“The Uncreation Account”
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Joe Louis was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 until he retired in 1949. In 1946 Louis prepared to defend his title against a skilled fighter named Billy Conn. Louis was warned to watch out for Conn's great speed and his tactic of darting in to attack and then moving quickly out of his opponent's range. In a famous display of confidence, Louis replied, "He can run, but he can't hide."
Today we might think we good at hiding. We might think we getting away with stuff. We might be quick. We might have the catch me if you can mentality. And you might actually be really good at getting away with it. So good that even the angels be warning the Lord, I dunno Lord he’s really good not sure you gonna catch him. But what we need to understand, when it comes to the judgement of God, the Lord is informing all of us right now… you can’t run and you cannot hide. There is no way we are gonna be able to escape the real and present judgement of God. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
But family hoping to hide and trying to hide and even believing that we are hiding from God is something that comes natural to our nature as children of our first parents Adam and Eve. Adam and Even sinned and plunged mankind into the great abyss of a world of sin and the effects of sin. And what was the first thing Adam and Eve did when they heard God coming. The same thing Scott did when he was young and it was time for the booster shots. They tried to hide.
When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
And did you know and what is being made abundantly clear in our culture today we love the darkness. Literally and metaphorically, we love the darkness. Why do we love the dark? Because we want to hide when we sin and it is way easier to hide when there is no light. Pretty simple to understand that we like dark when we do naughty things. Even today more and more we find that we are hiding in darkness(metaphorically of course). But the Lord knows this.
And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.
And the Lord makes it very clear. And in our culture today, with all the sin, no wonder there is a constant blurring of the lines, a constant redefining of terms, a constant assertion of no absolutes, a constant game of political redirection, a constant revisiting of philosophical thought laboratories, a constant need for us to hide behind popular opinion, a constant hiding behind social media misdirection, and we think we can hide behind the statement that “I didn’t know.”
We find in the scriptures time and time again… we have no excuse in any way shape or form. Ignorance will not be an excuse. Being deceived though sincere will not be an excuse. Following the leader all the way down the wrong road will not be an excuse. We will not be able to blame social media or the internet. And no matter how many people are standing in front of you, we will not be lost in the crowd. Our passage makes this clear today.
Know this Judgement is coming for all of us and there is nothing we can do about it. The question is… can we be saved from the eternal punishment that comes from offending the living God? So let me say this. There is no way to hide from the Lord’s judgement, unless the Lord hides you. Is that true? Let’s find out.
The Lord gave this message to Zephaniah when Josiah son of Amon was king of Judah. Zephaniah was the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah.
“I will sweep away everything
from the face of the earth,” says the Lord.
“I will sweep away people and animals alike.
I will sweep away the birds of the sky and the fish in the sea.
I will reduce the wicked to heaps of rubble,
and I will wipe humanity from the face of the earth,” says the Lord.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.
Royal Family
Un-creation
New Creation
The first thing we will look at is the significance of the royal connection of Zephaniah and his position of prophet. Second, we will see the universal and sweeping nature of God’s looming judgement. Finally, we will rejoice in the message of our prophet and king Jesus who brings a message of judgement, but also the good news of how we can be saved.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world may cause us to hide in the darkness because of sin, it is the power of the Spirit and the truth of scripture that will cause us to see the truth of the judgement of God and rejoice in the good news that we can be saved…because we can be hidden.
I. Royal Family
- The One Whom the Lord Hides.
A. So at the very beginning of the book, Zephaniah makes it very clear, this is a message from God…it is not a human message at all. But before we get to his lineage, it is interesting that Zephaniah’s name means, the one whom the Lord hides. After everything I just said about not being able to hide from God, here we have the very name of Zephaniah talking about hiding? Let’s look at 2:3
Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land,
who do his just commands;
seek righteousness; seek humility;
perhaps you may be hidden
on the day of the anger of the Lord.
B. What we see here is that seek the Lord and maybe by his hand he can hide you. The picture we get here is the possibility of actually being hidden from the terrors of the wrath of God. What this verse implies along with the name Zephaniah … There is a possibility that the Lord can hide you from the Lord. There is no way to hide from the Lord’s judgement, unless the Lord hides you. Shane is that possible? Oh yeah. We will see how later.
C. And what is interesting here is the genealogy? Why none of the other prophets recorded their genealogy as extensive? It was important at the time of Josiah’s reforms to point the prophets origins to the good king Hezekiah who was a king who upheld faithfulness to the Lord. Zephaniah’s line to the king would open access to the royal court and help Josiah with connections to the family of Hezekiah with the reforms he wanted to institute. He was part of the family and had access and influence given to the royal court.
D. And what a picture this is. A prophet who has royal lineage. All the benefits and privileges that come with those offices was important for the coming of our Lord Jesus. Christ was there to bear witness to the truth, handed out the blessings of God during the sermon on the mount, proclaimed judgment upon all, and delivered the wonderful message of the gospel. He was our prophet who held that office because of our ignorance. And Christ being in the royal line showed that he was a son of David and the rightful king. And because of our weakness Christ was our King, but not just our King, but our King of kings.
E. It is important for us to recognize all illustrations and pictures of the scripture pointing to the offices of prophet priest and king. The constant reminder of these offices is what will bring us hope and hope on top of hope. The scriptures want us to see the vital nature of prophet, priest, and king so we understand how Christ serves as our prophet priest and king.
F. Christ is our prophet - It is clear that He reveals to us by his word and Spirit the will of God for our salvation… the Gospel is not a message that is natural. It is what is foreign to us. By nature we are ignorant of the Gospel and Christ as our prophet reals this truth to us.
G. Christ is our priest - Christ executes the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God; and in making continual intercession for us. We need this because we are guilty before the Lord because of the sin of Adam put on our account and our own personal sins that we commit.
H. Christ is our King - Christ executes the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling, and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies. In so many ways we are weak and helpless… in much of life, in spirit, and in the face of the wrath of God, we cannot stand strong… we are the terrified Israelites afraid of the mighty Goliath. But it is Christ, our David who stood before the giant and was victorious. And His victory is our victory.
II. Un-creation
- The declaration of the un-creation.
A. The theme of Zephaniah is judgement. Judgement upon judgement. He comes right out of the door with an extreme pronouncement of judgement. And why not? He was face to face with a polluted consensus worldview of the people and culture so secularized and commitment to the Lord was canceled by the culture and state sponsored paganism.
Dr. John Mackay - The thinking of a generation had been warped by exposure to, and promotion of, all sorts of perversion and idolatry. Zephaniah was trying to counteract the thinking of people who were unconcerned about religion (1:6) and who no longer had a true conception of God (1:12). They had devoted themselves to idolatry and religious compromise (1:4–5), and as a result the land was morally bankrupt (3:1–4). Zephaniah challenges their world view with an uncompromising statement of divine judgment.
B. Sound familiar? Sounds a bit like it is today in both our church and culture. Even though Josiah worshipped the Lord and sought to reform, though he cleansed the land… Manasseh and Amon did a number on the people of God.
It did not take long after Josiah died that Jehoahaz and the people we right back into Idolatry. The land was found to be alienated from God. This is the background to Zephaniah’s oracle.
C. And he opens with a vivid and striking declaration of universal judgment. The picture that he paints here shows us that God will not ever compromise with evil no matter who or what. He absolutely has the right to judge who or what, and we better believe He has the power to execute his judgment. But here is the key point to the picture of uncreation... none will be exempt. The declaration of the un-creation.
D. The Lord says that He will sweep away everything. And he declares the opposite of creation. He uses the same categories of Genesis beginning with man and going backwards to animals, to birds, and to fish. There will be heaps of rubble when he wipes all of humanity off the face of the earth. And what is interesting is the the Hebrew word play used for mankind and ground is used here. Man came from the ground and now you will not return to the ground, you will just be swept away. Vivid and scary. The declaration of the un-creation.
E. But Shane we know that the judgement came in the form of the great destruction of the Babylonians … there was not a universal sweeping away. Why the Hyperbole? Why the exaggeration? Why the animals? The Lord was making a very important statement with this oracle full of figurative language. The declaration of the un-creation.
F. Number 1. Ok so I get judgement upon the people who sins, but why the animals and the ground? Mankind has dominion over all the earth. Let us not forget that the whole world bear the mark of the wrath of God.
John Calvin writes, Hence the sun and the moon, and all the stars, and also all the animals, the earth itself, and the whole world, bear marks of God’s wrath, not because they have provoked it through their own fault, but because the whole world is involved in man’s curse.
G. Number 2. In sin family, we become apathetic and lethargic. We become foolish and indifferent. We get to a place where our eyes and hearts have to be opened with force. And so the graphic nature of the judgement. You think all is well while you sin? Do you realize how serious your sin is? The living God is coming to judge you for what you have done and it is so bad that all of creation will suffer and be destroyed because of it. Not just you but all of creation. You think it is all good, wanna sit secure and content in your sins, you wanna keep indulging yourselves, the living God is coming and when he does you will be witness to the divine wrath being poured out on harmless animals, on the birds, on the fish, on the ground, those things that have nothing to do with it, they were not even partners with you. The declaration of the un-creation.
H. Harmless and innocent animals are suffering the worst of punishments and horrors of the wrath of God. You see what he did to them, what do you think will happen when he turns and looks at you? Do you think you will somehow escape unpunished? Do you think you will be able to hide from him?
I. I watched a movie once where some kind of crime boss had a soldier’s son killed in the Boss’s warehouse. The soldier went to get his revenge and when he went to the warehouse he killed all the people that was in the warehouse… they were telling him that they had nothing to do with it. I tried to stop him. And he still painfully killed them. And then when he got to the boss, he was terrified. Look at what he did to all of those who had nothing to do with the murder. What is he gonna do to the guy who actually committed the crime.
J. As you can see the point of this oracle is to inform God’s people apathetic in their indulging sin and idolatry… content thinking that God is not gonna do anything about it. The judgement is sure and there will be no escape. The Lord is saying that he will tear the entire world apart, sweep everything away, even destroy everything that had nothing to do with it, to make sure you face his wrath. To make sure His justice is done. Hopefully you see how scary this is. The declaration of the un-creation.
K. Rest assured he will not tolerate evil. He will not let our sins go unpunished. He will not turn a blind eye. Everyone will be held accountable for all that they have done. There is nothing we can do to stop Him. There is no running away, He will catch us. There is no hiding, He will find us. There will be no blaming, he will counter. There is no claiming ignorance, He warned us. There will be no excuse, why??? Because there is none.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
III. New Creation
- The declaration of a new creation.
A. Mankind has fallen. Imputed sin has an affect on us all. The bible says that we are all by nature children of wrath. We were destined for judgement. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is no one on earth who always does good and never sins.
B. The Lord has made it abundantly clear that judgement is coming. There is a scary judgement that is still coming. When Christ comes back he will judge the living and the dead. The judgement is real. And know that there will be no place to hide when the world is purged. There will be no place to hide. You cannot run and you cannot hide, unless the Lord hides you. Again, there is no way to hide from the Lord’s judgement, unless the Lord hides you.
You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah
C. And how are we hidden and protected from the might wrath of the living God? All of you in Christ … you are hidden by the precious blood of Jesus. We are hidden in Christ not because God saw Christ and changed his mind. The wrath of God was taken by Christ for us. Our sins was laid upon Him. All the horrible things we have done and what we will do, was put on the shoulders of Christ and the wrath of God for our sins came down upon the Son of God crucified on the cross.
D. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trust worthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus… He became sin who knew no sin that we might become the … He is our hiding place
E. The promise of the gospel given to us by our prophet priest and king Christ Jesus… he declares that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your … He declares that all who call upon the name of the Lord...
F. All of you who are in Christ he also declares a new creation...
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
G. Christ has come and for his people there will be no un-creation because of his grace and precious blood, he brought a new creation. Rejoice today. And again I say rejoice. Our Lord Jesus declares… Behold I make all things new. Rejoice today and again I say rejoice.