I invite you to stand for the reading of God's word as you give you a moment to find Zephaniah. If you don't know where it is, you can just go to the end of the Old Testament and then work your way going backwards. It's, I think, the fourth from the last book, and they're all little books toward the end. Zephaniah is, you might say, one of the minor of the minor prophets, only three chapters, and we'll be in the third chapter this evening, Zephaniah chapter three. Please give your attention to the reading of God's word. Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled the tyrannical city. She heeded no voice. She accepted no instruction. She did not trust in the Lord. She did not draw near to her God. Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are wolves at evening. They leave nothing for the morning. Her prophets are reckless, treacherous men. Her priests have profaned the sanctuary. They have done violence to the law. 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. I have cut off nations. Their corner towers are in ruins. I have made their streets desolate with no one passing by. Their cities are laid waste without a man, without an inhabitant. I said, surely they will revere me, accept instruction. So her dwelling will not be cut off, according to all that I have appointed concerning her. But they were eager to corrupt all their deeds. Therefore, wait for me, declares the Lord, for the day when I rise up as a witness. Indeed, my decision is to gather nations to assemble kingdoms. to pour out on them my indignation, all my burning anger, for all the earth will be devoured by the fire of my zeal. For then I will give to the peoples purified lips, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord to serve him shoulder to shoulder. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my worshipers, my dispersed ones will bring my offerings. In that day you will feel no shame because of all your deeds by which you have rebelled against me. For then I will remove from your midst your proud, exalting ones, and you will never again be haughty on my holy mountain. But I will leave among you a humble, and lowly people, and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord. 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. Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, O Israel. Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away his judgments against you. He has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst. You will fear disaster no more. In that day, it will be said to Jerusalem, do not be afraid, O Zion. Do not let your hands fall limp. The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exalt over you with joy. He will be quiet in his love. He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. I will gather those who grieve about the appointed feasts. They came from you, O Zion. The reproach of exile is a burden on them. Behold, I'm going to deal at that time with all your oppressors. I will save the lame and gather the outcasts. And I will turn their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time, I will bring you in, even at that time when I gather you together. Indeed, I will give you renown and praise and all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord." Thus far, the reading of God's word. Amen? Let us pray together. Gracious Father, it is good to be in the house of the Lord. It's good to close out this year together as a church with your word before us, a word that might on first reading be opaque or perplexing to some, less so to others. But I pray that as we take it up together, that you would make the reading and especially the preaching of the word means of convincing and converting sinners and building us up in comfort and holiness by faith in Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen. Please be seated. We come to our third and last consideration of this little prophet, Zephaniah, 7th century BC prophet. Interesting in his little genealogy at the beginning, he is the great, great grandson. Is that right? I always have to to check. Great-great-grandson of Hezekiah, one of the last good kings, but he serves under Hezekiah's grandson, great-grandson, Josiah, who is the last good king of Judah. He lives at an interesting time when he begins his life in ministry. There are two kingdoms that originate from Abraham. There's the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. By the time he is done, his life is over, the northern kingdom will be gone. Samaria, their capital, will be in rubble. The 10 tribes that were their people will be in exile, never to return. And the southern kingdom, where he lives and serves, though it has the good King Josiah at this point, It's all downhill from there, and he sees it coming. He knows the course of things prophetically. He can see the remaining kings, or at least the consequence of their reign. It will be a downhill direction that ends in calamity. He can see these things prophetically, and he can see beyond them. As we've looked at his little book in chapter one, he's calling out, telling people to be ready for the day, that day, the day of judgment is, as he says, near and coming very quickly. And there'll be no natural refuge. Walls won't be a security. Wealth won't be a security. The wicked, syncretist religion of Judah, they have mixed the religion of Yahweh with the pagan gods around them. That certainly won't be a refuge. That's the cause of the judgment that's coming. There's no natural defense, no natural refuge. Their only hope comes in verse three of chapter two. Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth. who have carried out his ordinances, seek righteousness, seek humility, perhaps you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger. And then the balance of chapter two is a little survey of all the neighboring nations who will also suffer the same judgments. from Assyria in the north to Cush or Ethiopia in the south, they'll all be subsumed under this same coming judgment. That judgment is Babylon. That will be coming. But it's not just Babylon, because as Zephaniah writes, he does what The prophets generally do. He is working a dual perspective in his words. He is working on things that are near and we might say local. That is, they certainly pertain to Judah and Jerusalem, but local also meaning their world, the ancient Near East, the nations around them. Things that are near and local. And at the same time, his words have meaning for something that is far. and universal. And it's not two distinct things. The near and local serves, when it is fulfilled, serves as a, in its own way, a prophecy of the greater thing that is coming. And Zephaniah has been doing that throughout the first two chapters, and that dual perspective will continue in the third chapter. The near judgment that is a model for the greater judgment. Now this third chapter, which we take up tonight, has three fairly clear sections. The first seven verses we can call condemnation, the verses 8 through 13, preservation, verses 14 through 28. Exaltation, so there are three sections, but I want to take them twice. So we're really going to have two main parts of the sermon, but we're going to look at those three sections in both of them, because I want to do what we might call a near reading of Zephaniah, how these things will unfold soon, and a far reading of Zephaniah, how they will unfold in the distant future. And then when we've done that, one little point of meditation at the end. So consider this whole chapter as a near reading. Condemnation, preservation, exaltation. So condemnation verses one through seven. In chapter two of this book, Zephaniah did sort of a crisscrossing of the compass of all their neighbors. in all directions. It's coming to the west in Philistia, it's coming in the east in Moab and Ammon, it's coming in the south to Cush, or your translation may have Ethiopia, that's south of Egypt. It's coming to the north to mighty Assyria. There are no nations that will be able to resist the coming judgment. Now in chapter 3, Having crisscrossed the compass east to west, south to north, he now comes to the center. Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled the tyrannical city. And the tyrannical city he has in view is Jerusalem. The judgment is going to fall on Jerusalem. It's going to fall on Judah. And he unfolds in verses 1 through 7 why. He details the sin essentially in two categories, which we could say are the category of who and what. Who are the definitive sinners of Jerusalem? It's not that they're the only sinners, but the definitive sinners are the leaders. It's the princes, verse three, and judges. In verse four, it's the prophets and the priests. It's the leaders. They are likened to ravenous animals, to lions and wolves who will leave nothing for the morning. They are like my wife's dog. There is never any food in my wife's dog's bowl, his bowl. If there's food, you can't see it anyway, because his massive head is over the bowl. And when he lifts his shaggy head, there is nothing left. Not an atom of food is left. That's what these are like. They're ravenous. They are greedy, these leaders. They want and they take. They're treacherous and reckless. They are the very inverse of what they should be. The priests are profaning the sanctuary. It is their job to make the sanctuary holy, to keep it holy. And yet they're profaning it. It's them who are supposed to expound the law, and they do violence to the law. They are anti-righteous. They're the opposite of what they ought to be. Now, what is the sin in particular that is set before us? Now, remember, Josiah follows on the long reign of his grandfather Manasseh and his father's short reign of his father Ammon. Manasseh was on the throne for 55 years. Ammon only for two, but there's 57 years. And the description of Manasseh is everything evil that you can imagine. Every conceivable sin was pursued during the time of the Nasa. The worst idolatry, the most debaucherous behavior, even to child sacrifice. And when I say evil, they did all of the evil things. And they've been doing it for over half a century by the time Josiah, a child, he's eight years old, becomes king. So I think that if Zephaniah wanted to hold out the sins of Jerusalem, he could do, I mean, Sky's the limit, right? There's no sin he could name that isn't going on. But he focuses on something that isn't dramatic, perhaps, to the minds of many. Verse two, she heeded no voice. She accepted no instruction. She did not trust in the Lord. She did not draw near to her God. Her heart is closed. Her mind is closed. She is rejecting. There she is. It's the only city on earth where God is revealing himself in a profound and substantive way. He reveals himself everywhere by what we call general revelation. Anyone who has a conscience, anyone who's seen the sunrise, you can marvel at the God of nature. But in Jerusalem, Judea alone is where special revelation, where these prophets are, where his scriptures are. And what have these people done? They've said, no, no, we don't want any of that. The one place on earth where you could draw near to God and they refuse to draw near to God. He has already brought judgment to many around as a warning to them. You see that in verse six, he's cut off nations. He's destroyed cities. He's poured out judgment on others as a warning to them, saying verse seven, surely they will revere me and accept instruction so that they won't be judged. But what is the conclusion? Verse seven at the end, but they were eager. To corrupt. All their deeds. Eager. In the days of Hezekiah, Zephaniah's great, great grandfather, if you read in Isaiah 8, there's a description of the coming judgment in that day, which was coming by the Assyrians. And they're described in Isaiah 8, they're going to come like a flood. That's the language. They're going to come as a flood that reaches to the neck. which is a very apt way to describe the preservation of Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The Assyrians flooded over all the land. They conquered everyone. They flooded over Judea. But by the interposing grace of God, Jerusalem, like a man on his tiptoes with his head just above the water, Jerusalem was spared. What Zephaniah is saying is when the Babylonians are the flood, the water's not gonna end at the neck. All the way over the head. Everything will be covered. Jerusalem will not be an island in the flood. She will be subsumed under the Babylonian judgment like all of her neighbors. Second section, verses eight through 13. I call it preservation because I wanted the rhyming sound of the three sections, condemnation, preservation, exaltation. You could also call this section the and yet section. And yet, despite all of this, despite all the threat and promise of verses one through seven, yet they're going to be preserved. Somehow they're going to be preserved. They're going to be crushed. They're going to be overrun. They're going to be exiled. And yet, God is already looking past the exile to their return. He's already looking past it. You remember Jeremiah said, Jeremiah's contemporary Zephaniah. Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 25, 10, 11, 12, somewhere around there, you're going to be in exile for 70 years. Daniel, who was in that exile, got to the end of it. He said, you know, Jeremiah said 70 years. It's about up. Zephaniah is well before it, but he is looking. God is helping him to look past the exile to the return. They're not just going to be preserved either. They're going to be transformed. Their situation, their relation to God is going to be transformed. Verse 13, 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. That's like the promise of the promised land, isn't it? As they were headed into the promised land, if you will hear my words and keep my covenant, I will make you secure. One of you will chase away 10 of the enemy. Everything will abound. There will be no enemies. There will be no threats. It is an Eden-like promise. They will feed and lie down with no one to make them tremble. They'll be transformed. There is condemnation, there is preservation, and then there is exaltation. In verses 14 through 20, they are told all the things that God will do. He's going to restore them. He's going to defeat their enemies. He's going to be in their midst. We're told both in verse 15 and verse 17, the Lord your God is in your midst. which in tangible expression, when they come back from Babylon, when Cyrus releases them and they come back with Nehemiah and Ezra, what do they do? They rebuild the city and they rebuild the temple, the very emblem of God in their midst. Their reproach will be lifted, the reproach of the exile will be lifted off of them. And what does he say he's going to do emphatically? verses 18 and 19 and 20, he's going to gather them. He's going to gather those who grieve about the appointed feasts, that is, those who are in sorrow because they have not been able to keep the feasts because there's been no temple and no capital and they've been in exile. He's going to, it says in verse 19, he's going to gather the outcasts He's going to save the lame and gather the outcasts and turn their shame into praise and renown. Verse 20, even at that time when I gather you together, indeed, I will give you renown and praise. He's going to gather all these people that have been exiled, that are far away, that are in all these places, and he's going to bring them back. And what is the only response? It's the first verse of the section, verse 14. Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, O Israel. Rejoice and exalt with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. It's exaltation. The reasons are then appended to it. All that the Lord will do for them. Now this, all of these things happen. It's all prophecy when Zephaniah pins it, but it's all happened. The judgment came. The Babylonians came. Nebuchadnezzar came. The city was ruined. The city was broken down. The gates were taken. The temple was leveled. Everything of value, gold, silver, and bronze, was taken. The population was taken. The king was taken. The king was bound with fetters. His eyes gouged out. He was hauled off. I mean, it was as devastating a devastation as you can imagine. The full condemnation fell upon them. They were in ruin. They were gone. And yet, they were preserved. Wonder of wonders, they were preserved through the exile, the 70 years. They were returned. The city was rebuilt. The temple was rebuilt. Ezra tells us when the temple was rebuilt, they rejoiced with joy. All of these things happened. So what Zephaniah is saying has a very real, concrete, near, and local fulfillment. But consider it all again a second time as a far reading of Zephaniah 3. Those things were fulfilled in the 7th and 6th century BC. What is far more interesting to us, and if you have Christian eyes or Christian ears to hear, you can't help but read this and feel that it is about much more than the 6th and 7th century BC in Palestine. Consider that matter of condemnation. We do not, in our day, we do not use much the language of prince and prophet and judge and priest and sanctuary and all those things. Those are particulars of the nation and the time. That's not our form. But the problem is ours. The problem is ours. There is a continuity of the problem, a through line across all of history of the problem, which is sin. from the days of Noah, which Moses describes as saying the only thoughts of their minds and hearts were, the only thought of their minds was only evil continually. Genesis 6-5, I can't believe I'm mangling that lovely life verse that you probably want to embroider on a pillow. It says, the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. There's a through line from that to the Apostle Paul in Romans 3 saying there are none righteous, no not one. There's no one who's seeking after God. From the earliest days up until the New Testament and it didn't get fixed with the Apostle Paul. There's a line from David saying in Psalm 51 that he is conceived and born in sin to the apostles saying that we're dead in trespasses and sins. There's a continuity. The forms of priests and prophets and judges and princes. That's not us. We're not interested in the form. But the substance. Oh, that's us. That's mankind. What is the thing that they're doing? They're rejecting the wisdom, the instruction of God that is coming to them. How does the Apostle John describe the world of his day? This is the judgment that the light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. This isn't a Jerusalem problem. It's not a Judah problem. It's not a Jewish problem. It's a human problem. It's a humanity problem. The wages of sin is death. It's always been true. The destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians was just a proof of concept, episode. The wages of sin is death. And yet, and yet there is preservation. What can sinners do to preserve themselves in the flood of God's judgment? Nothing, nothing. What will we do? There is nothing that we can do, but God acts. This description of preservation, it's not just preservation, it is a transformation of the people. Verse nine, then I will give to the people's purified lips that all of them may call on the name of the Lord to serve him shoulder to shoulder. They're transformed. This description of the people gathered from where? From everywhere. Who's he gonna call? For then I will give to the peoples, not the people, the peoples. And where are they gonna come from? Verse 10, from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. That is to say from the ends of the earth. This is not simply a description of the return from exile. They weren't exiled across the river of Ethiopia. They were in Mesopotamia. That's a different continent. This is a description of the gathering of God's people under the gospel. All this language at the end of gather, gather, gather, that's gospel language. but we're not just gathered, we're changed, we're purified. In that day, verse 11, in that day you will feel no shame because of all your deeds by which you have rebelled against me. For then I will remove from your midst your proud, exalting ones. You'll never again be haughty on my holy mountain. You'll feel no shame because of your rebellion. That is the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what will the people think? I will remove from your midst your proud and exalting ones. Does God remove from our midst the proud and exalting ones? Absolutely. But he doesn't remove them all in the same way. He doesn't remove Judas and Paul in the same way. He cuts Judas out and he radically transforms the Apostle Paul. The end result is the same either way. I will remove from your midst your proud and exalting ones and you will never again be haughty on my holy This prophecy is not simply about the ruined city of Jerusalem being rebuilt or the ruined temple in Jerusalem being rebuilt. Those things were ruined and they were rebuilt and it was good. But even when it was rebuilt, you can read in Ezra, there are those that had seen the first temple and they wept to see the second one and it was a mixture of weeping of joy and sorrow. It wasn't even as good. It's not fulfilled simply in those things. This is also looking to that greater temple, that better temple, that better city, that better country that is ours in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look again at verse 13. The remnant of Israel will do no wrong, 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. Does that sound like post-exilic Jerusalem to you? Doesn't sound like it to me. You can read some of the prophets that are after that. You can read up and down character of the people after that. You can read about the Maccabees in those periods. You can read about the Jerusalem. It's the same city in the New Testament. Doesn't seem like it's quite that idyllic. It's not looking to the earthly Jerusalem only. It is, but that is pointing us to the greater. The people of God restored, justified, sanctified, even glorified in the Lord Jesus Christ. Exaltation. The joy of God's people. Just look at verse 15. The Lord has taken away his judgments against you. The Lord has taken away his judgments against you. Romans 8.1. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He has cleared away your enemies. Who are our enemies? Oh death, where is your sting? Oh death, where is your sting? To live is Christ, to die is gain. The head of Satan has been crushed under the heel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin is no longer your master, it will no longer have dominion over you. Keep looking at verse 15. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst. The Word of God became flesh and tabernacled amongst us, or dwelt amongst us. Lo, I am with you, even to the end of the age. God's people are gathered, gathered, gathered, the lame, the outcast. Those who are in sorrow over the degradation of the religion of Israel, they're being gathered. The reproach of exile was a burden on them. They're being gathered like Anna and Simeon who longed for the consolation of Israel and for the redemption of Jerusalem. They're being gathered. Those that are spiritually lame and spiritually blind and spiritually leperous and spiritually dead are being gathered. From where? From Judea. Absolutely. From Jerusalem, from Judea, from Samaria. And even from the outermost parts of the earth, Jew and Gentile are being folded together into one people, one household of God. Every tribe, tongue, kindred, and nation being brought in. How could it be possible? How could those who are rightly under the condemnation of God, rightly receive the judgment of God, rightly earn the wages of sin, which is death? How can they be preserved? How can they be transformed? It is because the King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst. You will fear disaster no more. It is because, verse 17, the Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He's victorious over Satan, sin, and death. That is why. That is why. Look at this lovely, almost perplexing description of his love for us in the latter part of verse 17. He will be quiet in his love. He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. In fact, he says he will exult over you with joy. He will be quiet in his love and he will rejoice over you. Well, which is it? Is he going to be quiet or is he going to be loud? Yes, he is. You know what that's a description of? That is marital love. Marital love is loud in its courtship, in its pursuit. Even now, in these past few weeks, I've been meeting with a young couple whose wedding I hope to do. And to me, it is the most joyful and foolish of activities to have premarital engagement. You can't say anything to them that makes a dent. You could tell them, you know, sir, you'll be her fifth husband. And the other four all died mysterious, tragic deaths. And he said, yes, I know. It just makes me love her all the more. It doesn't matter what you say. They are so full of each other. They're goo goo eyed with each other. They could talk to each other for hours about nothing. They are long and loud in their own way, according to temperament, but loud in the praise of each other. And yet at the same time, marital love will become quietly content. Quietly content. Who is Jesus Christ? He is the bridegroom. Who is loud in His love for us. Who crushes the enemy of His bride. And helps her to lie down quietly by still walking. How can all this be done? Because of Christ. Zephaniah is working on two levels. He is telling us about a near, temporal, local judgment and deliverance and joy. And those things are pointing us to the greater judgment, the greater deliverance, and the greater joy. Last thing. I'll give you one last point of meditation. You can, and in fact I think you should, read things like this theologically, you should read them Christologically. You should be reading all your Bible Christologically, and you can read it Theologically, and as you read Zephaniah 3, you can see great doctrines. You can see the doctrine of collection, you know, gathered from all over the earth. You can see the doctrine of justification. There's no condemnation now. He takes away his judgments. You can see the doctrine of sanctification repeatedly articulated as we're transformed. You can even see the doctrine of glorification as we are made content and peaceable and lying down, fed with none to threaten us. That's a picture of our final resting in glory. And if you are regular here, you know that my want, my habit, my purpose almost always is to take a passage like this and work our way around to seeing it theologically and Christologically. But as a point of meditation, I want you to also think about this passage viscerally. Viscerally. What is the image that is being set before us? The image is of joy in survival. These people should not be alive. They should not be alive. They should be Samarian, just like Samaria. Their sins are exactly the sins of Samaria. Their heritage is exactly the heritage of Samaria. If anything, it's worse than Samaria in that they've done it for an extra hundred years. And Samaria was reduced to rubble, and the people were carried off into exile, and they're gone. And these people are reduced to rubble, and they're carried off into exile, and they're alive. And they come home. Have you ever had the experience, a survival experience? It may have been more imagined in your mind, but you passed through something where you thought at the time, it could die. It could have been just that airline flight that was very, very bumpy. And you thought, could you land it? And when it's over, there is a peculiar joy. It may not be yay, but it's almost a cleansing kind of joy. When I was a teenager, I was in a car. I wasn't driving. I was in a car that rolled four times. And afterwards, there's adrenaline and all that, but there's that little sense of, whoa, that could have been it. It's almost cleansing. It doesn't last much. You begin to act like an idiot immediately, almost immediately thereafter. But that sense of survival? These people have been swallowed by a Mesopotamian empire. Nebuchadnezzar was not playing. He took everything. He left no stone on top of another. He took the bronze pillars and he said, I want them so bad, we'll just cut them up in pieces so we can carry them home. There was nothing left. He gouged out the eyes of their king. He was not playing. They were as swallowed as Jonah. And now we're home. And now we're restored. What is the appropriate response? Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, O Israel. Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. It is the only appropriate response. Beloved, we should not be alive. And yet we can say on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, even if we die, There's only one response. Rejoice, O children of God. Amen. Let us pray together. Gracious Father, I'm thankful to conclude another year here in this church, another service with your people, another participation in the reading and preaching of your word. These are good gifts. We are thankful for all the ones that are behind us in this year, and eager to get to the ones that are ours in the next. And I pray, Father, that as we go, we would go forward into the year with the joy of supernatural survival, that we are as Jonah, because we are in Jesus Christ, the greater Jonah. The grave was his. great big fish that could not hold him. We are bound to him and it cannot hold us either. Give us such a joy at what you have done for us and our savior in whose name we pray. Amen.