God's Judgment and Mercy: Insights from Zephaniah

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.

We're going to go ahead and start our Bible study here this evening.

If you have your Bibles, turn to Zephaniah chapter two.

We're going to continue our study here in the Book of Zephaniah.

Not a book that we go to a lot when it comes to Bible studies within

church, but nonetheless an important book of the Bible because

we know that all the books are important.

And the theme for the Book of Zephaniah is God's judgment and his

mercy.

God's holy, righteous indignation against sin in this world,

but also God's loving mercies and his grace and his tender, loving

kindness.

And you would say, how can those two things meet together?

Right?

How can someone be righteously angry?

How can someone be judged, judging a lost and dying world, but

also still be loving, kind, gracious, and forgiving?

Well, because he's God.

And we're going to talk about how he does that through this study

in Zephaniah.

So last week we started chapter two, and we ended in verse

number three.

And just by way of review, I would like to go back and look at

verse number three, because it's the thesis of his message.

What's a thesis?

It's his main thought.

Okay.

This is Zephaniah's main thought in his message to the people

there in Judah.

Ultimately, it's God's main message to the people of Judah.

Right?

Zephaniah is the mouthpiece for God.

He's the prophet of God.

God is speaking to the people of Judah.

Now, it's important to remember who the audience is.

The audience is Judah.

Judah is the southern kingdom.

The.

The.

The kingdom that had been hanging on longer than the northern

kingdom, the northern kingdom had turned their backs against God

before this.

But Judah still at this point was somewhat good.

Right?

You had.

Josiah was the king.

Josiah was a king of revival.

He was the king that pointed their eyes back to the Word.

But we ultimately know that just because one generation is faithful

to the Word, that that doesn't mean that it's going to last forever.

There has to be that consistent faithfulness.

And so in Zephaniah chapter two, he said in verse three, seek

Ye the Lord.

He said, the remedy to all of this, the remedy to God's judgment,

the remedy of the pain that's going to be inflicted on you, the

destruction that's going to be brought is this.

Seek the Lord, seek ye the Lord.

All ye meek of the earth.

And so the challenge is, seek the Lord.

How do you seek him?

It says there, seek righteousness.

That's God's truth.

And seek meekness.

Be meek.

Why?

Because it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger.

Saying this, basically, if you want God's mercy, be meek.

And so it's receiving mercy and meekness.

And we talked a little bit about what meekness was last week.

Meekness is gentleness.

It's strength under control.

It's having the ability to exert power upon somebody, but not

doing that.

And so you could wrap it up into a picture of God controlling

your life and not your flesh.

Jesus says In Matthew, chapter 11, he says, Come to me, learn of

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

me, and I will teach you how to be lowly.

I'll teach you how to be meek.

He says, I'll teach you how to be humble.

I'll teach you how to be meek.

And so what we can see through Jesus's teachings and through the

whole scope of Scripture is that God's desire for us is to hold

that character trait of meekness in our lives.

We even know that in Galatians it says that it is one of the elements

of the fruit of the Spirit, right?

So one of the manifestations in our life that the Holy Spirit

is guiding our life is that we hold humility and meekness.

And so a Christian who is not meek, and the opposite of that would

be somebody who is out of control, someone who is.

Who is defined by their anger, someone that is defined by the opposite

of gentleness.

Harsh, cutting, sharp.

And the Bible says that isn't a character trait of God.

That isn't a character trait of what he would have us to be.

And so to fix the issue of our sin, we must come to a place of humility,

meekness, righteousness.

And then what that brings is repentance.

Repentance is a turning away from something.

We're gonna talk more about this on Sunday morning.

And so I don't want to get ahead of myself.

If you're gonna come back on Sunday morning, this will be a little

bit of taste of what we're talking about.

We're gonna be talking on Sunday morning what true repentance

is.

And repentance, yes, is it is Turning away from something, right?

So repentance is turning away from sin, but it's not just turning

away from sin.

It's turning to God.

It's not turning to the void.

It's not turning to emptiness.

Well, I'm gonna turn away from sin, and I'm just gonna go to something

else.

I'm going to redirect my sin.

Folks, if we redirect our sin, it's just going to go to another

sin.

If we redirect our flesh from one thing, it's going to go to another

thing.

I've met some people that say, you know, I have these mechanisms,

these coping mechanisms to get away from my anger.

And I can understand to a degree what that's all about.

But the Bible does speak of the complete reliance on God to give

us victory over the sin in our life.

And so it's not a trick, it's not a mind game.

It's seeking after the Lord, desiring Him in our hearts.

And that's what he says there in verse three, Seek ye the Lord.

And then he ends with this.

Why?

Because maybe, just maybe, God will spare you from his wrath.

And that's really how we should understand it, right?

It is only by the grace of God that we are spared from his wrath.

All we, like sheep, have gone astray, right?

And so what does the Bible say about that?

The Bible says that for all of sin to come short of the glory of

God, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God's eternal

life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And so we have to live in that mindset that God has gifted me with

an opportunity to get away from his judgment, to see him and

to know him.

And so the rest of the chapter.

The rest of the chapter is the description of God's judgment, not

just for the people of Judah, but for all of the people of the

known world at the time.

And so from verse four all the way to the end of the chapter, verse

15, it's going to get a little bit monotonous.

It's just going to be, these people are judged, these people are

judged.

This is how it's going to look.

But the reason why he's doing this is he's painting a picture for

the people of Judah.

He's essentially geographically going around Judah

and saying, it's not just you that's going to face the wrath of

God, it's everybody.

Anybody who rejects God, even those people that you think are succeeding

with their idolatry, even though you think those people over

there have all the money and all the power and all the fame.

He says, you know what?

They're still going to be judged.

And he's going to list all of those here.

Now we're going to go through those, and I want to give you a little

bit of historical context to them.

We won't dive too deep into this, but we're going to circle back

around to the very end and talk about the need of judgment,

the blessing of God's judgment.

And biblically, how does that tie together with God's grace in

the New Testament?

And let me give you a little hint.

And in the Old Right, because God's grace is in the Old Testament

as well.

Don't let people tell you that there's this God in the Old Testament

that's just judgmental and angry and doing all these things.

And then we get to the New Testament and then God changes and

he's all about this.

No, God has always been eternally gracious.

He's always been eternally a judge, a righteous judge.

And so, no, it's not two different gods.

We're going to talk about that as we get to the end here.

So let's look at it here.

Verse 4.

For Gaza shall be forsaken.

So he speaks about this place, Gaza.

He's speaking of the land where the Philistines were living

at the time.

So judgment would come against the unrepentant Judah.

Yes, but would also come against the cities of the Philistines.

And so he says, for Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation.

They shall drive out Ashdod at the noonday, and Ekron shall be rooted

up.

And so right here we see that there will be God's judgment towards

these Philistine nations.

And we know that they were pagan folks there.

And so verse 5.

Woe unto the inhabitants of the seacoast, and to the nation of

the Cherethites.

And the word of the Lord is against you, not a place where you

want to be, O Cain, in the land of the Philistines, I will even

destroy thee.

And there shall be no inhabitants.

And this speaks again to God's complete judgment against them.

And then it's described here, verse six.

And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds,

and folds for flocks.

And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah.

So he does mention that there will be a remnant to Judah.

There won't be complete destruction of Judah.

They shall feed thereupon.

And the houses of Ashkelon shall They lie down in the evening

for the Lord their God shall visit them and turn away their captivity.

And so we see the judgment of the Philistines, and then we see

that he changes directions and he talks about the judgment against

the Moabites and the Ammonites.

And so first God looks to the west from Judah and talks about the

Philistines.

And then he looked to the east towards Moab, towards where the Ammonites

lived.

And it's interesting, the analogy that he uses for the Moabites

and the Ammonites.

And I think that we will understand it once we understand

the context.

And so God promises to judge the people of Moab and Ammon.

And he talks about he's going to bring them perpetual desolation.

So let's look there in verse number eight, he says, I have heard

the reproach of Moab and the revelings of the children of Ammon,

whereby they have reproached my people and magnified themselves

against their border.

And so these folks are described as folks that are magnifying

themselves, lifting themselves up, mocking God, mocking his people.

And so God is going to judge those that mock him.

Right.

Galatians says that realize God is not mocked.

What people are going to sow is what they're going to reap.

God is not mocked.

And so that's what he's saying here, verse 9.

Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord of the hosts, the God of

Israel, surely Moab shall be as Sodom.

So he describes Moab to have the destruction of Sodom and the

children of Ammon as Gomorrah.

Even the breeding of nettles and salt pits and a perpetual desolation,

the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my

people shall possess them.

And so what does he do?

He compares them to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Now, why is that significant?

Well, we would say, well, Sodom and Gomorrah are the classic

pictures of God's judgment for sin.

And that is true.

But you have to remember who the Moabites and the Ammonites are.

The Moabites and the Ammonites are the offspring of Lot and his

daughters, and they're an inappropriate relationship.

Where did Lot and his daughters flee from Sodom and Gomorrah?

So he's connecting that sin of Sodom and Gomorrah to the sin of

Moab and Ammon and how that has generationally been passed down.

And so we know that there was that terrible thing when we studied

the Book of Genesis with Lot.

And so I believe that God, obviously, having that in mind, says,

hey, the same judgment that came upon Sodom, the same judgment

that came upon Gomorrah will be the same judgment that will be

faced by Moab and Ammon.

Very interesting concept there.

And then he says, verse 10, this shall they have for their pride.

Now, if you haven't seen it yet, the theme of Zephaniah is contrasting

pride versus meekness and humility.

You know, a person who is prideful, a person who is resting

in their pride, will not come and seek after the Lord.

A person in their pride will not be meek.

A person in their pride will not see the need for God in their

life.

And so he says, in contrast to pride, it's these people with meekness

that will receive mercy and grace.

And the people that have pride, what do they face?

They face judgment.

This shall they have for their pride, verse 10.

Because they have reproached and magnified themselves against

the people of the Lord of host.

So this is the word of God speaking here.

God is not happy when people magnify themselves.

God is not happy when people magnify themselves against the people

of God, against the word of God.

And that's not a term that we use frequently, like, hey, I'm magnifying

myself.

All this means is I put myself above or in a bigger way than what

God has said in his word.

My word above his, my way above his.

So that's what he's talking about.

He's talking about their pride, and the pride will be judged.

So he goes on to say in verse number 11, the Lord will be terrible

unto them.

You know, that's another way that you could describe that word

is literally awesome.

He will be awesome against them.

And sometimes you use that word awesome as, like, anything's

awesome.

Like, oh, that's an awesome show.

That's an awesome restaurant.

Awesome literally means to bring awe into someone's life, where

they're speechless, they cannot respond.

That's what he's saying here.

He's going to bring that awe to them in their judgment.

For he will famish all the gods of the earth, and the men shall

worship him, every one of them, everyone from his place, even

all the isles of the heathen.

Now, God would glorify himself among the nations, and one way he

would do it was to bring the idols of the nation low.

God's going to judge them and show them the futility of their idols

and their false gods.

And all would see that their idols were vain.

Empty.

And the God, and God alone is the one with substance.

So he judges the west, the Philistines, the East, Moab and Ammonia.

And now he's going to judge the Ethiopians.

The Ethiopians are south.

And so it says in verse number 12, ye Ethiopians also ye shall be

slain by my sword.

There's not much said about this, but God looks at the south

and announces judgment against the Ethiopians.

And we see that complete judgment there from God.

Verse 12.

Now look at verse 13 with me, judgment against Assyria.

And so now he's gone west, east, south.

And now he's going to complete the circle of judgment against Israel's

neighbors to the north.

And so we're going to see here that ultimately God's judgment will

come upon Assyria and he will stretch out his hand against the

north and destroy Assyria and will make Nineveh, that's the capital

city, a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.

Now, that doesn't sound like shocking to us, because in our minds

Nineveh means nothing, right?

Nineveh could be any city.

You could just put any name in the blank there.

But remember, Nineveh is the capital city of the biggest kingdom,

right?

This is the place.

It would be like God saying, I'm going to take the most prosperous

city that you can think of, and I'm going to make that desolate.

It shows the power of God that people think that no one can stop

us, no one can hinder us, no one can take away what we have.

God says, I can take it away like this.

And so the fact that he's mentioning Nineveh as the city that's

going to be facing this is a stark contrast to what they are in

that moment.

Very illustrious.

Verse 14.

And the flock shall lie down in the midst of her.

So he says, the animals will live in Nineveh.

And the beast of the nations, both the comrade that's a bird and

the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it, meaning the

birds are going to make their nests in the buildings.

Their voice shall sing in the windows.

Desolation shall be in the thresholds, for he shall uncover

the cedar work.

And so it's very interesting to see that he says, the people won't

be living there, but the animals will be.

And this shows the power of God.

Verse 15.

This is the rejoicing city that dwell carelessly, that set in

her heart I am, and there is none beside me.

You see this?

He's saying that the reason why they're being Judged is because

they said, we are.

We are the thing, we are the center of the earth.

We are the focus of everything in this world.

And he says, no, I'm going to bring you guys down because you were

prideful carelessly.

You had no consideration for the truth of God.

And so he says, how is she become a desolation, a place for

beasts to lie down in?

Everyone that passes by her shall hiss and wag his hand.

So basically what he's saying here is that God is going to bring

them to destruction.

Then everyone is going to see that place as a place of God's hand

and judgment.

So Nineveh felt strong and confident, but God knew how to bring

her low.

And this is the principle that we find in James chapter four.

So keep your finger there in Zephaniah, keep that in your brain.

But we're going to go to some New Testament passages that speak

to this principle.

And we could go to a few different places, but I think one

that would be appropriate is James chapter four.

It's this principle.

And, you know, I think that if God repeats something over and over

again in Scripture, it's all the more reason why we need to listen

to it.

And if you think that our society doesn't have a problem with

this, I'd love to hear your side of the story.

But I think, I believe that if we open our eyes and look around

us, this is a epidemic.

This is an epidemic in our society, in our world today.

So verse six of James four.

Well, actually, I'm going to jump up a little bit.

Let's read James 4 in context.

Okay.

So from whence comes wars and fightings among you?

Come they not hence even of your lust, that war in your members.

So he's saying, why are all these wars and fightings amongst

yourselves?

Well, it's your lust.

Ye lust, you want, you desire.

But what does he say you have not?

So what he's explaining is the futility, the emptiness, the hopelessness

of pride.

He says, so you desire, but you don't get.

Ye kill, but you desire to have and cannot obtain.

Ye fight and war, yet ye have not because ye ask not.

He says, you're asking for the wrong things.

You think pride is going to bring this to you?

You think your own flesh, your own selfishness is going to bring

you these desires and sustain you?

No.

Verse 3, ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, meaning

you're asking for the wrong things that ye may consume it upon

your lust.

He says, all you people want these things to happen in your life,

but you're wanting these things to happen so that you can

consume it in your fleshly desires.

Then he goes, ye adulterers and adulteresses.

Now that's strong language.

He's not just talking to people that are living in adultery.

I mean, I mean, yes, that would be the case, but he's talking

about people who have spiritually committed adultery against

God.

So ye doctors and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship

of the world is enmity with God.

Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of

God.

Do you think that the Scripture saith in vain the spirit

that dwelleth in us lusteth the envy?

But then, here's our verse.

But he.

So he says, in our own selves, we're all about our flesh, we're

all about lust, we're all about pride.

But then he goes, and this is the.

This is the answer to pride.

But he giveth more grace.

He says, let me paint the picture for who you really are.

And he puts a really difficult picture to take in.

You're filled with lust, you're filled with your desires,

you're filled with hopelessness.

But God gives more grace.

And so the answer to pride, the answer to hopelessness, the answer

to a lack of consistency, a lack of sufficiency in our life,

is grace.

Now what is he talking about?

He's talking about the grace of God.

Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace

to the humble.

So he says, God is going to resist those that are living in pride,

but he's going to give more grace to those that are humble.

What's God's grace?

Well, the perfect act of God's grace is Jesus Christ, right?

You, me, every person that has walked this planet outside of Jesus

Christ has committed sin.

You say, well, what if I've committed less sin than that person?

Well, if you've committed a thousand sins and this person's committed

1005 sins, guess what?

You're both guilty of them all.

The Bible says even if you didn't sin five times, let's say

you're a really good person, you've only sinned four times in

your life.

That that's enough to put you to a place of condemnation.

One sin is enough.

So what do we deserve for the wages of sin is death.

The grace of God is that God says, I'm going to put someone in

your place.

So you say, well, I thought God was a righteous judge.

He is.

But Isaiah 53 says that God righteously poured out his judgment

upon his Son at the cross.

That's the way that we can merged the idea of God's judgment

and wrath and holiness to his love, forgiveness and grace.

He says, you know what?

And it actually says in Isaiah 53 that it pleased the Father to

crush the Son.

And that doesn't make a lot of sense to us.

But what it is is that God was so pleased that his wrath could be

poured out so that there could be an offering to this world of grace.

And Jesus was the only one who could pay that price.

And so the Bible talks about the one who was bruised for our transgressions.

He was wounded for our iniquities.

And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.

And so the idea for us in grace is that we don't deserve it,

but God gives it to us because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And so he says, therefore submit yourselves therefore unto

God.

Resist the devil and he will flee to you.

Flee from you.

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

And he goes on, and I'll stop there.

But what I do want us to understand is that the way.

Yes.

God is a righteous judge.

He is characterized by his judgment.

If you are familiar with scripture, which I hope that you

are, God enacts judgment across the board.

I'll give you some examples.

There was the judgment of Adam and Eve, right?

Very early on, God judged Adam and Eve for their sin.

God sent them out from the Garden of Eden.

He put the curse.

And we know that all of creation is affected by that curse.

A lot of people are like, why does God allow sin to happen in this

world?

And suffering and pain and sickness and all of that?

It's because of sin.

It's because of the curse.

And then we go on a little bit further.

The flood, right?

God's grace is extended for a period of time, yet people rebel.

And God, even in the flood and even in the ark, was offering the

gift of grace, but yet most rejected.

And God judged.

You know the story of the ark.

Even in the New Testament, we know that the ark is a picture of

Jesus, right?

A way to escape the judgment of God moving forward.

Tower of Babel, right?

People eventually started thinking, well, you know what?

We can figure this out again.

Let's build a tower to get to God.

What is that all about?

Pride, right?

Gotta get to God.

We can make it to Him.

God judged that.

See more of judgment, right?

If you go further, Book of Exodus, God judges the Egyptians

for their pride and for their selfishness.

And so throughout.

I mean, we could go on and on, right?

I'm not.

You guys get the picture.

Throughout the Old Testament and the New, we see God's judgment

upon those that enact pride and reject him.

That doesn't mean that if you've had pride in your life, that

you can have the grace of God.

But what it means is that in our pride, we cannot understand the

grace of God because we think it's all about ourselves.

And so there is judgment for believers, sins.

As a Christian, I'm a believer, and there has been a payment

for my sins.

Did I pay for my sins?

No, I could never pay for my sins, but Jesus Christ paid my payment

on the cross.

And so I think a lot of times we think of salvation as well, it's

a free gift.

Well, it's a free gift for me, but it was not a free gift.

There was a price that was paid.

The Bible says you were bought with a price redeemed by the blood

of the lamb.

Jesus paid it all.

These songs are our classic songs.

And the reason why they are classic songs is because there's

a lot of theology there.

That song, Jesus paid it all.

Jesus paid it all.

All to him I owe.

Right?

And so that's the idea that Zephaniah is preaching now.

Zephaniah is preaching, looking towards a Messiah, looking

towards hope.

But we know that as believers in 2024, almost 2025, we can look

back to what Jesus has done and say, you know what?

I have no ground to stand on, to be prideful.

And this is something that we all struggle with in our society

today, because society teaches us what Nineveh taught.

Who could be like us?

Look, no, no.

We've reached the pinnacle of technology.

That's what they thought 100 years ago, right?

100 years ago, they thought no one could have more things than we

have now.

And then it's like, look at us now.

And if God tarries another hundred years, imagine what we're

going to have to be dealing with.

I recently was reading an article, it was in 1900, the biggest

fears that people had.

And it was like, silly stuff.

Okay?

It wasn't anything to do with what we're fearing today, right?

Today we're fearing artificial intelligence.

We're fearing atomic nuclear weapons.

You know, traveling to Mars like that wasn't even the concept

of people 100 years ago.

And so you see, our fears and our concerns and our confidence is

all relative to what society we're living into.

And so what we do is we go back and we say, well, none of that.

You know, we look back and see the foolishness of those people 200,

300, 400 years ago that didn't understand things and said, well,

you know what?

We're afraid of this, we're afraid of that.

But now we can see as Christians today that ultimately

we have no reason for pride.

We have no grounds to stand on when it comes to our own works.

We might as well be those people trying to build a building

to heaven because we're not going to be able to make it.

And so what we can see in this concept is that God is a righteous

judge.

But ultimately God has righteously given us an opportunity

to escape that judgment.

God judges his believers.

I mean, if you have time, read through Hebrews, chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

God disciplines his own.

God disciplines his children because he loves us.

There are judgments of the past, there are judgments of the

present, but there are also judgments of the future.

There will be judgments of the tribulation period.

I believe that there's going to be a seven year period in which

there's going to be judgment upon the earth for the rejection

of God.

I believe that there is going to be a judgment seat of Christ.

Second Corinthians, chapter five tells us the Bema seat.

We as Christians are going to stand before the Lord.

He's not going to judge us whether we're saved or not, but he

is going to judge us for the things that we did here on this earth,

whether they be things done for the right reasons or for the

wrong reasons.

Wood, hay and stubble, Gold, precious stones and silver.

Right, that's.

That's the judgment.

We do know that there is a different type of judgment.

There's going to be a judgment called the Great White Throne judgment.

And that's the ultimate judgment for those that have rejected

God.

And ultimately we know that the Bible says that God is going

to cast those that have rejected him into the lake of fire.

And so there is going to be a judgment.

And we don't necessarily revel in that judgment, but what we do

know is that it is a truth of God that He has said.

And if he has told us those things, that we must understand them

and believe them and we have to take them by faith.

So God is going to make all things right, so to speak.

One day in our eyes right now as human beings, we might not feel

like that's the case, but God is going to make all things right

in his judgment because He's a perfect righteous God.

So you would say, what's my role in that process?

Right now I'm a believer.

I know that God is righteous.

So is it my job to judge people?

Is it my job to be the one that enacts righteous judgment upon

them?

Well, we know that in the book of Romans it says, vengeance is mine,

I will repay, saith the Lord.

So we know that retaliation is wrong.

But we also see in the New Testament how the judgment will come.

And I want you to see this because you've probably heard this

before, maybe you haven't, but in John chapter 16.

John 16 · chapter mention

I want you to see John chapter 16 with me.

John 16 · chapter mention

This is where we're going to kind of spend the rest of our time

here.

What's my role in the judgment of God?

Right now some people believe, well, it's my job to enact God's

judgment today.

Now, God has set up certain individuals to be instruments of

judgment here on this earth.

Okay, so for example, as a father, I believe it is my responsibility

to judge my home and make actions, whether they be disciplinary

or restrictions, to make judgments upon what we're going to

be doing in our house.

Okay.

So God has enacted the role of a father, the role of parents, as

a microcosm of his judgment to the children.

Right.

Whether you agree with this or not, I do believe that God has instituted

government for the biblical purposes of enacting his laws in

this land.

So judging wrongdoers, Right.

I do believe in the due process.

And if someone has done something criminal, they should face

judgment.

Right?

And so God has set up different institutions here on this

planet.

The church.

Right?

The church can make judgments about certain things that are going

on.

Like we can make a judgment whether or not that teaching is true

or not true.

So when we use that word, and a lot of people say, well, only God

is the judge.

Well, he's the only ultimate judge.

Right?

But we do have to make biblical righteous judgments in our

own life, whether it be about another person or about ourselves.

Now, it's not our job to condemn.

I want you to understand that.

And for a Christian, there's no more condemnation.

Romans, chapter 8, verse 1.

Romans 8:1

But it's not my job to condemn somebody else as much as it is my

job to point them to the truth.

John, chapter 16.

John 16 · chapter mention

I want you to see this here, because when I read this, it was

very eye opening for me when it comes to the idea of judgment.

John 16, verse 8.

John 16:8

Jesus is speaking to his followers here.

And we'll go to verse number seven actually, because that'll give

us a Better understanding of what he's talking about here.

Jesus says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient

for you that I go away.

And he's talking about physically leaving.

For it is for if I not go away, if I go not away, the comforter.

Now, most of you have been church long enough to know that he's

talking about the Holy Spirit.

The comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will

send him unto you.

So he's talking about the indwelling of the Spirit.

You know, it initiated at Pentecost and happening today.

When a person is saved, the Holy Spirit indwells that person,

okay?

The comforter.

And so he says, and when he is come, so he says, this is what he

will do.

When he has come, he will reprove the world.

Okay?

So he's talking about this idea of reproof.

Now, now what is reproof?

Conviction.

He's.

He's going to point people to a specific place.

He's going to convict the world of sin.

So, so what the Holy Spirit does is the Holy Spirit reveals to

an individual sin, right?

How they respond to that is another thing.

But the conviction of sin comes from the Spirit, not from a

person.

I can never make you in my flesh and in my power, make you convicted

over sin.

All I can do is point you to the truth of God.

And it is the Holy Spirit who does the convicting.

So he says he will do that of sin and of righteousness, so he will

teach that righteousness.

And then it says, and of judgment, meaning it is the Holy

Spirit who opens the eyes of an individual to show them the conviction

of sin, the righteousness of God, and ultimately the judgment

that God is going to bring.

So judgment should awaken somebody to the point of, hey, you

know what?

I don't want that judgment.

But that comes through the Holy Spirit.

So what do we do?

How do we share the truth of the Holy Spirit with somebody?

Well, glad you asked.

It's sharing the gospel.

It's sharing the truth of the word of God.

The way that we can be a part of God's judgment and our.

Our role, if you will, is to point people to the truth, point

people to the Spirit.

So when I come to somebody, let's say somebody inevitably has

some sin in their life, right?

Okay, let's say this person has a sin in their life, and let's

say it's an unrepentant sin.

Let's say that they're not willing to even talk about it or

deal with it.

And I sit down with them.

I could in many ways try to be the Holy Spirit in their life, make

them feel guilty about it, you know, use manipulation tactics to

get them to a place in which they would say, well, you know what?

I better do this to get this person off my back.

And so maybe, maybe I could get some kind of artificial change

to happen in the way that they look or the way that they talk or

the way that they respond, at least, maybe even in front of me,

Right?

But that is not a righteous judgment.

That's me trying to do a job that I'm not supposed to do.

What I am supposed to do is to point them to the Word, which then

shows them the truth of God, which eventually convicts their heart,

which eventually gets them to a place of a true inward change and

true repentance.

So how do we preach repentance?

Well, we scare them.

Well, yes and no.

Yes and no.

I do believe that there is a level of fear in the gospel, right,

because of the judgment.

But the fear comes when you point them to the truth of God, not

enacting fear in their minds and their hearts through your own

power in their life, right?

And so, you know, it's very.

It's a fine line.

It's a fine line because we don't want to sugarcoat the truth

because there's a lot of people that will say, well, sugarcoat

the truth.

Don't tell them the whole thing.

You know, don't bring in the righteous.

Righteous, the nation of God.

Don't bring his anger upon the masses.

Don't bring, you know, the lake of fire and the brimstone, all

that kind of stuff, save that, okay?

And I understand what they're meaning by that to some degree, but

I also know that we cannot eliminate the complete message of

the gospel.

And so we preach to them the truth of God, and we preach to them

their condition, and we preach to them how God can change that condition.

And so that's what Zephaniah is doing.

Zephaniah is telling them, this is what God's going to do.

This is how you can fix it.

And is now your time to respond.

Now, why?

Okay, maybe it's just me, but why do we fear that?

I fear that sometimes because it's out of my control.

It's out of my hands, because in my pride I want to keep a grip

on it and keep some kind of organization in my mind that, hey,

you know what?

I still have this.

But sometimes we have to put the truth there, pray, do our best

in Example, for the cause of the gospel and allow the Holy Spirit

to work.

And sometimes the Holy Spirit doesn't work at the time that we

want it to.

We say, holy Spirit, please work in this person's life.

Convict their hearts.

And he doesn't convict them right away.

Or maybe he does convict them, but maybe they reject the conviction.

Maybe they put a stiff arm, maybe they're grieving the Holy Spirit,

whatever it is.

And we get upset.

We say, God, why isn't it happening now?

Because it's not our timing, it's God's timing.

Now.

Sometimes God works faster than we expect.

Sometimes we say, I don't know about you, but I've had prayers answered

before I could even like, complete my prayer.

It's been a.

That's a strange thing.

I'll be like, about to say something and God already knows what

I'm about to say.

And it's like, boom.

It's immediate.

That sometimes is an amazing thing.

Sometimes that's what happens with God.

But what we kind of have to understand is what John 16 is teaching

us is that, yes, there is a role of the Holy Spirit.

And he is going to convict the world of their sin.

He's going to convict them of what is righteousness.

And he's going to convict of the judgment.

And then he goes on to say of sin, because they believe.

Not on me.

And so really, the major sin that he's going to reveal to them

is that they have unbelief.

Now, what's the.

A lot of people would argue this.

What's the sin that's going to send you to hell?

Well, unbelief, right?

That's the main one.

Because I know of a guy.

Let me tell you something.

I know of a guy that he was a liar, he was a murderer, he was an

adulterer, and his name was David.

David committed some pretty heinous sins.

But we do know, at least I believe, that David is saved.

David is in heaven.

David was forgiven for his sins.

Now, there's a lot of people that would say, well, I don't know

if that person could be saved because of that sin.

Unless it's the sin of unbelief.

Unless you've rejected God all the way to the very end.

I believe that you can be forgiven.

And so what I would say to you tonight is this.

And some would argue, I already know where some minds are

going.

What about blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?

Well, that's a whole other argument for another day.

I believe blasphemy The Holy Spirit is rejection of the Holy Spirit

and not believing in the Holy Spirit and the power thereof.

But nonetheless, I think in Scripture, it very clearly says here

that the Holy Spirit is going to reveal to them that they don't

believe.

That's the sin, the sin of unbelief.

There in verse nine, then he says of righteousness, because I

go to my Father and you see me no more.

So he's going to teach people how to live in the righteous way

and then of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

Meaning God is going to reveal to the individual through the power

of the Holy Spirit that the one who is presenting all the lies

of this world is already judged.

Satan is already defeated.

And so I believe that that's something for us to see, is that,

you know, there is no win.

There is no victory in unbelief.

There is no victory in thinking that God's judgment will

be held off.

Yes, it is delayed.

And I've often sat.

I don't know if you guys do this.

I sit down and I just rack my brain about certain things and I

think about, why does God.

Why does God wait?

You know, if it was me, I would be like, enough's enough.

But God is long suffering.

Now, you could argue God's time doesn't work the way that our

time does, but nonetheless, why is he waiting?

And my thought on this is that he's still.

It's love.

He's waiting for more.

He's waiting for more.

When does that time run out?

The Bible says no man knows, no one knows.

But we need to be busy about the time that we have.

And so I've often thought about that and I've often thought

about a lot of other things when it comes to this understanding

of why.

You ever think why God does this?

Like, why did God do this?

Why does God love people that reject him?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Well, the reason why is because he is God.

That's what makes him different.

You and I would not think that way.

You and I would not be that long suffering.

You and I would not be this gracious.

And we can only just understand who God is and then hopefully

mirror that in our lives to the best of our ability and grow

every single day.

I struggle with that.

I struggle with grace.

I struggle with that meekness, right?

Because sometimes when we're right, we're right, right?

So, like, I don't care what anyone else says.

I'm right and I'm gonna win this.

And folks, sometimes you can be right.

But you can not be right.

Does that make sense?

You can be right in your facts, but you can be wrong in what

you're doing with it.

And I've been there.

I've been there.

Like I know that I'm right.

And so therefore I'm going to be wrong in trying to make that I'm

right.

Right.

And so it's.

Are we standing in the truth in our flesh?

Are we standing in the truth in our spirit?

In the spirit of God, I should say the spirit that indwells us.

So these are all things that I often think about.

And so you got a little glimpse into my mind tonight of all

those things that I, and admittedly in a flawed human state

that I struggle with sometimes, like why, why this, why

that?

But what we can see is that God does judge, but in God's judgment,

it's perfect judgment.

And so Zephaniah tells them we'll conclude Zephaniah chapter

two.

But Zephaniah tells them, don't live in your pride, don't magnify

yourself, go back to verse three.

Seek the Lord, all ye meek of the earth which have wrought his

judgment.

Seek righteousness, seek meekness that it may be well, or

that it may shall hide in the day of the Lord's anger.

Meaning like you might be spared.

And so I don't know about you, but I want to be on the side of the

Lord.

And so therefore my prayer for my life and my prayer for all of

our lives is that meekness and humility and faith are the markers

and not pride, self magnification and all of those other

negative things that Satan wants us to follow.

So thank you so much for your attention here this evening.

I do appreciate it.

We'll go through Zephaniah chapter three and then we'll conclude

Zephaniah won't be a long study.

And as we're getting closer to the end here, we'll probably do a

mini study here towards the end of the year.

I don't like to start studies at the tail end of the year.

And then everyone goes out for Christmas and out for Thanksgiving

and for the New Year, and then we get snowed in a couple.

Well, we won't get snowed in, but you know, we'll get some snow

and no one can come in on Wednesdays.

And so I don't like to start a new series right on that cusp of

the year.

So we might do a couple miniseries coming up here in the

near future.

I might actually what I what I actually might do is kind of transfer

over a little bit about what I do with the podcast.

I usually take a word of the week and talk about a word.

I might kind of merge some of those together and put that into

a couple sermons so that that might be beneficial for us at the

end of the year.

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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Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.