"West East South North”

The Fox TV show Kitchen Nightmares features the host Gordon Ramsay, a world-class chef, who steps into restaurants that are—you guessed it—living nightmares. The restaurants are typically on the verge of closing and in desperate need of help. What's interesting is that sometimes the restaurants look appealing from the outside. Often, large amounts of time and money have been spent finding the right location and creating a welcoming atmosphere. But in every episode, the real problem is the same: the food is nasty.

One of the painfully entertaining parts of every show is how Gordon Ramsay tries over and over to get the restaurant workers to realize they are in an "Oh no! situation." The owners have typically already had a sudden awakening, because the business is in trouble, but what they need is some brutal honesty. And Chef Ramsay is brutal. He'll usually order about a half-dozen items off the menu and with great passion and clarity explain how horrible each one tastes. The restaurant owners are in denial about the quality of their food because they are distracted by everything else going on. They're managing food orders, overseeing wait staff, stepping out of the kitchen to shake hands with customers—basically anything but actually making good food. The show is half over before any of them get honest about reality.

Sometimes we need to see things or even hear things that are not pleasant in order to elicit change. Sure they could have just flown off the handle and quit, but many times they stay and things become better in the restaurant. Sure the brutal honesty hurts and does not feel good. It makes us feel shame and embarrassment. It makes us feel small and belittled. It makes us just feel bad. This many times is what we feel when we hear the bible preached, study the scriptures in our quiet times, or hearing another rebuke us for our unrighteousness. What is our reaction? What is our response? What is our knee jerk disposition? Now I get it… many times brutal honesty is given to hurt, to belittle, to destroy. But many times the brutal honesty is given because the person truly cares and is trying to enact some much needed change. Especially is the change is need to avert eternal consequences.

Again, we are talking about repentance. Again, our struggle today with repentance is perception. We are unable to get the right perception so now we are looking for the wrong needs. So having the wrong perspective of ourselves distort making it difficult to change. But something else that does bring change is the cause and effect dynamic that we see in others. What happens to others does affect our behaviors and beliefs. We are motivated for change if we gotta keep up with the jones’.

Ecclesiastes 4:4 NLT

Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind.

In our passage today we see this dynamic at work as the Lord continues to deliver loving warnings to bring His people to repentance. The Lord is saying that there is still time. Let’s take a look.

Zephaniah 2:4–15 NLT

Gaza and Ashkelon will be abandoned, Ashdod and Ekron torn down. And what sorrow awaits you Philistines who live along the coast and in the land of Canaan, for this judgment is against you, too! The Lord will destroy you until not one of you is left. The Philistine coast will become a wilderness pasture, a place of shepherd camps and enclosures for sheep and goats. The remnant of the tribe of Judah will pasture there. They will rest at night in the abandoned houses in Ashkelon. For the Lord their God will visit his people in kindness and restore their prosperity again. “I have heard the taunts of the Moabites and the insults of the Ammonites, mocking my people and invading their borders. Now, as surely as I live,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, “Moab and Ammon will be destroyed— destroyed as completely as Sodom and Gomorrah. Their land will become a place of stinging nettles, salt pits, and eternal desolation. The remnant of my people will plunder them and take their land.” They will receive the wages of their pride, for they have scoffed at the people of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. The Lord will terrify them as he destroys all the gods in the land. Then nations around the world will worship the Lord, each in their own land. “You Ethiopians will also be slaughtered by my sword,” says the Lord. And the Lord will strike the lands of the north with his fist, destroying the land of Assyria. He will make its great capital, Nineveh, a desolate wasteland, parched like a desert. The proud city will become a pasture for flocks and herds, and all sorts of wild animals will settle there. The desert owl and screech owl will roost on its ruined columns, their calls echoing through the gaping windows. Rubble will block all the doorways, and the cedar paneling will be exposed to the weather. This is the boisterous city, once so secure. “I am the greatest!” it boasted. “No other city can compare with me!” But now, look how it has become an utter ruin, a haven for wild animals. Everyone passing by will laugh in derision and shake a defiant fist.

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

The Universal Rule

The Bad to Worse

Our Jealousy

The first thing we will look at today is the reminder of the universal rule of our heavenly Father over the nations. Second, we will see the motive for repentance found in a lesser to greater argument in Zephaniah’s oracle. Finally, we will see another motive for repentance as the Lord arouses the jealousy of His people in order to save some.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world causes us to lose perspective of ourselves causing us to reject or ignore repentance, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of scripture that will cause us to hear the Lord’s loving warnings and move to humility, repentance, and salvation.

I. The Universal Rule

- The Lord is over all the earth.

A. When we see this passage, it brings to light something very important for the people of God to know. You might think that the other nations of the world are not under the authority of our God, but they are. You think that just because they worship other gods that they are nor accountable to the hand and authority of God, well we will see that this is incorrect.

B. Zephaniah’s decree outlines the judgement of God that will upon the nations apart form Judah. The image includes those from the west, the east, the south and the north. And what this signifies is that judgement is coming and it will land not just in Judah, but on the whole world. Remember.

Zephaniah 1:2 NLT

“I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” says the Lord.

C. And why not… Our heavenly Father is Lord over all the earth. And obedience is not just required for the people of Judah, but everyone on the face of the earth.

Psalm 135:6–7 NLT

The Lord does whatever pleases him throughout all heaven and earth, and on the seas and in their depths. He causes the clouds to rise over the whole earth. He sends the lightning with the rain and releases the wind from his storehouses.

Colossians 1:16 NLT

for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.

Revelation 4:11 NLT

“You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.”

D. And the descriptions are vivid and the descriptions are awful. But the picture is clear that the Lord does what He pleases all over the world and no one could escape His grasp. None will escape His rule. And none is unaccountable to Him and Him alone.

E. But why the decree to judge the nations in the context of judgement of Judah and a plea for repentance? Why indeed.

II. The Bad to Worse

- From the lesser to the greater.

A. The reason He illumines his sovereignty over the nations is to draw the people of God to repentance. The power of the warning is extraordinary. There are a couple of methods the Lord will employ in this oracle of Zephaniah. Shane how in the world does a declaration of the judgement of the nations supposed to draw Judah to repent?

B. Dr. O Palmer Robertson writes, “The Lords devastation of other nations should make his people realize that they shall not escape his righteous retribution.”

C. The destruction of the nations of the world is sure to get Judah to realize that if he would do that to others who are not called by his name, how much more for them. From the lesser to the greater. It is bad for them we better believe that it will be even more certain and sure that they are in for it.

D. I remember when I was young. I naughty Island boy with other naughty Island boys playing around cause we are bored. For the life of me I cannot figure out why we got in trouble. We were hanging out with the brothers. And we were doing something dangerous in their front yard. Again I cannot remember what it was, but she came running out of the house yelling and screaming and she started spanking and scolding us. All of us who were not even her kids. She was so mad that she was spanking kids that were not hers. She yelled at her two boys and told them to get in the house and that they were in big big trouble.

E. Now while we were walking home all we kept thinking is how bad we felt for he sons. If she beat on us as bad as she did, how much worse was it gonna be for her sons. It wasn’t too bad… after about a month they started talking again.

F. If the nations who have no special covenant with the Lord is getting judged severely by the Lord, then you better believe that those who have a special and direct covenant with the living God is gonna get it. And its gonna be bad.

G. And so we see, there is no escape. There will be no mercy when the day of the Lord comes, but mercy is being extended to them right now. A loving warning is here.

H. And here we are again. A beautiful picture and illustration of the wonderful mercy of God and the message that we might not like, but if it leads us to repentance the not nice message is gonna save our souls for eternity. And right now there is still time. Time to humble ourselves and come to the Lord with a contrite heart. Repentance. There is still time. Right now.

I. Judgement is real and judgement is coming. Judah found out the hard way that when God warns and says he is coming, we better believe that He is not messing around. He does not lie. He does not make promises and declarations that He does not intend to keep. Judgement is coming.

Acts 17:31 NLT

For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”

2 Corinthians 5:10 NLT

For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.

J. Judgement is real and judgement is coming. And right now there is still time to come to the Lord in humbleness and in repentance. There is still time. Do not wait. Repent and believe. Bow before the King of kings while there is still time.

III. Our Jealousy

- Jealousy onto salvation.

A. Another thing he does is to arouse the jealousy of the people of God in the promised blessing that is given to the nations in this prophesy. He moves to arouse the jealousy of the people of Judah.

B. O Palmer Robertson writes, “Participation in the blessings of the Lord by the Gentiles should move Israel to a jealousy that will lead them back to the only true and living God.”

C. Jealousy can be a powerful means of motivation. I remember in Bible college I had a girlfriend who started tripping one day. I really liked her and one day she said she wanted to break up and start seeing other people. My heart was broken, but I played it cool and said ok that a really good idea. So I started going out on dates with other girls. She called and I said I couldn't talk I was going out with another girl on a date. I even sat by other girls at church. She got super jealous and wanted to get back together. I said no. Nah I said ok… but she was super nice to me after.

D. Jealousy is a powerful motivator. We got a new doggie. And sometimes when I call him he does not come to me. He will sometimes just stare at me. But if I call my other dog’s name and tell her to come. Then he is right there jumping on my lap.

E. The Lord makes it clear in His desire to have the nations participate in the blessings of God.

Zephaniah 2:11 NLT

The Lord will terrify them as he destroys all the gods in the land. Then nations around the world will worship the Lord, each in their own land.

F. The nations will be brought to worship. They will share in the blessings of the Lord. They will be a part a partaker of the blessings of the divine. And as we the Gentiles are brought into that blessing the people of God. Israel will come to the Lord because of their jealousy. There will be salvation in the land. There will be salvation for His people. Salvation.

Romans 11:13–14 NLT

I am saying all this especially for you Gentiles. God has appointed me as the apostle to the Gentiles. I stress this, for I want somehow to make the people of Israel jealous of what you Gentiles have, so I might save some of them.

G. Jealousy that leads to salvation. This is the warning. There is still time. There is still salvation. This is the mercy of God. This is the grace of God. This is the kindness and love of our Heavenly Father. The warnings. The judgements. The threats. The devastation. The incredulity. The derogatory address. The vivid nature of the oracle. The graphic shaming and belittling. All of this is being done to bring us to repentance.

H. All that we hear in the scriptures about who we are and what we are are there to bring us to repentance. All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. No one is righteous no not one. We are called sinners, we are called enemies of God. We are called wicked and perverse. We are called children of wrath. We are called law breakers and criminals. We are said to be destined for destruction. The Lord would rather fall into mud than to be touched by us.

I. And all of this is the truth of the scriptures and so the next question is can we be saved? Yes. Is there still time? Yes. This is the beauty of the reason for the season. Christ the king has come. God made flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus came and lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.

J. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. Jesus came into this world to seek and save that which was lost. He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.

K. Salvation is here. It is here for us all. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart… All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. There is still time.

L. Time to be hid by the hand of God covered with the blood of Christ and stand confident undeceived on the day of the Lord. Time for life and life more abundant. Time to be a partaker of His divine nature. Time to be a co-heir with Christ, adopted by the Spirit of God. Judgement is coming and the season reminds us that there is still time.