All right, let's take our Bibles and turn to the Old Testament book, one of the minor prophets, Zephaniah. Zephaniah chapter three. Zephaniah chapter three. I want to read the first eight verses. Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city. She listens to no voice. She accepts no correction. She does not trust in the Lord. She does not draw near to her God. Her officials within her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves that leave nothing till the morning. Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men. Her priests profane what is holy. They do violence to the law. The Lord within her is righteous, he does no injustice. Every morning he shows forth his justice. Each dawn he does not fail, but the unjust knows no shame. I have cut off nations, their battlements are in ruins. I have laid waste their streets so that no one walks in them. Their cities have been made desolate without a man, without an inhabitant. I said, surely you will fear me. You will accept correction. Then your dwelling would not be cut off according to all that I've appointed against you. But all the more they were eager to make all their deeds corrupt. Therefore, wait for me, declares the Lord, for the day when I rise up to seize the prey, for my decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them my indignation, all my burning anger, for in the fire of my jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed. This prophecy of Zephaniah is about the great and awful day of the Lord, the day of God's anger, the day of God's wrath against all sin when the cup of God's anger is poured out completely upon the wicked. Zephaniah spends two and a half chapters of his three chapter prophecy talking about this wrath. What we've just read in these eight verses you should First, go back and read chapters one and chapter two. It's even greater indignation and wrath there. And in these two and a half chapters, he's describing the reasons for this awful day. You see, all peoples, including Israel, Israel's not excluded from this day of wrath. All nations are guilty of worshiping everything and anything but the true God. They are filled, as Zephaniah lists for us, they are filled with violence, fraud, arrogance, greed, lust, and deceit. And then he gives all kinds of names for it as well. Because of their corruption, because of their sin, because of their rebellion, and because of this wickedness, verse 8, my decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them my indignation, all my burning anger, for in the fire of my jealousy all the earth shall be consumed. But, beginning in verse nine, to the end of Zephaniah's prophecy, he says this time can also be a day of hope, a day of unimaginable joy and singing. Now such an ending would have been totally unexpected by Zephaniah's hearers, for after hearing of all the fiery wrath of God against their guilt, against their sin that they knew they were guilty of, They would expect at best a call for lamentation, but not a call for rejoicing. For there's wrath, yes, but there's also hope. Hope, how? Can it really be? And Zephaniah gives us a loud yes. There's a certainty of the day of hope. And we looked at this briefly. God says over and over and over again in chapter one and chapter two, I will, I will consume, I will cut off, I will punish. And God will do this. What he says, he does. All sin must be and always will be judged. And God will do it. but just as certain is the day of hope. For this too is God's will. Verse nine, he says, I will change. Verse 19, I will save. Verse 20, I will bring, I will gather. And then Zephaniah adds his comment about all of this concerning God in verse 17 saying, he will save, he will rejoice over you, he will quiet you with his love. As the wrath is certain to come for some, so the hope is certain to come for others. But then we started looking at the characteristics of that day of hope, and the first one is that of restoration that we saw last time, verse 9. For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech. that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord. From beyond the rivers of Cush, my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones shall bring my offering. God promises here to purify their lips, to purify their lives, the lives of a remnant, and by his grace, restore them to their first state of faithful worship and service to the Lord. But today we want to consider two more characteristics of that day of hope. And this next one is just amazing. A cleared conscience. Verse 11. On that day, you will not be put to shame because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me. No shame. Wow. To think that we will live without shame is amazing. Now what is shame? Shame is that feeling of guilt that you get from having done something wrong. And that is a universal feeling. God has put this emotion in every one of us according to Romans chapter one. Everybody, and it's just experientially, everybody knows shame. Webster's describes it, a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety, a condition of humiliating disgrace. Have you ever done something or said something that you wish you could have put back in your mouth? No, you shouldn't have said it. You wish you wouldn't have. But once it comes out, Your ears start turning red, you know, you feel, you become flushed and you wish you could just melt into the floor. That's shame. We all feel it. An awful feeling that gnaws at our inside. But what causes shame? Well, Zephaniah tells us, the deeds by which you rebel Rebellion is willful disobedience against authority. There's knowledge of a standard of behavior, but it's deliberately sidestepped. And in Judah's case, they knew Yahweh was to be worshipped. But what they had done, according to verse 2, is they did not draw near to God. And according to chapter 1, they worshipped Baal and Moloch and all kinds of other gods. And they refused to follow the Lord. You see, God is the answer to the next question. What is the standard by which we measure shame? Zephaniah says, the deeds that you rebel against me. When they were obedient, God's people knew blessing. But the people had rebelled against God and it produced shame. In Genesis chapter one and two, God made a perfect world and when he had made it, what did he say at the very end? It is what? Very good. He made man, he made woman and they lived in perfect harmony with each other and in perfect harmony with God. Their life was joyous, it was fulfilling, it was complete. God had only given them one command, don't eat the fruit of one tree, just one tree, just stay away from that. And Adam and Eve were completely content with that. And they lived in joyous harmony. But in Genesis 3, knowing what God had commanded, They deliberately rebelled, they deliberately disobeyed. And then we read in Genesis three on your outline verse seven, the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves covering. Now, why did they do that? Because they were ashamed. They were ashamed of the rebellion against God's command. And why did they feel that way? because they knew God would be displeased. He had set a standard for living and they had violated that standard. So they felt ashamed and tried to hide it. But it gets worse, verse eight. And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden. It seems to be something that God did with them every day. He would come and they would walk and commune together in the cool of the day. And so here it is again. And they heard the sound of the Lord of God walking in the garden, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees. You can't get rid of shame. They tried to hide it with fig leaves, but it didn't work. They tried to hide in the bushes, and it still didn't work. God finds them, and they hear, and they bear his curse. Listen, you just can't lock yourself in a bedroom and get rid of shame. You can't hide in the closet. You can't get in the car and drive to the next county. Shame remains. Why? Because it's in you. It's part of you. But Zephaniah comes along and says, there's hope of living without shame. In that day, you will not be shamed. What's the remedy for shame? Well, the world has its remedies, doesn't it? They drown it. Drown it in drugs and alcohol. You lose yourself. You don't have to think about it anymore. Or they try to drown it by indulging in more and more and more sin so they get so accustomed to their sin that it seems like normal behavior. Or they seek to deny shame. They live as though there is nothing for which to be ashamed. feed their guilty conscience the lie that what they're doing is not wrong. Everybody else is doing it, right? Everybody else is doing it, so it can't be wrong. Or they try to hide it by comparison. They see how awful the sins of somebody else is. Well, I'm not that bad after all. Or they lower the standard. My deeds really aren't that bad. It's a mistake, not a sin. It's an oversight, not a transgression, an error, not rebellion. Surely God will understand. After all, I'm only human. Or they set out to remove the standard. If we could just get rid of God, we'd have nothing to be shamed about. Let's outlaw his word from our schools. Let's outlaw his name from all public events. If we get rid of him, we won't have anything to be ashamed of anymore. So they act like the Jews of Jesus' day, and they nail him to a tree. But there's an irony in all the attempts to cover guilt. On the one hand, we know that God is the reference point to our shame. I feel shame because I know there's a God who demands righteousness of me. But we don't want his rules, so we avoid him. But on the other hand, he's the only one who can release us from our guilty conscience. Let's look at what happened in the Garden of Eden again. Ab and Eve are in the bushes hiding. hiding from God because it's against him that they've rebelled. They feel ashamed. But when they do come out and meet God, yes, they are cursed, but they don't die. God provides them with a remedy. He provides a substitute, an animal that is slain in their place, and its blood covers their guilt, and its skin covers their nakedness, their shame. You see, God's remedy is the only way shame can be removed. And Zephaniah addresses that. Verse 11, on that day you will not be put to shame because of the deeds which you have rebelled against me, for then I will remove from your midst your proudly exalted ones and you shall no longer be haughty in my holy mountain, but I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly. As long as Judah hides their sin and does not draw near to God, their sin remains. And the only way its shame will disappear is if, verse 11, God removes it and they seek refuge in the name of the Lord, verse 12. You see, the remedy comes from the very place you don't want to go. It's what Zephaniah said back in chapter two, in verse three. Seek the Lord and perhaps you will be hidden in the day of his anger. And we read that. Can shame really be removed that easily when I am so guilty? How can that be? Well, first, because God says he will do it. And he's a God of truth. He will do what he says. He says, I'll remove your shame. You can bet on it. You can count on it. He will do it. But the New Testament tells us more specifically. Keep your place here in Zephaniah and turn over to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Here the writer is telling us how shame is removed. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 14 tells us what Jesus has done for us to remove our shame. Verse 14, for by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Jesus made one offering for our purification from sin. Then the Holy Spirit and the Father have a part also, verse 15. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us for after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts and write them on their minds. Then he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. The Holy Spirit gives witness to the Father's determination to never ever remember our sin ever again. Now remember, shame comes from our sin. But if the remembrance, if God's remembrance of our sin is gone, what happens to shame? It's taken away, right? But wait, it gets better. Verse 19. Therefore, brothers. Since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Now verse 19 says we have confidence or boldness. Isn't that kind of opposite of shame? Well, by the blood of Jesus, verse 19, in verse 20, he opens for us. We have now free access to do something that was closed to us before. So we can now, verse 22, draw near to God in full assurance of faith because our hearts are cleansed. Note the reference to cleansing, sprinkling and washing. But what is cleansed? What exactly is cleansed? Verse 22. Our conscience. Our conscience is that faculty that we all possess that creates an awareness of self and which governs our moral actions relating to right and wrong. Your conscience is the thing from which shame arises. It's an internal witness that lets us know that we've done wrong. The moment you spoke that wrong word, you knew it was wrong. Your conscience was speaking to you. But this verse says that what is being cleansed is not an evil conscience. In the Greek, the formation of the sentence is, what's cleansed is a consciousness of evil. This says totally something else, or more than what an evil conscience. It's been our consciousness toward evil has been sprinkled clean. And this sprinkling is a passive participle, which means it's nothing we do. It's something done to us. And it's in the perfect tense in the Greek, which is the tense of the action of the verb is something that takes place in the past. with continuing results. And that continuing result is a continually cleansed conscious toward evil. And that means no shame. So as a result of the blood of Jesus, verse 19, not only will God no longer remember our sins, and not only will the Holy Spirit cleanse our consciousness from evil so that there'll be no more shame, but the triunity will do all of this because of a third point that Zephaniah makes in this passage. God doesn't remember our sin anymore because he has removed them all. In other words, not only a cleared conscience, but in the day of the Lord, in the day of hope, there is no more sin. Verse 11. And the first, verse 11 tells us the first sin to go. Well, we're back in Zephaniah. Verse 11. I will remove from your midst your proudly exultant ones and you shall no longer be haughty in my holy mount. Now it's very fitting for God to begin with this sin because pride is the mother of all sins. The very first sin was caused by pride when Satan proud because of all of his beauty, lifted up his heart in pride and said, I want to be like the most guy God. The very first sin in humanity was because of pride. Genesis 3.6, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, a tree desirable to make one wise, she took the fruit and ate. She wanted it no matter what God had previously said. That's pride. And every sin since then has been the result of pride. I want this. I'll take it. I want to do this. I'll do it. No matter what God says, we want our lusts fulfilled. We want our desires. That's selfishness. That's pride. And this was behind the sin of Judah as well. The Jews rebelled against God, verse one, trusted only in themselves, verse two, refusing to think that they were guilty of anything. And it was so much so that in verses three and four, the judges, the priests, the prophets, basked in their arrogance, caring not who they hurt or stepped on or robbed, as long as their needs were fulfilled and taken care of. Proverbs 6 tells us, in verse 16, there are six things the Lord hates. The seventh is an abomination. And guess what's number one on the list? A proud look. So in Zephaniah 3, God goes to war against the proud. The picture of verse 11 is a battle scene. It's the picture of an invading army coming against a city, winning the battle, and carrying away captives. Look at it again, verse 11. I will remove from your midst your proudly exultant ones, and you shall no longer be haughty in my holy mountain, but I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly. In God's war, he comes to fight against the proud. You find that in scripture all over. God resists the proud. He resists the proud. He fights against the proud. And here he fights against the proud. They're carried away captive. And in the historical context of Judah and Jerusalem, this is exactly what takes place. When King Zedekiah is on the throne of Judah, he is warned by Jeremiah in Jeremiah 27, don't fight the Babylonians when they come against you. If you don't fight against them, all will be well. But Zedekiah, in his pride, thinks better than God. He challenges the invading army, and in 2 Corinthians 36, 12, it says, he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, because he did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. And the result, a great fall. Before the walls collapse, there was drought, famine, There was no infrastructure there. Everything was gone. There were starvation and then capture. Zedekiah saw all his sons slain before his eyes. And then his eyes were plucked out as he was exiled to Babylon. In Jerusalem, the glorious city, the city of Zion was a heap of rubble. Why? Because Zedekiah acted in pride? Partly, but not completely. It was because generations of kings and prophets and people had arrogantly thrown God out of their lives, thinking they could survive on their own. And because they had thrown him out, God threw them out, literally. And the Lord will do the same thing in the final day of the Lord. The proud will be removed, leaving only the humble and the lowly. That's what he says, verse 12, I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly. Now in a sociological sense, these are the poor and needy. They've been taken advantage of by the rich, the powerful, They've been despised, held in contempt because they're poor. In fact, the Babylonians really don't want them. They're left in the land. But Zephaniah is not talking sociologically. He's talking theologically. It's people who are distressed, but not over their status. They're distressed over sin. They realize they are needy, but it's not that they lack riches. They lack righteousness. They hold themselves in contempt. They despise their sin. And so they have turned to God for answers, and in humility, they bow before him. And isn't that what the gospel produces? When a sinner recognizes his condition of no hope and without God in this world, And when he becomes convinced that he can do nothing to remedy that situation, to remedy his condemned situation, what does he do? He swallows his pride, and in humility, submits to the will of God, and turns to the Son. And verse 20, they trust, literally take refuge in the name of the Lord. In other words, they've obeyed Zephaniah's command of chapter two and verse three. They've sought the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands. They've sought righteousness, they've sought humility, and they have found themselves hidden in the day of the Lord's anger. Yes, in the day of the Lord, the Lord himself will be a shelter from the stormy blast of his own wrath. The righteous, the righteous humble, are hidden in the day of the Lord. Those who have submitted themselves to God, the, as Jesus calls them, the poor in spirit, who meekly submit to the Savior, will survive the wrath because they've learned that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So they have drawn near to God, and he has drawn near to them. So there's no more pride. And therefore, no unrighteousness. Verse 13. Those who are left in Israel shall do no injustice. Now the word justice and righteousness have the same root, both in Hebrew and also in Greek. So it's righteousness what we're talking about here, or unrighteousness. Literally, there'll be no unrighteousness. What a hope that is. Can you imagine living in such a day? How'd you like to get up every morning with the surety that you're never ever going to do wrong anymore? Not today, not tomorrow, not next week, not ever. That's a significant hope in the day of the Lord, to be righteous like God is righteous. But it's not just a future hope, it's a present reality. 2 Corinthians 5.21, speaking of Jesus, said, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness not just made righteous, but we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ. Yes, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Romans 3.23. But Paul writes in verses 24 and 25, We are justified, declared righteous by God's grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus to be received by faith. We are declared righteous by God because of Jesus Christ and therefore we have hope in the day of the Lord. Hope of no pride, hope of no unrighteousness. But this unrighteousness is also a present experiential reality. Oh, to be sure, none of us will ever reach a stage of sinless perfection. 1 John 1, 8, John is clear on that. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But then he says in 1 John 3, verse 9, whoever has been born of God does not continually sin. This should be the goal and the desire of every Christian. Those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with his passions and desires, Galatians 5, 24 says. In 2 Corinthians 3, 18, Paul says, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in the mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit. Now in the Old Testament, only one man, Moses, gazed with unveiled face at divine glory. But in this gospel age, this is the privilege of all who are Christ's. Those who have trusted in the name of the Lord, as Zephaniah says here, those who have turned in faith to Christ are being transformed into his image one stage at a time. Do you more closely resemble the Lord Jesus Christ today than you did, say, five years ago? Do you more closely resemble the Lord Jesus than last year? If your answer is affirmative, then the transformation process is underway, and it will continue until Christ comes again. And when he is revealed, then we'll be like him, for we shall see him as he is. But there's still another hope. Another cause of shame will be removed. Not only pride and unrighteousness, but no more deceit. Verse 13 again. They shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue. Falsehood has been around forever. Abraham was guilty of it. He lied and asked Sarah to lie with him. She's not my wife. She's my sister. Isaac followed in his dad's footsteps, did the same thing in the same situation, asked his wife to lie for the same reason. Jacob also was a liar. He deceived Isaac into thinking he was Esau, and he outright lied when Isaac asked him to identify himself. And Jacob's sons The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. They, too, continue the pattern of falsehood, deceiving Jacob into thinking Joseph was killed by wild animals. And we find the same thing in the New Testament with Peter, of all people. In Matthew 26, a girl comes out to him and says, you, too, are a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. And he began to curse and to swear and said, I don't know the man. They're all a bunch of liars. just like us. But in that day, there'll be no perversity, no treachery, no crookedness, no fraud, no hypocrisy, no cheating, no lying. This new people of God, his remnant, will have been so cleansed by the Lord that they will be free from all unrighteousness, all deception and duplicity. The day of the Lord will be a day of truth, because it's the day of the Lord, and he's truth. As Pastor Rick taught this morning, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He's the truth. You reject him, and it's the day of wrath. You believe him, it's the day of hope, the hope of eternal life. But there's another point embedded in this hope of no deceit. Abraham wasn't the first to lie, was he? No, Cain lied. Remember Genesis 4? God says, where's Abel? I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? He knew exactly where he was. But he wasn't the first to lie either, was he? Genesis 3 verse 4, the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. Satan, Jesus says, is the father of lies, John 8. He does not stand in the truth because no truth is in him. Now, if in the day of the Lord there's not going to be any more lies told, then guess who's not going to be there? Satan. The devil's not going to be there. Oh, he'll be there in the beginning, in the day of wrath, making war with the Lamb. But Christ speaks a word, and the devil is bound and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years. And after that, he'll be released to deceive the nations once again. But Revelation 20.10 says, the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and be tormented day and night forever. And Revelation 21.8 adds, and all liars with him. In the day of the Lord, after divine wrath has fallen, those who remain will only be the righteous remnant with purified lips who speak no lies. Does this characterize your life now? It should be if you were a believer in Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 6 verses 9 through 11, he says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? And then Paul mentions all kinds of sins that keep people from God's kingdom. There's fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners, swindlers. But then he adds, and such were some of you. And what's the implication? You once were this. But now you're not! But you say, well, lion's not mentioned there. Well, not particularly, but it is implied in the extortion and in the swindling. Paul said these Christians had once continually practiced deceit, but not anymore. What happened? Verse 11, but you were washed, you were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. Because of Jesus, because of his death for us, we stand before God so completely transformed and washed clean of all of our sin and guilt that God then declares us righteous, sanctifies us and accepts us as citizens in his kingdom, inheriting all of its hope. And all believers now strive for that truth. because we're being transformed every day more and more into the image of Jesus Christ, who according to Peter in 1 Peter 2.22, deceit was not found in his mouth. Since Jesus always told the truth, even though people would turn away, since he always told the truth, even though they would persecute him because of the truth, That is what every blood-washed believer strives for because Jesus did it. Colossians 3.1 makes the same point. Since you have been raised with Christ, verse nine and 10, do not lie one to another. Since you put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is being renewed according to the image of him who created him. There it is again. Since we're being transformed to his image, we should strive to be more like him each day, every moment. Don't lie. Speak the truth. We're to live today according to the characteristics of that future day. Our vision of his image is not clear yet, and so we do fall along the way. But we can still see the image. And so we progressively strive more and more every day to be more like him. And when it gets difficult to walk the path of truthfulness, when the temptations to falsehood fly toward us, remember that we don't identify with Satan, the father of lies, who will be no more. we identify with Jesus Christ who is truth and will live forevermore. So follow him, be like him, persevere in humility, righteousness, and truth, and you will witness a day when a greater than Eden will be restored. No longer will there be shame, no hiding from God, No more will there be a tempter to deceive us. We will witness an Eden where everything remains always forever very good. An Eden with a remnant who walk in perfect harmony with the Lord continually. We will witness an Eden in which there is no pride to mar relationships. We will witness an Eden where the image of God into which man was made originally will be restored to full glory forever. That's a hope if there ever was one. Let's pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, We thank you that through Jesus Christ, we are no longer unrighteous, but declared righteous in him. And because we are righteous in Christ, we have this glorious hope of a future glory, of a future time where there'll be no shame and no more sin, no more Satan, only righteousness, only Christ, only those who are in Christ. Lord, we're thankful that we who know him are part of that righteous remnant. We thank you for removing us from the realm of darkness, from the realm of Satan, and have translated us into the kingdom of your son. We thank you for all that that entails and all the hope that it gives us, and help us as your believers, as your sons and your daughters to live as those who have called on your name. If we are of the name, help us to act like those of the name of the Lord Jesus. May we be more and more like him, strive to be more and more like him in what we say, what we do, the places we go, how we act, how we react. May Jesus be the example that we follow and help us to follow it fully. But Lord, if there's someone here who does not claim the name of Christ, may they realize that they are under that great and awful day of the Lord's anger, the day of the Lord's wrath. It's coming, it's coming, he's promised it. Help them to know that the only way that he escaped the wrath is to run to the one who bore that wrath for sinners on the cross, Jesus Christ. Help them to run to him, to seek the Lord while there's hope, perhaps, They will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger. We pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who bought it all for us. Amen.