All right, let's take our Bibles and turn to Zephaniah. Zephaniah chapter three. It'll be our last sermon from this chapter. Zephaniah chapter three. I'll begin reading at verse nine, reading to the end of the chapter. 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. On that day, you shall not be put to shame because of the deeds by 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, They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord, those who are left in Israel. They shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue. For they shall graze and lie down, and none shall make them afraid. 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. On 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 the time when I gather you together, for I will make you renowned and praised among the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord. My text this morning is verse 17. 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. Verse 17, I think, is the greatest verse of hope in Zephaniah. There's been a couple along the way in chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3, but this I think beats them all. In fact, I would go as far as to say this is one of the greatest verses of hope in all Old Testament prophetic literature. There are other verses, of course, like Obadiah 17, on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance and there shall be holiness. or Jonah 4.2, which is a great one, I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, one who relax from doing harm. And then there's Nahum 1.7, the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who trust in him. But Zephaniah 317 makes a case to be greater than them all. For notice how he puts it, especially in the middle to the end. Speaking of God, he says, he's in your midst, and he will save, and then he will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love, and he will exalt over you with singing. This is amazing! Ronald Allen in his commentary, and I have it on your outline for you, notice how he writes, how wonderfully these words describe the person of God, how significantly they speak of his care and concern, how delicately they broach the boldness of truths. Yahweh of hosts, the eternal one, creator of the universe, self-sufficient and glorious beyond our capacity to think or recount, this God, takes pleasure in his people. Can you imagine such a thing? After all we have read of his furious wrath, his raging fire, his insatiable zeal for righteousness, here is a text in the very same book that presents a truth scarcely to be believed, and yet we dare not doubt it. God wishes to take pleasure in his people. Isn't that amazing? It's just tremendous. Now, Zephaniah has painted some wonderful portraits of God here in chapter three that we've considered of the God who is with us, the God who is in our midst. He is the almighty warrior who will save, as we've just read in verse 17. He is the good shepherd who gathers in verses 18 and 20, calling his flock, gathering us to his bosom where there's peace and safety because he has faced our enemies for us. by shedding his blood on the cross. And then he is the sovereign king who honors us in verses 19 and 20. The citizens of his kingdom may be a reproach to the nations. They may be considered outcasts by the world. But all of that shame evaporates when the king comes to them and praises them. And this honor from God is highlighted even more here in verse 17, where two more portraits are painted by Zephaniah of our great God, of the God who is with us. Now there are three phrases in this last portion of the verse, and they each answer three questions about God. In the first phrase, it answers the question, what will God do concerning us? Answer, he will rejoice over us. The second phrase answers the question, why God will do this? Answer, because he loves us. And the third phrase answers the question, how will God do this? Answer, he will sing over us. So let's consider these portraits. First of all, the portrait in the second phrase, where Zephaniah paints a portrait of God as the kind father who loves. And that's the phrase, he will quiet you with his love. Now again, this answers the question, why will God rejoice over us? Answer, because he loves us. Now the Old Testament word most often used for God's love is the Hebrew word hesed, which means a steadfast love of commitment. It's a love that involves the will as much as the emotions of the heart. But here, this word is different, where it talks about God loving us. Here, it's the word haba, which means tender affection. This is the love Jacob had for his son Joseph. This is the affection Jonathan had for his friend David. And here, it's the Lord's love for his people. And Zephaniah says, he will quiet you. He does calm our fears, and he allays our anxieties. But that's not what this phrase means. Literally, it should read, he will be quiet over you in his love. He will be quiet over you in his love. In other words, it's a type of silence that denotes a deeply felt love, being absorbed in someone with thoughtful admiration. The first thing God does when he comes into our midst is not to sing, but to silently admire his people. You see, there are times when love is so intense that the only worthy expression of it is silence. For example, remember when Michael was here, he mentioned a man by the name of John Patton, who is the missionary to the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific. Well, he writes in his autobiography some 70 years after the event that still stands out as a moment of love and intimacy. It was the time when Pat was leaving home to go to college to study for the ministry. He writes, my dear father walked with me the first six miles. His counsels and tears and heavenly conversation on that parting journey are fresh in my heart as if it was yesterday. Tears are freely on my cheeks now as I recall the scene. For the last half mile or so, we walked on together in almost unbroken silence. His lips kept moving in silent prayers for me, and his tears fell fast when our eyes met each other with looks in which speech is vain. You see, there's times when feelings and emotions are so thick that you dare not open your mouth and ruin it. because words would spoil the moment. These are times and moments of intimacy. And Zephaniah applies that intimacy to God when he considers his people. When he comes in our midst and sees us, he is quiet in his love for us. Now, understand God is never at a loss for words. But Zephaniah writes it this way to show us the depth of God's love for us. And to consider Almighty God deep in thoughts of love over once wretched human beings and sinners like us, it can hardly be believed. Who are we to merit such love? As David says in Psalm 8, what is man that you are even mindful of him? But as Psalm 332 says of our heavenly father, he is intimate with the upright, intimate. And the Old Testament is filled with images of that intimate love of God for his people, like Psalm 91. Verses one through four, it's the picture of a mother bird comforting her young. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He shall cover you with his feathers and under his wings you shall take refuge. It's a scene of quiet serenity as God broods over his people. In Isaiah 66, Verses 12 to 13, the imagery is even stronger as God's love for his people are portrayed as a mother, a human mother for her child. For thus says the Lord, behold, I extend peace to her like a river and you shall be nursed, you shall be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees as one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you. And then Isaiah 62 verse 5 pictures it as the intimacy of a newlywed couple. As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you. Husbands, wives, you remember the times when first on, when you're getting together and you just sit together in silence and just stare into one another's eyes and think, how did I deserve this? How did I deserve her or his love? Joy just flooded your heart. That's God's attitude toward his people, his redeemed people. But true love can't remain silent forever. It must find outward expression. And we find it in the last portrait of God in Zephaniah's gallery. And that is of a loving God who sings. Now there are two parts to this in the first and third lines of verse 17, the section we're looking at. Again, the question, what does God, it answers the question what God does with regard to his people. And the answer, it says, he will rejoice over you with gladness. He will rejoice over you with gladness. You see, when people obey his command back in chapter 2 and verse 3 of seek the Lord and seek righteousness and seek humility, and when they obey the command of chapter 3 verse 9 and call on the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord, what will God do? Will he only hide us on the day of his wrath, as it says in chapter 2? and yet frown at our guilt and ill will? Will he grieve that his flock looks so shabby? No. He says he will rejoice with gladness. He mixes two words for joy together for emphasis sake, to show that it's an exceedingly cheerful pleasure. Now, such rejoicing is common, we know, among the angels when they see sinners repenting, according to Luke chapter 15, verse 10. But three verses before that, we read these words in verse seven. I say to you that likewise there shall be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. It's not limited to just angels. It's throughout heaven, the joy spreads over one sinner who repents. In fact, in verse six, The verse prior to that, Jesus says, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep. He takes great delight in his sheep, in his people. Now can you imagine God being happy to be called the God of you? But that's what the text says. You see? God sees us as righteous in Jesus Christ. And so he's happy, he's glad, and he rejoices over us. He's happy to be your God, not because of who you are in yourself, but who you are, as Pastor Rick emphasized this morning in Sunday School, because of who you are in Christ. When we realize that God will rejoice over us with gladness, or as Hebrews 2.11 says, that Christ is not ashamed to call us his brothers. It should thrill our hearts and want us to be thankful because we know there is much to be ashamed about us. But again, he sees us as righteous in Christ Jesus. And so we have to banish from our minds any thought that God begrudgingly allows us to enter into his kingdom as though Christ found some loophole, did some fancy plea bargaining and squeaked us by the judge. No way. God himself, the judge, provided our defense. He sent his son as the substitutional sacrifice for us to satisfy his own justice. And when we're united to his son by faith, he's thrilled to call us his own. He's like the father of the prodigal. Remember? God runs to him, and he throws his big arms around us into a big embrace and hug. And then he puts a ring on our finger, and he kills the fatted calf, and he throws a party, and he leads the whole thing in a dance of joy, rejoicing over you with gladness. Luke of Spurgeon says about this, Think of this, Jehovah, the living God, is described as brooding over his church with pleasure. He looks upon souls redeemed by the blood of his dear son, quickened by his Holy Spirit, and his heart is glad. Even the infinite heart of God is filled with an extraordinary joy at the sight of his chosen, redeemed people. Oh, that the infinite. Remember, God is infinite. He doesn't learn. He doesn't experience anything new. He's eternal. But the infinite, happy, and eternally blessed God finds, as it were, a new joy in souls that he saves. It's just a wonder of divine grace. And again, the Lord takes pleasure in his people, imperfect as they are, because they are in Christ Jesus. So remember when your heart is heavy over your sin, remember the loving heavenly father is rejoicing over you, because he is well pleased with Jesus and you are in him. Think rightly, in other words. Believe what Scripture says. Christ is not ashamed to call us his brothers, nor is the Father ashamed, for he has begotten us again into a lively hope in Christ Jesus. He's given us an inheritance with the saints and light. He has made us heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Believe those words and be encouraged. He really does cheerfully rejoice over you. But then there's the last phrase of verse 17, answering the question, how does God rejoice over his people? Answer, he will rejoice over you with singing. The silence of God's love will break out into song. Now what does God's singing sound like? My first thought was, when I started thinking about this, was thunder. But that just doesn't, that seems too frightening for a love song. Well, John Piper, when he writes about this, I think he found a perfect way of combining the two concepts of strength and intimacy of God. Notice on your outline. What do you hear when you imagine the voice of God singing? I hear the booming of Niagara Falls mingled with the trickle of a mossy mountain stream. I hear the blast of Mount St. Helens mingled with a kitten's purr. I hear the power of an East Coast hurricane mingled with the barely audible puff of a midnight snow in the woods. I hear the unimaginable roar of the sun's radiation mingled with the crackling sound of burning lungs in a living room on a cozy winter's night. That's it. And oh, to be able to hear that song, sung by him who created every beautiful sound and every gorgeous voice and every note of music ever, and who put it into the heart and mind of composers to create masterpieces of symphonies and oratorios, and to hear that God sing? It ought to be a wonderful, beautiful musical score. But what does he sing about? Well, there is one word that occurs continually throughout this section of scripture that shows us the theme of God's song. And that's the pronoun you. Notice verse 15. The Lord has taken away the judgments against you and has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst. You shall never again fear evil. Verse 17, 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. Verse 18, I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival so that you will no longer suffer reproach. In verse 19, at that time, I will bring you in at the 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. You, you, you, you, your, you, your. Now according to the context, the you is Jerusalem. Zion, Judah. It is the remnant of Jews in exile who look to the Lord and his promises and believe God like Abraham believed and was justified. But the object of God's joy is not limited to just the historical context, for the text itself opens it up to others, as Zephaniah applies it in verse 10 to those beyond the rivers of Cush or Ethiopia. In other words, wherever they are, whatever their ethnic background, whatever their nationality, God sings verse nine to all who call upon the Lord. The you over whom the Lord delights and loves and sings is his elect. Those whom he has called out of every nation and kindred and people and tongue to believe in his son. And so those who've been called and justified read this promise of hope and we should rejoice. We should be thankful. But how often our focus shifts from Christ to our sin, and how awful we are. And we think, Lord, there's just not much to sing about in me, given all my character warts and my plain sinfulness. We can't imagine that we could bring pleasure to God. But you see, that's wrong thinking. Because the text says, God rejoices and sings over you. You can't deny that. With wrong thinking, you do deny that. And so what is it that causes God to sing over us? It's because of the family resemblance. We look like Christ. Romans 8, 29, for whom he foreknew, he predestined to be, what? Conformed to the image of his son, who will be called the firstborn among many brothers. God told the son he's gonna have brothers and sisters who will be just like him. And when by faith I trusted in Christ, his image became my image, and God began to sing. And as I become more and more like him in his image, God sings the second stanza, and the third, and the fourth, and the fifth, and so on down the line, because I'm looking more and more like his son. And when the divine work of our redemption is complete, when our bodies are redeemed and all the millions of God's elect are gathered around his throne, conformed completely to Christ's image, God will sing out a glorious love song for his people. What a song that'll be. If only we knew the lyrics or the title. I thought about how about these titles from Zephaniah 3.17, you bring me joy. Or Romans 8.29, you look just like Jesus. Or Ephesians 3.10, my wisdom shines through you. I think maybe the lyrics could be something like Isaiah 43.1, I created you and formed you, I redeemed you and you are mine. I like that, that would make a nice song. Romans 9.23, oh the riches of my glory that I have made known to vessels of mercy. And it is upon God's glory that many of the lyrics will be based. For my glory I made you. Isaiah 43, 7. For my glory I redeemed you, Ephesians 1, 14. For my glory I have loved you, Romans 9, 23. For my glory I will reward you, 1 Peter 1, 7. It'll be an incredible psalm of joy. But what are the effects of his singing over us? What will happen when God sings over us in love? We're not gonna have any problem obeying the command of verse 14, are we? Look at verse 14, what are we supposed to do? Sing, shout, rejoice, and exalt the Lord our God. In other words, when God sings over us, we'll sing back his glorious praise. As we see the mighty warrior who saves, and the good shepherd who gathers, and the sovereign king who honors, and the kind father who loves, and the loving God who sings, and we realize that it is over us that he, it is us whom he saves, and gathers, and honors, and loves, and it is us over whom he sings, God's people is gonna return the song to him. And then as God sees his people singing his praises in return, then he's going to break out into an even louder song. And then we're going to respond in kindness, sing back to him. And then he's going to sing again and back and forth and back and forth. And this antiphonal choir takes place in heaven as we rejoice to be in each other's company. The whole scene becomes a grand oratorio as God and his people mutually rejoice in their love for one another. Spurgeon paints it tremendously on your outline. Look, can you imagine it? Deity singing over the redeemed. He did not sing when he made the world. No, he looked upon it and simply said that it was good. The angel sang and shouted for joy. Creation was very wonderful to them, but God did not sing. He could have made thousands of worlds by his mere will. Creation wasn't that special. But when it came to redemption, that cost him dear. Here was eternal thought drawn up in covenant with infinite wisdom. Here he gave his only son and put him to grief to ransom his beloved ones. And when all was done, when the Lord saw what became of it in the salvation of his redeemed, then he rejoiced and sang out. He will rejoice over you with singing. We think it should be just the other way around, don't we? We have much to sing and praise God concerning our salvation. But the text says he sings over us. How can he find delight in such sinners? Because he delights in his son, and his elect are united to his son by faith. And so, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2.15, we are to God the fragrance of Christ. So when God sees Christ, he sees us. When God loves Christ, he loves us. That's why he delights and sings over us. Again, verse 17, 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. What a God, what a Savior. Let's pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, we say what love. What love is this that caused you to send your Son to die for sinners like us and that being The only way to save such people as us, and yet you sing about us? It's just beyond our comprehension. And yet we rejoice. And we sing back to you your praises. We sing of your love, your grace, your mercy. We sing of your son and his love for us and giving himself for us. Oh, we thank you so much for the wonderful salvation that you've given us in Jesus Christ through your Holy Spirit. And we pray that you'd help us in our daily walk as we leave this place today that we will exemplify the son being more and more conformed to his image so that others will see Jesus in us and ask us of the hope that lies within us so that we might share the gospel with them and so that they might meet Jesus, the true Jesus, the savior of the world. that they may also be saved, so that there will be rejoicing in heaven over one soul that repents. We thank you so much for all that you've given us in Christ Jesus. It's in your wonderful name we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.