Well, good morning. It's a pleasure to be with you once again, and minister the Word of God. We enjoy our time in Florida, and we enjoy being with you very, very much. My text this morning is from the book of Zephaniah. It'll be Zephaniah 3, 8 through 20, but I want to begin by reading Zephaniah 1, the first four verses. Zephaniah is between the books of Habakkuk and Haggai. That'll help you find it. If you're using a Pew Bible, it's page 1,084 in the Pew Bible. I hope that we will profit from this prophet. One man said that Zephaniah is next to Isaiah in his themes. Isaiah spoke of God's judgment and the gospel, and Zephaniah speaks of God's judgment and the gospel. He's a minor prophet with a major message. Well, follow as I read the first four verses of chapter one, then we're going to skip over to chapter three, verse eight. The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushiah, the son of Gadaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. "'I will utterly consume everything from the face of the land,' says the Lord. "'I will consume man and beast. "'I will consume the birds of the heavens, "'the fish of the sea, "'and the stumbling blocks along with the wicked. "'I will cut off man from the face of the land,' says the Lord. "'I will stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, I will cut off every trace of Baal from the place, the names of the idolatrous priests and the pagan priests. Then skip over to chapter three, verse eight. Therefore, wait for me, says the Lord, until the day I rise up for plunder. My determination is to gather the nations to my assembly of kingdoms, to pour on them my indignation, all my fierce anger. All the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. For then I will restore to the people a pure language, that they all may call on the name of the Lord to serve Him with one accord. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering. In that day, you shall not be shamed for any of your deeds in which you transgressed against me. For then I will take away from your midst those who rejoice in your pride. And you shall no longer be haughty in my holy mountain. I will leave in your midst a meek and humble people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel shall do no unrighteousness and speak no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they shall feed their flocks and lie down, and no one shall make them afraid. Sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your judgments. He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst. You shall see disaster no more. In that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem, do not fear. Zion, let not your hands be weak. The Lord your God in your midst, the mighty one will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing. I will gather those who sorrow over the appointed assembly who are among you, to whom its reproach is a burden. Behold, at that time, I will deal with all who afflict you. I will save the lame and gather those who were driven out. I will appoint them for praise and fame in every land where they were put to shame. At that time, I will bring you back. Even at the time I gather you, for I will give you fame and praise among all the peoples of the earth. when I return your captives before your eyes, says the Lord. So the reading of God's holy, inspired, and infallible word, and inerrant word, and we thank God for his word. Praise the Lord, he's given us the Bible. Well, the title of this sermon is Sing, Shout, Exalt, Rejoice. You'll notice it's the same as the New King James Version, except I put the word exalt there instead of be glad. That's because the Hebrew Bible has the word exalt. and we have to say to be glad and understand we need to know what exalt means. So the command of this verse in verse 17 is from the Lord. Now who is the Lord? This name for God is used 32 times in the 53 verses of the book of Zephaniah. And besides that, the Lord refers to Himself multiple, multiple times with the personal pronoun I. Who is the Lord? Well, scholars tell us that the correct pronunciation of the Hebrew word is now Yahweh. The Lord is Yahweh. We know that Yahweh, the name Yahweh can refer to the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We know that sometimes the term Yahweh refers to Jesus Christ specifically, but we know that Jesus Christ is God. And as we learned in Sunday school this morning, there is one God, three persons, each distinct from the other, each is fully God. But it's appropriate for us to ask in this book, does Yahweh refer to the whole Trinity? Certainly. Or does Yahweh refer to one of the distinct persons of the Trinity? And I suggest to you that we can answer that question by seeing how the term Yahweh is used in this book. He is the God who judges the world for sin. He is the God who redeems the remnant, that is, those who seek him. He is the God who is coming. And so Zephaniah is talking about the Messiah. That's why I say he's like Isaiah, a minor prophet with a major message about the coming of Yahweh. And so we have in this book, if we were to understand it properly, we must understand that this book is a lot about Jesus Christ in the entire book. And so it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is telling us to sing, shout, exalt, and rejoice. Now, I want this sermon to encourage three different classes of people. First of all, I hope this sermon will encourage those who may be under deep difficulties and trials at the present time, whether it be family, financial, or whether it be physical health problems. I hope that Zephaniah's message will encourage you. There's a second class of people that I hope this message will help, and that is that those who are under severe temptation at the present time. You're struggling, you're a sinner, we confessed our sin in the pastoral prayer, and you're struggling with a besetting sin. And you wonder, will God ever deliver me from this? I hope that Zephaniah will help you with that. And then there's a third class of people that I hope this message will help. and that is those who may be struggling with assurance. You're a Christian, you believe on Christ, but you have doubts. You wonder, am I really a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? I hope this book will encourage you if that is your case. I know for myself personally, once I understood that God chose me and I didn't choose him, And that happened in 1962 as a freshman in college. I struggled for seven years as to whether or not I was a Christian. What a struggle it was. But finally the light. It shined. I thank God for that. I thank you for it. And so I hope if that happens to be your case, this sermon may encourage you. Now our text is specifically is verse 14 of chapter three. Sing, shout, exalt, rejoice. Now I have three questions to ask of this verse. The first question is this. What is amazing about these commands? Well, The first answer to that question is, what's amazing about the command is the time that this command was given. I mean, the historical context. Zephaniah was born during the reign of Manasseh, who reigned for 55 years in Judah. And you will recall that Manasseh was the most wicked king in all of Judah's history. No one exceeded him. His sins were so great that even When there was a measure of change under Josiah, nothing could stop God's judgment against that land. And that's what Seth and I was talking about here. His son, Amon, reigned for two years and followed his father's example. Interestingly, Manasseh repented at the end of his reign, but obviously there was no reformation after his repentance, which shows us that God can save even the worst of sinners. like Manasseh. But this brings us to Zephaniah's time. He prophesied during the reign of Josiah. Josiah began his 31-year reign in 640 BC, and when he was eight years old, his father was Amon, wicked. His grandfather Manasseh, very, very wicked. and eight years of age. But at 16, Josiah began to seek the Lord. And then at age 20, he began a radical reformation in all of Judah. We read about it in 2 Chronicles 34, verse three. Listen to this. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, the molded images. And then at the age of 26, he encouraged a Passover that was better than the one of Hezekiah. And by the way, Hezekiah had a Passover that was better than any Passover that had occurred in the history of Judah up to that time. But Josiah's was better. Listen to what the inspired scripture says. There had been no Passover kept in Israel like that since the days of Samuel the prophet, and none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as Josiah kept, with the priests and the Levites, all Judah in Israel who are present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Now, I don't know what led to Josiah's conversion, but I like to think, I like to speculate. It may have been the preaching of Jeremiah and Zephaniah that led to that change when he was 16 years old. He had two good prophets to listen to. He certainly did. Josiah was a man who was greatly loved by those who were godly. Jeremiah loved him so much. And when he was killed in battle by Pharaoh Necho, after his 31-year reign, Jeremiah wrote this in 2 Chronicles 35, 24b and 25. He says, And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah also lamented for Josiah. And to this day, all the singing men and singing women speak of Josiah in their lamentations. They make it a custom in Israel, and indeed they are written in the laments. So that's the time. So Zephaniah prophesied during the reign of Josiah. You say, wow, that sounds like a time to sing and shout and exult and rejoice. Yes, but when we read the entirety of the book of Zephaniah, and I couldn't do that this morning because there wouldn't be much time to preach if I did that, but when you read the entire book, you realize that the bulk of Zephaniah's message is judgment, judgment, judgment, judgment, judgment, judgment, judgment, disaster, God is going to judge. Judah is going to be destroyed. And we know that happened. After Josiah died, it was just a very short time until the first Babylonian captivity. And so it was in this context that all this happened. We read of the judgment that was going to come on the people, back to chapter 1, verses 2 and 3. The Lord says, I will utterly consume everything. Verse 4, I will stretch out my hand against Judah, is the promise that's given. And down in verse 12 of chapter 1, and it shall come to pass at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men who are settled in complacency. In other words, Jerusalem was like our day. It had men who were rich. men who could enjoy all the pleasures of life. And they said, nothing can touch us. You talk about all this judgment, it won't happen to us. Our money will save us. Our status will save us. And the Lord says, no, I'm going to judge you. Nothing will be able to escape the Lord's judgment. And the judgment is extremely severe. Look at verse 15 of chapter one. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation, a day of desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. That's how severe the judgment would be. And it actually did happen. I mean, you've got shortly after Josiah died, you got the first Babylonian captivity, then the second one, the third one, of course, in 586, where the whole city was leveled by Nebuchadnezzar. It all did happen. And not only that, if you, and by the way, it takes nine minutes to read Zephaniah. That's what it takes me anyway. And for a number of months, I read it every day. And one of the interesting things is that judgment on the whole land, judgment on Judah, judgment on all the earth, and then the specific nations around Judah are judged. And you read about them in chapter 2, verse 4, all the way to the end of chapter 2. and that includes countries at the Gaza Strip, which was occupied by the Philistines in that time. It includes Moab, Ammon, Ethiopia, Assyria, the capital of Syria being Nineveh. Those countries too would be judged and devastated by the Lord. And why would they be judged? Well, if we had time we could go over all the details, but if you look at chapter 1, verse 5, it's because they believe the weatherman rather than believing God. They believed the weatherman when he said, Mother Nature is going to bring this storm. Oh, God says, no, it is God who brings the hurricanes and the tornadoes, not Mother Nature. But they worshiped Mother Nature, you see. And it was because they were trusting in their wealth, as I pointed out in verse 13 of chapter 1. It's because they had greedy judges. Look at chapter 3, verses 3 and 4. Her princes in her midst are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves that leave not a bone till morning. Her prophets are insolent, treacherous people. It's because of the political authorities and the religious authorities, God was going to bring this kind of judgment. Well, and it's because of the sins of the nations. My dear friend, I say to you, this is the context, the historical context of the book of Zephaniah. Now, it's very obvious as we reflect on this, that the wealthy, the political powers, the religious power were not all that concerned. No, they weren't. They were secure in their own spiritual blindness. But there was a group of people who believed the word of God and believed the message of Zephaniah. And because they believed it, because they believed it. You can understand why they would have gone to their places of worship wherever they might've been and thought all is lost. We don't feel like singing. We don't feel like shouting. We don't feel like exulting. We don't feel like rejoicing because doom and gloom is coming. And so Zephaniah says to this group, You need to sing. You need to shout. You need to exalt. You need to rejoice. So who is to do this singing? Well, obviously the greedy and the wicked, they aren't going to do it because they don't see any need for it. They're happy to go to their dances on Saturday night. Well, it wouldn't have been Saturday night in those days, would it? Whenever they had them and just have a lot of fun. But there was a group. And they are called by name three different times. And we're going to look at those places. Three different times the book of Zephaniah they are identified as the remnant. There was a small group of people called the remnant. had been saved by grace. As I said three times, Zephaniah mentions this group of people back in chapter 2, verse 7, and it's a very fascinating way that he mentions them. Verse 7 of chapter 2, the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah. They shall feed their flocks there in the house of Ashkelon. They shall lie down at evening for the Lord their God will intervene for them and return their captives. Now what's fascinating about this is this is the area that was occupied and ruled by the Philistines. We call it the Gaza Strip today. And the Lord doesn't say this is going to be restored to Israel. It's not going to be restored to Judah. No, it's going to be restored to the Remnant, a small, tiny group of people are going to occupy this. Obviously, obviously, the spirit of God is saying to us, there's a spiritual meaning to this because a small, tiny group of people can't occupy that vast area and have enough flocks to cover the area. So it's something else. So we got to be thinking as we see even the second mention of the remnant in verse nine of the same chapter. Therefore, as I live, says the Lord of hosts, says the God of Israel, surely Moab shall be like Sodom and the people of Ammon like Gomorrah overrun with weeds and salt pits and a perpetual desolation. The residue of my people shall plunder them and the remnant of my people shall possess them. not all of Judah, but a remnant. In other words, what the Spirit of God is telling us is something like this. There is a small group of people that will have the blessing and the grace of God upon them, and they are the ones that God will sustain. Because they are remnant and have God's grace and have wonderful, great, and glorious promises, therefore, They can sing and shout and exalt and rejoice. The third place where the term remnant is used is over in chapter three, verse 13. The remnant of Israel shall do no unrighteousness. Ah, now we find out who this remnant is. They shall do no unrighteousness and speak no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth. or they shall feed their flocks and lie down, and no one shall make them afraid. So who's this remnant? There are people who had a heart change, so they do no unrighteousness. Now, that doesn't mean they're perfectly sinless any more than 1 John talks about those who are true believers in Jesus Christ do not sin. As you understand, because you've been taught very well, it means you don't continually sin. You don't wallow in it. You don't love it. You don't enjoy it. You confess it. And that's what it means here too. This remnant is they do no unrighteousness. That is, they do not continually live in the muck of sin like their greedy judges did, or like their false religious prophets did, or like the wealthy did. No, no, no, no, no. These people do no unrighteousness. They're entirely different from the rest of Jews. Those are the ones and the only ones who can sing, shout, exult, and rejoice. Are you part of that remnant? Are you part of that remnant? Well, I'll give you two simple tests. Zephaniah gives the tests, so I don't have to give them. The first test Zephaniah gives us is back in chapter 2, verse 3, where he says, Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld his justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger. Let me ask you something. Do you seek the Lord? Do you seek humility? Do you think of others better than yourself? I didn't ask you if you were humble. None of us are humble enough, are we? Is anybody humble enough here? You can never have more humility. But do you seek it? Do you seek the Lord? Do you want it? Is that your desire? And that's what Zephaniah is saying here in this verse. Do you uphold his justice? Do you seek righteousness? That is, do you seek to have more and more of the truths of God and the ways of God and the fruit of the Spirit and obedience to God's law? Do you seek more of that in your own life? Well, my friend, if you do, you're part of a remnant. You're part of a remnant. There's a second test that Zephaniah gives, and that's in chapter three, verse 12. I will leave in your midst a meek and humble people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. That's the second test. Are you trusting in the name of the Lord? Do you deny that your works could ever save you? You recognize that all your righteousnesses are like filthy rags, that there's nothing you could ever do that could ever save you or cleanse you or make you right with God. Do you recognize that? My dear friend, if you do, you're a strange bird. You're very strange because most people think there's something they've got to do, even if it's just a little bit, just a little bit. in order to please God. Zephaniah says, the remnant are those who trust in the name of the Lord and trust in Him only. Meek and humble people who say there's no righteousness of being done whatsoever. But you know what I think Zephaniah thought? He thought there are gonna be people who can see what the remnant, the blessings that the remnant will have, There are those who are the remnant who would say, yes, it's true, I seek the Lord, I don't trust in my own righteousness, but still wonder if they really will escape this day of judgment that's coming. I don't mean escape it physically, but spiritually. Will I really be able to escape it? They may have had some doubts in their minds whether or not they were truly those who belong to God. So Zephaniah says, I think I see you're thinking that way, so I'm going to answer the question for you. Which leads to the third question that I have, which is this. Why may God's people rejoice? Why may God's people shout, sing, exalt, and rejoice? Zephaniah says, I'm glad you asked the question. I'm going to answer the question for you. And as I see it, he gives us six reasons. There may be more. I'm just skimming the text. But as I see it, he gives six reasons why the remnant may sing, shout, exalt, and rejoice. Let's look at them. First reason is this. Because God has given the remnant a new heart. Look at verse nine. For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language. that they all may call on the name of the Lord to serve him with one accord. Sing and shout, exalt and rejoice, why? Because he's giving you a pure language. He's giving you a voice and a tongue that has the praises of God on your lips. Not the praises of men, but the praises of God. This is a dramatic change from what this remnant used to be. They used to be just like the rest of Judah. They used to enjoy their wealth and rejoice in it. They were thieves like many were in that day. And they were, they were lauding and voting for the greedy judges. And listening to the intolerably wicked religious leaders, ah, but something happened. And my dear friend, is a dramatic change happened in your life? Maybe it didn't happen all at once, but over a period of time, can you say there's been a change? Think about your life. Was there a time when you were a blasphemer? Was there a time when you were filled with lust? And now no more, is it that way? Was there a time when you hated other people? Was there a time when you were full of pride? Was there a time when you disdained the thought of coming to church and singing the songs? Is that all different now? Do you know why? Because God has given you a pure language. It is a reason to rejoice. It is because God has given you a new heart. Therefore, rejoice, shout, exalt, and rejoice. A second reason why this remnant Zephaniah says, I know you're shaking your head, yes, all this is true, but you still wonder whether or not you can really do this all the time. So Zephaniah says, I have something else to tell you. And that is found in verse 15, when he says, the Lord has taken away your judgments. He has cast out your enemy. Now, what a wonderful promise that would be to a people who believed Zephaniah's message, that the whole land was going to be devastated, Judah was going to be wiped clean, that there would be nothing left. And he says, the morning's taken away your judgments. The remnant would understand this with a spiritual meaning, and we must too. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. The whole world is gonna be judged. There is a judgment day coming. No condemnation if you're in Christ Jesus. You'll say, welcome, welcome. Well done, my good and beloved servant. Galatians 2.16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, We've denied that. We say we want nothing to do with the works of the law to think that we're justified. But brother, by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. All these severe judgments removed for the remnant. All of them removed for the remnant. I've come to love Jeremiah chapter 50, verse 20. And if I'm brave enough, sometimes I put my own name in there. In those days, and at that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none. The iniquity of Gordon Taylor will be sought, and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found. The sins of Gordon Taylor, but they're not going to be found. For why? The Lord says, for I will pardon those whom I preserve. That's why. God pardons those whom he preserves. Doesn't that make you happy? Doesn't that make you want to sing and shout and exalt and rejoice? There's a third reason. Zephaniah says, some of you haven't said amen loud enough yet, so I'm going to give you a third reason. A third reason is this, and we find it in verse 15, where we read this, that it's The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst. You shall see this aster no more than down in verse 17. The Lord your God in your midst. He says it twice. He says it twice because he wants the remnant to know that the Lord is really in your midst. And what a wonderful thing that would have been for these Jews who believed the history of Israel. They remembered the tabernacle. They remembered the glory of the Lord descending on that tabernacle. They'd been told it, and Moses had written about it, and they believed it, and they knew it, and they knew this meant the special presence and glory of God in their midst. They remembered the time when the temple was dedicated in Solomon's prayer, and the glory of the Lord filled that tabernacle. The Lord was in their midst. And now he tells the remnant, he says, the Lord is in your midst. And now we can remember and fast forward to the teaching of the Apostle Paul when he talks about the church gathered, such as we are here this morning, Providence Baptist Church, Lecanto, Florida. And the Holy Spirit tells us, do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you. And that's all plurals there. In the midst of the gathered church, God is there. And he says, therefore, he says, you can sing and shout and carry on like a bunch of excited Reformed Baptists. Yes, you can. Remember what Jesus said, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, I'm in the midst of them. If you're troubled with trials and difficulties, temptations, having struggles with assurance, remember, Zephaniah, the Spirit of God through Zephaniah is teaching us that Jesus Christ is present. Why do you want to be here today? Did someone make you come? Well, if they did, you better repent and seek Jesus Christ right now. But if you wanted to be here, That's because of the work of the Spirit of God in your life. Well, there's a fourth reason. There's a fourth reason, and that's because of God's power. Look at verse 17 again. We read this. The mighty one will save, the Holy Spirit says, the mighty one. It is because of God's power that we can sing and rejoice. God is a powerful God. My God is so big. so full of power. He displays his power over and over and over again in the scriptures. And I don't have time to go over all those times. You can create your own list in your mind. But you remember that one of the evidences of God's great power of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ? And the angel, when Mary said, how can these things be? The angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Now that's power. For a baby to be conceived in the womb of a virgin who knew no man. The power of the Holy Spirit will overcome you, overshadow you, therefore also that Holy One who is born will be called the Son of God. And he was born and we have all the miracles that he did and so forth. But my dear friend, did you know, and you do know, that why you love the Lord is because of God's power. His power and grace. I come from a generation that was familiar, because my folks were familiar with John W. Peterson, and there was a little song he wrote It took a miracle to put the stars in place. It took a miracle to hang the world in space. But when he saved my soul, it took a miracle of love and grace, the power of God. There's no reason I should be standing up here preaching today and loving the Lord Jesus. I grew up in a Christian home. I had godly Christian parents. But if God hadn't changed my heart, I'd be a blasphemer on the streets of some small town in Ohio, probably. But He changed me. The power, the power. And because of His power, we can sing and rejoice and shout and exult. Ah, but there is a fifth reason. That's because God sings over you. Verse 17c, we read these words. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing. There is, my dear friends, a divine soloist, and this divine soloist is singing over you if you are in Christ. Here Zephaniah reveals the infinite eternal love of the Lord for his people. He quiets you with his love. Have you ever seen a mother, and I know you have, take a crying infant and hold that little one in her arms, and they begin to sing to that little infant? Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. And then have you seen that little infant quiet down and find rest in the arms of his or her mother? You've seen that, haven't you? And the little child, the little infant becomes quiet. Well, we're little infants. And what Zephaniah is telling us here, he will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing. So here is a magnificent picture, which is hard for us to comprehend. God taking us in his arms, quieting us and singing over us. Can you doubt the help of the Lord when you're struggling with all the trials and difficulties of life? Or when you're struggling even with the matter of your assurance or your salvation or the temptations that overcome you from time to time? I love the comments of John Calvin on this verse. Listen to what he says. He says he assumes the person of a mortal man Because unless he stammers in this manner, and you know what Calvin means there, he's like, God is trying to communicate something to us, so he's stammering from our perspective, trying to tell us who he's like, what he thinks of us. So he stammers, Calvin says, to show us how much he loves us. Thy God will therefore be quiet in his love. That is, this will be the greatest delight of thy God. And then Calvin says, this is his chief pleasure. This is his chief pleasure. When he shall cherish thee, as a man caresses his dearest wife, so will God then quietly cause us to rest in his love. So there's a divine soloist. Do you hear him singing? Oh, I don't know. I'm a little tone deaf. Well, he's singing. He's singing over us. Praise God. What love that he would use this. And you know, this is the only place in all of the 66 books of the Bible that we have this given to us about God singing. The psalmist sings, but here God is singing. God is singing. Well, you'd think that, I would think, if I were writing the book of Zephaniah, which I'm not, of course, I would have ended the book at verse 17. and shouted hallelujah, but he doesn't. Then he has his verses 18 through 20, and do you know that verses 18 through 20 give us the sixth reason that I'm going to talk to you about this morning, as to why we can sing and shout and rejoice and exult? And these verses are so hard to translate from the Hebrew. Well, they are. All you gotta do is check various translations and you'll see. The Hebrew scholars are struggling Zephaniah knew his Hebrew better than any of the scholars, I'm confident. But I think that what we have here, I'll just summarize it this way, we have something better than a divine solace, even though it's difficult to understand. And what could be better than that? Well, what Zephaniah is talking about in these verses is, he's talking about the eternal glory that waits for the remnant. Look at the verses again. In verses 19 and 20, he says, I'm going to gather those who sorrow over the appointed assembly. In other words, those who enjoyed the Passover of Josiah and so forth. And I'm sure there were those who were persecuted because they enjoyed it. After all, the nation was wicked. But verse 19, behold, at that time, I will deal with all who afflict you. I will save the lame and gather those who were driven out. I will appoint them for praise and fame in every land where they were put to shame. I really think that the ESV and the Legacy Standard Bible has a better translation here. I'm going to read to you the translation of verse 19 from the ESV. Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors, and I will save the lame and gather the outcasts, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth." Now, my dear friend, when's that going to happen? When is it that the praise and the renown of all God's remnant is going to be changed to praise in all the earth? There's only one time that I know of that that's going to happen. That's in the eternal kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth. And that's what the Bible says in Revelation 21. Now I saw a new heaven and new earth for the first heaven the first earth had passed away and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes there should be no more death or sorrow nor crying there should be no more pain for the former things are passed away this is the glory that awaited the remnant and my friend this is the glory that awaits for you we will not need a divine soloist in the new heavens and the new earth we'll be with him we will see the Lord Jesus and we will see him as he is. As precious as it is to know about the divine soul, this is even more precious to know that there's something better coming. Something better coming. Now, my dear friend, as I said, I hope this helps those who may be struggling with assurance, those who may be struggling with temptation, those who are overwhelmed by the trials of the present life to know that Zephaniah gives us reason to rejoice and exalt. and I pray that you will. Now, if you're here this morning and you're not rejoicing because you don't see any of this making any sense at all, that's because you don't know the God of heaven, and you need to know him, and you may know him. Repent of your cold, angry heart, and bow before the King of kings and Lord of lords. And Jesus is such a gracious savior. He says, all who come to me, I'll never cast out. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Our Father, we thank you for the word. We thank you for Zephaniah. We thank you for the way that he ministers to our hearts. Bless, we pray, as we meditate upon our glorious Savior and all the wonders that he has done for us in our redemption. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.