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All right, I want to challenge
you tonight. Find Zephaniah. It's where we were at this morning. Zephaniah. Between Habakkuk and
Haggai. Makes it a little bit easier,
not much. Zephaniah. I want to preach on the anger
of the Lord tonight. While I was sitting here, I just
happened to think, now keep, once you find Zephaniah, keep
your hand there, because you don't have to find it again. Go over to 2 Samuel
chapter six. In 2 Samuel chapter six, David
is bringing the ark of God up to Jerusalem. And as you know,
he was doing it the wrong way. It was not being carried on the
shoulders of the priest by running the staves through the rings
on the side. Instead, it was being moved about like the Philistines
had done it, once they captured it and tried to send it back
to Israel on a cart, pulled by some kine or oxen. David here
with the oxen, all that's going on. It says in verse six of 2
Samuel chapter six, and when they came to Nachan's threshing
floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God and took hold
of it, for the oxen shook it." Now, here's what I want you to
notice. The anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah. And God smote him there for his
error, and there he died by the ark of God. Sounds like a pretty
severe anger, doesn't it? And I said this morning, God
never makes a mistake God does all things right. He killed Uzzah. And every time I read this story,
I'm thinking, you know, I probably would have done the same thing
that Uzzah did. When you consider the respect
that they had for the ark of God, the thought of the ark of
God falling into the dust and dirt must have been horrifying
to him. He was at a place of honor. He
was right there beside it. no doubt helping to control the
oxen in some way, but when they stumbled, the cart shook and
the ark began to wobble. And just the thought of the ark
of God falling into the dust, I'm sure it was just an automatic
reflux. He was not, reflex, reflux. I've been suffering lately, pray
for me. Reflex. I don't think he touched it in
order to puff himself up. I believe he tested for a genuine
fear of the ark falling into the dirt. And it says the anger
of the Lord was kindled against him, against Uzzah, and God smote
him, God killed him. I look at the next verse. It
says, and David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach
upon Uzzah. Alright, God's anger was kindled
and the man after God's own heart was only displeased. But the
man after God's own heart was not displeased with Uzzah. He was displeased with God. Isn't that just like us? We don't have the mind of God
at all, do we? I mean, think about it for a
minute. This is David, and he's displeased with the
Lord when he should have been displeased. First of all, he
should have been displeased with himself for not bringing the
ark of God up correctly. I would see where he could have
been displeased with the priest for not insisting that it be
carried up right. This is a grievous mistake, but
he was displeased with God. when God was angry. You know, there are things to
be angry about. The thing is, if you're angry about unrighteousness,
people feel that you are just totally off base. Let me give
you another truth I get from this, by the way, and we'll get
to Zephaniah here in a minute. You understand that the God of
the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. The God who is love is the God
who killed Uzzah. The God who is love is the God
who wiped out everybody but Noah and his family. The God who is
love, because that's not all that he is. The amazing thing
is, that the God who is holy, who hates sin, would still love
us so much that he would provide a way for us to go to heaven. This is phenomenal. It's amazing
how many times in your Bible that the Bible talks about God's
anger. God is angry with the wicked
every day, the scripture says. But I thought he loved the world.
Yeah, he doesn't want the wicked to die and go to hell. He paid for
their sins, but he's still angry with them every day. It's hard
for us to put that together in our mind. But friends, let's
not lie to ourselves about God. Remember, the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge. Look at verse nine of this passage.
It says, and David was afraid of the Lord that day. Well, it
was about time. When Ananias and Sapphira lied
about the offering they were bringing in in Acts chapter six,
I'm sorry, Acts chapter five, and God killed them. Matter of
fact, don't lose your place in Zephaniah now, but go over to
Acts chapter five. We're in the New Testament. Acts chapter five. Ananias comes
in first. Peter says, is this how much
you sold the land for? What he was given, he said yes.
God killed him right there. His wife comes in, Sapphira,
about three hours later. She hadn't heard that her husband
had died. And Peter asked her, is this how much you sold the
land for? She said yes. Now, it's not that they had to
bring it in. Whatever they brought in would have been fine to God,
but they lied about it. And God killed her. Notice it
says in verse 9, And Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have
agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the
feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door,
and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway
at his feet, yielded up the ghost, and the young men came in and
found her dead, and carrying her... Man, how would you ushers
like to do a job like that? I mean, really? That's serious
stuff. But look what takes place in
verse 11. Great fear came upon all the church and upon as many
as heard these things and by the hands of the Apostles were
many signs and wonders wrought among the people and they were
all with one accord in Solomon's ports and The rest there's no
man joined himself to them You know people realize this wasn't
a social club They feared the Lord The same God that killed
Uzzah killed Ananias and Sapphira. Old Testament, New Testament.
Now wait, notice the next verse. And the believers were the more
added to the Lord. Did you get that? God killed
Ananias and Sapphira and more people got saved. Now, this isn't
really the kind of evangelism program that we'd like to have. But you know, God demands holiness
before he demands numbers. And without holiness, all you've
got is a social club. Whether it's the Old Testament
or the New Testament, the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge. The fear of the Lord. Now David
feared the Lord after what happened back then. The church feared
God, and now they get a bunch of people getting saved again. We preach a lot on the love of
God. We don't preach much on the fear of God. And as you heard
me say the other day, that in the book of Acts, you read all
the messages. The disciples in the book of
Acts did not say one time, God loves you. They did not say one
time, Jesus loves you. They preached on judgment. They preached on who Christ is,
what he did, and that they needed to get born again. or face that
God in judgment. Now, they didn't use the term
born again, the book of Acts, at least as far as what we have
recorded, but it was necessary that they get saved in order
to go to heaven or they would die and go to hell. As long as
we present a God who is just love and not holy, we will not
win people to the God of the Bible. He is holy and he has
not changed. Does he still get angry today?
I believe he does. Remember because they were partaking
of the Lord's Supper unworthily at Corinth Paul said for this
cause many are weak and sickly among you and many Sleep God
had killed many of them because they simply partook of the I
say simply partook of the Lord's Supper unworthily Nothing simple
about it. I Just want you to understand
that the God of the New Testament is just as serious as the God
of the Old Testament Because that's who he is He hasn't changed. Now, when we begin to understand
that, we'll begin to see revival in our own soul. We'll begin
to understand what Paul was saying when he talked about the judgment
seat of Christ in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 10, that we must
all give an account for the things done in this body. And then he
said, knowing therefore, Because we're gonna stand before Jesus
Christ, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade
men. We have a serious God. We have a righteous God. We have
a holy God. And God gets angry. None of that
was part of this message, but it's now become part of this
message. In Zephaniah, another one of the many mentions of the
anger of God. By the way, can we be like God
and not get angry at some things? You understand that God's anger
was always right. Ours is not. Bible says the wrath
of man worketh not the righteousness of God. But he does say of the
Son Jesus Christ, because thou hast loved righteousness and
hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee
with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. We are to hate,
hate, hate iniquity. Ephesians chapter five, we are
to reprove the unfruitful works of darkness. I know it's not
popular today to be against what the world calls homosexuality. What God calls sodomy, abusers
of themselves with mankind, wickedness, we're to be against and we're
to be against it publicly. Now, I've often asked this question.
I'll ask it again tonight. How many here, the reason you
got saved, the main motivating factor behind you getting saved
was you did not want to go to hell? Would you raise your hand?
Now, look at that number. That's probably, and I'm just
guessing now, this shows you that most statistics are made
up on the spur of the moment. We didn't figure this out, but
probably at least 90% of the people here, the reason you got
saved, you didn't want to go to hell. And yet in church after
church, nobody preaches on hell. No wonder people don't fear the
Lord. You got saved because you feared the Lord. As a matter
of fact, the fear of the Lord is nigh unto salvation. It's
the first thing that has to take place for you to get saved, fear
the Lord. So preachers preach all this googly mumbo-jumbo kumbaya
and all that kind of stuff. No wonder nobody's getting born
again where their lives change. They're not afraid of God. When
the Bible says in the book of Hebrews, it is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God. He also says in Hebrews,
for our God is a consuming fire. Now that's God. Now what's your
view of God tonight? Do you understand? In Psalm,
I think it's 136, I might have, that's not it. Anyway, 132, one
of those Psalms in there. It's a rather lengthy Psalm,
and the Bible says of God that he abhorred his own, talking
about his own people. That God could get to the place
where he abhors his own people? according to the scripture he
does. And if you look at that Psalm, he gives at least five
reasons why he got to where he abhorred his own people. This
is serious stuff with God. That's why the preaching of the
God is a serious time where we are to reflect upon what God's
word says, not only about Him, but also about us and where we
allow the Holy Spirit to deal with our hearts. Because why
were we created? To please Him. Isn't that right? We are created
to please Him. Shouldn't that be our first priority?
To please Him. Now what does He think of those
that He has redeemed that that hardly ever even enters their
head? To please Him. That somehow it doesn't matter
to God what we do, where we go, how we speak, how we dress. If He has said anything about
anything, anything He said anything about, He meant it. He meant
it. With that in mind, you back to
Zephaniah? All right. That was pre-introduction. Notice
beginning in verse 1 of chapter 2. Gather yourselves together,
yea, gather together, O nation not desired, before the decree
bring forth, bring the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce
anger of the Lord come upon you. Oh, now to me that would be serious
enough for him to say, before the anger of the Lord come upon
you. But now this is his adjective to his word. Before the fierce
anger of the Lord come upon you. Before the day of the Lord's
anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord. All ye meek
of the earth which have wrought his judgment, seek righteousness,
seek meekness. It may be ye shall be hid in
the day of the Lord's anger." Three mentions in three verses
of the Lord's anger. Let's pray. Father, we come to
you now in the name of the Lord Jesus. Lord, this is not a night
of jokes, of levity. Lord, when we consider what you
say about your own anger, I pray that we would seriously consider
our walk with you, our lifestyle with you. That what pleases you
is not necessarily what we think would please you, but what you
tell us pleases you. I pray you'd have your way in
our lives tonight. Lord, we long for revival. We long for you
to move upon us. And it has seemed like for the
last month or so, Lord, you have begun to do that. But Father,
do your complete work in us, we pray. Continue to deal with
our hearts. And we'll thank you for it. In
Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The text speaks about the
anger of our God. To even come close to understanding
the anger of the Lord, you have to understand that all of the
attributes of God fit in God. I'm not going to say they're
balanced because I don't know how you would determine balance
in that situation. But all of the attributes of
God, Immutability, the fact that he doesn't change. His love,
his hates. There are definitely things the
scripture says that he hates. His righteousness, his mercy. His grace and his judgment. They all fit. For instance, how
can God Jesus, who is God, be at the right hand of God, and
yet he is God, and there's not two of them, there's only one.
I don't know, but it fits. I know he is because that's how
he describes himself. And that's enough for me. There's
one God. He has manifested Himself to us in the person of the Father,
the Son, the Holy Ghost. He said so. He tells us there
is only one God. He tells us the Father is God,
the Son is God, the Spirit is God. So He is. So which one's
God? He is. And as a believer, I'm not required
to understand that. As a matter of fact, I believe,
at least in this body, it's impossible to fully comprehend that. How
can you comprehend eternity? I've been around for 66 years.
I'll be honest with you, I have a hard time comprehending 66,
let alone eternity. We can't imagine the song, you
know, 10,000 years and we've only just begun. 10,000 years? Our minds, we can't, we believe
it, we rejoice in it. What are we gonna do for 10,000
years? Those first 10,000, we're gonna rejoice in Him. You mean
today and then the next day and the next day and the next day
and yeah, all the time. You mean we're not going to play
baseball or we're not going to go bowling or we're not going to
play golf or we're not going fishing? No, we're going to rejoice Him.
We can't comprehend that all the time, but it's going to be
heaven. It's going to be right. It's going to be perfect. And
nobody there is going to be dissatisfied with His agenda. It's heaven. You see, we won't
have this flesh upon us. We're going to have a body like
unto His glorious body, the Scripture says. And that will be enough. Now to be sure, yes, God is love.
We know that. We know he loved the world. He
loved his own. He loves us. God is a God of love. But again,
that's not all that he is. He's God. He is righteous. He tells us he's righteous. He
tells us the righteous Lord loveth righteousness. Do you realize
over 200 times in the Bible, we read that God was angry. 200
times. The first time is in Exodus chapter
4 in verse 14, and it has to do with Moses, that he was angry
with him. The love of God is not referred
to until the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Bible.
Now it doesn't matter what time that it was revealed as far as
in the scriptures concerned. It's not a matter of which one
is said first or anything like that. If we go on the basis of
which one showed up first, then the animals are more important
than we are because they were created before we were. And the
sun and the moon and the stars are more important because they
were created before mankind was, before the animals was and all
that. Forget the first. I mean, the angels were created
first of all, but Jesus didn't die for the angels. So, you know,
I hear a lot of people say some really strange things about the
scripture. Just say what he says, and what he says is enough. The
marvelous book of Grace, Book of Romans. Even though that is
a book dealing with the wonderful salvation that we have, what
we were, what he did for us to die for us, how we can get that
wonderful salvation, all of that. He starts out in the very first
chapter, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Now he's writing a great
book dealing with the truths of salvation but the first thing
we have to understand is who God is. What it is that God hates. What it is that brings his wrath. You remember when I preached
a couple weeks ago if you were here you hopefully would remember
I preached the message Jesus loves me. And I mentioned at
that time that there is no mention of Jesus loving anybody until
you get to Mark chapter 5. And then it's with the rich young
ruler. I'm sorry, Mark chapter 10. It's with the rich young
ruler. Even though that story is found in the book of Matthew,
in Matthew's account, it doesn't say Jesus loved him. That's left
out of Matthew's account, found in Mark's account. In the first
three books of the Bible, that is the only mention, I'm sorry,
the New Testament, that is the only mention you have of Jesus
loving any person. And yet when he spoke to that
person, what he said to that person ran him off. After Jesus spoke to this person
that he loved, the young man went away sorrowful. And Jesus
knew he would before he said it, but he said it anyway. Now
you get to the fourth account of the gospels, and now you have
mentioned by Jesus recorded for us. Understand the first three
books, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, were written before the fall
of Jerusalem. They were written before 70 AD.
John's gospel was written between 90 and 100 AD for us to read. And there we read, for God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Now, but
we don't have even mentioned then that Jesus himself loved
anybody until you get to John chapter 11. And then it's Mary
and Martha and Lazarus. But the interesting thing about
that is Lazarus was sick. And they had, Martha and Mary
had sent a message to him that Lazarus, whom thou lovest, is
sick. And the Bible says, therefore,
he abode there two more days. He didn't go running to him.
I mean, he could have gotten up, taken off for there right
away. He didn't do it. He waited two more days. He let
Lazarus be dead. He let Mary and Martha weep and
cry for four days. Why? Because he loved him. Boy, this is not how most people
view the love of Jesus. This is not how most people view
the love of God. We have the statement, Jesus
said, that he loved them. He said in John 13, 34, as I
have loved you, that you also love one another. He says in
John 15, nine, as the father hath loved me, so have I loved
you. Now that's in John. But then as I said a moment ago,
you get to the book of Acts, and when those preachers went
out to preach, they didn't preach Jesus loves you. They preached
Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. He died. He rose again from the
dead three days later. And if you don't get saved, there's
judgment. Like for instance, when Paul was preaching in Acts
chapter 17, and he said, the times of this ignorance God winked
at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent because
God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained and hath given assurance unto
all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. So what about this mentioned
three times in those three verses? in Zephaniah 2 about God and
His anger. Well let me mention first of
all there is a day of God's anger coming and that's coming because
of man's sin. If you go back to chapter 1 look
at verse 2 God says, And I will utterly consume all things from
off the land, saith the Lord. Go down to verse 14. The great
day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly. Even
the voice of the day of the Lord, the mighty man, shall cry there
bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a
day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation,
a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities and
against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon
men, and they shall walk like blind men, because they have
sinned against the Lord. And their blood shall be poured
out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver
nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of
the Lord's wrath. But the whole land shall be devoured
by the fire of his jealousy. For he shall make even a speedy
riddance of all them that dwell in the land. Now you remember
God had given Israel the land. God had prepared that land as
a land flowing of milk and honey for them, and it's because of
their sin that the Lord was angry with them and promised them that
that land that used to flow with milk and honey, that was a blessing
for them, would be destroyed itself, and they would be destroyed. They would face the wrath of
the Lord. God used the Assyrians against
the northern kingdom, and he used the Babylonians against
the southern kingdom. As part of his wrath, those were
the tools that he used. Now, if you turn over, keep your
hand here in Zephaniah, because we're coming back. But go over
to 2 Peter 2. In 2 Peter 2. Notice verses 4
through 6. For if God spared not the angels, but cast them down to hell and
delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto
judgment, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the
eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the
flood upon the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making
them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly. Wow! You see, we have plenty
of examples from the past of a holy God in His wrath and in
His anger dealing with a people that either live totally contrary
to His Word or people who left His Word. There is a day of God's
anger that's coming. If you read the book of the Revelation,
He tells us of the people who will drink of the wine of the
wrath of Almighty God. This is serious And I think perhaps
it's settling in see this isn't something to joke about is it
I mean people die and go to hell and They burn forever And they
don't get out. And it doesn't make any difference
if it's that real tough biker who's beaten people, abused people,
and killed people, has got tattoos all over his body, or if it's
that sweet, white-haired, dear grandma who has just been the
best grandma to her grandkids ever. Doesn't make any difference
which one it is. Either one of them die without
Jesus, they burn in hell forever. That sweet, sweet, dear old lady,
she even goes to church every week. She's one of the finest
members of her church. Might even be a Baptist church,
but she's never been born again. Doesn't make any difference how
many times she's made cookies and cakes for people in the neighborhood.
She dies without Jesus. She goes straight to the burning
fire of hell and will suffer those torments for eternity. You see, if she dies without
Jesus, that means she never accepted the gift that God offered her,
which is eternal life. To not take the gift that God
offered in Jesus Christ, to not do that is serious to God. And we ought to be more than
displeased about it. It ought to be serious to us
too. We've all had loved ones die.
I've had loved ones die and I know they are in hell right now as
I preach. There's absolutely no way to
make light of that. They've been in hell for years. My grandpa
has been in hell for at least 55 years. And that's not gonna change. He cries like the rich man did
for one drop of water to cool his tongue. He'll never get it. I love my grandpa, but all the
love that I have for my grandpa does not ease the suffering of
hell one moment. That's serious. Yes, God offered
his grace. They didn't accept it. And you
understand that as much as we love our nation, our nation deserves
God's judgment for a lot of sins. This nation has no understanding
of what justice is. As a matter of fact, it's interesting,
the more contrary to God your lifestyle is, the more you're
lifted up in this nation. The more perverted that you are
from right, the more this nation says you're special. But we have
leaders that have corrupted themselves, they have shamed our nation.
We have courts that are doing all they can to remove Christianity
from having any voice whatsoever in this nation. Our entertainment
media is blatantly making a mockery of God, from talk shows to so-called
comedy shows, and even cartoons. Thousands of churches right here
in America are closing their doors each year. Immorality in
every form, including homosexuality, is gaining wide acceptance throughout
the culture. And if you want to know what
God thinks about that, all you have to do is read Leviticus
chapter 18. You understand that God has not changed. He feels
the same way about it that He did back then and He's never
going to change how He feels about it. And the legislature
in the state of Illinois May tell pastors that you'll go to
jail if you tell any young person that comes to you for counseling
That they that their homosexual feelings are sin and wrong Then
you're going to face judgment then a whole bunch of preachers
just going to have to go to jail God's not changed his mind about
it Hopefully there are men of God who will still stand and
say thus sayeth the Lord who will still be like John the Baptist
and Declared to the king whoever it may be it is not lawful for
you to have your brother's wife Cost him his head I'd say standing
by the way, whether it be abortion or euthanasia. I I mean, both
have become commonplace, except in our nation. We still murder
legally, immorally, but legally, we still murder over a million
babies a year in this nation. And anybody who's under 40, you
have never known this nation when it didn't murder babies
legally. You understand, it's only us
old people that remember a nation that had a respect for life.
This nation has none today. We deserve the judgment of God
Almighty. We have turned from His Word. So I can't say that it really
shocks us, whatever happens to us. The fact that He has allowed
us to get by with the prosperity that we've had when we have forsaken
Him, I'm reminded of the Scripture in Romans chapter 2 that says,
And if you don't listen to the goodness of God, then you've
got the anger and wrath of God to deal with after that. And
may I say that this nation is not listening. God will judge
the world in righteousness according to verses 17 and 18 of chapter
1. He's very plain about that. And
that's what the scripture says in Acts chapter 17 verses 30
and 31. Again Romans 1 18, For the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now, in the
passage, starting with Zephaniah chapter 1, on through chapter
2, we find at least four things that bring, four great sins that
bring the anger of God. If you go back to chapter 1,
verse 5, he starts out by saying, "...and them that worship the
host of heaven upon the housetops." We're talking about pagan religion. They worship the host of heaven.
It's interesting today that you cannot have a government get-together
where you're going to have somebody lead in prayer. You've got to
have somebody that represents all the different religions.
You can't just have a Christian pastor there praying. You've
got to have a Muslim cleric praying. You've got to have a Buddhist
on hand. You've got to have, the whole
host of heaven has got to be represented in our land of multiculturalism. That's not the way we began.
And it's not the way we had been for a couple of centuries. It
is the way that we are now, pagan religion. When you think of the
statement in chapter five and verse one, our first part of
the verse in verse five of chapter one, you find that reminds us
an awful lot of new ageism. This is kind of what the new
agers are all about. You know, there's some good in
every religion and we're really all worshiping the same God.
I'm sorry, my God's not the same as Muslims Allah. My God's totally
different than the one that they have. My God is not the same
as the cult's God. And there is only one God. Well,
what makes you think you're right? God tells us so in his word.
This is a book you can't find fault in. It's right about everything
that he says. He's never contradicted himself
one time. He's right. Then there's dual religion. Notice
in the last part of verse 5, and then that worship and that
swear by the Lord and that swear by Malcolm. Now that was one
of the false gods of that day that the children of Israel had
begun to worship as well. And it's kind of like having
two wives. I'm going to worship God and I'm going to worship
him. It's kind of like the children of Israel. You remember when
they got into the promised land and they had victory in the promised
land and Joshua got up in chapter 24 and he said, now get rid of
your false gods and serve the Lord. And they said, we will
serve the Lord. He said, you cannot serve the
Lord. Get rid of your false gods and serve the Lord. We will serve
the Lord. God forbid that we wouldn't serve
the Lord. He said, your witness is against
yourselves. Put away your false gods and
serve the Lord. And they again declared the third
time, we will serve the Lord. And yet you have to go no farther
than chapter one, And then the first part of chapter two, to
find out that those false gods that they refused to put away
were the very gods that brought their destruction in the book
of Judges. Now, you say, but man, they were
sincere, weren't they? Being sincerely wrong is condemning. But we just felt, I'm sorry,
God doesn't work that way. God works on a righteous system.
He works in righteousness and He is righteous. And yes, there
are things that make Him angry. Pagan religion, dual religion,
empty religion. Look at verse six of chapter
one. And them that are turned back from the Lord. Those that have claimed to know
Him and they have turned back from Him. Yeah, God gets angry
about that. I mean, after all, most of the
statements about God's anger has to do with God and His own
people. We should know better, shouldn't
we? We should know better than to love the world. He tells us
in 1 John 2 and verse 15, love not the world, neither the things
that are in the world. He says, if any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. Mm. It doesn't say it's a little
bit in him. It doesn't say it's half in him.
It says the love of the Father is not in him. How about Demas? Demas backslid on God. Now when
we talk about backsliding, we're not talking about losing salvation. We are talking about getting
the anger of God. Remember there was a billboard around town.
That said, God, one of these emerging church places around
here, God is not mad at you for any reason. I'm thinking, man,
you people, you've never read your Bible one time, have you?
Or if you did, you weren't paying attention to what it said. God
does get angry. He does get angry. Pagan religion,
dual religion, empty religion. As a matter of fact, if you want
to see how Jesus dealt with this stuff, don't lose your place
in Zephaniah. Go to Matthew chapter 15. In Matthew chapter 15, the Pharisees are upset with
Jesus' disciples because they didn't wash their hands before
they ate. I think my mother went to their school. And they tried to find fault
with his disciples because they didn't wash hands. But that was
not commanded in the word of God. It may be mama's law, but
it wasn't God's law that they had to. Let me just say, God
may not have said you had to, but if mama says do it, you better
do it. Amen. All right, verse four, for God
commanded, saying, verse four, chapter 15, honor thy father
and mother, and he that curseth father and mother, let him die
the death. But ye say, whosoever shall say to his father or his
mother, it is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by
me, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free.
Thus have he made the commandment of God of none effect, ye hypocrites.
Well did he say it, that's Isaiah, prophesy of you saying, this
people draw nigh unto me with their mouth and honoreth me with
their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they
worship me, they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. Do you hear what he called their
worship? He said their worship was vain, that is their worship
was empty. He's not denying that they worshiped,
they did, but it was empty worship. It counted for nothing. May I
say today, all over this world, there's a lot of worship that's
going on that never gets to God, because it means nothing to Him.
When Jesus was talking to the woman at the well, he said, God
is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth. If it's not according to truth,
it's vain worship. I don't care how much they dance
around. I don't care how sincere they sound. And by the way, when
I say they, I can be talking about us. Everything begins, you understand,
with the proper fear of the Lord. We did not take the time to read
chapter 23 of the book of Matthew, where Jesus says over and over
to these religious people, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites. In one place, he says, you go
out to make proselytes and you make them twofold more the child
of hell than yourselves. He calls them children of hell. In John chapter 8, he says of
the Pharisees that had come to him, you are of your father the
devil, and the lust of your father he will do. He was a murderer
from the beginning and abode, not in the truth, for there is
no truth in him. And when he speak of the lie,
speak of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. Yeah, that's
the devil all right. Empty religion, backslidden religion. Or in the latter part of verse
6, They're back in chapter one of the book of Zephaniah. He
says, and those that have not sought the Lord and are inquired
for him, those that have no religion at all. That's a total indifference
to the things of God. Keep your hand in Zephaniah again,
go over to the book of Hebrews. And I'll show you how serious
this is to God. Hebrews chapter 10. Notice he says in verse, well
let me begin at verse 28. For he that despised Moses' law
died without mercy under two or three witnesses, of how much
sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who
hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the
blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and hath done despite under the spirit of grace. For we know
him that said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith
the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge
his people. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. This is serious stuff. This nation of Israel was about
to be judged. because they had allowed pagan
religion in, dual religion, empty religion that went through the
forms but there wasn't a reality in heart, and even no religion
where there was just a total indifference completely. That
brings us to the third point. There's still time to repent
and escape the anger. This is where we get over to
chapter two, the passage that we read. Notice verse three,
he says, seek ye the Lord. All ye meek of the earth which
have wrought his judgment. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. It may be ye shall be hid in
the day of the Lord's anger. In this passage, He basically,
he tells them, for instance, in the beginning, verse one,
he says, gather yourselves together. You say, well, I can do that
alone in my house. Well, yeah, you could as an individual,
but he told God's people to gather together. Well now, how are God's
people to gather together today? We're not Israel. We do that in the gathering place,
the assembly. The assembly, the word church,
the English word church. By the way, the etymology of
the English word church, it means of the Lord. The word that is
translated church is the word in the Greek, ecclesia. And it
literally means assembly. As a matter of fact, it literally
means a called out assembly. It's what the church does. It
assembles, gather yourselves together. We're wanting to have
a revival meeting. We're not just wanting to have
a preaching meeting where we can be just blessed. We want
a revival. There's a lot of things that
bless us that don't get us close to revival. I don't want a meeting
just blesses us. I want a revival. I want God
to move in such a way that we get focused on him and our desire
becomes really to please him as a congregation. And we will
meet together. He told them to gather together.
Keep your hand here and go over to 1 Corinthians 5. 1 Corinthians
5. There was a great problem in
the church at Corinth. I read some of that I believe
this morning. He says in verse 1, it is reported commonly that
there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not
so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's
wife. Year puffed up and have not rather more that he that
had done this deed might be taken away from among you For verily
I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have judged
already as though I were present Concerning him that had done
this deed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ now underline
this When ye are gathered together Now tell me he's writing to the
Universal Church and It's not gathered together yet.
Who is he writing to? Well, in chapter one, verses
one and two, he's writing to the church of God at Corinth.
When the church, when the assembly was assembled, when they were
gathered together. Yeah, this is definitely local
church. The local assembly was to carry this out. And the shame
on them was that they hadn't already You see, when we gather
together, that's a time for getting a lot of things taken care of,
and one of them is sin. Whether it be the sin of like
the church at Ephesus, where we've left our first love, or
whether it be like at Pergamos and Thyatira, where they were
doing those things and preaching those things that God hated,
they were to get right with God. They were commanded to repent.
The gathering, the assembly, Assembling together he says of
my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves
and pray and seek my face What's that next phrase and turn from
their wicked ways? Then will I hear from heaven
will forgive their sin will heal their land Number two, number
one, they're to gather together. Number two, they're to recognize
the approaching day of judgment. Verse two, before the decree
bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce
anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's
anger come upon you. For some reason, we were reminded
today, we were reminded today, we were reminded yesterday, that
today would be the 15th anniversary of 9-11. When you think of the might of
the American military, you think of all the technology that the
American military has. All of the air traffic in America
was stopped, not by a nuclear missile from Russia, not by the
North Koreans, but by 19 men armed with a full arsenal of
Box cutters. And they stopped every plane
in America for flying for several days. It's like God said, hey
America, you've forgotten me? Let me just show you how vulnerable
you are if I take my hand of protection off for just a moment. We seem to understand that on
the 12th. But boy, it didn't take us long
to forget it. Didn't take us long at all. Now, God issues
the warning in his word. Here we are, right? We're just
one church and we're in a small place and how would revival here
make it? It'll make difference here. And
he says, do it before I strike instead of after. Save yourself
a lot of heartache, get right now. See, he's warning God's people
here before he does it. Here's what you deserve, but
he says, hey, get together and seek me now, before that day. If we would only learn. I think
we have people in most all of our churches that just don't
believe God's really gonna do that to America. He needs us too bad. We're the
only ones left. I mean, hey, look at Great Britain.
Great Britain used to send out missionaries around the world.
That's the place where all those great preachers were and mission
movements that really went around the world. Yeah, not today. That's a land of freedom over
there. What do you mean, man? They are socialist. What do you
mean when 75 to 80 percent of their entire income has to go
to taxes so that everybody can get what they want? That's not a free place. They've
been gone for some time. And what do you think is about
to happen to America? He says, seek me now. Do it before
my anger is poured out upon that place. And that's basically,
by the way, what God warned the church of Ephesus. He says, remember,
therefore, from whence thou art fallen, repent and do thy first
works, or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick
from thee. And we know from chapter one
of verse 20 that the candlestick was the church itself. He said,
now you repent and get right, or I'll take you out. Well, it's
better to do it before he takes you out. So let's mean business here. As a matter of fact, I think
personally, we would be wise to not wait for brother Flanders
to get here. But as we plead for God to show us things in
our lives that are not right, that we would immediately say,
oh God, forgive me of my sin. Get right with him. Verse three tells us to make
things right with God. In the first part, he tells us
to seek the Lord. In the second part of the verse,
he says, seek righteousness. And then he says, seek meekness. Seek the Lord, seek righteousness,
seek meekness. Matthew chapter five, verse six. The Bible says, blessed are they
that hunger and thirst after what? Righteousness. For they shall be filled. Chapter
6, verse 33, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His, what? Righteousness. And all these
things will be added unto you. Then he says, seek meekness.
You see, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed,
His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. and
then claim God's mercy. He says at the end of verse 3,
it may be. Ye shall be hid in the day of
the Lord's anger. It may be. Isaiah put it this
way in Isaiah 55, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call
ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let man return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon." Wow, that sounds good to me. I look at that and I think, that's
what I want. Man, he said, well, it's all
under the blood. Yeah, I know, it's under the blood. That's
why I'm not going to hell. By the same token, our coldness
of heart, our lack of standing where God stands, agreeing with
God, like David didn't agree with God when he did what he
did with Uzzah. Like David had a different, let's
just get God's value system. I mean, when the Bible says that
this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, I know
he's talking to the church basically about wanting to see people saved
because when he goes on to deal with Christ dying on the cross
for our sins, but let this mind be in us, which is in God, to see things as he sees it. Zephaniah, it's a little book,
but its message is not little at all. It's message is national
and it's individual. For God's people, remember, God
hadn't changed. The same God that issued that
warning to Israel issues warnings to His people. I know I quoted
earlier in the message, Romans chapter 1 and verse 18. Because
of a lot of the heresy that is being promoted today the false
grace movement and all that They just take a big sharp pencil
and cross out Romans 118 that's not for us It's funny. He wrote
to the church of at Rome to the saints and believers at Rome.
I guess it is for us For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men God
still gets angry. We didn't even go to the book
of Jude tonight and read the statements in the book of Jude,
one of the last books in the Bible. He is so plain. So what's our call tonight? Well,
let's seek him while he may be found. And all right, individually,
you can't do it for anybody else. You have to do your part in seeking
the Lord, but you do your part so you can be on the praying
ground for others to then do their part. Do you realize there's
not a person here that can keep you from having revival in your
soul? Except you. You're the only one who can keep
yourself from revival. The sad part about Zephaniah,
as a matter of fact, it's a sad part about most all of the prophets,
is that the people didn't hearken. And then God did exactly what
he said he'd do. Has he changed? Not a bit. So
let us be smarter than them and decide we're gonna get right
with God. Let's pray. Father, we come to you in the
name of the Lord Jesus. Wow, Lord, this is such a burden on
my heart and it's heavy. We should be burdened. Sometimes it's like we're blind,
Lord, and we shouldn't be blind. We are children of the light
and children of the day. We are not of the night or the
darkness. So God, tonight, I pray, you would continue a work that
I believe you're already beginning in our hearts, where you show
us those things in our life that are sin to thee, that are things
that make you angry, Dear God, may we be quick to
get right with you. Do a work. Bring us not a preacher
revival, but a Holy Ghost revival that glorifies Jesus Christ.
Have your way in our lives tonight. For any that are lost, I pray,
Lord, they'd come to Jesus tonight for the saved. God, please don't
let us alone. deal with us. In Jesus' name. Let's stand to our feet, heads
bowed.
The Anger of the Lord
| Sermon ID | 911162224570 |
| Duration | 1:00:55 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Zephaniah 2:1-3 |
| Language | English |
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