Woe to Her | Hidden Treasures

And scene. Okay. Having a conversation about

Zephaniah in the middle of the dairy aisle of

a supermarket is something I never thought I

would check off my list. But we did. And the

people walking by looking at it is very strange

as we're talking about it. That a lot of you

have said the same thing. Zephaniah just seems

angry. Like he's just really mad about something.

And unfortunately or fortunately, depending on

how you want to look at it, prophets usually

were. Because one of the things that prophets

were kind of dealt with in their job and their

roles is a burden to tell the people of Israel

just how bad they were. Now, there are some of

you that, if you're being honest with yourself,

kind of are going, I wish I had that job. I would

really like to just have the Lord ordain me to

go and tell people how bad they are. There are

some pastors who think that's their job. I will

never be one of them because I've got to first

look in the mirror and tell myself how bad I

am first. And it really loses its luster after

you beat yourself up to go and try to beat other

people's up. But Zephaniah had a job to do. That's

the difference with prophets. That's what's different

with people that are called by God to bring those

things. Well, pastor, you said in your first

and second sermon that we can be prophets of

the Lord. Absolutely. But it isn't necessarily

about judgment. It's more about reconciliation

and restoration. It's our job. But Zephaniah

is calling out some very specific things. And

so now we turn to chapter 3. The title of the

sermon is Woe to Her. I brought it up first sermon.

I'll bring it now. The word woe, we can look

at that as a lot of different definitions of

the word woe. You have woe. I think I said this

first sermon. I go to Uncle Jesse in Full House.

I don't know why, but that's just something I

do. I can see John Stamos saying that. If you

don't know who that is, feel free to look it

up today. It would be a waste of time, but go

ahead. But woe could also mean something really

big. Like, woe. Like what is going on or something

unexpected or something really awkward, we can

throw that word in there. The word woe today

is not a good word. The word woe is W -O -E.

It's used as more of a pre -warning of the things

to come. Woe to that person that if they don't

whatever, then something's going to happen. Prophets

use this term a lot. Jeremiah, Isaiah. Zephaniah,

Malachi, Micah, all of them use this word woe

because it should kind of prick your ears up.

It should be like, okay, I probably should listen.

It's kind of like when Jesus in the gospel says,

either in the beginning or the end of a teaching,

those with eyes to see and ears to hear, he's

really saying, take this and go deeper. Woe to

her. Because the first thing that Zephaniah is

going to call out, and he's been building to

this, is the rebellion. of those people that

said that they love the Lord. That this is one

of the really specific judgments of Zephaniah,

and I title it today, When Rebellion Wears Its

Sunday Best. Now, I could sit down with a lot

of you that have been in church longer, let's

say 30 years, and one of the things that have

changed drastically kind of in church cultures

is, you know, pews to chairs. Again, we don't

need to bring it up, but that has been a big

change, but also how people dress on Sunday mornings.

When we were going through the 150th anniversary

in 2020 and we were getting just globs and globs

of pictures and different memorabilia of Munster

Church over 150 years, it's a long time. This

August will be 155. It's just the difference

in attire. Now, I'm not here to spread any kind

of judgment. You know, our kind of, what we kind

of say here at Munster is just wear something,

right? That's kind of the goal. It's a very low

bar, but that's what we're saying. But back in

the day, I remember this growing up, it was shirts,

it was ties, it was dresses, it was all of those

things. Mine, more shirts and ties than the dresses.

But understand that it was something different.

But Sunday best kind of carried this, kind of

this moniker, if you will, of, you know, we almost

use that to describe, how you could go to an

event, right? Oh, what is the dress for this

wedding? Oh, it's your Sunday best. That meant

something. That Sunday best usually meant some

kind of button -down shirt, knot, jeans, you

know, all of those things. And one of the things

that Zephaniah is calling out is just that. So

far, Zephaniah has taken us on a journey from

God's judgment to Judah, to a call to repentance,

to the sweeping judgment of all the nations,

what we did last week. And now in chapter 3,

the focus shifts back to Jerusalem. So we've

done the initial kind of heart punch, gut punch.

We've now gone to how this affects everybody

else. Now it's back to us. Now it's back to the

church. The city of God. This wasn't a flattering

judgment. The people who had received the covenant,

the temple, the promises, they still stand condemned.

Why? Zephaniah makes it very clear. Their rebellion

hides behind a mask of religion. That for their

dirty, dusty lives, they were masked by the tie

of their tie. Their Sunday best. They draw near

with words, but their hearts are far from the

Lord. So as we explore this today, we see God's

deep concern. Not just a fleeting concern, but

a deep part of his heart, not just for what we

believe outwardly, but also how we live. Hypocrisy

is not hidden from the eyes of God. And yet,

God's grace is not hidden from those who repent.

We're going to dive into that today. A couple

things historically, just to kind of wrap through

this minor prophet. That Jerusalem had all the

right spiritual structures, right? Jerusalem

had the temple, the priesthood of believers,

the line of Aaron, the Levites, the scriptures.

They had the scrolls. They had all the things.

But what Zephaniah is actually exposing is the

eternal rot, the injustice, the pride, the disobedience,

and the unteachable spirit. So I'm going to just

say right now, umbrella of grace. Because I think

Zephaniah is going to give both barrels to all

of us today, myself included. Despite Josiah's

reforms that were starting, this prophecy shows

that the people had not turned back into sincerity.

They've not turned back in sincerity. They were

not sincere with the God that they claimed they

loved. All right, so let's jump in. Verses 1

through 5, woe to the oppressive city that Jerusalem,

the city of God, was known as an oppressive city.

Friends, that's gross. That is a gross understanding

of how believers should live. That if we are

living just to oppress others, I think we've

missed it. And even in the Old Testament, Zephaniah

is calling this out. Let's jump in. Verses 1

through 5. Woe to her. who is rebellious and

defiled, the oppressing city. She listens to

no voice. She accepts no correction. She does

not trust in the Lord. She does not draw near

to her God. Her officials within are roaring

lions. Her judges are evening wolves that leave

nothing till the morning. Her prophets are fickle,

treacherous men. Her priests profane what is

holy. They do violence to the law. The Lord within

her is righteous. He does no injustice. Every

morning he shows forth his justice. Each dawn

he does not fail. But the unjust knows no shame.

Up until that last slide, I would think you would

be talking about a Gentile city. You would have

been talking about Syria or Babylon. You wouldn't

be talking about Jerusalem. But this is exactly

what Zephaniah is doing. He is calling it out.

I don't think he knew he only had one chapter

left because of the way we canonize the scriptures.

But he does. Jerusalem is being called up for

being rebellious, defiled, and oppressive. Four

major changes have gone on. From the fruitful

city of light, city of God, good things are happening.

Yahweh's name is being proclaimed. Things have

changed. So let's break it down. She listens

to no one. She listens to no voice. What does

that mean? She's unteachable. She accepts no

correction. What does that mean? She is proud.

Not proud as how proud I was of my Jack. My Jack's

double yesterday in his game. Not that kind of

pride. A little bit of a flex. But he did. It

was a great hit. This is pride in a bad way.

Because she accepts no correction. Meaning...

You feel yourself high of high, top of top. No

one can correct you. That is a very, very evil

pride. She does not trust in the Lord. So she

is faithless. She does not draw near to her God.

She is spiritually distant. Let me read those,

the four again. And again, as I kind of clench

up in conviction, I understand if you are as

well, that we are unteachable. We're proud and

not in a good way. Faithless and spiritually

distant. Now I want to reverse it. Because in

20 years of pastoral ministry, it's the reverse

that I see as people tend to fall by the wayside

in their faith. First, they feel they're spiritually

distant. Then all of a sudden, faith drops to

the floor. They become proud in the fact that

they're in their rebellion. Because God has not

smited them, God has not struck them down, thinking

God's like Zeus. And so therefore they become

unteachable. They become defensive. Whenever

a word is brought to them, they dismiss it, or

they try to then bring out their own double barrels

and shoot back. None of that lines up with the

Beatitudes that Jesus gives us in the Sermon

on the Mount. One of the things about our leaders,

her leaders are predatory. Friends, that is not

a good thing. That means that they have leaders

looking at people who are vulnerable and taking

advantage. Her prophets are reckless. Her priests

profane the holy city. So if I'm an Israelite,

if I'm in Judah or Jerusalem, if I'm reading

or hearing these words, I would go, oh no. Something

bad's about to happen because we've already heard

about some of that the day of the Lord in the

last couple things Zephaniah had said. Yet, God

is in her midst. God is in our midst. Doing no

wrong. God doesn't do wrong. We're the ones that

do wrong. Morning by morning, giving what? Justice.

Justice means when you do something wrong, there

are consequences. That is justice. Mercy is it's

not death. There's grace, there's forgiveness,

reconciliation. Sometimes the greatest danger

in our lives or in the church is not from the

world, but from spiritual complacency within

God's people. Complacency. It's one of the worst

things I think a believer can be called. You've

become complacent in your faith. How can people

call that out? You've become unteachable. You're

too proud. You're faithless. You're spiritually

distant. It kind of speaks for itself. We must

ask ourselves, are we teachable? Do we accept

correction from Scripture, from the Spirit, from

one another? Oh, I've seen this all too many

times. When people come and they want to bring

this double -edged sword to slice open a fellow

sheep, to slice open a fellow brother or sister.

You want to know why this was a double -edged

sword? To fight the flaming arrows of Satan.

Not necessarily each other, but it happens all

day, every day, even in the church. Church leadership

must be examined in light of these verses. Are

our leaders servant -hearted or self -serving?

That's been kind of a little bit of my road the

last couple weeks as one of the leaders of our

church looking at how we do what we do, why we

do what we do, and not basing our leadership

of Munster Church on assumption or the understanding

of this is how we've always done it. That there

are times to look into these things. More times

than not, it's after something happens that we

have to kind of react to it and grow and learn

from it. Oh, to be a church or an organization

that can be proactive in all things. It's one

of the things I love about a ministry of our

church that does not get a lot of play because

you don't want it to. And that's our safe church

policy. Our safe church team led by an amazing

group of people that are there for when something

happens. It's something that the denomination

instituted 20 years ago and now is requiring,

hopefully, every church by 2026. We're already

there. Little brag on the church. Our safe church

manual is actually used by the denomination to

give churches as they start their own. Whether

it's one person or a team. That you have a group

of people looking at how we make decisions. How

we do what we do. Our council also being one

of those. That it's okay to examine church leadership.

And again, I had... I'm not that good in my scheduling.

Just ask my wife and my family. The fact that

we announce our nominees today, and this is the

text. Believe me, I did not put that together.

I am not that good. But what happens when we

ignore these warnings? What happens when we,

in our pride, our faithlessness, our distance

to God, go, yeah, great, that's for somebody

else, not for me? Well, let's look at these two

verses, 6 and 7. I have cut off nations. Their

battlements are in ruins. I have laid waste their

streets so that no one walks in them. Their cities

have been made desolate without a man, without

an inhabitant. I said, surely you will fear me.

You will accept correction. Then your dwelling

would not be cut off according to all that I

have appointed against you. But all the more,

they were eager to make all their deeds corrupt.

God's even saying, I'm going to do these things.

Like a parent watching their kid in some level

of disobedience going, if you touch that, you

will be grounded. Right? Or if you liken that

to, what is it, Nemo? Right? Finding Nemo? That

it's, do not touch the butt. It was boat. But,

and what does he do? He stares right at dad and

just goes, what? Right? And then he gets kidnapped.

Maybe that's the lesson, right? You disobey mom

and dad, you're going to be kidnapped. I didn't

say that out loud. That is not what happened,

okay? Don't rewatch Nemo today. But understand,

these are warnings given for a reason. God doesn't

bluff, right? He's not trying to play some cosmic

poker game. God had judged other nations as the

example, expecting Jerusalem to fear and accept

correction. I hear a lot of stories about what

my dad was like, Jim. He died again when I was

two. I don't have any memories of him. And I

always think about what that would have been

like to have a dad like that. Dan now, my mom's

husband, my stepdad, but I consider him my dad,

it never got to a point, because I was about

to start high school when they got married, it

was never kind of coming in for him to kind of

take that mantle of male leadership, headship

of the house. He didn't do that. He actually

came in and discipled Lynn and I, and that was

a great thing. So it was really the fear of my

mother, where some of you might have had the

fear of your father in life out of like a reverent

fear, a respectful fear. Mine was my mother.

Right, that I have a respectful fear of my, pretty

much still to this day, right, that it's still

there. And I think it's good. Now, she's a lot

less scary now since I got taller than her. But

understand that that respectful fear is part

of that. And what God is trying to show his people

is it's okay to fear him. It's not fear as in

the boogeyman. It's fear as in you are really

big. And in the snap of your fingers, these kind

of things can happen. I need to be in reverent

awe of who you are as Heavenly Father. But isn't

it funny that when we become distant to our Heavenly

Father, when we become faithless, when we become

prideful, isn't that when God tries to get our

attention? And the goal is not to ever get Dad

that mad, right? Like, ratcheting it up. Asked

my boys how long car rides go. Right? We saw

it even a little bit yesterday. It was like,

we didn't even get past Lansing, and I was done

with the drive. And we still had a half an hour

to go. And it's like, I got to come up with some

kind of, like, physical signs, you know, of kind

of how, like, a volcano erupts. I'm working on

it. But understand, you may have had that, too,

growing up. Where all of a sudden, Dad, all of

a sudden, would be like, and you knew to flee.

Right? You knew that. I'm seeing some people

nod. I know. I'm clocking those households. But

understand that the Bible also says that God's

slow to anger. We've already talked about this.

This wasn't, okay, you become prideful. There

you go. You're gone. That he builds up to this

what we call or should call grace. It's hard

to look at discipline as grace, but it is. When

God gives us examples through discipline or correction

or the story of others, do we learn from them?

That is the power of testimony. How good God's

grace is, but how hard his discipline is as well.

Especially for us that have gone through it.

It's not enough to see God's justice around us.

We must stop and we must respond to it with humility

and change. That God just doesn't do stuff to

do stuff. That God works all things out for the

good of those that love him, that are called

to his purposes. Guess what? That's all of you.

That's me. We are called to his purposes, and

he wants to get us there. So that word remnant,

oh, I love it. I love it when prophets use the

word remnant. This is, we see, kind of that grace

and that remnant purified, starting in verse

8. And we'll go through verse 13. Therefore,

wait for me, declares the Lord, for the day when

I rise up to seize the prey, for my decision

is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to

pour out upon them indignation, all my burning

anger, for in the fire of my jealousy, all the

earth shall be consumed. Go back to that real

quick. For in the fire of my jealousy, all the

earth shall be consumed. That should terrify

us and cause us to rejoice, but we'll get there.

Okay, next slide. For at that time, I will change

the speech of the people to a pure speech that

all of them may call upon the name of the Lord

and serve him with one accord. From beyond the

rivers of Cush, my worshipers, the daughters

of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering.

On that day you shall not be put to shame because

of the deeds by which you have rebelled against

me. For then I will remove from your midst your

proudly exalted ones, and you shall no longer

be haughty in my holy mountain. But I will leave

in your midst a people humble and lowly. They

shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord. Those

who are left in Israel, they shall do no injustice,

speak no lies, or shall there be found in their

mouth a deceitful tongue. For they shall graze

and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

So not only is this a remnant, this is the remnant

of promise, of covenantal promise, of understanding

what God desires. The Lord will gather the nations

for judgment. It will be fierce. It will be comprehensive.

But it will be refining like a fire refines.

I always say this. This is something that my

staff and my council hear all the time. That

is iron sharpens iron. It's not always done through

hugs and kisses. Right? When we have a grievance

against one another, when there's active conflict

between two people, it isn't all peacetime. It's

not all happy. Sometimes you've got to get to

the nitty gritty. But through that, through the

fire of conflict and resolution and restoration,

we grow. We become refined. So that fire that

God's talking about, so we saw what the people

were doing, why the fire came, now the fire does

something else. But from this fire, a people

shall emerge, and I love this, of pure speech.

This is a reversal of the Tower of Babel. serving

with one accord, that they would be united in

their worship, that we would be humble and meek,

the true remnant of a believer, that we'd be

living in justice and speaking truth, that we

would hold to a moral integrity of loving one

another through wrongs and through rights. So

this fire shows us a couple things as we round

third today. Our speech matters. Do our words

reflect purity, peace, and praise? Or do they

reflect our own desire for a pound of flesh?

I was wrong, so I'm going to get mine. The church

is meant to serve God in one accord. How do you

do that? With unity. Something that is cultivated

and hopefully protected. Friends, we're going

to disagree about things. That's all. It's part

of being human. But how we disagree actually

shows who we worship and what we believe in.

If it's of ourselves, then it will be about our

own name, making sure we're good. But if it's

about Christ, it's about lifting his name through

the process of reconciliation. Humility and honesty

are traits of the faithful remnants. That is

something we want to be. How are these evident

in our life together? Humility and honesty. If

we're just going to be a church that tells each

other what we want to hear, lies to one another,

doesn't really get to that truth, we probably

should just hang it up because we're not doing

much. And we're actually tarnishing the name

of Jesus. Because we believe some things. Our

confessions help us and raise up for us the importance

of these things. Heidelberg Catechism, question

and answer 122. Hallowed be your name. We are

called to live holy lives and reflect the name

we bear. Oh, this is going to hurt. I'm looking

at myself first. That if I'm unwilling to forgive,

then I probably shouldn't put Christian on my

name. That doesn't come from me. That comes from

Jesus himself. That if he says, if you are unwilling

to forgive, then you don't know me. The Belgian

Confession, Article 29, marks that the true church

include the practice of church discipline and

a sincere pursuit of holiness. Now, don't get

me wrong. There are churches that they love discipline,

like a masochist. Like they love to just discipline

people. That discipline, I talked to some of

these pastors, and it's kind of like, ooh, we

got a discipline case this week. What? I want

to stop meeting with them. I want to call the

lunch right then and there because I don't understand

that joy of discipline. But if done the right

way, discipline can be a pursuit of holiness,

not a pursuit of condemnation. Now, I've never

heard this from a pastor, and I hope I never

will, like, oh, I hope we get to excommunicate

them. But when we desire that pound of flesh,

we've already excommunicated people in our mind.

When we've shot that arrow multiple times instead

of looking inward first, we've already excommunicated

those people in our mind and our hearts. And

what Jesus says is therein lies the sin as well.

The promise of remnants with pure speech of one

accord looks forward to Labor Day weekend. When

we get into the book of Acts. That the Holy Spirit

brings this about. That the remnant, that word

again, I know, is an understanding that the Holy

Spirit is going to come and dwell with us. Think

about that for a minute. And I'm landing the

plane. Think about the Holy Spirit for a minute.

That a third of the Trinity, Father, Son, Spirit,

resides in you. resides in the church. So why

wouldn't we want to live this way? If the Holy

Spirit resides in us, and the Holy Spirit is

the one that brings about forgiveness, reconciliation,

restoration, doesn't care about our Sunday best,

but wants our heart, is advocating for our heart,

then I think we should live that way. The Spirit

reverses Babel and unites worshipers from all

nations, and the church begins. Ever thought

about that? Without Pentecost, we wouldn't be

here. Munster Church would not be here for almost

155 years. That without Pentecost, the church

does not start. And part of the Holy Spirit's

job is to remind us that Christ is the one. who

purifies our lips and our hearts. He is the true

prophet, priest, and king. And unfortunately,

what Zephaniah is saying is, Jerusalem, you forgot

about that. You have failed in keeping that.

So friends, look inward this week. Again, it

feels like a prep Sunday, but it's not. That's

next week. It's that understanding of our own

humility, our own truth. And this is going to

hurt. Our own trust. As a shepherd, it's hard

to see when trust becomes very limited with a

group of people or with individuals or whatever.

That when we can't trust people in the church,

the church suffers. But trust, if I asked each

and every one of you, is a very hard thing to

get in your life. For some of you, when that

trust is broken, there's not a snowball chance

in whatever that it's ever going to be repaired.

Friend, then you don't fully get this. I'm not

saying that that person that hurt you needs to

be on your Christmas card list. But there needs

to be grace and forgiveness. Why? Because if

not, the cross didn't mean anything. And trust

is hard. Isn't it funny that Proverbs 3 instructs

us to trust the Lord with all of our hearts,

to lean not on our own understanding, But acknowledge

him in everything, and he will direct our paths.

It's a pretty cool promise. A little four -part

sermon. Read that today. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.

It starts with trust. So next week, as Zephaniah

brings this plane to a close, he's going to bring

us to some of that grace. He's beaten us up enough.

But what was he saying then and now? Well, then

Jerusalem had the trappings of religion, but

not in their heart. Her leaders were corrupt.

Her people were unteachable. God promised to

purify a remnant from among them. So what is

he saying now? It's easy to wear the label of

Christian while resisting the voice of Christ.

The church must not settle for appearance, but

seek sincere holiness, humility, and gospel truth.

God's justice refines, but his mercy restores.

Let's pray.