Seeking the Lord: The Key to Faith and Redemption

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to

this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen

you in the word of God.

Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has

for us here today.

All right, we're going to go ahead and continue our Bible study

in the book of Zephaniah.

And I've really enjoyed this as I've been studying through this

book.

It's a short book, but I think there's a lot to learn when it comes

to God's justice and his forgiveness and his mercy.

And one of the attributes of God that I'm very thankful for is

his long suffering.

He's a long suffering, merciful God who is willing to be

patient with us.

And so I'm thankful for his patience in my life, and I'm thankful

that he hasn't given up on me yet, and he hasn't given up on the

nation of Israel.

And we know that even though he's addressing their sin here in

this passage of Scripture, and we're going to see at the end of

this book that there is a plan for restoration, actually a promise

for restoration.

And that's a beautiful thing that God would still allow these

people who have been rebellious, these people who have

rejected him, to still have that hope of salvation.

And that's what it is to us today.

I mean, think about throughout history, how many people have rejected

the Lord, but yet he still offers mankind that gift of grace.

And, you know, a lot of people will ask the question, how long?

How long is God going to extend this grace?

Well, we don't know, but we want to continue to utilize that

time.

The Bible says in the New Testament, redeeming the time because

the days are evil.

And so we don't know how long we have to present the gospel message

to people around us.

But nonetheless, we have been given this time for an opportunity

to do that.

So, Zephaniah, chapter three, if you have your Bibles, turn there

with me.

Zephaniah, chapter three.

We're going to get through as much as we can here this evening.

Last week, if you remember, if you were here, if you weren't here,

I'll try to catch you up with this.

Last week we looked at God's judgment to the nations outside of

Israel, right?

So we know that at this point in time, Israel is split into two

kingdoms, the northern kingdom, which has already been judged

by God because of their rebellion.

And then you have the southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah, which

at this point in time had not been completely judged by God through

the oppression of outsiders.

But he's promising that judgment if they continue on in that

path.

But then we see that God says, hey, nobody's getting away with this.

Nobody is going to get away with rebellion.

And so he started to list all these different nations geographically

around Israel.

And he mentioned, okay, because of this, they're going to

be judged.

Because of their rebellion, they're going to be judged.

And ultimately it was the fact that none of them turned to the Lord.

They were in their pride.

And we saw that the defining elements of these individuals that

God was going to judge was that they were stuck in their pride.

And in their pride, they were not willing to humble themselves

and come to God for His mercy and his grace.

And the Bible says that we must have meekness, humility to understand

God's grace.

We cannot come to him in our pride, and we cannot come to him

in our selfishness and say, lord, okay, I've got it under control,

but now just bless me.

That's not the way that it works.

And we even saw that he listed out this city called Nineveh, which

Nineveh was the capital city of the place at the time.

And he says, hey, you guys think that you have it all under

control.

You think that you have all the riches, you think you have all

of the power, but God is going to lower you down to a level of complete

desolation.

And so he says, okay, Judah, Jerusalem, there's going to be judgment.

But don't think it's just you, it's everybody.

And now he comes back and puts his focus on Judah, specifically

the capital city of Judah, which would be Jerusalem.

And so what we're going to see here is that he describes Jerusalem

here in the first few verses.

And it sounds like he's describing Nineveh, but really he's

describing the city that claims to be the capital of God's

people.

And so he says here in verse one, woe to her that is filthy and

polluted to the oppressing city.

And so when he says her, he's personifying the city of Jerusalem

as a lady.

And he says she, this city of Jerusalem is wicked.

They are oppressing.

They are filthy and polluted.

And so from the way Zephaniah mentioned all these cities before,

we would think that he's talking about Nineveh or the Philistines.

No, he's talking about Jerusalem and he's talking about

that because we see the people that he lists here.

And he's going to list the prophets, he's going to list the

priest, he's going to list the sanctuary, he's going to list the

law, and he's going to say, hey, these are all the things that

I have against you right now.

And so he's talking to his people that claim to be those that

worship him.

Now, remember back in Zephaniah, Chapter 1, one of the

Zephaniah 1 · chapter mention

things that God said that he would judge would be people that

would say one thing and then do another.

Hypocrites.

They say that they love God, but yet their actions don't follow

that.

They say they worship God, but their actions don't follow that.

So he says, I have a big problem with that.

People that say one thing and do another.

So now he's going to tell them what they really are.

He says, she obeyed not the voice, she received not correction.

So whose voice?

God's voice.

So?

So they've closed their ears, they've stopped listening, and they've

stopped obeying God.

And what he has called them to do.

It says, she received not correction.

So they're rejecting the correction of God, which is a dangerous

place to be.

It's one thing to live in ignorance, it's another thing to

hear what God has said and then reject him in that.

That's a scorner.

The Bible talks about that in the Book of Psalms, chapter one,

right?

Don't sit in the seat of the scorner.

The scorner is someone who knows the truth of God, but yet rejects

that, that hates the truth of God.

So he says, they don't obey God's voice, they don't receive correction.

She trusted not in the Lord.

They lacked faith, so they lack obedience, they lack correction,

they lack the change or what we would say on Sunday morning.

They lack the repentance to follow in that correction.

And then they lack faith.

She trusted not in the Lord.

And then what we see here is really the biggest offense, the most

serious offense.

And it's there at the end of verse two.

She drew not near to her God.

And so he repeats here four times where he says, they did not

do this, they did not do this.

They did not do this, they did not do this right four times.

And so in repeating these four phrases, the prophet here, Zephaniah,

tells Jerusalem the city the root of their problem.

They didn't obey his voice, they did not receive correction.

They did not trust the Lord.

And the worst offense of all was saved for last.

God wanted a relationship with them.

God has, from the very beginning, desired to have a relationship

with people.

He doesn't want to force people.

He doesn't want robots following him.

He wants people to choose him in love.

And so what we see here is this.

He goes, hey, you don't seek after me.

You don't long for that relationship that I want with you.

And so they rejected his desire and went their own way.

And he says, that's your deepest issue, right?

The obedience stems from that relationship.

You listening to correction stems from that relationship.

You know, your trust stems from that relationship.

So.

So you're not going to be able to listen to the Lord and obey him

and follow his correction and trust him if you have no relationship

with him.

Because we trust what we believe in.

We trust what we love.

And so what he's saying here is that there's a lack of love, there's

a lack of a connection, there's no intimacy.

And he says, that's the core issue.

And so the reason why you're so far away, the reason why you're

so far into your sin, the reason why there's this judgment,

the reason why this rebellion is taking root in this city is because

there is no relationship with God anymore.

And so correction, it came, but the city did not receive it.

The people did not receive it.

Instead, it was something that they would say is, well, these are

just tough circumstances or, you know, things are coming against

us.

These other.

They're blaming other people, right?

They're blaming other things.

And so God never gave them a reason to stop trusting.

He never proved himself unfaithful, and he doesn't prove

himself unfaithful to us.

Over and over again, we can see God's faithfulness, yet still

there are people that are going to reject him.

And now they're openly denying him and contradicting his word and

his promises.

And so therefore, they're coming to a place in their life where

they lack faith.

And that all goes back to that relationship.

So for us, what does that look like today?

That looks like this.

You know, if we are not seeking after God in a personal way,

in an intimate way, in a loving way, we are going to fall

into the same trap of not trusting the Lord.

We're going to lack faith.

We're not going to receive his counsel.

We're not going to get to a place in our life where we're hearing

him and obeying Him.

Because I think that a lot of times in our life we flip that we

say, well, you know, I need to just really work hard in obeying

Him.

Well, that is true.

But we're never going to desire to obey him unless we understand

him and trust him and understand where he's coming from

and understand his love for us.

And so he says, draw near to me.

If you go back to the very beginning, one of the issues that

he had with them was that they were not drawing after him.

They were not seeking after him.

Zephaniah, Chapter two, verse three.

Remember what he said?

He said, seek ye the Lord.

I think that could be the theme for Zephaniah's preaching,

right?

There's going to be judgment.

There's chance for you to have redemption.

There's a chance for you to have forgiveness.

But what do you need to do?

Seek ye the Lord.

And so, if I could tell anybody today, you know, hey, what's

the best advice to have a restored relationship with God?

What's the best advice?

And coming to a place of revival.

What's the best advice?

To come to a place in our life where we have that renewed strength

in God.

It's seeking the Lord.

It's seeking His Word.

It's seeking that private time with him, that alone time with Him.

It's seeking a true, substantial prayer life.

It's getting into the Word and digging deeper into the Word.

Folks, I know that there have been times in my life where I have

just read my Bible to check a box.

Well, I better read my chapter today.

I better read my devotional today because I don't want God to

get upset with me.

But yet there's no personal nature to that.

There's no intimacy, there's no love there.

It's just, well, I gotta check my box.

And God never wants that.

God wants that personal time in which we dig deeper into His Word.

We mind the depths of Scripture.

And so that's what he's calling them out on.

He says, hey, you're not drawing near to me.

Now we know what the promise is in James, chapter 4, verse 8.

James 4:8

Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you.

That is what God has always wanted, for us to grow closer to

him so that we can understand his presence in our life, so that

we can understand his goodness and his love and how caring he is

and how long suffering he is.

And so to get to a place of restoration, to get to a place of

revival, to get to a place of substantial change in our life, it

has to be that we are seeking after Him.

And if we're seeking after him, we seek after his word.

And so there's that whole challenge there in those first four

verses, he says her prophets are light.

Now I was like, what is he talking about there when he says

her prophets are light?

Well, basically, it's a term for being fickle.

It's a term for being wishy washy.

Like, they're here one day, they're here the next day.

They're feeling this about God today, but now tomorrow they're feeling

this about God.

And so it's characterizing people that are not staying steadfast

in trusting in Him.

They're kind of being blown about by the waves of the ocean.

Their whims are being the fuel for their faith.

And so what we can see here is that God doesn't want us to be wishy

washy.

He doesn't want us to be fickle.

He wants us to be steadfast in our faith in Him.

And so he says her prophets are light.

And mind you, the prophets are the ones that are supposed to be

the mouthpiece of God.

The prophets are the one that are supposed to be preaching the

truth to these people.

But yet what we see is they've compromised because of whatever reason.

And so it says here, her prophets are light and treacherous

persons.

Meaning this isn't just something that's small, insignificant.

No, they're treacherous.

This is a serious thing.

They have bad intentions.

And so we go a little bit further.

Her priest, remember, priests are at that time period, the basically

the mediators between God and man.

So the prophet is the mouthpiece of God.

Then the priests are the ones that are the mediators, right?

So if I want to bring my sacrifice to God, I bring it to the

priest.

And then the priest then on my behalf offers that sacrifice.

And so he talks about the prophets.

Those are the ones that are speaking forth the truth.

And he talks about the priests.

He says her priests have polluted the sanctuary.

Essentially, you could phrase it this way.

The priests were having profane things in what is holy.

So we have people that are no longer preaching the truth, but they

are preaching lies and they're fickle and they're bouncing all over

the place.

And then we also have the people that should be having things

sanctified, should be treating things holy in the sight of God,

but yet have polluted that with evil things.

And so we would say that these are people that have allowed the

influence of the world, the pagan ways, to seep into their worship.

And then he says they have done violence to the law.

So not only have they violated their cultural norms, but they have

now, at this point, violated the law of God, which is in their.

In their sight, in their culture.

That's the Word of God.

That's the Bible, essentially.

Now, of course, they didn't have the New Testament.

They didn't have all the.

All of the fulfilled Word of God.

And so therefore, the Word of God was the law.

And for them, they were disregarding the power and the truth

of the Word of God.

And any society, any culture, any person that begins to start to

question the validity of the Word of God, the power of the Word

of God, will eventually, if not stopped and changed, will get

to a place where they not only violate the law, but then they begin

to change the Word.

They begin to add to the Word, they begin to take away from it.

And so this is what's happening here in this society back

then.

And so they have questioned the Word of God.

So first four verses.

This is God's condemnation against the people of Jerusalem,

the place where there was supposed to be worship, the place

where all of this is supposed to be focused.

And I skipped verse three, but it says, her princes within her are

roaring lions, her judges are evening wolves.

They gnaw not the bones till the morrow.

And so he condemns the princes, the royalty, he condemns

the judges.

And so he goes all the way across the board and condemns them

for their rejection of the law, their rejection of their relationship

with God.

So we would say, well, we're not there.

We're not that bad yet.

I would challenge you to say, you know what?

Look at culture, look at our nation, look at the world, look at

the church at large, folks.

A lot of these things that are being described here in Zephaniah

Zephaniah 3 · chapter mention

Chapter 3 are happening today.

And I would even venture to say in worse ways when it comes to

validating, or let me say it this way, not validating the Word

of God in our midst.

And so they don't obey his voice, they don't receive correction,

they don't trust the Lord, they don't draw near to God, and

therefore they are called out for their sin.

But we see now, okay, so a lot of people would say, well, this.

If you were just to read this on your own, without understanding

the context, without understanding who God is, you might

say, wow, God's being kind of harsh with these people.

I thought that these were the people that he loved, right?

Shouldn't he be a little bit more patient?

Shouldn't he be a little bit more gracious?

Well, that's a dangerous place to be to start to question God's

motives.

But lest we think that maybe God is acting a little bit too much

here, he begins to start talking about how God is a righteous

judge, starting in verse number five.

And I love how it's put here in this first phrase, because we

must go back and remember that God is a God of justice, God is a

God of holiness.

And so therefore he has every right to judge these things.

You and I don't have the right to be the final judge in somebody's

life when it comes to their destination, even their morality,

even their faith.

And as a pastor, a lot of people will ask me, well, do you

think that person's saved?

And I can only say, well, you know what?

Looking at the fruit in their life, I could make a judgment call,

but I cannot see that person's heart.

The Bible says that only God can look on someone's heart.

And so therefore, we cannot judge somebody in the concept of

perfectly judging them, because none of us are perfect, right?

Jesus talked about that.

You know, he without sin, cast the first stone.

That doesn't mean that we don't make judgment in our life.

Meaning, okay, this is a dangerous situation, or this is a

situation that we shouldn't be a part of.

There must be justice and there must be judgment in our life

when it comes to being a Christian.

But when it comes to condemnation, that is not our role.

We cannot condemn when it comes to the eyes of God.

And so therefore, we see that there's only one person who can condemn

those that are in sin.

And it says, verse five, the just Lord is in the midst thereof.

It's a simple phrase, but it's an important phrase theologically

to understand.

It is the just Lord in the midst thereof, meaning this is God's

decision in his justice, in his holiness.

And so this made the unrighteousness of God's people even

more tragic.

God had been nothing but righteous to them, nothing but faithful

to them.

But yet they respond in what?

In rebellion, in sin.

And so eventually, they put themselves on the wrong side of God's

righteousness, and therefore they have to face God's judgment.

And thankfully, as Christians, thankfully, if you are a believer

in Jesus Christ, you no longer walk in condemnation.

That's Romans, chapter eight.

And so we live.

I believe we live in the age of grace.

And I'm thankful for that fact.

I'm thankful the fact that in the New Testament it says that even

when I am not faithful, God is faithful.

But the person, even today, that is unsaved the person who has

never come to an understanding of faith, never trusted in God for

their salvation, they are living in condemnation.

The Bible says that.

And so therefore, what we do as Christians is that we proclaim

the grace of God.

And that's what they needed back then.

They still needed the grace of God.

Everyone throughout all of history needs the grace of God.

We need God's intervention in our life for us to have any hope,

for us to have any chance.

And so the just Lord is in the midst thereof.

And so this just is there to explain the dichotomy, the difference

between God's perfection, His holiness, his justice, and the rebellion

of the people in their sin.

Because there's sometimes temptation for a culture, for a people,

for a church, for individuals to say, you know what?

Maybe this isn't as bad as it's made out to be.

And when we really.

One of the things that I've had to walk through with my own life

and maybe counseling other people's lives is, you know, I want

to see this sin as bad.

But I just keep coming back.

I just keep coming back.

Why do I keep coming back?

How can I get victory over this sin?

And one of the things that helped me out a lot in that was this,

to see the sin the way that God sees it, to see it truly from

his perspective, right?

The God of the universe, the Creator of the universe, the one

who is perfect.

He then creates us, we reject him, we turn our backs against him,

and then we commit sins that put him on the cross, right?

And so what we have to do in our life is to see the sin as bad

as it truly is.

And we have to see that it's not something that we cozy up with,

that we get comfortable with, that we get as close as we can to.

You know, one of the common questions that I will hear is, well,

how much can I do without sinning?

Like, that's actually a statement that multiple times I've

heard in my life, like, what are we allowed to do as Christians?

How close to the.

Essentially, it's this.

How close to the line can we get without sinning?

Right?

And, you know, that's a tough call in some areas.

In other areas, it's very clear.

Like, if you do this, okay, let's say, let's use lying as an

example, right?

You tell the truth, you're okay.

The moment you don't tell the truth, you're lying.

That's a sin.

But there are other things in Scripture that admittedly, there

are some gray areas on, well, how close can we get without actually

offending God's law?

Well, I will tell you this.

The danger in that is the closer that you get to the line,

the easier it is to fall over that line and get into a place of

sin.

Paul mentions this.

He says, you know, all things are lawful, but yet not all things

are expedient.

Meaning, that's not everything in my life is necessarily a sin.

Out and out.

But there are some things in my life that are not beneficial to

me as a Christian.

And so the way I.

This is how I explain it to my kids.

And I think that you guys are more mature than my children.

But let me just explain it to you the way that I explain it to

them, and maybe you'll understand it.

You know, I tell my kids, you're going to stumble, you're going

to slip, you're going to slide around in your life, because we're

all human.

And so the closer that you get to that line, when that stumble comes,

you're going to be closer into going farther and farther over that

line.

It's going to be a lot harder to get back.

The farther that you can stay away from that line, the better.

So that when you do stumble a little bit, when your conscience

is offended just a little bit, you're not going to go over the line

and commit a terrible sin that's going to cause you issues

in your life and ultimately, you know, having God disappointed

and saddened with your decisions.

And so I always tell them, like, look, we don't want to get

as close to the line as we can.

We want to try to get as far away as we can.

And I think there's biblical precedent to that.

I think when the Bible says flee youthful lust, it means get

away from that.

Get away from the lust.

Get, you know, it says.

It says, you know, get away from the enemy, get away from the

sin.

And so what we can see here in this case is that these people in

Jerusalem, these people in rebellion, were basically getting

cozy with sin.

They were getting as close as they can to it.

They were still saying that they followed God, but their lifestyle

didn't look that way.

So the just Lord is in the midst thereof.

And then this is.

This is true, right?

He will not do iniquity.

Because the same people that are hearing this message are questioning.

They're saying, well, why would God judge his own people?

That's just wrong.

You ever heard someone say, well, my God that I worship would

never send anybody to hell.

My God would never judge anybody because he's a Loving God.

Well, when you say that God's judgment is sin, you're essentially

questioning his character.

You're questioning whether or not he has sinned or not.

Right?

That's what you're really doing.

You're saying that if he judges someone, that's an iniquity.

That's sin.

Well, it says right here he will not do iniquity.

Meaning when he judges them, it's not sin.

When he judges them, it's not wrong.

He goes on to say this every morning.

Doth he bring his judgment to light?

He faileth not, but the unjust knoweth no shame.

That's a really bad place to be when there's no more shame.

The conviction of God is no longer real to individuals.

They have a seared conscience.

They rejected the goodness of God.

They rejected his grace.

And so God brings his justice to the nations around Judah.

And Judah is warned about this justice as well.

And they're warned about what would happen if they rejected God.

Instead of learning from the nations around them and the judgment

of the Northern Kingdom, these people dedicate themselves to ungodliness

even more.

Like, they get to a place where it's not even shameful.

It's almost like shaking their fist to God saying, let's see what

you can do.

And that's a scorner.

Romans, chapter one.

We don't have the time to dig into that passage of scripture tonight,

but at great lengths, I would encourage you to study Romans 1,

because the Bible talks about people who desire the things of the

flesh they desire the things of the world they desire all these

terrible, fleshly, dark things.

And then eventually God says he gives them over to their reprobate

minds.

So what happens is that God says, okay, you want that sin, you

want the outcome of that?

There it is.

You have it.

It's not our job to make a decision on who that is yet.

All we do is preach the gospel.

But God does say, to a point, there is going to be justice, there

is going to be judgment.

Now, thankfully, God is a God of grace.

And that's why I'm saying we live in the church age.

So, like, I don't know about you, but, like, if you're talking

to somebody who says, well, I've done too much in my life, God

can't forgive me.

I don't know if you've ever talked to someone like that.

I know, certainly I have, trying to explain the gospel.

And they go, yeah, he'll forgive you, because you went to

Christian school and you went to Bible college and You're a good

enough guy.

But he can't forgive me.

And first of all, everyone's a sinner.

Everyone's guilty in the eyes of God.

It doesn't matter what degree you're at.

But I will say that God can forgive.

God will forgive those that come to him in humble submission,

in repentance and in faith.

Doesn't matter what you have done.

I mean, think about all those individuals in Scripture.

Think of.

I could pick out a ton of examples.

I'll pick out a few.

Think about Peter.

What did Peter do?

He denied Jesus, right?

If anybody.

If anybody did too much, it was Peter, right?

Peter, right before that, promised, I would never do that to

you, Jesus.

I would actually die for you.

And then all of a sudden, what he denies, Peter is forgiven.

Right there by the Sea of Galilee, on the seashore, by a fire

with some fish there, Jesus goes through that wonderful time

where he goes three times, do you love me?

And those three times are there to remind Peter that, hey,

you know what?

You are forgiven.

We understand that.

So Peter, right?

Forgiven.

Think about Saul, who later was Paul.

I mean, the guy literally persecuted Christians.

He literally was fighting against God, not just by what he

said, but physically what he did.

But yet God forgives him.

So the question is not can God forgive?

The question is, are you going to be willing to trust in that forgiveness?

And so what we can see here is that verse five, God is going to

bring his judgment to light.

He doesn't fail.

But the unjust, the ones who are not forgiven knoweth no shame.

Meaning they're not willing to see their wrongs.

They're not willing to come to God.

And so he's going to say a couple more things here, Verses six

and seven.

We're going to end at verse number seven here tonight.

It says, I have cut off the nations.

Their towers are desolate.

I made their streets waste that none passeth by.

Their cities are destroyed so that there is no man, that there

is none inhabitant.

Meaning this is a complete destruction.

This is a complete judgment.

And really, one day, folks, we know that God's judgment is a complete

judgment.

Right now, God's extending grace to people.

But the Bible does say that it is appointed unto man once to die,

and after that is the judgment.

So there's not a second chance.

I've heard folks say, well, you know what?

When I want to live my life the way that I want to live it, and

then if God is really gracious, he's going to give me a

second chance.

After I go it's not how it goes.

That's not how scripture lays it out.

I don't believe that there's second, third, fourth chances after

we leave this world.

Okay?

So what I would say to you is this.

Yes, God is gracious.

God is extending that patience.

But there is going to be a point where his grace ends and his

justice begins.

And therefore, you know what?

There is that complete victory over evil.

There's that victory over sin.

And so that's not something to play around with.

And I think all the more the reason why we should be more passionate

about telling other people about Jesus.

We should be all the more passionate about sharing the gospel

with people.

That's why I remember very early on in my ministry, I said,

if I have a chance to speak in front of people, I never want to

miss that chance to give some element of the gospel, some element

of an invitation to trust in Jesus.

I mean, we could be in Genesis, we could be in Zephaniah,

we could be anywhere.

I'm going to.

And that's.

I believe that is my role, is to proclaim the gospel truth through

any passage of scripture that we see.

Because the Bible is not just a help book.

It's not just a history book.

It's not just a book of, you know, logic and reason.

It's a book of salvation.

And I think that so many times the Bible can just seem to people

as a storybook about morals.

Like, well, look at Daniel.

He was strong in the lines, Denny.

And yes, he was, but how could he be that strong?

And how did that salvation come?

It was through faith, right?

His salvation came ultimately through faith in God.

And you say the Old Testament people didn't get saved by faith.

The Old Testament people got saved by their.

By their sacrifices.

Well, that's totally opposite of what Hebrews chapter 11 says.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 11 goes through all the great saints of the

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Old Testament.

And it says, by what faith?

By faith, by faith.

It's all about faith in the Lord.

It's all about faith in Jesus Christ.

Now, for them in the Old Testament, it was looking towards

a messiah.

For us, it's looking back to a Savior.

And so we see that there is a complete judgment, but there is still

hope.

Verse 7.

I said, surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction.

So their dwelling should not be cut off.

Howsoever I punished them, but they rose early and corrupted all

their doings.

Meaning this.

He says, I gave you an opportunity to fear me.

I gave you an opportunity to receive instruction.

I gave you an Opportunity not to be cut off.

But then, howsoever, I punished them, but they rose early

and corrupted all their doings.

And so they had not drawn close to God.

They had rejected him.

They had no more shame.

And God is going to judge now.

That sounds really bleak.

It sounds like, hey, wow, who has a chance then?

Who could ever be saved?

And that was actually.

If that was actually a question that the disciples asked

Jesus, if you remember, like, how could anyone be saved?

And what did Jesus say?

Says, with me, with God, all things are possible.

Meaning it's a miracle.

Like, salvation is a miracle.

I think sometimes we don't see it that way.

I think sometimes we see a miracle as someone walks in tonight

with leprosy and that they no longer have leprosy.

Would that be a miracle?

Yes.

Okay.

A lot of times we are looking for visual signs and wonders to be

called a miracle.

And of course, those are miracles, of course.

But I think so many times we forget that salvation is literally

a miracle.

The fact that an unsaved person, a person who is in rebellion

against God, can come to know him in faith, and that there is this

gift that's offered to them, and then at that moment, they are.

If they're truly saved, they are transformed into a new creature.

That is a miracle.

That is exciting.

That's what we.

That's why we do what we do, folks, I'm going to tell you.

To see an individual's change in their life, to see them come to

Christ, to see that light bulb go off in their minds and their.

In their eyes, that is what it's all about.

Because the Bible says, yes, we are to come to Christ, but we

never see in Scripture that coming to Christ is the end.

What is Jesus?

Last thing, he goes, all right, everyone believe in me now.

I'm gonna leave.

No.

He says, believe, yes, but then teach other people how to believe.

Like, that's what we're here for.

And so when we see this in Zephaniah, we see people rejecting

and we see people living in sin.

And we see, like, if we were to end in verse seven, there would

be no hope.

It would be like, well, Jerusalem failed.

Nineveh failed.

We're going to fail.

America is going to fail.

But starting not next week, but the week after, we're going to

look at God's plan for redemption for the nation of Israel.

Now, I'm of the school of thought that this is something that

has not happened yet completely.

I believe that this is what's going to happen at the very end.

At the end of the tribulation, at the end of time, in the millennial

kingdom, I believe that this is going to be the nation of Israel

restored and there's great salvation in that.

But I will also say that I think by extension God is explaining

how his salvation comes to all mankind through faith and through

repentance.

And so we're going to study verses eight through the end of the

chapter in a couple weeks and finish this and see that there is

hope.

Like we always want to leave people with hope.

If I came to you in a counseling situation or a confrontational

situation and I just, you know, I wouldn't do this, but if

I did come to someone and say, hey, look, this is your problem with

your life, this is the sin in your life, this is the issues in

your life.

And look, you know what?

Sorry, you're just, you're a failure.

There's no hope, right?

That person has now left with no hope, thinking, well, now I've

just, I'm completely broken.

And God never breaks his children's spirits.

He never does that.

He sometimes needs to break their heart, but he doesn't break

their spirit.

And so one of the things that we do as Christians is, yes, there

are going to be some tough moments where we need to talk about

things, but we always leave an individual with hope in what Christ

can do in their life.

That's what God always does.

He always leaves folks with hope.

Hope for repentance, hope for revival, hope for salvation.

And when a person loses hope, it's when they lose everything else.

And so one of the things we need to preach to our church, we

need to preach to our country, we need to preach to the world, is

that there is hope and that hope is in Jesus Christ.

Yes, God is a judge, but in his long suffering grace, he is extending

an opportunity.

And I think that that's one of the reasons, all the more why we

as a church and as individuals need to get busy about the gospel.

We need to get busy about going and reaching people for the

cause of the kingdom.

And there are some things that we're going to be trying to institute

here at the church that will not be traditional in the sense of

this is a traditional ministry.

But there's going to be opportunities for us as a church

to reach people around us that need the gospel.

Because really what happens is that we say as a church, you know,

we're a beacon of light to the community and we are, you know, anybody

can walk on this property and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ on

a Sunday morning.

But how many people are going to do that, right?

The Bible doesn't say wait, and then they'll come.

It's not.

What's that.

There's a movie.

It's like, if you build it, they'll come.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

So there is that principle, I think, like, obviously, if we built

this big, you know, cathedral in Middletown, people would want

to come out and see what's going on.

We throw a big event.

People would want to come and see what's going on.

But what does the Bible say?

There's a word.

Go, right?

Go.

And it's been something that I have been challenged with in my own

personal life and pastoral life.

How are we going?

You know, what are we doing to go?

And some of you say, go.

I'm not called to be a missionary.

Well, you are called to be a missionary, just maybe not in another

land.

You are called to be a missionary where you are, and to

go to Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, into the uttermost part

of the earth.

That's the church's goal.

And so that is the plan for the church.

That is the goal for the church.

And I believe that's something that we need to do in light of what

Zephaniah is talking about here, the judgment of God.

We don't go, and I'm getting on a soapbox here, and I won't go

too much longer with this.

We don't go to people and say, jesus can make your life better.

The church is here to give you a community.

The church is here to give you entertainment.

The church is here to give you some kind of peace.

Are all those things true?

To some degree, yes.

But the purpose of the gospel is not to just make your life better.

The purpose of the gospel is to save you from destruction.

The Bible actually says you are dead before you're saved.

So you have a death sentence in your life.

And so therefore, the gospel is a necessity for life.

So if we see it that way, we deal with things differently.

I believe.

I wasn't there, but I believe Zephaniah is not up there going,

guys, please hear me.

Like, this might help your life.

No, he's up there going, thus saith the Lord.

There's judgment coming.

You need to repent.

You need to seek after God.

And.

And so I think that's how we should preach the message.

With love, with grace, with meekness, with humility.

And so I have great respect for Zephaniah.

I have great respect for those that were the prophets there speaking

to people that were already in rebellion.

So we'll come back in a couple weeks to conclude our study in the

Book of Zephaniah.

Hope this has been a good study for you.

I don't know how many of you have actually gone through a formal

study of the Book of Zephaniah.

Maybe some of you that have been in church for a long time, you

have.

I'm sure most of you have read through it at some point in your

studies, but it's not one that you hear quite frequently.

Most of the minor prophets, short of a couple of the ones that

we know of really well, like Jonah and the others, we don't hear

a lot of the prophets.

One that's a really deep one, if you want to get to sometime, and

it's a tough one to get through, is Obadiah.

Obadiah is all about the judgment of the Edomites.

And, you know, it's.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, right?

So all scripture we need to go through.

So there are passages that are more difficult than others to wrap

our minds around.

But when you understand the context and you understand the way

that it connects to us today, I think it would be, you know, appropriate

to portray that to our children.

Because, you know, for my kids, you know, they know all the

great classic Bible stories.

If.

And I don't know if you guys know this.

There's this, like, there's a number that you can call that.

If you call the number, there's a recording that does Bible

stories.

And they have, like, the long version and the short version I used

to do when I was a kid.

When I was a kid, this guy came into our church and he gave

us a little card and we called it.

And so when I was a little kid, I would do that.

I would call in and hear Bible stories.

And I was sitting around with my kids.

We do family worship.

And I was sitting around one day, and I was thinking, like, I

wonder if that guy still is recorded on that phone number.

So I rack.

I called my parents.

I'm like, do you guys have that card?

They're like, I don't know.

Can't find that.

I was looking everywhere.

And so, of course, you know, you have the Internet.

So I Googled it and found.

And I found the same.

I remember the guy's voice, and he goes through the Bible stories.

And, you know, there's the short version, like, if your kids,

you know, you get the kids to bed faster.

There's a shorter version.

There's a longer version.

My kids always want the longer version, right?

They're like, dad, can we do the long one?

Cause they just want to prolong their night.

And, you know, but, you know, he doesn't talk about some of these.

And so that's one of the things, like sometimes with our kids,

I want to tell them, like every so often, give them an obscure

Bible story that they need to.

That'd be cool to know, and just kind of go through that with

them.

And that helps them understand the bigger picture.

So I will digress and all that, but appreciate you guys being

here and going through the Book of Zephaniah with us.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church

podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church

or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org

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You can also email me directly at joshmasaroiddletownbaptistchurch

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Thank you so much.

God bless.

Have a wonderful day.