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Thank you very much. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good evening everybody. Turn to Zephaniah chapter 1. Zephaniah chapter 1. Zephaniah chapter 1. Starting in verse 1. The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amoriah, the son of Hischiah, and the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah. I will utterly consume all things from off the land, sayeth the Lord. I will consume man and beast. I will consume the fowls of the heaven and the fishes of the sea and the stumbling blocks of the wicked, and I will cut off man from off the land, sayeth the Lord. I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place and the name of the chimarims with the priests. And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, and them that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcolm, and them that are turned back from the Lord, and those that have not sought the Lord, nor inquired for him, hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord, of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at hand. For the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit. And it shall come to pass in that day, sayeth the Lord, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish-gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills. Howl, ye inhabitants of Machtesh, for all the merchant people are cut down, all they that bear silver are cut off. And it shall come to pass at that time, that I'll search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lease, that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their house desolation, and they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them. And they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof. The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly. Even the voice of the day of the Lord, the mighty man, shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of waste-ness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm, against the faint cities and against the high towers. And I'll bring distress upon man, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord, and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath. But the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land. The Lord I pray that you, this Pastor Jones, is going to preach the book of Zephaniah. All right. Amen. Well, we are continuing right along with our Wednesday night series titled, Minor Prophets, Major Problems. And tonight we're going to go over the book of Zephaniah, a short book. We should be able to run through most of these verses, but obviously it wouldn't be as detailed as if we were to come back and do a verse by verse, which, Lord willing, someday we will definitely do that. So let's start this thing off here, right off the bat, in chapter 1, verse number 1. So the Bible says, Now, unlike the other minor prophets that we've been going over, there's actually a little bit more about Zephaniah that we can get insight into, just even based off of this first verse here. So you can see that he's one of the only minor prophets that, I guess we could say, has royal blood. He comes from a lineage of kings, and the king that stands out the most to me is Hezekiah. So to give you a good backdrop so that you can really grasp and understand the book of Zephaniah, we need to talk about the reigning king during Zephaniah's ministry here. So keep your place in Zephaniah, but go to 2 Chronicles chapter number 34. And I'll give you the backdrop here before we move forward. So by this point here in Josiah's reign, the northern kingdom of Israel, they've already been taken away, carried captive. So that's already been a done deal. But what has happened, and you're going to see as we go through chapter 1, is that that Baal worship that we read about last Sunday that Jehu got out, it wound up finding a home in the southern kingdom of Judah. And going forward there, several kings after Jehu, you'll run into a king in the southern kingdom of Judah by the name of Manasseh. And Manasseh was a very wicked king, very evil. However, in the latter portion of his life, he actually changes and calls upon the name of the Lord. It's a wonderful story. We are going to be studying that in a few weeks in our Sunday night series. But it's important to understand that he was very wicked, idolatry, the whole nine. After King Manasseh, his son, Ammon, took charge and began to reign in the southern kingdom of Judah. And what happened is some folks conspired against Ammon and actually put him to death. And then after that, those people were found and put to death. So you can see there, the hedge of protection for Ammon just wasn't there because he did wickedly and because of the wickedness of his father. There had already been so much corruption in the land, it just caught up with him. Now, why that's important is because after Ammon takes over, King Josiah begins to reign. And something very interesting about Josiah, you're going to see here in verse number one, and that's his age. So look at this here, 2 Chronicles chapter 34, look at verse number one. So the Bible says, Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. Now, how would you like to be that young and have that much responsibility? I mean, that would be something very interesting. Obviously, there are people around him coaching him, guiding him. We saw, what was it, last Sunday, how Ahab and his sons and his daughters, their children, the king's children, they had people that were called bringers up of the children, that would raise the children, that would teach the children, that were always around them. And it would be no different for these kings as well. But nonetheless, Josiah at eight years old finds himself in the position of king of the southern kingdom of Judah. And what does he have to deal with? Well, he has to deal with the mess that Manasseh, his grandfather, created, and the mess that his father, Ammon, failed to stop and clean up. OK, look at verse number two. It says this. So unlike his grandfather, unlike his father, verse two, it says, And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left. So he's unlike the other two before him. He is a great king, and he is beginning to walk in the ways of David. Look at verse number three. It says, For in the eighteenth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father. And in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images. So he gets to this age where he decides he's going to follow the Lord. So he starts going through the land, and he starts gathering up all the idolatrous images, and the groves, and he starts to break these things down. Look at verse number four. It says, And they break down the altars of Balaam in his presence. So again, OK, Jehu got Baal out of the northern kingdom. What happened? He found his way down to the southern kingdom, eventually found a home. People clung to that and began to build his religion. Verse four again, it says, And they break down the altars of Balaam in his presence. And the images that were on high above them, he cut down, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he break in pieces and made dust of them, and strode it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. If that doesn't give you some insight on how zealous this king was for God, I don't know what does. He didn't just send his priests, he didn't just send people around the nation to just preach against this stuff. No, he literally physically took those images, broke them down, they ground them to powder, and then what does he do? He goes and sprinkles the stuff all over the graves of the people that supported that. Why is this in the Bible? Well, God is obviously trying to tell us something here, which he's been telling us consistently, and that is how he feels about false religion, false gods. I mean, obviously things are much different in our day and age. We're on this planet as ambassadors, therefore our job is simply to call out false doctrine, to edify the brethren, and to evangelize our communities. And that's it. We don't go to people's homes and rip down their flags and stomp their gnomes into the ground, though we may like to, you know. We may desire that, but that's not our desire. But that doesn't mean that God has changed his mind on how he feels about that stuff. God will one day, in the day of the Lord, in the day of his wrath, actually commence this very same type of punishment, but obviously on a much larger scale. Verse number five, it says, And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. Okay, so now, again, understand this order here. He goes around and he says, Okay, we're going to take down all of these images in the sight of this stupid idol that cannot speak, that cannot talk. We're going to break these things down into powder, sprinkle them on the graves. Then we're going to dig these people up, burn their bones as an insult to hopefully declare unto the world that there is only one true and living God. Look what he does next in verse number five. It says, And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even unto Naphtali with their Maddocks round about. Now you can go back to Zephaniah chapter number one. So hopefully you caught that there, what Josiah did. Okay, not only did Josiah go through the southern kingdom of Judah, which was his responsibility, but he went into the already conquered northern kingdom of Israel. Okay, which has already been conquered by the Assyrians and did the same thing. Okay, he just went to clean house completely. Now, if you read the story in Second Kings, starting in chapter number 22, something else very interesting that you're going to discover is that Josiah begins this revival. Okay, he starts to do a lot of the stuff. He starts to seek after the Lord. The Bible even says that he's beginning to walk in the ways of David, his father. After that, what happens is one of his guys finds a copy of the Bible amongst rubble, digs it out, reads it, and they bring it back to Josiah, and they read it, and it clicks for him. And he's like, oh, wait a second here. This is why we are in the mess that we are in, because we aren't following the word of God. We're not following it to a T. And guess what he does next? He goes around and he finds the houses of the Sodomites that are by the temple, and he burns those things down and gets the rest of the Sodomites out of the land. See, why is that important? Well, because any time you have wicked rulers like Manasseh, Ammon, and you have priests, you have religious leadership that fails to worship God, that fails to teach the doctrines and commandments in the Bible, the next thing that happens are the Sodomites come up and they attack the house of the Lord. That's the same thing that we have going on today. There's nothing new under the sun. So I just wanted to bring that up because I feel that's very important. Now, back to Zephaniah. What's unique about Zephaniah, which is actually his major problem that he's going to deal with tonight, and that is that he is a prophet during a time of revival that we haven't seen literally since the days of David. The Bible even says about Josiah that he ordered a feast that hadn't been like any other king prior to him. But what Zephaniah does is his book here, his ministry, it doesn't even focus on any of that revival. It's all wrath, chapter 1, chapter 2, and chapter 3. So Zephaniah literally ignores that, and you've got to ask yourself why. Why does he ignore that? You'll see as we go through it, but I'm going to give you the answer right now. He ignores it because he knows and God knows it's going to be short-lived. After Josiah, there's going to be more wicked kings that come in and things are going to go back to the way that they were. So he's warning people in the midst of revival. This also teaches us something else. Just because things are going good in our lives, just because things are going good in your life and things seem to be just good, you have no problems, you still need to stick to the hard things. You still need to be checked on the hard things because when we fail to do that, people get complacent, and complacency always leads to compromise. That is what we have got to remember and understand, and that is really a big thing that Zephaniah teaches us without even saying that. So let's start off here. I'm going to have you look down at verse number three. So each chapter I have a title for that chapter, and let's take a look at the title for this, but first let's read verse number three. So the Bible says this. This is, again, the prophet Zephaniah, God speaking through him. He says in verse three, I will consume man and beast. I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked, and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord. You see that word in there twice, man. So why are you bringing that up? Because what I've titled this chapter is this. Wrath is coming, look at yourself. That is basically the theme of this chapter. Wrath is coming, so look at yourselves. Now that's what Zephaniah is going to communicate to the southern kingdom of Judah. Hey, wrath is coming. I understand right now there's revival. However, look at yourself. Where are you? How on board with this revival actually are you? And as you read these things, you can insert your name inside of that. You know, how are we doing? Are we looking at ourselves? Because guess what? Wrath is coming upon this world here. So, again, what does God say there at the beginning of verse three? I will consume man and beast. Back up to verse number two, he says, I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. What land? Well, this is talking about the land of Judah, the southern kingdom of Judah. Skip down to verse number four. He says, I will also stretch out my hand upon Judah and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Notice the personality there. Okay, man, inhabitants. This is, again, geared towards the people. And then he says, and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place. In the name of the Chemerims with the priests. So you can see that this false religion brings in pagans. Not only does it bring in pagans, but it brings in their own priests and a whole entire system, okay? So at this point in time, God is saying, I am going to deal with this, okay? Now, again, Zephaniah prophesying during the time of Josiah, where Josiah is already getting this stuff out. So what do you think is going to happen? Baal is going to come right back, okay? Anytime you have wicked leadership, Satanism comes in. And it has many different faces, many different ugly avenues that it takes on here. It's called Baal worship. In our day and age, it's called Earth Day, you know, or climate change. And anybody who doesn't know about that stuff, that is literally, I mean, idolatry, okay? This whole climate change, Earth Day, you know, like, I agree with we should take care of the Earth Day or whatever, okay? But let's not go too far overboard. Most people that subscribe to that, most people, all they're about is the Earth. You know, just go down to some of these, you know, these, I don't know, these organic natural stores, and I shop there too, so I'm not knocking you. I shop there every week. I'm just saying, you're going to find some interesting folks in there, okay? You're going to find some people in there that literally do worship the Earth, okay? They put the Earth above God, and that is wrong. And how it's starting right now in our day and age is by, oh, climate change. You know, we need electric, everything, and we need to get rid of gas stoves, and we need to get rid of gas fireplaces, and we need to get rid of gas vehicles. Look, all of that is for control, is what that is. All of that is a lie, it's a scam, and I have no idea what this has to do with the chapter, but let's keep reading here, okay? I just wanted to say that because I had to deal with somebody like that today. Look at verse number five. So he says, and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, and them that worship, and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcolm. So again, you have these people that swear by the Lord, you have people that swear by Malcolm, and you probably during this time had people that did both, okay? We have that today as well. I've talked to several people, even in this community, you know, and they will actually say things like, you know, is Satanism really that bad? You know, or they'll say things like, well, is Islam really that bad? Is any of the isms, are they really that bad? Or another avenue to God in a place where Christianity isn't popular? And it's like, no, it's false religion, false gods, God hates it, it is what it is. That is what God is saying here. God is saying, hey, look at yourselves, Judah. Take a good, deep, hard look at yourselves, because wrath is coming. And this is why it is coming. Verse 6, he says, and them that are turned back from the Lord, and those that have not sought the Lord nor inquired for him. Hopefully you see this progression as false religion starts to build up, as it starts arising and preachers stop preaching against false religion, what tends to happen? Well, people stop seeking for the Lord. It's evident in our day and age when you go out knocking on doors. It used to be a lot more receptive. It seems like even five years ago it was more receptive than it is today. There has definitely been a change in people's attitudes, that is for sure. And I can only imagine it's going to get worse. But hey, again, that doesn't mean we stop, that doesn't mean we take a break. That just means it is what it is. Every time you go out, you're either soul warning or you're soul winning. It's a victory either way. So look at verse number 7. So he says, hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at hand, for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. And so just like a lot of the other minor prophets that we have taken a look at, here you see the thread, the day of the Lord. Now Zephaniah, again, what he's doing here is he's obviously letting Judah know, hey, you're about to get conquered. What happened in the northern kingdom is going to happen here. Here's why. And then he uses this language, the day of the Lord. And when you read these things and you read Revelation 6, you read Matthew 24, you read Mark 13, there's a lot of parallel here. So understand that. You're going to see that in all of these minor prophets here. These things have like a double fulfillment. We've gone into that. I don't want to bore you with that tonight. Look at verse number 8. It says, and it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. So there you go. You have false religion, you have Satanism, you have earth worship, people gazing at the stars, gazing at the heavens, ignoring God, not seeking God, and what follows next? Well, strange apparel, okay? I mean, does that not sound like today, like 2023? You just go to any store, even around here in conservative Idaho, okay? What do you see? People wearing some crazy things. Look, we have a guy who shows up every other week practically in a bat costume, and he's called the reprobat. It's like, you know, even the landlord was like, what is up with that guy? He's like, every time I see that, I just think like you're not doing yourselves any favors. So it was even cracking him up. But that is the stage that we're in, okay? Looking at verse number nine, he says, In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their master's houses with violence and deceit. So again, this is the culture that God is preaching against. It's important to really grasp this, because we're going to get into something about Zionism here in a little while. Looking at verse 10, he says, And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that there shall be a noise of a cry from the fish gate, and a howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills. And so what God is saying here is understand that this judgment, this wrath, is coming to Judah, okay? But it's written in a language in which we can see a double fulfillment. We can see it pointing to the coming day of the Lord, which is obviously going to cover the entire earth. So let's see here, look at verse number 12. Look at verse number 12. Actually, back up to verse number 11. He says, How ye inhabitants of Machtesh, for all the merchant people are cut down, all they that bear silver are cut off. Okay, so what's going to happen when the Babylonians come in is the merchants, the economy, and those who say, well, I have wealth, I'll be okay no matter what. God's saying that's not going to save you in the day of the Lord. Just like it couldn't save anyone in Judah, it's not going to save anyone when God comes back in the future. Verse 12, And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their leaves, that say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. What does this mean? What is he talking about here? God is saying, I am going to put my spirit, I'm going to search the land and look at men who are supposed to be men. Okay, people who are supposed to be raising their families, following the Bible, and doing accordingly, and I'm going to look out after those people that are complacent, those people who say, well, God doesn't do good or bad. Where's the promise of his coming? And God is going to teach them a very harsh reality, that he is not stagnant, that he is not ignoring anything, that he will take action. Hopefully you can see in that that people that are complacent, that have this attitude, really display a vast ignorance regarding God's judgment. Because people are saying like, well, why are all these evil people getting away with evil? Why is the Biden administration putting forth a bill to lessen the sentencing for murderers and rapists and things like that? It's like, just wait. Okay, just wait. God will punish this nation, just like he did Judah. Now, I get it. There is a big difference between the southern kingdom of Judah and God's nation of Israel than America, but you know what? No nation, and you're going to see this in chapter 2, no nation is going to go unscathed. No nation is going to go unpunished. God cares about the planet. Look at verse 13, he says, Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation. I almost titled this sermon Judah's Final Booty Call, but I didn't do it because I figured that might just be a little too much, but that's just an old word there for goods, okay? Spoiled and things of that nature. The rest of the verse there, he says, They shall also build houses, but not inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof. And again, when the Babylonians came in and throughout three different ways were taking the inhabitants of the southern kingdom of Judah captive, one of the reasons why people didn't want to leave is because all they could think about is look at this house I built. What about my vineyard? God said, hey, you want to trust in that? You want to just focus on that? If that's going to be your whole world and you're going to ignore me, guess what? Someone else is going to come here and partake of that, okay? That's what he's saying there, and that's the message. And again here, look at this in verse 14, he says, The great day of the Lord is near. It is near and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord. The mighty man shall cry there bitterly. So again, the mighty men, their special forces, their army, no one is going to be able to save them from God's judgment from his wrath. Verse 15, it says that day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of waste-ness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. Now when you take a look at those physical things there, I mean, that could really just be an outline of a sermon series. Okay, that day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress. That's what the kings, that's what the religious leadership did to the people. They prayed upon the poor, they started taking the things that they were working for and going contrary to the law. This is a day of waste-ness and desolation. Guess what, that's what they did with the statutes and commandments. They just wasted them, desolated them. A day of darkness and gloominess, that's the result of taking away the preaching of God's word, okay? And so people can't see, everything is gloomy, no one can feel. And then of course, it brings about clouds and thick darkness. Why? Because people are not being taught the truth, therefore they cannot see the truth. Verse 16 says, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities and against the high towers. Then he says this again in verse 17, and I will bring, and here it is, distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men because they have sinned against the Lord, and their blood shall be poured out as the dust and their flesh as the dung. So again, I'm going to title this portion here of Zephaniah, wrath is coming, look at yourself, because that is basically the main point here. God is saying, hey, look at yourselves. Every person in this nation needs to do an audit, needs to understand the severity of what Josiah is doing and literally if they would just keep it, if they would just pass that down, if it would become a thing to go forward, they wouldn't have had to deal with the harsh judgment of the Babylonians coming in. So let's move on to the second section here of Zephaniah, which is chapter number two. Look at verse number one. So the Bible says this, gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired. So the second point that I want to make is this, wrath is coming, look at the nations. Okay, so chapter one is wrath is coming, look at yourselves. Chapter two is wrath is coming, look at the nations. Why is this important here? Well, let's talk about it. Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired. How many times do we have to say this? How many people today, how many Christian teachers today teach that Israel in the Middle East is the apple of God's eye and that he's pleased with them and so on and so forth? That's the prevailing thought today in most Christian churches. To go against that is, oh, you're teaching replacement theology and you're anti-Semitic and God hates you and you're not saved and you're a reprobate even though we don't believe the reprobate doctrine. That's basically the vibe that you'll get from these people. Okay, but why is this nation, a nation now, not desired? Why does God not desire this nation? Well, go back to chapter one, I mean, Baal worship, you've got the priests, you've got false prophets, you've got, I mean, just people not taking care of business. People are not preaching truth. And so, therefore, it's led to a whole host of issues in the people. But God says, hey, you're not desired. So why, look, you look at the state, you just take apart chapter one and just list everything that God said there. And then you go and do an audit of Israel today in the Middle East. How can you say that's a nation desired? In fact, it's worse today than it was here. Because at least during these times here, you had complacent people. Yeah, it's bad to be complacent, but it's better than a person who will spit on the ground when they hear the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's better than being in a nation where you would get locked up if you went door to door preaching the gospel there. But yet, what do we have today? We have people today saying, oh, but they're the apple of God's eye and we're gonna get to serve them and they're coming back in power and God, you know, and it's just a lie and it really just angers me. Look at verse number two. He says, before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, you there as the nation. He says, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you. And here's the solution here. Verse three, he says, seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment. So meek people rot or work, execute, display judgment. The Bible says that the spiritual judgeth all things. This is what makes God happy. This is how we should be as God's people. This is what he expected of his nation back then, but they dropped the ball and declined to do it. Verse three, seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgments, seek righteousness. Seek meekness. He says, it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. And I'll bring up here a little bit in a while what this really means here because it's going to basically contribute to the final point. Keep your place there, but in your Bibles go to the New Testament and go to Colossians chapter number three. Go to Colossians chapter number three and I'll show you that this call is also for us. Okay, so God's basically saying, hey, wrath is coming. Look at the nations. And in chapter two, you're going to see it. He starts going after the Philistines, in Moab, Ammon, all these different nations here. And so he's saying, hey, if anybody's out there, okay, that is meek, that is seeking after righteousness, you know what? You might just get hid during the time of my wrath. Look at this here, Colossians chapter three and verse number three. The Bible says this, so this is what Paul said to the Colossians. He says, for ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Verse four, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Okay, go back to Zephaniah chapter number two. So same concept here. Okay, God is letting them know, hey, you know, on a physical aspect here, those of you that are meek, that are seeking righteousness, when the Babylonians come in, I will take care of you. I will hide many of you. But on the spiritual side, we see the same thing today. Okay, we understand, yes, we will go through the tribulation period. That is a fact. That is what the Bible teaches. However, we will not go and experience his wrath. We will not go and experience the events of Revelation chapter nine. We will not experience the day of the Lord like the heathen will, like those who have rejected God. Why? Because our lives are hid in him. When he appears, we will appear with him because we are in him. That is what the Bible teaches. Look at verse number four. So he starts going off on these other nations now. He says this to the Gentile nations. It says in verse four, for Gaza shall be forsaken in Ashkelon, a desolation. They shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up. Verse five, woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coasts, the nation of the Cherithites. The word of the Lord is against you. O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant. Do you see that there? The Cherithites and the Pelethites, you know, mentioned back in David's day, they appeared on the scene when, before David became king, when he was on the run from Saul towards the end there of that period, and there was a guy in the Bible by the name of Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, a mighty man that worked for David, and he was actually over the Cherithites and over the Pelethites, and during that time, they got the word of the Lord. They were zealous, and they were loyal to Israel. They were loyal to the Lord God in many cases, but you can see here by this time period, that had all been lost, and it all goes back to the fact that people weren't preaching the Bible. The kings were wicked, and it's just downhill from there, and God's saying, hey, you're not getting off the hook here. You heard the word. You were exposed to it. You're getting judged just like the southern kingdom of Judah. So look at verse number six. It says, So this applies to obviously, after the Babylonians come in, take the southern kingdom captive, and the Persians decide to allow them to go back in the land and start rebuilding, okay? That is what this is in reference to. So now he's going to go on in verse eight to start talking about Moab and Ammon to the east. Look at verse eight. He says, And we've spent a lot of time talking about who they were, you know, all the way back to Genesis, the whole story when Lot was rescued from Sodom and Gomorrah, what his daughters did to him by making him drunk. He had two sons named Ammon and Moab, but they've been nothing but a pain in the neck to Israel since that time period, okay? And here it is. You're reading judgment against them. Look at verse number nine. He says, And a perpetual desolation, the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them. Okay, and so he's basically saying, hey, you guys wanted to kick people while they're down. Guess what? You're going down, and my nation is going to facilitate that. They're going to carry that out. Look at verse 10. He says, So again, as Israel, the northern kingdom, was being conquered, you had the Edomites excited, you had the Ammonites excited, the Moabites excited, and they tried to capitalize on that, and God's saying, I know you guys are going to do the same thing when Judah gets carried away captive, but don't worry. I've got something for you, and it's called wrath, and I'm going to bring it back upon all of your heads. Verse 11, The Lord will be terrible unto them, for he will famish all the gods of the earth, and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen. So you've got to really pay attention when you're going through these minor prophets here, okay? You want to have the backdrop. You want to have the story, okay? Because when you have that, it makes it so much easier to read, because you see how God did that? Like he's talking about the southern kingdom of Judah, and then it just seamlessly transitions into the future, into the millennium, into times beyond even hours there. He's saying there's coming a day, guess what? Where God's going to basically mop the floor with all of these false gods, and this is future tense. Future tense. This has not happened yet, because you say why? There's false gods everywhere, okay? You go to a lot of these Christian churches, false gods. You go to a lot of people's houses, they've got false gods. Just look at the nations around, you know, Mexico, Brazil, I mean, Thailand, I mean, these Asian countries, false gods everywhere, okay? But God is saying that day, those gods are going to go down, and everyone is going to see the truth, and everyone is going to get the opportunity to serve me. That's what he's saying there. But again, you know, if you don't understand the time period of what you're dealing with, you might misinterpret something, you might go off course here. So just keep that in mind. Look at verse 12, now he's going to go on to the Ethiopians. So now he's going down to Africa, here he says in verse 12, Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword. Then he goes against Assyria here, look at verse 13, and he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wilderness. So you can tell that this hasn't happened yet during Zephaniah's time, but what did we read at the beginning of the service? We read the life of Josiah, and how he went and cleansed Judah from the images of Baal, and got rid of the idolatrous priests, he got rid of all that stuff, and then he went north. He says, I don't care if the Assyrians are in charge here, this is going to be dealt with regardless. And God protected him in all of that. Verse, let's see here, let's look at verse 15, last verse in chapter two, he says, this is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me. Now that definitely describes the attitude of the Assyrians. So he says, I am, and there is none beside me. How has she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in? Every one that passeth by her shall hiss and wag his head. And so obviously a very starch warning there to those nations. So again, God doesn't just care about Israel, he cares about all the nations of the earth. Israel was supposed to preach the word of God. They were supposed to be the beacon of light. They had the oracles of God and were supposed to communicate that to the rest of the world. So when they failed to do so, God says, I have to judge you. I have to pour out my wrath. I have to deal with you. And you know what? Eventually God said, you know what? I'm going to bring on a nation that will bring forth fruits, that will get people saved, that will push the right agenda. And obviously we know that to be the saved, the New Testament church. So chapter number three, we're going to look here at verse number nine. We're going to start this off here in verse number nine. So point number one is chapter number one summary, which is wrath is coming, so look at yourself. Chapter two is wrath is coming, look at the nations. Okay? And that would hopefully provide some comfort to Judah because they would say, okay, well it's not just us. You know, God is actually going to deal with all these nations that we have beef with as well. So chapter two, wrath is coming, look at the nations. We'll see what we can look at here with chapter three. Look at verse number nine. He says, for then I will turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent. So what you're going to find in chapter three is wrath is coming, but look at the promise. Wrath is coming, but look at the promise. Let's back up here to chapter three and verse one. This is now going back to Jerusalem, back to the judgment that the southern kingdom will face. He says, woe to her that is filthy and polluted to the oppressing city. Okay, again, Jerusalem was supposed to be the liberating city. They were supposed to be the city that put forth God's love and his word and his path to righteousness because they didn't do that. Chapter two says, gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, oh nation not desired because they failed their mission, because they failed their evangelistic opportunity. God said you are no longer desired and look what he says here in chapter three. He says, woe to her that is filthy and polluted to the oppressing city. So you see that there, hopefully you make that connection. When any church institution gives up the Bible, they give up the word of God and they want to start going and playing around with all this modern stuff, what always happens and what always follows is oppression. Okay, you say, yeah, but I've heard this church, it's a community church and they use the ESV or they use the New King James, but they have the right gospel. I guarantee you if you look hard enough, you will find oppression. Work salvation is oppression. It doesn't matter, either way you slice it, that's what I see here. Okay, because what was the message coming from Judah? Well, you can look at Baal if you want, you can look at the stars, you can do whatever you want to. It's all about your efforts. It's all about how well you build for yourselves. It's how well you built your house and your vineyard and all the works that you do, whereas God's saying it's not about any of that. The only reason you have those things or the ability to do those things is because I gave that to you. Verse two, she obeyed not the voice. She received not the correction. She trusted not in the Lord. She drew not near to her God. So God is reminding the southern kingdom of Judah here that hey, you had opportunity. I sent you profit. I sent you profit after profit, word after word and ultimately you failed. Even when you had revival under Josiah. Josiah leaves. He kind of goes out on a bad note. We'll talk about that in a few weeks. But what do they do? They say, oh well, that was nice while it lasted. Let's try all this other stuff again. Let's bring in Baal. Let's bring in Molech and all these false gods. Look at verse three. Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They gnaw not the bones till the morrow. So if you were to apply that to preachers, if you were to apply that to supposed Christians, they're not concerned with going deep into the things of God. They only are concerned with the outside, the outward appearance. They don't want to go into the marrow. They don't want to talk about salvation because it's offensive. They just figure, oh well, people will get it. They'll just come to it eventually. Verse four, her prophets are light and treacherous persons. Her priests have polluted the sanctuary. They have done violence to the law. Look, any prophet, any preacher that is a light and treacherous person who is blown about what that means by every wind of doctrine, every cool trend that the world comes up with, these preachers that want to hang in the middle, walk on the fence instead of choosing a side, every single one of them does violence to the law. They violate the Bible. They violate the word of God. That's what they do. People say, oh, I'm going to send you this guy. He's cool. He doesn't wear a tie, doesn't do this stuff, but he's still preaching truth. Yeah, he might say some stuff that's true, but he is oppressing his people. He is violating the word of God. That is what is going on here. How were the prophets in the southern kingdom of Judah? Well, God says they were light and treacherous. So any time you see somebody who is light on doctrine, who is light on the things of God, they are automatically treacherous, dangerous, should be avoided every single time at all costs. Why? Because they will violate the word of God. You say, yeah, but I've never heard Stephen Furtick say anything bad about the Bible. I have. How well do you know the Bible? That's the question. See, you don't know the Bible. You're only gnawing on the outside here. You're on the outskirts. You don't understand the marrow, the meat, what makes that bone living. You don't understand, nor do you get that. And therefore, you can't see. You are in clouds of thick darkness, and you are in the snare of people who the Bible says are light and treacherous, meaning dangerous. And therefore, you will follow these people to violate scripture, to violate the word of God. Verse number five, he says, the just Lord is in the midst thereof. He will not do iniquity. Every morning doth he bring his judgments to light. He faileth not, but the unjust knoweth no shame. So when people, you know what really bugs all of us in here, when we hear people say, well, God this, and God shouldn't do this, it's like God doesn't do iniquity. Just understand that's what the Bible teaches. Verse six, 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. So again, understand here, it's gonna get better, but God is saying, wrath is coming, look at the promise. So look at verse eight, he says, therefore, wait ye upon me, sayeth the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey, for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms. Some people say, well, that's just the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom, and we get to just watch. No, he's talking about the kingdoms, plural, all of them. He says, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger, for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. Okay, so again, understand this transition here. Not only is he applying this to the southern kingdom, but in this message, it's for eternity. He's talking about even our day and beyond, is what he's saying. Okay, because I mean, you read this verse here, none of this stuff, this stuff has not happened yet fully as it's written. Yes, God destroyed the southern kingdom, he allowed the Babylonians to come in, came back for a while, and then they left. Okay, but on a large scale, you have not seen verse eight fulfilled yet, but you will during the day of the Lord. Look at verse nine again, he says this, he says, for then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent. You know, and that there, I mean, we could preach that all night if we wanted to. I mean, we could start talking about calling upon the name of the Lord. Do you need to do that? Absolutely. It has to happen. It's in the Old Testament, it's in the New Testament. You're not gonna get away from it. It's not what the sermon's about. I don't have time to go further into that. Just wanted to bring that up there. But what does this mean, a pure language? Well, first of all, okay, let's talk about the millennium. Okay, in the millennium there will be obviously a pure language and people will be able to call upon the name of the Lord to serve him. Because while the devil is locked up, while he is in the pit, I mean, we've talked about this. Christ is ruling and reigning on this earth with a rod of iron and it will be easy to get access. You will be able to pray. There won't be this confusion. It's gonna be a completely different time. But if you apply this to our day and age, we have a pure language and that language is the word of God. That language is the Bible. Now we read it in English. Some people read it in Spanish, German, whatever. But it's the same thing. At least it should be the same thing. And calling upon the name of the Lord is the same no matter what language you speak. You know why that's important? Because there's groups of people out there like these Hebrew roots type people and some of them will take it so far as to say if you called upon Jesus, you're not saved. You have to call upon Yahushua or Yahushua or whatever his name was back in the original languages. And that doctrine deceives a lot of people. We were talking about this last week where what does the Bible say? I will turn onto the people a pure language. And you know what? That pure language was available in the Old Testament. It's called the word of God. There's always been one way to salvation. It's always been by calling upon the name of the Lord, however he had been revealing himself during that time. We call upon Jesus. That's how we say it. That's how we speak. And you could always come back to this verse here if you need a little bit of ammunition against that, but we'll have to spend more time on that doctrine and we don't have time tonight. Verse 10 says, from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my suppliance, even the daughter of my dispersed shall bring mine offering. And of course, Malachi talked about this in chapter number one. Again, you're gonna find this thread all throughout this chapter talking about the millennium making reference to the millennium. Verse 11, look what it says. It says in that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings wherein thou hast transgressed against me for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride. Now shall no more be haughty because of my holy mountain. So God's saying, hey, in those days, you're not gonna be like, oh, look at these stones and look at this temple and look at our religious garments. God's saying, hey, people wanna trust in that stuff, I'm gonna make it widely known, that is not what I meant. That is not what we worship. Worship is specifically to God himself. Okay, but you can see how people get puffed up with their church building, with their temples, with their religious garments, and with all of these external things that have nothing to do with the mission, have nothing to do with true Christian success. Verse 12, I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. And of course, you gotta understand, he's going back and forth, okay? He's writing this here and talking about the future and the millennium, and then he'll come back to the southern kingdom of Judah because that obviously is where it originally applies, so they had to understand this first. We read it, and there's something in it for us, just amazing how these minor prophets speak not only to the people in their times, but literally to people in every time, even people in our time, and that's what I love about them so much. Verse 13, the remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid. Now, has that happened yet? No, that's future tense here, okay? Verse 14, sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. So again, chapter three, wrath is coming, look at the promise. Verse 15, the Lord hath taken away thy judgment, he hath cast out thine enemy. The king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee, thou shalt not see evil any more. So you go read through Matthew and understand how obviously the nation of Israel today, the Israel of God today is the church, it's people that are saved, it's Bible-believing Christians. He is the king of Israel, even the Lord, that's what this verse says here. Verse 16, in that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not into Zion, let not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. Well, that's a comfort there, I mean, if we want to title this, wrath is coming, look at the promise, well, part of that promise is that God sings over a certain group of people, and that's not Israel in the flesh either, no, it's those who have made him their king and their God, which are us, those of us who are born again. So, I mean, think about that, you know, when you're down, you're having a little bit of anxiety, understand, you love the Lord, you have the Holy Spirit, and we make God want to sing, I mean, that's the only way you can slice it, look at verse 18, I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee to whom the reproach of it was a burden. Because obviously, you know, you're sitting down, you're in Josiah's time, things are going well, then Zephaniah comes and starts preaching this, you're gonna have some anxiety, you're gonna have your toes stepped on, but what do we focus on here? We understand the wrath, but we focus on the promise, we look at the promise, that is how we keep going as God's people, we're almost done here, look at verse 19, behold, at that time, I will undo all that afflict thee, and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out, and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. That is definitely not talking about modern day Israel, look at verse 20, at that time, will I bring you again? Well, who's that you? Again, you follow that you, it's the people that have made the Lord God their king, i.e. the saved. Verse 20, at that time, I will bring you again, even in the time that I gather you, for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth. When I turn back your captivity, before your eyes saith the Lord. Now, you can read Amos chapter nine, that connects to that, I don't have time to get into that, but when you read that there, that does apply to how when the Jews were allowed to go back and build the temple, you can see how they were zealous, you go study Ezra, Nehemiah, go look at the times of Esther, okay? There was a zeal, there were people getting saved as a result of the Jews, but on a large scale, this has not been completely fulfilled yet, because most of the world hates the real Israel today, which are us, the fundies, the people who believe the fundamentals of the Bible, who preach the right gospel, who preach that God has preserved his word, okay? But guess what, that's okay, wrath is coming, look at the promise, God is gonna take care of it, God is going to declare to the entire world that we are the ones that are correct, that we are right, it's just in the time being we have to endure wrath from the world, but that's okay, greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. So, just to wrap this up, point number one is wrath is coming, look at yourself, chapter two is point number two, wrath is coming, look at the nations, and number three, wrath is coming, look at the promise. So the idea here really boils down to this statement, which is look at yourself, forget the nations, and look at the promise, okay? Look at yourself, all we have to do is worry about ourselves and what we can do for each other and what we can do for God. We can examine the nations, look at them real quick, and just understand there's not gonna rise a physical nation that's gonna help us or save us, it's just a done deal, okay? So we can forget about the nations, they're all, this entire world's going to hell in a handbasket, so hey, what's the solution? Well, according to Zephaniah, what I see here is look at the promise. So let's stop there, power heads, have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, again for your word and for everything that you do for us. I just pray that you bring us back safely on Sunday. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. .