Zephaniah 3:9-13
Notes
Transcript
Zephaniah 3:9-13
Zephaniah 3:9-13
Wide angle lens of judgement= Nations
Narrow angle lens of Judgement=Israel
This week, we see the same parameters of God’s Grace
8-10
“For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples
to a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
and serve him with one accord.
From beyond the rivers of Cush
my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones,
shall bring my offering.
Verse 9 begins with “For at that time”
What time?
“Therefore wait for me,” declares the Lord,
“for the day when I rise up to seize the prey.
For my decision is to gather nations,
to assemble kingdoms,
to pour out upon them my indignation,
all my burning anger;
for in the fire of my jealousy
all the earth shall be consumed.
So at the same time that we see God’s wrath and judgement, we see the purification of His people
He says that he will change their speech to a pure speech
And before we have some kind of thought that this is a moralistic cleaning up of their speech, what does Scripture say about speech?
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks!
This is heart change. This is the purification of the people of God
And what is the outflow of this purification?
They call upon the name of the Lord and serve him
This is the first thing we want to see from this text this morning, that in His sovereignty,
God’s Holiness and Justice are not at odds with His Mercy and Grace
Throughout Scripture we see instances where In the same action, God both judges and saves
We see this in the flood
For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
At the same time that the Lord provided the water to judge the earth, he provided the Ark to save Noah and his family.
We see this at the cross
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
It is at the cross where we see the ultimate intersection of His wrath and His mercy.
Jesus Christ, the only perfect sinless one, endured the wrath of God against sin
And through that sacrifice, purchased a people unto Himself
We will see this at His Return
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
When Christ comes back, and Judges everyone, that judgement will be simultaneously just and merciful.
There will be justice for sin, and mercy through Christ Blood.
The second thing we want to see this morning from this text is that God’s grace extends as wide as His wrath
From beyond the rivers of Cush
my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones,
shall bring my offering.
There are disagreements here about whether this is referring to Gentile believers or to the Judeans who will be dispersed in the exile
And I would belong in the camp that sees this as a reference to the Gentile nations
For the reason that as we have seen for the past two weeks, that God has pronounced Judgement on the nations
And here, I think we see His grace extending just as far
Remember that the nations have always been the aim of the Lord
Even in making His covenant with Abraham, the Lord tells him, that it is through Him that all the nations will be blessed
The nation of Israel were supposed to be God’s people, who would testify of Him to the nations, but they utterly failed in that task
And we should remember this morning, that the same task given to Israel has been given to the church
We are to testify to the nations about God and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Just as we saw in verse 8 where God is gathering the nations for His judgement, in verse 10 we see Him gathering His people from those nations
11-13
“On that day you shall not be put to shame
because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me;
for then I will remove from your midst
your proudly exultant ones,
and you shall no longer be haughty
in my holy mountain.
But I will leave in your midst
a people humble and lowly.
They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord,
those who are left in Israel;
they shall do no injustice
and speak no lies,
nor shall there be found in their mouth
a deceitful tongue.
For they shall graze and lie down,
and none shall make them afraid.”
We see the continuation of the purification of God’s people and the application of His grace
He says in verse 11 that His people won’t be put to shame for their rebellious deeds
He will purge them of their proudly exalted ones and leave a people humble and lowly
And this brings to mind what Christ said about separating the wheat from the chaff
He will purify those who are imposters, he will remove the wolves from the sheep
then look at verse 13
those who are left in Israel;
they shall do no injustice
and speak no lies,
nor shall there be found in their mouth
a deceitful tongue.
For they shall graze and lie down,
and none shall make them afraid.”
Those who are left
He says, do no injustice
they speak no lies
their is no deceit in their mouth
Ladies and Gentlemen, the greatest purge that we will see when Jesus returns is the elimination of Sin
All of our suffering comes from sin
Sin of others
Sin of ours
Sin of Adam and Eve
All suffering is a result of sin
And yet, when God purifies His people, sin is no more
They have been purified of imposters, they have been purified of their own sin
And look at the end of verse 13
For they shall graze and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
This sounds familiar doesn’t it?
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
We look forward to the day when all of redemption history is completed, and God will give us this peace and rest
No more sin of others
verse 13 says none will make them afraid
In the absence of sin, there is an absence of fear
No more sin of our own hearts
We won’t do any injustice
We will speak no lies
No Deceit in our mouth
No more corrupted nature
No more disease
No more natural disasters
Ladies and Gentlemen, we should long for these things
We have talked over and over about how this year has been a whirlwind of garbage
And yet, while I long for God to rescue us from injustice, while I long for Him to rescue us from lies and slander, from hatred and malice
What I long most for is for Him to rescue me from my sinful nature
It’s easy for me to desire the justice of wickedness, and we should desire justice
But If I’m not careful, I’m much more worried about the wickedness of others and the wickedness inside me
And here in this passage, we see, that the imposters and the proud ones will get their due
But what I hope for, I long for, I hang on to when I am disgusted with myself
Is that one day, God will cleanse me
One day, I won’t have to echo Paul who talked about the good he would do that he doesn’t do, or the evil things he would not do that he does
That battle, which consumes so much more of my time than any enemies I have
Will be gone
Praise the Lord, one day, that battle will be gone
And then, we all will lie down
And no one will make us afraid
Because The Lord Our God is with us.