“Day of the Lord”

An umpire named Babe Pinelli once called Babe Ruth out on strikes. When the crowd booed with sharp disapproval at the call, the legendary Ruth turned to the umpire with disdain and said, “Theres 40,000 people here who know that the last pitch was a ball, tomato head.” Suspecting that the umpire would erupt with anger, the coaches and players braced themselves for Ruth’s ejection. However, the cool headed Pinelli replied, “Maybe so, Babe, but mine is the only opinion that counts.”

It is a reality when it comes to the judgement of God. In the end, no matter what the multitudes have said, no matter that popular television talk shows hosts have said, no matter what was said on news tv, no matter what was said on social media, no matter what was said on the big screen, no matter what your fiends and neighbors say, in the end what God said is what’s gonna matter. God is the one who is gonna judge, His opinion is who’s opinion really matters. So the question is… Do we know His opinion? And do we have a good grasp on His revealed character? This is one of the best things about the minor prophets. It does a wonderful job of revealing to us vital insights to the character of God. We might think God does this or that or even thinks this or that, but we find that the minor prophets namely Zephaniah and Habakkuk can be very revealing when it comes to what we think God does or thinks.

Clearly, our Lord is not influenced by affluence or cultural norms or adaptations. The scriptures do not seek to be politically correct, socially acceptable, pressured by the mob, amendable to socio economic trends, but commited to revealing the Holy will and works of God. And what is important to see is that more we are offended by the truths of scripture the more clear it should be as to how much of the pattern of the world we are taking on. If the scriptures say it is righteous, but we think its not fair, then we are becoming more like the world. If the scriptures say it is right, but we think its wrong, then we are becoming more like the world. One of the battles we face when dealing with the challenging and difficult message of the minor prophets. But Let God be true and every man a liar. Lets take a closer look.

Zephaniah 1:14–18 NLT

“That terrible day of the Lord is near. Swiftly it comes— a day of bitter tears, a day when even strong men will cry out. It will be a day when the Lord’s anger is poured out— a day of terrible distress and anguish, a day of ruin and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of trumpet calls and battle cries. Down go the walled cities and the strongest battlements! “Because you have sinned against the Lord, I will make you grope around like the blind. Your blood will be poured into the dust, and your bodies will lie rotting on the ground.” Your silver and gold will not save you on that day of the Lord’s anger. For the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy. He will make a terrifying end of all the people on earth.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.

What Will Happen?

Why Will It Happen?

Salvation Belongs to the Lord

The first thing we will look at today is the vivid description of the terrible day of the Lord. Second, we will discuss the reasons for the terrible day of the Lord. And finally, we will rejoice as we find out how we can be saved from the poured out wrath of the day of the Lord.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to be disillusioned into becoming apathetic to the looming judgement of God, it is the power of the Spirit and the truth of the scriptures that will guide us into sober mindedness and see the reality of sin and find hope in the truth of the gospel.

I. What Will Happen?

- The Wrath of God being poured out.

A. The prophets makes it clear once more. This day and this day of calamity will be the result of the very hand of God. So again here are some clues to the character of God and what He will and will not do.

B. And now to wake the hearts of many the prophet would call it a terrible day and that the day is near. Why would this be a wake up call? Because he is telling them not to look to the current times of the present day. Many might think … no look at the times, does it look like judgement is coming. You might not think that it is coming, but I assure you it is. You may not see the clouds coming in but I am telling you a great storm is coming.

C. When the day comes… the tears you will shed because of the Hand of God will not be ordinary tears, but bitter tears. And the cry would be such that even the strongest of soldiers will cry out because the enemy that they are fighting is too much for them. And the prophet under the influence of the Holy Spirit… urges them to wake up. He does this now by emphasizing characteristics as to why this day is gonna be a terrible one.

D. When our culture tries to say that God is a God of love not wrath. Zephaniah says that it will be a day of anger and wrath and because the wrath of God will be poured out it will be a time of distress and anguish which signifies a time of emotional disturbance and discomfort. Now it will be a day of trouble and ruin which in the Hebrew carries the idea of a wilderness. There will be physical devastation in the land resulting in a wasteland. There will be no more sustenance and no more comforts in the land. There will be darkness and gloom, clouds and blackness which are a four fold image of darkness which is understood as clear and utter disaster. The image is expressed clearly in Amos.

Amos 5:18–20 NLT

What sorrow awaits you who say, “If only the day of the Lord were here!” You have no idea what you are wishing for. That day will bring darkness, not light. In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion— only to meet a bear. Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house— and he’s bitten by a snake. Yes, the day of the Lord will be dark and hopeless, without a ray of joy or hope.

E. When the battle cry sounds, even the strongest and most fortified stronghold will fall when the wrath of God is poured out. And the reason for this is because God will be coming to fight against His own people in judgement. And what a frightening thing this is. It is the opposite of what brought them hope in times of trouble.

Deuteronomy 20:4 NLT

For the Lord your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you victory!’

F. Arise and wake up. The Lord Himself is coming against you. Now the Lord is your enemy. The Lord is sounding the alarm for a holy War, but it is the Lord who is leading the other army against you. He will lead the charge against His own people.

II. Why Will It Happen?

- What is the reason for all of this? Sin.

A. How could this be? How could the Lord do such a thing against his people of on humanity for that matter? How could God lead the charge against his own people and destroy the city in which he caused for his name to dwell and to be honored. How is it that God will bring distress upon mankind? How could he do it so much so that they will be like blind men. They will stumble and grope like blind men. Just like it is pictured in Isaiah.

Isaiah 59:10 NLT

We grope like the blind along a wall, feeling our way like people without eyes. Even at brightest noontime, we stumble as though it were dark. Among the living, we are like the dead.

B. All of their plans and all of their ideas to get out of the distress. All their ingenuity to get out of things will not work anymore. They will have no sense of direction. They will have no sense of vision. They will have no sense of awareness. Every time they think they found a way, they will walk into a wall. Every time they think they have a breakthrough they will fall into a pit. Why will God make this happen?

C. Here is a quick reminder to help us see it...

Deuteronomy 28:29 NLT

You will grope around in broad daylight like a blind person groping in the darkness, but you will not find your way. You will be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will come to save you.

D. He told the people of God that this is what would happen to them if they… sinned against God. Dr. John Mackay writes,

They would be overwhelmed by the catastrophe because they have sinned against the Lord. The heinousness of their conduct derives from the fact that they had strayed from the way that their covenant king had directed them to go in, and so had corrupted their relationship with him. That was the reason why these horrors had engulfed them. They had indulged in idolatry; they had treated God as ineffectual and written him off; they had ignored his covenant requirements for their living. Their punishment and distress was therefore inevitable.

E. And because of their sins the judgement on them would be graphic, horrible, and gruesome. Now the picture drawn is notable. Their blood in the Hebrew will be ke a phar… poured out like dust. Now this could be understood in the sense of quantity… there will be lots of blood. So much it cant be counted.

Genesis 13:16 NLT

And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted!

F. But in the context of judgement it is more likely to understand ke a phar more in the sense of worthless. Not as numerous as dust, but as worthless as dust. Their blood will be poured out as something worthless. Their very lives will be extinguished as worthless.

2 Kings 13:7 NLT

Finally, Jehoahaz’s army was reduced to 50 charioteers, 10 chariots, and 10,000 foot soldiers. The king of Aram had killed the others, trampling them like dust under his feet.

G. In this day, just like dust is trampled under our feet without a moment’s notice or thought, so their blood would be considered. Oh… it gets even worse. Not only will their blood be considered worthless, but so will their bodies which is compared here to that of dung. The Hebrew Galal… technically defined as … the solid excretory product evacuated by the bowels. After all my seminary studies in Hebrew and 30 years of practice, the definition I have finally come to for Galal is … poop.

H. How we see poop on the streets is how the bodies of people on this day will be seen. Not just worthless, but disgusting. Dirty, filthy, gross. This is what mankind will be reduced to because of the sins we have committed against the Lord. You think of the supremacy of mankind in this world. And full of boasting and the Lord did give us reason to boast. We were created in the image of God. And now in that day even the image bearers will be reduced to worthlessness and even reproach.

I. Even the rich and wealthy will not be able to stand it. The judgement of the Lord will be the great equalizer. All will be reduced to worthlessness and reproach no matter how wealthy you may be. The rich will not be saved from God’s judgement. Why?

Proverbs 11:4 NLT

Riches won’t help on the day of judgment, but right living can save you from death.

J. They may have been able to get their own way by corrupting human courts, but God cannot be bought and his justice cannot be corrupted by bribery. They bought freedoms before, they bought salvation from catastrophe before, they bought deliverance from plight before. They always had money and it always got them out of a jam. It will not save from the wrath of God. Like the disaster movies. No special seat on a boat, plane, space ship… nothing. The day of the Lord will be worse than any natural disaster algorithm seen in the movies. Nothing will stop the wrath of God.

K. But the question remains. Shane thats messed up. Why would, how could God do such a thing? What an awful thing to do. And we get upset when we hear things like this. We don’t like the graphic nature of the judgement of God. We don’t like the severity of the wrath of God. We accuse God. We stand in judgement of God pointing the finger and say that… thats not right. We look for categories of the injustice of God.

L. We hear this and think that is messed up of God because we have not looked at where we should be looking. Instead of thinking of how messed up God is, maybe we should be looking at how messed up we are. When we say things like… that so not fair. We are not getting that from the Bible. In reality, when we get a good look as to how horrible and awful our sin is, then we would conclude that we deserve every bit of this.

M. What helps me understand how serious sin is…

Isaiah 64:6 NLT

We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

N. If our righteousness is as menstral rags, how horrible is our unrighteousness. How much worse is our sin.

2 Samuel 6:7 NLT

Then the Lord’s anger was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him dead because of this. So Uzzah died right there beside the Ark of God.

O. Our sin is so bad that the Lord would rather fall into the mud and be covered in dirt than to be touched by one of us.

P. And even 1 small sin is total and absolute pollution.

James 2:10 NLT

For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.

Q. How serious is sin. It is an absolute and utter violation and offense to the living God. It is a transgression of the laws of God which are a refection of the righteous character of God. It is an offense to God. It is against him when we sin. And the sooner we see this the better. Then we will ask the question that really matters.

III. Salvation Belongs to the Lord

- Salvation from the Wrath of God is by the Blood of Christ.

A. So a new question… Can we be saved from the wrath of God? Yes but it is not with money, not with intellect, not with strength, not with the will of the majority, not with special interest groups, not with a political party, not with exponential technological advancements, not even with the global collective.

B. Only God can save us from the wrath of God. And this was made possible only by the shed blood of the God man the word made flesh. The cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus. And we know that this is true because the Word says that it is true.

C. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures… The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance… Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost… He gave His life for the many. By His wounds we are healed.

D. We pray today that God grants us repentance… so that we turn from our sins and hope in Christ and in Christ alone. If we confess our sins he is faithful … If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised… All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

E. The judgement of God is real and revealed. The wrath of God is graphic and gruesome. And the Salvation of Christ is wondrous and wonderful. So we can rejoice today… for in Christ there is life and life more abundant.