All right, let's take our Bibles and turn to Zephaniah chapter three. Third to the last book of the scriptures of the Old Testament, Zephaniah chapter three. Zephaniah chapter three, we'll begin reading in verse 14. Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O Israel. Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away the judgments against you. He has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst. You shall never again fear evil. Oh, that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, fear not, O Zion, let not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing. I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival so that you will no longer suffer reproach. 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. At that time, I will bring you in, at that time when I gather you together, for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord. Let's consider for a moment what happened to humanity when Eve fell to Satan's temptation and Adam followed her willingly in that sin. They lost their innocence. Their sin affected their nature so that it became depraved. That depravity brought them and all humanity under God's judgment but something else came as the result of their sin. More was lost, and that was their intimate, joyful fellowship with God. It seemed to be that there was a daily occurrence when they would walk and talk and communion with God in the garden, but when they sinned, that intimacy was gone. And in fact, they didn't want to be around God at all anymore. They hid themselves from his presence. But in the day of hope that Zephaniah is talking about here in this chapter, it seems like Eden is restored in an even bigger and better way. The Day of Hope brings a reversal of man's fall, restoring their intimate communion with God and ushering them into a time of joyful restoration. We see the imperatives for that joy is found in verse four. We are to sing aloud, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. We are to sing, shout, rejoice, and exult God with all of our hearts. And then in verses 15 and following, we are given some tremendous reasons for doing so. Number one, no more judgment, only joy. Verse 15, the Lord has taken away the judgments against you. He has cleared away your enemies. God's Babylonian judgment served its purpose. The Jews learned their lesson. They left idolatry behind after that and worshiped Yahweh alone. and for their loyalty then of turning back to the Lord all the curses that God had sent against them were reversed and they returned to the land where they enjoyed all the covenant blessings of God, but yet with us as this is looking forward to yet another day of hope. For us, the promise goes further. Paul tells us in Romans that there is forever no more judgment on those who trust Christ alone because he bore the judgment for them, which in turn saved us from all future wrath and brought us to the second reason for singing, and that's no more fear, only freedom. The second part of verse 15, the King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst. You shall never again fear evil. On that day, it will be said to Jerusalem, fear not, O Zion. The Lord frees us from our enemies. Now, with regard to Judah, they were free from all the oppressing nations, and better yet, free from God's wrath. And for us too, it is freedom from his wrath, along with freedom from death and freedom from sin, freedom from evil, freedom from Satan. In Christ, we have freedom from all these things. But what gives us the assurance that the fear of all these things will be removed is the third reason that Zephaniah gives us in verse 15 for rejoicing with all of our hearts. And that is that God is with us. In verses 15 through 20, Zephaniah mentions the reality of God's presence with his people. And so important is this fact that he repeats it. He says it in verse 15 and verse 17. In verse 15 he says, the Lord is in your midst. In verse 17, the Lord your God is in your midst. And that God is with his people. his great reason to rejoice and to sing. Now, when Zephaniah mentions God's presence, that he's in the midst of his people, he's not talking about God's attribute of omnipresence, that he is everywhere present at all times. Rather, God's presence here signifies intimacy, that intimacy with God that man lost at the fall. Yes, in the day of hope for Judah, when they are restored back to the land of promise, it will seem to them like paradise has been regained. Total freedom to live, to work, and to worship the Lord. In Zephaniah's prophecy, a blessing was fulfilled for them in their now after the exile. But in the not yet, In the greater day of hope that Zephaniah is intimating, not only will there be no more shame, verse 11, and no more sin, verse 12, and no more judgment, verse 15, and no more fear, verse 16, but no longer will we be alone. God will be with us. He will be in our midst. And he is with his people in five glorious ways that Zephaniah presents in verses 15 through 20. The first one we want to look at is he is with us as the almighty warrior who saves. Verse 17. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. First, let's look at the battle of the warrior. That is, from what does he save us? According to the context, it reveals several things. Verse 15, he saves us from judgment, from enemies, and from evil. In verse 16, he frees us from fear. And in verse 19, he adds oppression and affliction. Now, Judah suffered all of those things. Their plight was awful. For three years, Jerusalem was laid siege by Babylonian armies. And it cost them dearly. They endured famine, starvation, disease. It was an awful predicament. But is ours any less awful? We are dead in our sins. It has corrupted our hearts. It's bound our wills. And it has starved our spirits. And as John Bunyan writes in his Holy War, the battle for man's soul rages in everyone. We need a champion, for we are a people that are hurt, that are lame, and desperately needing hope. But who can deliver us? Bunyan's answer is the whole city waits for the return of the king's son. And Zephaniah says he arrives, verse 15, the King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst. And he will, verse 16, take away our fear. Verse 17, save us. And verse 19, rescue us. But let's look a little bit more about that warrior. Let's see how Zephaniah describes him. Note, first of all, his determination to save. in verses 17 through 20. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exult over you with loud singing. And then God starts to speak. I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival. so that you will no longer suffer reproach. 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. And at that time, I will bring you in at that time when I gather you together, for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord. Notice God's determination to save. I will, I will, I will, I will. Zephaniah's point is that though many calamities will come to his people because of their sin, in the end, the Lord will take the initiative and deliver his people from them. It's always been that way. The Lord took the initiative with Adam and Eve, didn't he? They hid from him. He sought them out. Now you say, well, yes, he sought them out, but that was to judge them, to curse them. Yeah, that was there, but there's more in the text, wasn't there? He also promised a future deliverer, and he provided a substitute to die in their place and provide a covering. And as they did, and the later Jews did, We all hide from God's holy presence. Because of our sin, we avoid him. On our own, we would never be saved. But God determines to save those he gave to his son. He overcomes our reluctance and draws us to himself by his power, which is the next point that Zephaniah makes concerning the description of our warrior Notice his ability to save in verse 17. The Lord your God is in your midst and he is what? Mighty to save. Mighty to save. Now that word mighty occurs frequently in the Old Testament. And it always refers to a military hero, a military champion. And guess what? That's so often used of our Messiah. In Psalm 45, the Messiah is decked out in battle gear. He's riding over his enemies. And to him it is said in verse three, gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, with your glory and your majesty. In Psalm 24, in verse eight, where Psalm 24 is this glorious, majestic Psalm where the king is riding in toward the city and he calls for the keeper on the gates to lift up the gates so that the king of glory may ride in. And the watcher above the gate says, who is the king of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. Jeremiah 32 verses 18 and 19 calls him the great, the mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts. He is mighty in work. And he's a proven victorious warrior. And this proven victorious warrior is he who keeps you safe. He mightily saved the Jews from the Egyptian bondage. He mightily saved them from the hostile nations as they marched to the land. And he gave them victory as they conquered the land. And all of that because even when they didn't deserve it, he took the initiative. They murmured and complained continually and said, we want to go back to Egypt. They revolted against Moses' authority and they made a golden calf to worship of all things. They failed to exterminate the Canaanites with all their religion, and in fact, they began worshipping their religion and worshipping their gods. Yet Yahweh fought their battle always for them and helped them overcome their enemies. Hasn't he also fought on your behalf, though you didn't deserve it? Didn't you worship other gods and not Yahweh, the God of money, the God of your career, the God of pleasure? Didn't you follow the course of this world? Didn't you place yourself on your throne, the throne of your heart, instead of God? And instead, you reject God? And yet he came and rescued you. He came and saved you. Oh, he is mighty to save. And that word save implies deliverance, help, victory. It comprehends either the removal of evil and our misery or the restoration of good and former happiness. And Zephaniah refers to both. God will remove Judah's evil Babylonian oppressors and he will return them to the land that they formerly knew. They were helpless to do that themselves. They were hopeless in exile. In fact, Zephaniah describes them in verse 19 as being lame, so helpless they can't get anywhere on their own. In other words, helpless, unable to make any move themselves. Yet God, verse 20, restores them so that now they are on their feet, made to walk and set free. And as with the Jews, so with all the righteous remnant of every land of every age. Isaiah 45, 22, God says, turn to me and be saved all the ends of the world, saith the Lord. And don't we see that as the New Testament progresses? Don't we see how When Jesus came, the followers of Christ went through Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the outermost parts of the earth, bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. And didn't it continue to grow and grow until one day it came to you? And God showed his might to save you. Yes, our God is mighty to save. And it's not a coincidence that the Hebrew root of the word save, yesh, is the root name of Joshua, for whom Jesus was named. Yeshua, mighty to save. Under Joshua's leadership, God's people will deliver from their enemies. And under Jesus' leadership, we are delivered from Satan, death, and hell. Colossians 1.13, he has delivered us from the power of darkness. Romans 5.9, having now been justified by his blood, we are saved from wrath. He's mighty to save. That's a great reason to sing this praise, don't you think? But the metaphor changes in verse 18. The God who is with us is also the good shepherd who gathers. Verse 18, let's read the last three verses again. I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival so that you will no longer suffer reproach. Behold, at that time, I will deal with all your oppressors, and I will save the lame and gather the outcasts. I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time, I will bring you in. At that time, when I gather you together, for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord. Notice the words gather and bring. It's used four times. in verses 18 through 20. Note them again. Verse 18, I will gather those of you who mourn. Verse 19, I will save the lame and gather the outcast. Verse 20, I will bring you in at the time when I gather you together. In the Hebrew, these words, are presenting a different metaphor. It's bringing up the metaphor of a shepherd who gathers his sheep, brings them back to the fold. Now, first of all, concerning this, we need to look at the condition of the flock. In verse 19, they are scattered. Behold, at that time I will deal with all your pressers, I will save the lame, I will gather the outcasts and change their shame into praise. The Jews were scattered, weren't they? They were cruelly driven from their homes by the conquering Babylonians. All but a handful of people were left in the land and the rest were helpless exiles in a foreign land for 70 years. And these people were also, the flock was also sorrowful. Verse 18, I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival. The Jews were saddened that they could no longer celebrate the feasts of Jehovah. And you know, isn't that a change of attitude than what they were 70 years prior? Ever since the days of Solomon, the Jews cared little for the sacred feasts. Oh, they celebrated the pagan festivals, but Yahweh they had forgotten. But here we find them longing to celebrate their Jewish festivals. So again, we have to note that divine judgment worked as purpose. When God disciplines his people, it's for the purpose of their purification. Hebrews 12.6, those whom the Lord loves, he chastens. 1 Peter 1.7 says, our testing proves the genuineness of our faith, like gold that is tested in fire. Job 23.10 says, when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. And with regard to the righteous remnant of the Jews in Babylon, their judgment had brought them back to God with a desire to worship the Lord rightly. But being in Babylon and not able to celebrate the feasts correctly, they were sorrowful. There's a Psalm that speaks of this. So keep your place here because we'll be back. But let's turn back to Psalm 137 and read of their condition while they were in Babylon. Psalm 137. We'll read the first six verses, Psalm 137. By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung our lyres, for there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors mirth saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. Their Babylonian captors demanded songs of joy, and their response was weeping. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If they were home, they could make their pilgrimage to Jerusalem and sing joyfully and celebrate and sing their songs of praise to God. But how, for example, could they celebrate Passover, their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, when they were a displaced people in a foreign land? Yet Zephaniah offers hope as he points them to the shepherd. We see the activity of the shepherd in those words, gather and bring. When he's gathering, it's not just for the purpose of gathering them, herding them, but it's a word meaning protection, giving them peace and comfort. Sheep are skittish. They're nervous. They're fearful. If they smell a wolf, they scatter. But when the shepherd calls, his voice has a calming effect because he's proven himself before. He's protected them time and time and time again. When the shepherd is near, In their midst, all fear is abolished, for he is mighty, and he will provide rest. In other words, when the shepherd is near, there is peace. And when the shepherd is the mighty God, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You even prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies. But let's look a little closer at the identity of the shepherd. Psalm 80 reveals that God, Jehovah, is the shepherd of Israel, leading them like a flock. David, of course, in a wonderful psalm, says, the Lord is my shepherd. But the intimacy between shepherd and sheep is found in Isaiah 40, verses nine through 11. Behold your God. Behold the Lord God comes with might. Behold, he will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom. Ezekiel speaks of this as well in verses 22 and 23. God says, I will rescue my flock and they will no longer be a prey. But verse 23 identifies the shepherd further. God says, then I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them himself and be their shepherd. Now, this is not the David. David is dead hundreds of years before. Ezekiel writes this. So who is my servant David? It's that title for Messiah, the promised descendant of David, the royal deliverer. But before those sheep can be gathered by my servant David, Zechariah says that the shepherd must suffer. Zechariah 13, seven, awake, O sword, against my shepherd declares the Lord of hosts. What? Awake, O sword, against my shepherd? Why? So that deliverance could come. Because Zechariah immediately follows this with the promise of the ingathering of the remnant in verse nine. I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name and I will answer them. I will say they are my people. And they will say, the Lord is my God. You see, when God heard the cry of the Jews in Babylon, he remembered his covenant with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob. And he gathered his people out of this strange land and brought them back to their land. That was the now. But this prophecy finds it's not yet fulfillment. When the Lord Jesus came, And when he came on the scene and he said, I am the good shepherd, he too refers to the shepherd being struck for the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. He faced our enemies. He faced Satan head on and our sin. and death and overcame them through his suffering, his death and resurrection. You see, only by laying down his life and receiving it again could the good shepherd bring his sheep into the fold. No other way. In Gethsemane, he asked the father for, is there another way? Let this cup pass from me. Is there any other way for your people to have life other than me drinking the cup of judgment? But the father said, no, there is no other way. So the good shepherd gave his life for the sheep. Yes, God struck the shepherd. Or as Isaiah 53 says, it pleased the Lord to crush him and make his soul an offering for sin. And God will be satisfied as the righteous one. My servant justifies many and bears their iniquities. He's the good shepherd. Yet the New Testament writers also teach another not yet of the shepherd, the not yet that Jesus is the chief shepherd who will carry again his flock back to their home, gathering his lambs, clothing them in his bosom, 1 Peter 5.4. And this is exactly how Zephaniah describes the Lord's work in verse 20. At that time I will bring you in, at that time when I gather you together for I'll make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your eyes. He's gonna change their earthly sorrow into heavenly bliss and their status will be changed from outcasts to citizens. No longer will they hang their harps on the willows. but with joy in their hearts they will sing and shout and be glad and exalt the Lord their God. Or verse 13, they will graze and lie down and none shall make them afraid. Oh, for that day of rest, don't we all wish for that day to come soon when the Lord will lead his people home? Jeremiah 23, three and four, I myself shall gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and shall bring them back to their pasture and they will be fruitful and multiply and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any one be missing, declares the Lord. None are gonna be missing there. For the good shepherd accomplished the redemption at the cross and his spirit effectually calls them by name and upon hearing his voice the sheep follow the shepherd. But Zephaniah is still not done. The metaphor changes again in verse 19 as the sovereign king who honors Verse 19, behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. I will save the lame and gather the outcasts and will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. Notice the condition of the citizens. They are in shame and outcasts. Now Zephaniah had already described their status back in verse 18, where he says they were a reproach among their captors. And now he adds shame and outcast in verse 19. In other words, they were second-class citizens, if that, in Babylonian captivity. Many became servants and even slaves. They were despised. Zechariah 8.13 says they became a byword of cursing. But all of that shame would pass away when the king came into their midst. For the king, secondly, they will receive praise from the king. Verse 19 says, I will change their shame into praise. Verse 20, I will make you renowned and praised among the people. Now you would think that Zephaniah said that God would be praised when he came into their midst. For over and over again, you'll find that the word praise is applied only to the Lord in scripture, except for two places. here and in Jeremiah 13, 11, where they both seem to be quoting Deuteronomy 26, which says the king will praise the righteous. In the Deuteronomy passage, God establishes his covenant with Israel and says, and I have it on your outline there, today the Lord has proclaimed you to be his special people, just as he promised you, that you should keep all his commandments and that he will set you high above all nations, which he has made in praise, in name and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the Lord your God, just as he has spoken. God says there he's going to honor and praise his people. Now, how can he do that to a people who continually spurned him and were so easily led away to other gods? How could he give them praise and honor? Answer, because they bore his name. That's why. They bore his name. Isaiah 63, 8 says, surely they are my people. That's their name, my people. And do you see the word in verse 19 and 20, the word renowned in the ESV? It means name. As the American Standard Version translates it, verse 19, I will make them a praise and a name. Verse 20, I will make you a name and a praise among all the peoples. In other words, they're gonna be known by a new name. And this new name is the name of their God. The returned exiles were the people of Jehovah, once and for all. They had a new personality. No more were they the people of Baal. No longer were they the people of Asherah or Molech or any other. They had a new name. They bore Jehovah's name, my people. And God provided evidence that this was true. According to Ezra chapter 6, 22, when they came back to the land, when they built the foundation of the temple and the temple was finally built, it says the Lord aided them. in the work of the rebuilding of the house of the Lord. He was with them. He was in their midst. God was with them once again. And yet 400 years later, they rejected their God again and crucified him. Consequently, their branch was broken off God's tree. But thankfully, it allowed the Gentiles to be grafted in as Paul tells us in Romans 11. But did God cast off his people forever, as Paul asks in Romans 11 one? No, for as he says in verse five, he has reserved a remnant according to the election of grace. And there's gonna come a day, Zechariah 12 10, when that righteous remnant will look on him whom they have pierced. And on that day, Zechariah 13, one, there shall be a fountain open for the house of David and an inhabitation of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and unrighteousness. And verse nine, they will call upon my name and I will say, they are my people. And they will say, Yahweh is my God. They will once again bear their true name, my people. And as with the Jews, so all who trust Christ, the mighty warrior, the good shepherd, and the sovereign king. Yes, through the ages, the followers of Christ have been a reproach to the nations. The way, as Christians were called in early chapters of Acts, were hated. Herod had the apostle James killed and Peter arrested. The Sanhedrin stone Stephen Saul arrested Christians and led them to torture. The Romans fed them to wild beasts. The Inquisition burned them. The Chinese torture them. The Indonesians behead them. And the Antichrist will make war with them and spill their blood. God's people are a reproach to the world because they bear his name. but the Lord will honor and praise them because they bear his name. They are his people, Christians. They've placed their trust in Christ alone and identify themselves with him. And so though the world holds them in scorn, God will praise them and they'll lift them and carry them as his lambs close to his heart. They are his people. He is their God. And there's two more wonderful portraits that Zephaniah paints of our God. We'll look at them next week and we'll gaze on, and I have to say these are, in my estimation, the most glorious of all five. But for now, are you one of God's people? Do you bear his name? Are you a Christian? Have you placed your trust for salvation only in God and in his son, Jesus Christ, depending on nothing else? Is Jesus your God? He is the only one who can save. He alone can deliver us from our sin. He alone can gather us to himself to live in glory forever. Won't you trust him today? and enjoy that intimate fellowship restored, restored with your creator and with your savior. Oh, he is mighty to save. Come to him. Let's pray. Our dear heavenly father, I'm thankful today that you are my shepherd, that you sent your son to be my shepherd, that through him I have been gathered to your bosom, and there I am safe forever. And one day I will be with you, along with all of your other sheep, and we will gather around your throne and sing, worthy is the lamb who was slain, who has redeemed us to God through his blood. We're thankful that he is a mighty warrior that saves, that he is a good shepherd that gathers, and that he is And we rejoice at this, though we do not understand it, that he is a sovereign king who honors us. How he can do that, we don't understand, because all the honor and glory and praise belongs to you and dear son, Jesus. Help us to live a life that is pleasing to you, in the position that we have as your sheep, as your saved ones, as people of your name. But Lord, we pray that if there's someone here who's not saved yet, Lord, that your spirit would call them to yourself and apply Christ's work of salvation through his death and resurrection, and that you'd bring them into the fold where they might enjoy this intimate fellowship that we have with Jesus, our Savior. And it's in Jesus' wonderful name we pray, amen. Thank you.