Zephaniah 1 – the day of the Lord

Rico Tice is a gospel preacher in London. But he’s also a very keen rugby player.

And he tells the story of 3 unbelieving friends in his rugby club. And he builds

this friendship with them over a few years. And they know he’s a preacher. But

he struggles to find the opportunity to really explain what he believes. And so

eventually he gives them one of his sermons. And he asks them to take it home

and to listen. And the subject of the sermon is hell. And they agree to listen,

more just to make fun of it, than to take it seriously.

But as the 3 of them are listening to this sermon. One of them becomes

increasingly angry. And the other 2 tell him to lighten up. This is just a joke.

Why you so upset?

And he replies. If this is what Rico believes about me. And if he’s believed it for

all these years. Then that makes me very upset. How can Rico call me his friend

when he’s never told me this before?

And as Rico Tice acknowledges, surely this friend is right. If you believe that

your friend is in danger, What’s the most loving thing to do with that belief? To

keep it to yourself? Or to warn them so that they can be saved. Surely it’s the

latter.

Well this morning we starting a new series in the book of Zephaniah. And the

first chapter is a massive warning of judgment.

But as we start, its important to be mindful of the motive for this warning. Its

not spoken in hatred with the desire that we should perish, but rather in love

with the hope that we might be saved.

Now one of the questions In our Bible studies this last week concerned the

judgment of God and the fact that very few people today are scared of this

judgment. And we discussed the reasons why.

And here some of the conclusions we reached.

Firstly, a lack of emphasis in preaching. A hundred years ago, there was much

more preaching on God’s judgment. Today, there’s much more emphasis on

His love and His grace.

Secondly, the comfort in which we live. We have food. We have clothes. We’ve

got beautiful surroundings, beautiful weather; the comforts of this world. And

this makes us feel safe and unconcerned.

Thirdly, the prospering of the wicked. The fact that wicked people are

succeeding in the world. And becoming more and more prosperous and God

seems to do nothing.

Fourthly the busyness of our lives. There so many demands And so many

distractions that we don’t even have time to stop and be quiet and to think

about the judgment.

Well that’s what Zephaniah commands us to do in our passage this morning.

Zephaniah chapter 1 verse 7.

“Be silent before the Sovereign LORD, for the day of the LORD is near.”

And so that’s our opportunity this morning to just take a few minutes to be

undistracted and to quieten our hearts and to be silent before the Lord and to

consider this warning: that the day of the Lord is near.

Now, in these verses we going to read some terrible things about the extent of

God’s judgment. And it might be tempting for you simply to dismiss it and say:

this is too extreme and to shut your ears and maybe even to get up and walk

out.

But let me just give you 3 encouragements not to do that. 3 reasons why you

shouldn’t shut your ears.

Firstly, because of the authority with which Zephaniah speaks. He isn’t

speaking by his own authority but if you look at verse 1. You can see this is the

word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi.

And the same truth gets repeated in verses 2 and 3. As Zephaniah predicts the

extent of God’s judgment, that everything will be swept away; Both men and

animals, both birds and fish. It might sound too extreme. But we need to listen

because twice we told, this isn’t a human declaration but the declaration of the

Lord. And so don’t shut your ears this morning, because this is the word of

God.

And then secondly, let me encourage you to keep listening because at the end

of this dark tunnel of judgment of gloom, there is a glimmer of light. And that

comes in chapter 2 verse 3. And so hang in there, because after we’ve waded

through all this judgment, there’s a glimmer of hope. And we’ll come to it at

the end of the sermon. But right at the start, I want you to notice, the path to

this hope is humility. And you can see that in the middle of verse 3. It says,

“seek humility and perhaps you’ll be sheltered on that day…”

And I think its true to say that generally speaking humility is still valued in our

society. Its something we aspire to. We like humble people. And we ourselves

want to be humble.

But as Philip Jensen points out in his sermon on these verses, what we don’t

like is humiliation. And we wish we could become humble without humiliation.

But the reality is that almost inevitably these things go together. Just like you

can’t become patient without time. You can’t become patient quickly. In the

same way you can’t become humble without humiliation. And so again that’s

our opportunity this morning: its far better to be humiliated now by God’s

Word than to be humiliated then by God’s judgment.

And so again, please don’t shut your ears. This is an opportunity to be silent

and to seek humility as we come under Gods Word.

But perhaps you sitting here this morning and you don’t even accept the Bible

as God’s Word. And to you this might all sound old fashioned and narrow

minded. But even for you, I wanna encourage you to keep listening, because

this is an opportunity to see what Christians believe. And there many churches

and preachers who won’t tell you this. But this is what the Bible teaches and

this is what we believe. And so as I said earlier even if you don’t believe this, I

hope that you will see this as a message is spoken in love and as an attempt to

be honest with you about what we believe.

So please keep listening.

Here 3 points about the day of judgment.

Firstly, the types of people who’ll be punished. Secondly, the terrible things

that’ll happen. Thirdly, the time for people to repent.

So Firstly, The types of people who will be punished (v4-13)

In verse 4 God zooms in on Judah and Jerusalem. These are the people of God,

chosen to represent Him in the world. And yet they have failed to obey Him.

And there 3 types of people here who are exposed in these verses. Firstly,

those who compromise in their worship.

And you can see them described in verses 4-6. They worship baal Verse 4

they bow down to the stars verse 5

they swear by Molech.

And notice that they not necessarily abandoning or replacing the worship of of

the LORD, but in the middle of verse 5 they do bow down and swear by the

LORD, but they also swear by Molech.

And so its as if they trying to cover all their bases and to appease all the gods.

And I remember speaking to a student here at NMU who said a similar thing:

I’ll worship Allah, Budda, the ancestors and Jesus. And in this way no one will

be offended. But the truth is that God is very offended.

As Mike Bullmore puts it; “Worshiping God and something else is not

worshiping God at all.”

Now the names of these false gods might not be familiar to us today. But

they’ve simply been replaced by other gods. Whether it’s the god of money or

of sex or of power. And there many people today who worship God, but they

also pray to Mary or to the ancestors.

And of course worship of God isn’t just something we do in church or in our

quiet times. It involves all of life. And there might be many people who claim

to be Christians and they attend church on Sunday. But in practice, in their day

to day lives, they worshiping other gods. And so verse 6 could be an accurate

description of them. They have turned back from following the Lord and they

neither seek Him nor enquire of Him.

And so let me ask you: is that you this morning? Have you compromised in

your worship?

But Secondly, not only have the compromised in their worship, they’ve also

conformed to the world.

And you can see that in verse 8. It refers to the princes who are clad in foreign

clothes. One of the ways God distinguished His people in the OT was by

commanding them to wear different clothes.

Verse 9 refers to those who avoid stepping on the threshold. That was a

superstituous Canaanite practice. But now its been introduced to the temple of

the Lord.

And so once again, here these people who claim to worship the Lord, but they

no different from the world. They’ve lost their distinctiveness.

And isn’t that true of many in the church today? Apart from the fact that they

go to church on Sundays, they speak the same language, they watch the same

movies. They follow the same ambitions as the world.

And so they compromise their worship, they conform to the world. And thirdly,

they are complacent in their wealth.

And you can see that in verses 10 to 14 which the traces the destruction of

Jerusalem. The Fish gate was the northern gate which was most vulnerable to

attacks from the enemy. And so these verses trace the trail of destruction from

the Fish Gate all the way through the city and there’s wailing and there’s crying

and there’s destruction. But notice where it ends up in verse 11. In the market

place, where the wealth of the city is produced.

And then there’s this frightening image of God Himself searching Jerusalem

with lamps. And this is often how God is described in the Bible; that He’s the

great searcher of sinners. But this time, on the day of judgment, He won’t

search in order to save. But rather in order to punish.

And the point is that no one will be able to hide. Every dark corner will be

uncovered. Every person will be exposed. And specifically, He’ll punish those

who are complacent. And notice the reason why they’ve complacent in verse

12. They say: the “Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.”

And isn’t that how many people are living today

Alec Motyer describes them as practical atheists.

You see, I don’t think weve got many full-blown atheists in Port Elizabeth But

we do have many practical atheist. And they might acknowledge that God

exists in theory, but it makes no practical impact upon their lives. They view

God as irrelevant. And inactive; He won’t do anything either good or bad.

But another reason why they feel complacent is because of their wealth. And

verse 13 tells us they possess wealth. They own houses. They own vineyards.

And these things do make us feel safe: if you have a healthy bank balance and

an investment in real estate, if you own a productive business. It makes you

feel strong and secure.

But not on the day of judgment. These things won’t protect you. Notice, their

wealth will be plundered. Their houses will be demolished. They wont enjoy

the wine of their vineyards.

And so these are the people who will be punished on the day of judgment.

They have compromised in their worship. They have conformed to the world.

They have become complacent in their wealth.

And maybe you sitting here thinking, whats the big deal! I mean there’s

nothing here about child molesters or serial rapists or mass murderers. Yes I

agree maybe such people deserve to punished.

But surely these things aren’t so bad. It’s not such a bad thing to live your life

in ignorance of God and in worship of other gods and in conformity to the

world. Surely that’s not so serious.

But this is a reminder to us that the great wickedness of mankind is rebellion

against God. To ignore Him and to treat Him as irrelevant.

And it is possible to do that by being really bad But actually its also possible to

do this by being really good. And you might be a respectable person and even

a religious person. But you might still be rebelling against God and pushing Him

out of your life. And that’s the great crime that’ll bring His judgment.

And so now secondly, we’ve seen the types of people who will be judged. Now

notice the terrible things that’ll happen

2) Secondly, the terrible things that will happen to them (v14-18)

One of the ways people might comfort themselves in the face of death is to

hope that the pain will be swift and even better that they might pass away in

their sleep. And that it’ll be peaceful and painless.

And perhaps that’s how some people picture God’s judgment: yes, maybe

He’ll wipe us out. But maybe it’ll just be a sudden annihilation. Maybe It’ll be

swift and painless.

Well that’s very different from the picture we find in these verses. There’s

plenty of language here to emphasize the pain and the bitterness of the

experience.

And there many Christians today who describe hell as the absence from God.

And that is definitely a key part of it.

God is the source of everything good. And so to be seperated from Him is to

be unable to enjoy anything good.

But what we find in these verses isn’t just the absence of what is good. It’s also

the presence of what is bad. And not only is God absent. But He’s also active

in the punishment of the wicked.

And so once again, its tempting just to just rush over these verses. But that

won’t be good for our humility. It won’t allow the seriousness of sin to sink in.

and so please notice the language that’s used

In verse 14 we see the bitterness of the cry on that day.

Verse 15 its a day of distress and anguish.

And that’s strong language to describe pain. To be in anguish because of your

pain

And its a day of trouble and ruin,

a day of darkness and gloom.

And so Clearly Zephaniah isn’t holding back. He’s piling up all these terms. He’s

searching for adjectives to describe the suffering of this day.

And Notice what will happen to people according to verse 17.

I will bring distress on the people and they will walk like blind men, because

they have sinned against the LORD. Their blood will be poured out like dust

and their entrails like filth.

Once again, its graphic language. Your entrails refer to your internal organs.

And These are your vital body parts and should be treated with special value.

They require special care. But on the day of the Lord, they’ll be treated as dust.

They’ll be poured out like filth.

And again this is shocking language. And maybe this sounds too extreme to

you. But just notice where it comes from in verse 18. In the middle of verse 18

it says; in the fire of His jealousy the whole world will be consumed.

And so this is the source of all this judgment and All this suffering. It’s the

jealousy of the anger of the Lord.

And maybe you thought it’s a sin to be jealous. And that’s true: It’s wrong to be

jealous for something that doesn’t belong to you. But if ur a husband and

someone starts flirting with your wife and has na affair with your wife, then it

would actually be wrong for you not to be jealous. And so there’s a right type

of jealousy for something that belong to you.

And perhaps we’ve forgotten that all of us belong to God. And every part of

our lives belongs to Him. And He deserves our praise and our worship and our

faith. And so He’s right to be jealous when we deny Him these things.

And if you still think this is petty and that God is over-reacting and that the

wickedness described here is too slight to warrant such devastating

destruction. Then let me just ask you this question: who is better equipped to

judge the world?

Is it you as the creature or is it God as the Creator

And as Alec Motyer points out, when sin entered this world, it didn’t just affect

our behaviour. It also affected our ability to perceive what is right.

And so we cannot be trusted to judge the world. 1

And so if you find this too severe, then let me suggest to you its not because

God is over-reacting. But rather because we have become numb. and we’ve

lost sight of the seriousness of sin.

It is an awesome and a terrible thing to sin against God.

And in our modern society where sin is regularly trivialized, this is a reminder

that we regularly need. And I need it as much as any of you.

Now this judgment that’s described here has already been partly fulfilled in the

exile, when Jerusalem was invaded by the Babylonians and they suffered

terrible destruction.

1 it’s good to remember this quote by Alec Motyer:

““If we should grumble that the cause is too slight to merit the threatened effect – that the end of the world is too massive a penalty for the pettiness of our sin – we need only recall that sin has also infected our moral perceptions: we are not – nor can we be – trustworthy judges of what is fitting. The Judge of all the earth does right and this is the word of the Lord.”

And so we mustn’t trust our own moral perceptions. Who are we to judge what is fitting. Only God can make that judgment.

But even more than that is was fulfilled on the greater day of judgment when

Jesus died on the cross. That was a day of distress and anguish of darkness and

gloom. And He experienced God’s wrath in our place.

But the reality is that many people still reject Jesus and His sacrifice. And so

this passage also points forward to the final day of judgment when God will

punish the world.

And Revelation 6 describes it in frightening language: that people will hide in

caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they’ll say to the mountains

and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the

throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has

come and who can stand?”

And so there is still this great day of wrath still coming. And for those outside

of Christ, it’ll be more terrible than anything they’ve ever experienced.

But now finally, we’ve seen the types of people who’ll be punished. Weve seen

the terrible things that’ll happen. Now finally, notice the time for us to repent.

3) Now finally the time which is given to repent (2v1-3)

And you can see that in chapter 2 verse 2.

Notice the repeated word in verse 2.

. before the appointed time arrives. Before the fierce anger of the Lord comes.

Before the day of the God’s wrath.

You see when that day arrives, it’ll be too late. But this is the great privilege of

receiving this warning.

As Phillip Jensen puts it – “It’s easy to be wise in hindsight. The Bible gives us

the opportunity to be wise in foresight.”

And we don’t know when that day will arrive. According to Jesus, no one can

predict the day or the hour.

But the fact that it hasn’t arrived means we still have opportunity.

And so let me plead with you in the words of 2 Corinthians 6 verse 1: “we

urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my

favour I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.”

Please don’t delay. Now is the time to repent.

And this repentance is described in verse 3.

Notice the repeated verb.

Seek the Lord. Seek righteousness. Seek humility.

And if you wanna know what that looks like in practice, the answer is found in

Jesus.

You see, the only way to find God is in Jesus. Hes the word of God, the

revelation of God. You find God in Him.

The only way you can find righteousness is in Jesus. He’s the sacrifice for our

sins; the punishment for our sins. We stand righteous in Him.

And the only way we can come to Jesus is in humility, recognizing that we

sinners and we need to be saved.

And so this is where true repentance is found.

Its not by trying harder to be a better person.

Its not by trying harder to fix your own life.

Its only found in Christ.

And so here’s this glimmer of hope; perhaps you will be sheltered.

But in Christ it becomes not just a glimmer, but an assurance. We will be

sheltered if we trust in Him.

Let me close with the words of a famous song written by Bertram Shaduck:

I dreamed that the great judgment morning

Had dawned, and the trumpet had blown;

I dreamed that the nations had gathered

To judgment before the white throne;

From the throne came a bright, shining angel

And he stood on the land and the sea,

And he swore with his hand raised to Heaven,

That time was no longer to be.

Chorus:

And oh, what a weeping and wailing,

As the lost were told of their fate;

They cried for the rocks and the mountains,

They prayed, but their prayer was too late

The rich man was there, but his money

Had melted and vanished away;

A pauper he stood in the judgment,

His debts were too heavy to pay;

The great man was there, but his greatness

When death came, was left far behind!

The angel that opened the records,

Not a trace of his greatness could find.

Chorus:

And oh, what a weeping and wailing,

As the lost were told of their fate;

They cried for the rocks and the mountains,

They prayed, but their prayer was too late

The moral man came to the judgment,

But self-righteous rags would not do;

The men who had crucified Jesus

Had passed off as moral men, too;

The soul that had put off salvation,

“Not tonight; I’ll get saved by and by,

No time now to think of religion!”

At last they had found time to die.”

Chorus:

And oh, what a weeping and wailing,

As the lost were told of their fate;

They cried for the rocks and the mountains,

They prayed, but their prayer was too late

Let’s pray