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.