners so much that after He saves them by His power (a mighty One who will save), he will rejoice over them with gladness.

The Hebrew word that translates to rejoice also sometimes translates to jubilant or delight.

This gives you an idea of the joy of God over His saved children.

You see that this joy over you is something He does with gladness.

In other words--it makes God happy to find joy in saving sinners.

He delights to be glad over the salvation of those who cry out for His mercy.

See--God is the most supreme and superior Being in all of existence.

He is the greatest good in all of existence.

And He is the most glorious One in all of existence.

When He redeems a sinner, He unites them to Himself through Jesus--the King of Israel.

And that means they share in His glory.

And since He is the greatest good in all of existence, in saving the sinner, God has done for that soul the greatest possible thing He can do--He has given Himself to the saved sinner.

And as they receive this salvation and they have inexpressible joy flowing out of their lives, He is in heaven, watching over us, and He is rejoicing with His angels.

And as He rejoices, He is happy that He rejoices.

He is glad about the joy the He gets from watching us take joy in Him.

This is why John Piper is spot on when he says his famous line:

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

John Piper

When we are finding joy in the soul satisfaction that comes with salvation, God is glorified.

And He is joyful over that glory of His which is coming from Him and reflecting off of you back to Him.

And more than that--He is glad and happy to be joyful over that glory that He is sharing with you.

What a Savior.

HE WILL QUIET YOU BY HIS LOVE

Now--I am an ESV guy, but I do not love the ESV here.

I think the KJV is capture the original intent of the language with the way it translates the middle “HE WILL” statement in v. 17.

The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

Zephaniah 3:17, KJV

Notice the difference in what the two translations are putting out there.

The ESV makes it seem like God is promising that He will pacify us with His love

And that is a fine idea and maybe I am wrong and that is what Zephaniah was preaching

But the other two “HE WILL” statements are not about what God will do to us or cause in us.

Instead, they are about what He will do OVER us.

And so, I think the KJV is more accurate because it is also stating that God will do something over us.

As He rules and reigns over us, he will rest in His love.

So I do not think the ESV is correct to say that God will give us rest with His love (even though He does).

I believe that the KJV is correct.

Zephaniah is saying:

God loves saving sinners so much that after He saves them by His power, He takes rest in His love.

In the same way that He made the world in six days and then He rested, once He has finished our salvation, He will rest in His love, which has redeemed for Him a people.

God is satisfied in the act of saving His people and sharing His glory with them.

And since He is the greatest good in existence, it is a morally good thing for God to find satisfaction and rest in this.

Like all of the words in this passage, there is a sense in which God is already resting in His love for us.

But the work of redemption will not be completely done until this age has passed away and He has made all things new.

He will rest in His love as He reigns over His immortal flock who will never again feel the burn of tears, the sting of pain or the brutality of grief.

HE WILL EXULT OVER YOU WITH LOUD SINGING

And then, as we have just seen, we have the promise that He will express exultation over us with loud song.

To exult is to rejoice.

The third HE WILL statement is the same as the first.

To say He will exult over you with loud singing, is just another way of saying, he will rejoice over you with gladness.

My wife and kids will tell you that when Liverpool wins a big game, I am a little bit hard to be around the rest of the day.

Why?

Because I am singing Liverpool songs to the point that I am sure it is pretty annoying.

And yet--I can’t contain it.

The gladness I have over victory is so great that I cannot help but express it in song.

Similarly, God has won a great victory for us in our redemption.

He has triumphed through His Son and earned for us a great salvation.

And He is glad over His victory.

He is glad that the Cross and Resurrection of Christ has thrown Satan to the ground and ultimately He will judge him to the Lake of Fire.

He is glad to see death and Hades tossed into the Lake of Fire, which is the second death.

And He is glad to vindicate His church throughout the ages by defeating all of His enemies.

So what does God choose to do in a free expression of His gladness over these things?

He chooses to sing over His people.

This is a beautiful picture.

It calls us back to the scene in Exodus 15, when Moses and the people are rescued from Pharaoh and they break out in the Song of the Sea--a song of praise to God for the victory He gave.

Exodus 15:11 ESV

“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

Redemption brought a song about God’s great power and victory from the mouth of His people on the shore of the Red Sea.

Well in Zephaniah 3:17, redemption brought a song about God’s great power and victory from the mouth of God Himself.

He is rejoicing over the salvation that that He has brought about.

And He is rejoicing over the joy that we have as a result of that salvation.

He is joyful because we are joyful. He sings because we sing.

APPLICATION

Church--do we see just how much God loves to save sinners?

Do you see how it is not a chore to Him?

Do you see how He takes delight in it?

Do you see how He rests in it?

Do you see how it brings a song from the heart of God?

Maybe you have forgotten that God feels this way about you?

Maybe you often feel like God is annoyed with you and disappointed with you?

Maybe you feel forgotten by God?

Well here is Zephaniah to speak into the dark night of your soul and say, “No--you are not forgotten.”

And if you are a Christian who believes, here is the prophet to say, “Child of God--the Lord is joyful over your joy. The Lord sings when you sing. The Lord is so glad that He has saved you. He delights in you.”

Don’t hang your head as if your judgments have not been taken away.

Don’t hang your head as if your enemies will not all be clear away.

They will.

Every judgment paid for by Christ.

Every enemy defeated by Christ.

And then there will be an eternity in which we rest in God’s love for us and He will rest in His love for us.

That is what Jonathan Edwards called the world of love.

That is the New Jerusalem to come.

But until then--hold fast to the Lord knowing that it is His joy to hold fast to you.

...Which brings us to our final stop on the tour.

GOD’S PROVISION FOR SUFFERING SAINTS

3. We must see God’s provision for suffering saints.

Look at verse 16.

Zephaniah 3:16 ESV

On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak.

In this situation, fear is being associated with despair.

And if you have ever been truly afraid, then you understand why.

True fear can weaken the knees and cause the hands to grow weak.

True fear can make you just want to give up.

Some of you may be there today. Maybe you have been there for a while.

Well the idea here is that there is a day coming in which all Exile will end and every enemy will be vanquished.

There is a day coming in which the King of Israel--the Lord--who is in your midst, will see to it that evil will never be feared again (v. 15).

“On that day,” lets us know this is a future promise.

And yet, even now, the Lord your God is in your midst, just as the beginning of verse 17 says.

The same almighty God who will vanquish every enemy and end all Exile with His power is the same God who is in our midst.

He is with us even now.

This was always the point of the New Covenant.

It was always about restoring what was lost in Eden--God dwelling with His people.

Jeremiah 31:33–34 ESV

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

This covenant has been brought about by Jesus, the King of Israel.

He has inaugurated in His first coming.

He will consummate it in His second coming.

Revelation 21:3 ESV

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

And in the in between, He has pledged Himself to us with His Spirit who is the seal of our salvation.

The world does not have Him because they are not the saints of the Lord.

But those who have received salvation by grace through faith have the Lord with us in His Spirit even now.

John 14:17 ESV

even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

And part of what the Spirit does as we wait on the fullness of our salvation is He reminds us of what God has said and of what is true.

John 14:26–27 ESV

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

There is a day coming when we will be like Thomas and we will handle our Lord.

We will see Him with our eyes and we will be able to touch the scars of His hands.

But until that day, He has given us the Spirit of Christ to dwell in us--seeing to it that we are never alone.

Seeing to it that despair-driven fear will not rule our lives.

And guiding us into all truth until that day when Christ will return and eradicate fear forever.

Clearly the Lord our God is indeed in our midst.

He has come to our world in the Holy Christ.

He has come to our hearts in the Holy Spirit.

APPLICATION

These realities cannot just be doctrine in our creeds and confessions.

And these verses cannot just be words on paper in our Bibles.

We must believe God and trust in His provision, which is no less than Himself.

Whatever else we may be tempted to rely on as we experience God’s discipline or His providential hardship, we must reject it and rely on the Lord.

And can’t we trust Him in this way? After all, He LOVES to save sinners.

Can’t we trust God to do the thing that He loves to do?

Can’t we trust Him to see our salvation through from eternity past to new birth to the New Jerusalem?

CONCLUSION

See--as we close up this morning, let’s remember Zephaniah’s message:

Judgment is coming

But for God’s remnant, there will ultimately be salvation

These were words given to the people before Exile to get them through Exile.

These were words to live on until the could get home.

These words were a comfort.

Well let’s not forget what Peter has said about us:

1 Peter 2:11 ESV

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

We are sojourners and exiles in the Babylon of this world.

We long for the New Jerusalem.

But until then, we are not left alone.

We are left with the Word of God offering us the God of the Word.

And in it, He has told us He is a Singing Savior who loves to save and sustain sinners.

We have also been given words.

We are given words in Exile to get through Exile.

Words to see us into the world of love.

Trust them and find comfort in them this morning.

And as the comfort bring joy to your heart, know that God is glad and He is singing over you from His glorious throne.