The following message was recorded at Antioch Presbyterian Church, an historic and charter congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, ministering to upstate South Carolina since 1843. Come and visit us at the crossroads of Greenville and Spartanburg counties. Experience our past and be a part of our future. For more information, visit AntiochPCF.com. It does not take long to see or to look at our society and to see how divided we are. How divided we are, how we are divided into certain categories. We're divided sometimes by race, by ethnicity, by culture, by gender, by age, what have you. There is so much that society seems to want to divide us into. And one reason for this division is because each group supposedly has different priorities. And these priorities are revealed in what everyone says. Everyone speaks their own language. Even though most people in the United States speak English to a certain extent, we all have our own different language because we all have our own different priorities. We see this not just in society, but we see this sadly too often in our own homes. We see brother or sister being divided over something. We see son and mother divided over something. Or we even see husband and wife against each other. Wife and husband against one another. This is profoundly different. This should be profoundly different from what we see in our passage today. God is changing the people in the book of Zephaniah, both Jew and Gentile, so that they will worship him together in spirit and in truth. One of the so-called minor prophets, Zephaniah is a book that is written during the reign of King Josiah, to give us some context. King Josiah is reigning anywhere from 640 to about 609 BC, so around that time. And it's during this time that Zephaniah is prophesying. He's writing his prophecy during this time. And the great theme of the book of Zephaniah is what the Bible often refers to as the day of the Lord. It is a day of reckoning where the Lord will bring forth either great judgment or great salvation for either his people and or the nations. And this leads us to the main proposition or the main heading of this passage. And that is, God will change all the peoples so that they will worship him together. God will change all the peoples. God is changing all the peoples so that they will worship him together. And we will look at this in under two headings. Firstly, we will look at the Lord will purify in verses 9 through 10. In verses 11-13 we see God will restore Israel. So the Lord will purify and the Lord will restore Israel. We will look at verses 9-10 primarily in two subheadings. How He will purify, how the Lord will purify, and then what is the result or the purpose of this purification. So as we see, I read verses 1 through 8 to provide us with some context, because up to this point in the book of Zephaniah, it has been largely dark. It has been a largely dark book. We could look at chapter 1, verse 18. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord's wrath. And all the earth will be devoured in the fire of his jealousy, for he will make a complete end, indeed a terrifying one, of all the inhabitants of the earth. So up to this point, the day of the Lord is not a good day for either the nations or the nation of Israel. including verses 1 through 8 of chapter 3. But now we come to the point in this book where it is a glorious passage. It is a, if I can use this word, it is a positive passage. Restoration is coming. There is judgment to come. Yes, judgment is coming for the nations and for the people of Israel. But there will be restoration. There will be restoration after judgment. And this restoration will be a purifying of speech. It will be a purifying of speech. The Lord says, for then I will give to the people's purified lips. Purified lips. Now, why purified lips? After all, is it not the heart that is the problem with sinners? Jeremiah 17.9 says that the heart is deceitfully wicked. Who can understand it? So why is it that the Lord Himself says, I will purify the speech of the peoples? And the reason for this is because the speech reveals our hearts. The speech reveals our hearts. We could think of Isaiah chapter six. We think of the call and commission of the prophet Isaiah. What happens to him? Well, he sees the Lord high and lifted up. He sees the hem of his garment filling the temple. And what does he say? I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. And what happens to him? The seraphim comes and touches his lips. And now he says he is purified, we could say. The heart. Or rather, the heart reveals, yes, who we are. But it is our words. It is our speech which reveals to others our own hearts. We can also think of Jesus in Matthew 12, verse 34, where he says, for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The mouth speaks. Zephaniah 2, verse 8, also says, I have heard the taunting of Moab, and the revilings of the son of Ammon, with which they have taunted My people, and become arrogant against their territory." We see that the wickedness of the nations, indeed the wickedness of the nation of Israel, is revealed in their words, it is revealed in their speech. And so it is for this reason that the Lord says He will purify their speech. But this is not just a problem in the days of Zephaniah. In fact, this is a problem that went back probably more than a thousand years prior to when Zephaniah is prophesying. We see in Genesis chapter 11, the great Tower of Babel. What happens during the Tower of Babel? In Genesis chapter 11, the whole earth used the same language and the same words. Came about as they journeyed east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And in verse 4, And what does the Lord do? The Lord comes down and he changes their language. He confuses their language. And what is the result of this? So the Lord scattered them, or He dispersed them abroad from over the face of the earth, and they stopped building that city. So the problem of the speech of the nations, and even the speech of the nation of Israel, goes back thousands of years prior. In fact, there is no doubt that Zephaniah is alluding to the Tower of Babel. What is the purpose of this purification? What is the purpose of purifying the lips? Verse 9, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord to serve him shoulder to shoulder. This phrase, call upon the name of the Lord, one commentator says that this implies a ready acknowledgment of sin, together with a confession that Yahweh, the Lord, alone is God and Savior. There are other Tower of Babel connections in this passage. Now, compare their intentions in the Tower of Babel. They have many intentions, but one of their intentions is that they might make a name for themselves. And yet, what happens in verse 9? that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord. God is reversing that great curse that he brought upon the nations in Genesis 11. He is now reversing that curse. In fact, we see in Acts chapter 2 where the Holy Spirit is sent upon the church. We see people now being able to understand the gospel being spoken in their own language. And this is what the Lord is doing. He is purifying the speech of the nations. He is reversing the great curse of Babel. This phrase, shoulder to shoulder, to serve him shoulder to shoulder, means to serve him with great unity. I named this sermon Unified Worship. Shoulder to shoulder implies a great unity, great service in unity. This is what the shoulder to shoulder means. There is great unity between the nations. I remember growing up, one of my favorite poems, and perhaps some of you children, even adults, know this poem. It's called The Jabberwocky. The Jabberwocky is what we call a nonsense poem. It's a nonsensical poem. It's a poem where many of the words are just made up. They're not real words. And so part of the problem in reading this poem, this well-known poem by Lewis Carroll, is that we don't actually know everything of what it means. One person could say it means X, one person could say it means Y. The main point of the poem is apparent. We see this boy, he's on a journey to kill this creature called the Jabberwocky. But because of the made-up words all throughout the poem, we can't understand everything that is in the poem. or maybe we could bring this closer home to us. If any of you have ever traveled abroad, especially to a country where you do not speak their native language, or they do not speak your native language, it's going to be very, very difficult to understand or to have any sort of communication or communion between the two of you. To be able to communicate and to have communion with one another requires some sort of common language. And if this is the case, how is it that we as believers, we have communion with believers on the other side of the world. We have communion with believers in Turkey, those who do not speak any of our languages. We have communion with believers in Nigeria, in North Korea. We have communion with believers in Mongolia and China. How is this? How is it that we have communion with these believers? We don't speak the same language. The reason we have communion with them, the reason we have sweet fellowship with them, is because we do speak the same language. And that language is the language of worship. It is the language of worship and service unto the living God. It is the spirit himself who brings about this unity, that great spirit that was poured out upon the church on the day of Pentecost. It is through him that we have this unity. Believer, when was the last time you praised God for the unity that we have with other believers around the world? When was the last time you praised God even for unity among ourselves here at little old Antioch? We have such sweet unity with one another, and it is because we all have the same language, we have the same purified lips, as it were. whereas the world seeks to divide us based on skin, skin color, age, race, culture. Within this church, we have such sweet unity. Within the church universal, there is a sweet fellowship that we have among ourselves. It is the Spirit himself, again, who brings this unity. Now we look at verse 10. Look at verse 10. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my worshipers, my dispersed ones, will bring my offering. from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. This, no doubt, hearkens back to chapter 2, verse 12. So now in chapter 2, verse 12, we see, you also, O Ethiopians, will be slain by the sword. So now there's judgment in chapter 2, verse 12, upon the Ethiopians. Now the Ethiopians are coming to bring their worship unto the triune God. So now we see judgment. And now we see restoration for the nations. We see restorations for the nations. We also see these dispersed ones. What happened to the people at the Tower of Babel? They were dispersed over the face of the earth. And now these dispersed ones are coming back. They are coming now to Mount Zion to bring what? They will bring my offerings. Part of my offerings is that they will bring worship unto the Triune God. The nations that were once dispersed over the face of the earth are now bringing their worship to the Triune God. Is this not glorious? Is this not glorious? Believer, do we realize that our own salvation our own salvation that we have in Christ Jesus by the blood of Christ. We who were formerly far off who have now been brought near by the blood of Christ. That the cleansing of our speech is not an end in and of itself. The cleansing of our speech is meant to lead to worship. Salvation from our own sins was never an end in and of itself. No, it is for worship. Salvation of sinners is meant to lead to worship of the Triune God. It is so that we might worship the Lord together, with one accord, shoulder to shoulder, with people from every tongue, tribe, and nation. How often do you realize that we have more in common with believers on the other side of the world that we've never met before? How often do we realize that we have more in common with them than we do with our own unbelieving family members and friends? When was the last time you thought to yourself, wow, I have more in common with believers in North Korea, with believers in Mongolia, with believers in Russia? With believers in Turkey, with believers in South America and Botswana, wherever, we have more in common with those believers that we've never met than with our own unbelieving family members and friends, some of whom we grew up speaking with and having fun with on a daily basis. How often do we think that to ourselves? It is the language of worship that we have in common with them. It is the language that calls upon the name of the Lord that we have in common with other believers. But there is more to this passage as well. This is dealing with the nations. These verses right here are dealing with the nations. They're dealing with the Gentiles. I'm sure, I don't think anyone in this room is Jewish. We are all Gentiles. We have been brought near by the blood of Christ. We who were once far off have now been brought near by the blood of Christ. We Gentiles, not Jewish at all, we Gentiles have been now brought near by the blood of Christ. So we looked at verse nine and 10. Now we turn to verses 11 and 13, which is God will restore Israel. God will restore Israel. So in verses nine through 10 have been dealing with the nations. Now verses 11 through 13 are dealing with the nation of Israel. God still has plans for his own people. He is addressing his people as a whole. but now his attention, or he's been addressing the nations as a whole, but now his attention is to the people of Israel. It is to the nation of Israel. Look with me at verse 11. It says, in that day you will feel no shame. Now up to this point in the book of Zephaniah, every mention of the day of the Lord has been one of darkness, has been one of dark clouds. It has been gloomy, and so In that day, if we don't have the rest of the passage, we could think that the rest of it would be one of gloom, would be one of sadness, would be one of darkness. But it is not. God will bring salvation to his people. He says, in that day you will feel no shame. You will feel no shame. If we look back at verse 5 of chapter 3, says, the Lord is righteous within her. He will do no injustice. Every morning he brings his justice to light. He does not fail, but the unjust knows no shame. Or we could look also at chapter 2, verse 1. Gather yourselves together. Yes, gather, O nation, without shame. What brought about this change from utter shamelessness to now no longer being put to shame? Well, it is not sinlessness. It is not because of anything that the people have done. It is not anything that the nation of Israel has done. No, this is all of grace. Salvation from beginning to end is all of grace. It is because the Lord will purge them. He will purge all of those who are proud. He says later on in verse 11, This is a historical outworking, we could say, of the idea that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. He gives grace to the humble. And what does it mean to be haughty, or to be exalting? Well, it means that you no longer depend upon the Lord. You say in your heart, I am the Lord. You say in your heart, I am He, and there is no other. What are you saying when you are haughty, when you are proud, when you are exultant in your own hand? What are you saying? You are saying, if we look at chapter 2, verse 15, who says in her heart, you are saying in your heart, I am, and there is no one besides me. Now, no one here, I'm sure, would say, I am, and there is no one besides me. But how many of us? live as if that were true. How many of us on a day-to-day basis live as if we were the Lord, as if we were in charge of our own lives, as if we were not dependent upon the Lord. This is what the Lord is now, He is now healing the nation of Israel. He's now healing the nation of Israel. They will no longer be haughty, they will no longer be proud or exultant in themselves in the holy mountain of the Lord. And what is this holy mountain? Well, the holy mountain is Mount Zion. It is the mountain where the worship of the triune God took place. It was the place where the temple stood. It was the place where the people would come and offer their worship. Even those of the nations would come and offer their worship. They will never again be haughty on my holy mountain, says the Lord. And now turning to verse 12 and 13, we now see a description of what we call the remnant, the description of the remnant. Now, it is the exact opposite as those in verse 11. So in verse 12, he will leave among, I will leave among you, the Lord will leave among you a humble and lowly people, and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord. As the nations called upon the name of the Lord, so now the people of Israel would take refuge in the name of the Lord. They will no longer be a haughty people. Instead, they will be humble and lowly people. Now the English here does not quite bring this out. It literally means he will remnant a people or he will remainder a people, so to speak. He will leave a people, he will leave a remnant for his own possession. Furthermore, we see a further description of the remnant in verse 13. What do we see? The remnant of Israel will do no wrong and tell no lies, nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths, for they will feed and lie down, with no one to make them tremble. with no one to make them tremble. So they are a humble and poor people. Now this is not a financially poor people. These are people who are morally bankrupt. This makes sense given the moral designation of the previous verse, you proud and exulting ones. If we look to the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, blessed are the poor in spirit. It's not referring to financially wealthy poor people. It is referring to those who are morally bankrupt, who see their own sin. Who see their own sin. Do you see your own sin? Do you see your own sin? Can you say of these people here about yourself that you are a humble and lowly people? That you are a morally bankrupt people? Believer, are you taking refuge in the name of the Lord? As it says in verse 12, they will take refuge in the name of the Lord. Are you taking refuge in the name of the Lord this day? Do you consider yourself safe because you are part of the covenant community, because you were born in a Christian household, Children, do not think for a second that you are safe merely because your own parents are believers. Do not think you are safe because you do family worship every morning or every night. No. Many of those ancient Israelites would have taken refuge. They would have considered themselves safe because they were members of the covenant community. They were members of the covenant community. They would have thought they were safe. They would have said something to the effect of, this is the temple of the Lord. This is the temple of the Lord. This is the temple of the Lord. Remember that judgment begins at the house of the Lord. The Lord will judge and purify his people, yes. Have you grown so proud in your own life? Have you grown so proud in your own dealings with your own brothers and sisters, maybe even here at Antioch? Have you grown so proud with your brothers and sisters in Christ? We would never say the words, again, I am and there is no one else. But how many of us live according to that? How many of us have grown so proud and cold in our spiritual dealings with one another? Dear believer, cry out to the Lord. If that is you this day, cry out to the Lord. Cry out to the Holy Spirit that he would give unto you a purified heart, purified lips. Cry out to him this very day. Going back to verse 13, we see that the description, a description of the remnant of Israel, they will become like Yahweh himself. If we look back to verse 5 of chapter 3, the Lord is righteous within her. He will do no injustice. Every morning he brings his justice to light. He does not fail, but the unjust knows no shame. And now we look also back to verse 13. It says, the remnant of Israel will do no wrong. It really means the remnant of Israel will do no injustice. As the Lord does no injustice, so the remnant of Israel will now no longer do injustice. They will no longer do any wrong. And is this not what our salvation does for us? Does not our salvation conform us more and more to the image of Christ? It makes us more like our heavenly Father. This is what our salvation does for us. Oh, do you marvel, do you marvel that in our salvation we are becoming more and more like our Heavenly Father. We are becoming more and more like our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ. And look how they are described next. There shall not be any lies or deceit found in their lips. Just as God will purify the speech of the Gentiles in verse nine, so will he purify the speech of his own people. They will no longer tell any lies. There will no longer be any deceitful tongue found among them. There will no longer be any deceitful tongue be found in their mouths. This is what salvation, this is what God in our salvation is doing for us. He is now purifying our own lips so that we might praise Him, that we might praise Him in spirit and in truth. And lastly, in verse 13, we see a glorious picture, a glorious picture. This is a very peaceful picture, a very idyllic picture. Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. What do we see in that description of the Lord? The Lord is the one who is making us lie down in green pastures. It is the Lord who leads us along the path. It is the Lord who is the one who is bringing our salvation to completion so that we might be safe, that we might be secure. Behold our God, behold our God who delivers, who purifies, saves His people, who even protects His own people from our enemies. How great and many are the benefits of our Lord, who not only saves us, but who makes us like Him, who not only saves us, but protects us so that none of us will be harmed, so that none of us might be afraid. Dear Believer, Our Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed a people from every tongue, tribe, and nation. Through the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, all the ends of the earth now are His possessions. Through the outpouring of His Spirit on the day of Pentecost, He is reversing the great curse that He brought upon the Tower of Babel and is saving people from all nations, saving people from every tongue, tribe, and nation. He is even purifying His own people, making them more like Him, making them holy as Christ is holy. And these people are streaming now into the heavenly Zion. What is it that we do every Lord's Day but come into the heavenly Zion? We come into the very throne room of God. This is what we do every Lord's Day. We are actually coming to the very presence of God, to the heavenly Zion, to worship Him. even though God will not call many of us, or at least all of us, to be missionaries, to spread forth his gospel to the nations. All of us have been given a responsibility, have we not, to be involved in missions to some extent. Do you pray for the ingathering of the nations? Do you pray that people from every tongue, tribe, and nation might call upon the name of the Lord? Do you pray that believers would go forth into the harvest? Do you pray that believers might be sent into nations where there has never been the name of Christ called? Do you call upon the name of the Lord to send harvesters, to send forth laborers into the jungles of Africa, into the jungles of Papua New Guinea? Do you call upon the name of the Lord asking that He would do that? But there are other ways that we can be involved in missions besides prayer. Many of us, especially you children, can be praying, but many of you children can also maybe be writing letters to missionaries on the front lines. It is an incredible source of encouragement when missionaries who are on the front lines receive written letters from churches who are supporting them. We are all called to be involved in missions to some extent. We are all called to be called to missions to some extent. Do you pray for the Gentiles? But not only for the Gentiles. Do you pray also for the Jews? Do you pray for the Jews? As our Westminster Larger Catechism says, that's what we pray for. When we say, thy kingdom come, we pray that the Jews would be brought in to that heavenly Zion. Do we pray for Gentiles and Jews alike? Here we have a glorious, glorious picture, dear believer, of God's saving, mighty plan for the nations, both Jews and Gentiles. This has always been his ultimate purpose. And this has its ultimate realization in the new heavens and the new earth, where both Jew and Gentile will lie down in perfect safety, will lie down in perfect safety, where we will worship the Lord together. Oh, do you long for that day? Do you long for the day when Christ will rend the heavens, when he will come down, and all believers, both Jews and Gentiles, all believers, from here at Antioch to the other side of the world, do you pray that all believers would be made one? Do you pray that Christ would come. When was the last time you prayed that the day of the Lord would be hastened, that Christ's coming would be hastened, that we might worship him? Do you long for unified worship? Do you long for unified worship, not just between our brothers and sisters here at Antioch, but for unified worship with other believers around the world? Do you pray that God would send forth His Son, that He would haste the day so that we might worship Him, so that we might worship Him? Do you long for that day when we will be made one, perfectly one, and be kept safe by our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ? Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious, loving Father, we are so grateful for your many blessings which are ours in Christ. Indeed, through the blood of Christ, you have brought us who are far off, you have brought us near. We ask, dear Lord, that you would please work in our hearts that which we have considered this evening. We pray that you would give to us here at Antioch and with other believers around the community and around the world a greater unity. We pray, dear Lord, that we would long for unity. And we ask that you would please hasten the day of the Lord, that you would please hasten the return of Christ so that we might worship with other believers with no distraction, in perfect safety. For it's in his name that we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to this message from Antioch Presbyterian Church. For more information about Antioch, visit us at our website at antiochpca.com.