The whole image of the concept of the American dream and of
retirement is the effort to transcend our dependence upon
God so that we can fully and finally rest in the achievements
that we've accomplished and not have to worry.
This is week 3, which means next Sunday is Emmaus is last church
here with you. And we are out the door after
next Sunday, which is crazy. So I have like this Sunday and
next Sunday to to be in front of you and ask you to pray for us
because we need God's help and to ask for your support.
And so up here will be four different ways that you can
participate in serving. There we go.
And so, Supporting the work that God is doing through us up up in
Ankeny, you can pray for us. We need, as I said, we need your
prayers if you would. I don't know if anybody keeps
the prayer journal, or a list of people they pray for, but I just
asked you to put our names on it because we definitely are
incapable of doing what God has called us to do.
Without his Spirit, empowering us and providing for us and
working through us. We also, we need financial
resources and I just ask you to pray.
Ask If the Lord would lay upon your heart to give to the
mission of that we're doing, we obviously have a lot of
financial needs and planting a church.
And so if you are so led by the Lord, there is opportunity to do
that on the Frontier website and hopefully by the end of this
week, it will be available on the Mas website to but right now
it's on the Frontier website and the giving section there there's
a byline for Mas church and then also maybe you want to come help
us or you want to come and join us either way if you want to
come I'm serve us for a time. It's I've got Chad.
McFarland has volunteered his community group to come and help
us a couple times over the next few months, which is just
awesome. Thank you guys for being willing
to come and serve us if not anything else, just to be extra
bodies to help us worship Jesus together, but if the Lord would
put on your hearts to come and serve Us in any way, we could
definitely use it. Or if the Lord would call you to
come, like the stantons and join us on Mission.
We certainly need all the help we can get.
So that is my pitch one more time.
You have to sit through that next week.
So that being said, we are in our third week in the book of
Zephaniah. The book of Zephaniah, which is
three chapters. Long of very, very intense
Prophecy from the mouth of God to the people of Israel and the
nation's surrounding them. It's funny this morning is not
funny. It's a this sermon has been
prepared. Preaching is so weird.
You know, you read a text. Like I like I read this months
ago and preparation put up, put together an outline and then I
have to destroy the outline and readjust things and then I think
I know what the sermon is going to be about just from reading a
little bit of research and then you get into it.
And I remember just telling my wife last night, This sermon is
nothing. What I thought it was going to
be God, always just surprises me.
And what he has done in in me, in preparing.
This sermon was hard, it was hard.
And the reason it was hard as because this sermon brings up
that what God is doing in this text brings up in me, some of
the most difficult aspects of my Christian Life.
There's nothing I struggle with in my Christian Life more than
the knowledge that God seems to be okay, bringing pain into the
life of the people he loves. And it's so hard for me to
process that not just, it's not just an intellectual puzzle to
solve. Like how do we work that out and
understand God, and what he is doing.
But at the Heart level, I just get angry about it.
I don't like it. and having been through really difficult and
really challenging circumstances as many of you know, many of you
many well over a decade ago now, went through a divorce and my
whole life was just my legs workout up from under me, my
whole life just Shattered felt unbelievable, loneliness and
pain that I is. And, and I've read the Bible
enough and my theology tells me God's in control of everything.
And I'm like, what are you doing?
This seems like a psychotic plan.
Why would God do this? It makes zero sense.
And I've just struggled to marry in my mind, God's justice and
judgment and discipline. And his mercy, and his love, and
the two seem like they just never go together.
Like, I can't in my mind, I struggle to see God as merciful
and loving, while also bringing pain, which is why I'm singing
that last song that we just sang.
Joseph encourage us as we sang over and over again, burn, like
a fire, you understand? That's not pleasant.
That's not something that happens when we stand in a
church like this with nice light coming through stained glass,
windows, all dressed up, nice and everything, feels good
because the music's hitting the right notes and we like a fire
burns. And yet, we sing that with joy.
How in the world does that happen?
It just, it doesn't make sense. It's hard.
It's not only hard to intellectually pull together
emotionally. It just seems it just seems
crazy. And yet I believe it.
That's exactly what we find happening in our text today.
That's exactly what we find happening between in Zephaniah
chapter 3 and Zephaniah chapter 1.
We learn that God judges Judah the Israelite people for their
corruption. For their sin and their idolatry
and just immense language of judgment in pain and suffering
and sorrow that God is going to bring upon these people.
And then in Chapter 2 last week, we learned that God, judges the
Nations around them as they were the source of the idolatry in
the source of the corruption and he's going to destroy them.
And intersperse of these little tiny glimmers of hope that we've
tried to cling onto long the way.
We we struggle here because we look at all of that judgment and
we wonder where's love? Where's Mercy?
Where's the grace of God? I think the reason the reason we
struggle with this as because we tend to see God, we can see God,
especially in our culture. The way we talk about God is
like, God has one side of him that wants Justice, and another
side of him that wants love and joy.
And so, on one hand, we have the just judge and he's saying we
can't be loving, we can't be merciful and then he looks at
the Little Hippie and Todd and the Little Hippie and God says,
no we need to love everybody. We need to forgive everybody and
it's like the two are at war in our minds, right?
The two are like, like there's like there's some inner conflict
in God where the judges winning out on one hand here and then
maybe hopefully the hippie o went out on the other hand.
And we just that we tend to view God in this way.
And what I hope you can see this morning, but I hope we see in
this text. Is that not only is this not the
right vision of God, he's not at war with himself.
He's not an inner in any kind of inner conflict in God.
There's this miraculous marriage between Justice and mercy.
That this passage begins to put on display for us there's a
miraculous marriage of judgment and love in God and so it's my
hope this morning that you can see with me that in God's
perfect Justice. There is also the establishment
of perfect mercy and love. And we begin to see that spring
forth through the text. God in essence is just not.
He's not like us. He's not like a, he's nothing
like you or me. Yeah, he is nothing like us.
There is no war in him where he comes home on a hard day after
work and he's irritable and he's tired and he's trying to love
his kids but he's got that little bit of Rage.
He's trying to stuff down so he can get engaged.
God, doesn't ever feel that way God experiences, no inner
conflict, like that, there is a perfect beautiful marriage that
we're going to see come through. This text between his mercy and
his justice. So stand with me for the reading
of God's word. We're going to read Zephaniah
chapter 3 verses one down to verse 13.
Verse 1, the Lord says woe to her, who is rebellious and
defile 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. Borough officials within her are
roaring Lions. Her judges are eating Wolves at,
leave. Nothing to the morning.
Her profits are fickle treacherous men.
Her priest profane. What is Holy?
They do violence to the law. The Lord within her is
righteous. He does no Injustice everywhere.
G'morning. Every day, he shows forth his
Justice each Dawn. He does not fail, but the young
just knows no shame. I've caught off Nations, their
battlements are in Ruins. I've 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've appointed against you, but all
the more they were eager to make all their deeds corrupt.
Therefore, wait for me, declares the Lord for the day.
When I Rise up to seize, the pray for my decision is to
gather Nations to assemble kingdoms to pour out upon them,
my indignation, all my Burning Anger for in the fire of my
jealousy. All the Earth shall be consumed
for, at that time, I will change the speech in the people's to
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 worshippers, the daughter 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. You're proudly exultant ones and
you shall no longer be haughty in my Holy Mountain but I will
leave in your midst of 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 and
Speak no lies, nor shall they be found in their mouth?
A deceitful tongue for, they shall graze and lie down and
None Shall make them afraid. This is the word of the Lord.
It is good and it is true. You may be seated in his
presence. Heavenly Father, we are grateful
that you are not like us. We thank you that it in Christ
is met, all the beauty of your Justice and mercy in one person
without conflict and we pray now that your spirit would help us
to see that not just so that we can solve an intellectual puzzle
in our minds, but that our hearts might be drawn up in
worship adoration and joy in your presence.
It's in Jesus name that we pray and ask this.
Amen. So as we look at this text,
there's a lot here, there's a lot that is said, I certainly
don't have time to go through each and every individual.
Piece of it but what I want what I think will be helpful for us
in this text is to break it up into four different sections.
We're going to see first God's justice.
We're going to see his justices deserved second third, we're
going to see his Justice applied and then last we're going to see
his Justice established. So we're going to see his
Justice his Justice deserved his Justice applied and his Justice
established. So first thing God, Justice.
God's justice, we see it clearly in verse 5, verse 5 shows us
that God is a just God. It's so it tells us here's
something of his character. It says there that he is
righteous. The Lord within her is
righteous. That means that he is pure, he
is good, everything in God or about God is ineffable e and
perfectly pure. He is Holy as the scripture
says, As and in him, we see the contrast he there is no
Injustice in him. In verse 5, he does no
Injustice, he does nothing, that is wrong.
There is no inaccuracy. There is no out of control
anger. There is no Injustice.
There is no partiality in God. Everything he does all day.
Every day is Perfect is good is just this is what the meaning of
the every morning. He shows forth is Justice.
Every Dawn he does not fail, it means not only every day, but
all day long. God is just, he is a just God,
he doesn't have an off day. He is an unalterable
Incorruptible perfectly just God, which is good news because
everything around us is corruptible.
The best presidents, the best CEOs, the best fathers and
mothers are all corruptible and have moments days seasons of
corruption. And yet God here is never any
moment of any day in a season of corruption.
This is what we try to establish in our Western Jewish
jurisprudence with the image of Lady Justice.
You all seen the statue of Lady Justice.
She's got a blindfold on and she stands out holding the scales of
justice, and she stands there immovable.
There's a reason she's a statue and not an animated cartoon,
she's immovable, she does not change.
And she sees know, she, she's blind because she isn't, she's
not Moved to lessen the law or strengthen the law based upon
the people that she sees in front of her, she's she stands
strong with the law, and she weighs everyone out on her
scales she's impartial. She cannot be corrupted by
seeing something that distracts her corrupts her and as she
stands her unaltered by time, she provides Justice.
That's the hope that's the hope of Western jurisprudence right
to provide a stable standard of Justice.
In a far more Transcendent and glorious manner.
God holds the scales of Justice in his hands and not only does
he stand there, measuring out what we do.
Like Lady Justice. What God does himself is just
he's not just determining whether we're just or not, he is
just and the reason why Lady Liberty needs a blindfold, Is
because she can be moved and corrupted by what she sees but
God needs no blindfold. He is eternally and perfectly
just in all his ways and in all his wants.
And so when God renders Justice or judgment on anything, or
anyone and is 100% of the time, accurate, it is 100% of the time
proportional. And it is perfectly met out to
the exact degree and manner in which it is deserved.
That is the image of justice that is being painted for us
here. In Zephaniah.
And so then in verse the second thing we can see is not just
that God is just. We see also that God's justice
is deserved that his Justice here is deserved on the people
of Israel on the, on the, on the nation of Judah.
We see in verses 1 to 7 and here in these verses, God is acting
the part of a judge. He's standing before them
rendering a guilty verdict of a list of sins and crimes against
him. And he finds Israel.
Guilty of the number of crimes here in verse 1.
He says that of Israel that they are rebellious defiled
oppressors. That they are corrupt.
Verse 3 shows that it's all the way up to the top of Israelite
society that their officials are roaring.
Lions, their judges are evening wolves and then this phrase that
That they couldn't believe nothing for the morning meaning
that they're out just devouring. The people that they rule over
abusing their power, exploiting people oppressing people and
just robbing the people of life and flourishing, Their leaders
are corrupt. Verse 4, it gets worse, their
profits are fickle. Meaning they aren't committed to
the lord, they're also committed to other gods.
They're also their prophets who are supposed to speak on behalf
of God are also taking turns. Speaking with bail and milk,
mmm, they've brought idolatry into the temple.
It says that they're treacherous men with that word in Hebrew is
better translated as Reckless or thoughtless.
It means that these these prophets, these leaders, these
priests as they come into the worship of God, they do not
fear, God, they're Reckless. God is not going to do anything
that we learned that in chapter 1, that the people of Israel
were saying, you know, He probably won't do anything bad.
Like we don't need to worry about God, he's not going to
act, he's for us, right? They presumed upon the mercy of
God, they were Thoughtless and Reckless about it.
They were profane and brought in violence, bringing in child,
sacrifice into the temple worship of God.
And then in verse 5, they know no, shame.
They don't even try to hide it. They don't they put their
corruption, their oppression. Their idolatry on public
display. There was no shame in them about
it. They were perfectly comfortable
in the midst of their corruption.
These are the charges against them.
And in verse 1, we see that God begins by saying guilty which is
what that word. Whoa means at the beginning of
the of the passage in verse 1, whoa to her, God is saying this
is your guilt. You are guilty of these crimes.
This is not a mere accusation of Oppression exploitation or
corruption. This is a guilty verdict that
they have been judged and they stand legally guilty of these
crimes before God. And to be frank, they deserve
it. They deserve it.
I mean, we've learned over the last few weeks, the depths of
Israel's swim into the corruption of the Nations.
That surrounded them And so, they deserve it.
And you know we get this you and I we get this, we get this
because if you go online and you type in a phrase like how many
pastors have been guilty of molesting children?
How many priests? How many churches have been
engaging in financial swindling? The frauding their people, but
we know in the Southern Baptist convention, 700 pastors were
accused of sexual sins against minors.
We know that nearly 6,000 priests in the Catholic Church.
Not much. But the reality is is that there
hasn't these sins that Israel stands guilty of persist We know
and to one degree or another participate in their guilt.
Which is frightening. It's a frightening reality and
it's a something that as a church.
I mean, God recognizes, he's willing to call out Corruption
of abusive, horrible leaders in his day and no doubt he would
do. So in our, in does, so in our
day, which is why it's good, when this stuff makes it on the
news, Exposing it so that shame doesn't stay hidden.
But it gets worse. You can imagine it gets worse
and verse to look at what it says there.
In verse 2. She listens to no voice and
accepts, no, correction Meaning God has tried with these people,
he's tried, he sent prophets to him, a hundred years earlier.
He sent the prophet Isaiah and Isaiah promised, all of these
same judgments to Israel and said that the Babylonians going
to come and do what he's talking about here. 100 years early.
God was like, please don't go down this road repent, do
something different. And yet they don't care.
They don't listen, they didn't listen and verses 6 and 7, look
at verses 6 and 7 the lengths to which God went to try to prevent
this judgment from falling upon them.
He says, I've caught off Nations there in battlements, there in
Ruins. I've laid waste their street so
that no one walks in them. Their cities have been made
desolate thought a man without an inhabitant I said listen, I
said surely surely. You will fear me.
Surely you will accept correction.
So the same wouldn't happen to you.
But the more they were eager to make all their deeds corrupt.
Look how dark that is. God has gone to extreme lengths
by, not only giving them profits, but destroying Nations
around them to help them. See if you continue down this
path, this is what's going to happen to you.
And they just said nah. Nah, we're going to keep moving.
We're going to keep going. It and seeing it and appears to
just emboldened them. And though, God has exercise
patience. He's warned them and they refuse
to listen to them. They put forward what I think
can be just be summarized if we were to summarize, this is the
one big sin based upon what we can see happening in this text
is this, they were self-sufficient.
Their sense of self, sufficiency their sense of autonomy, their
sense of we don't need God, their self-sufficiency defined,
the very core of their sin. This is is, this is what pride
is pride. Could essentially be defined as
self-sufficiency in verse 2. She doesn't listen to a voice.
She doesn't accept. Correction, she does not trust
in the Lord, she self-sufficient.
She doesn't draw near to her God.
She's got it. She's got her own plans, her own
her own vision of the future. Her own vision for her life, she
does not need God. She does not want him.
And so she presses forward. And this is this is what I this
is also, how idolatry happens idolatry comes the worshipping
of an idol comes because someone has looked at God and said, I
really don't think you're going to do good for me.
I know what's good for me and I will choose a god of my own
making, or my of a different kind that I think is superior to
you. And I will of my own wisdom and
my own judgment and have out of my own.
Sufficiency, create a God for me to worship instead, I'll carve a
block of wood out and worship it in sacrifice my children, so
that I can have blessing and flourish in life, they did not
depend upon God, they depended upon themselves or trusted
trusted their wisdom and in and Outsourcing their needs to some
Lesser God, whether it's bail or milk them from chapter one,
self-sufficiency is pride and pride does not need.
God Pride does not listen to him.
Or it just outsources, the needs to another source of fine
Superior to God. It truly rests upon the South
Upon Our Own egos, our own, our own resources, to get what we
want. And what we feel like we need in
life. This is, as we've seen every
week that we've looked at this. This is at the bottom of what
happened with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden Eve.
Looked at the fruit and she said, I think this looks better
than all the other fruit and, you know, what?
God, I don't need you telling me what to do, and I certainly
don't need to follow your rules. I'm going to go serve my own
interests, because I think if I get these interest, I'll
actually be like you and be able to rule the world on my own.
I'll be self-sufficient before you.
When we make the choice to become self-sufficient to not
listen to him and depend upon him, were ushered into a world
of corruption and death. This manner, this pathway of
Life, only leads to death, we literally cannot thrive in
self-sufficiency. It is the biggest lie that there
is, we were never created to be self-sufficient, we were created
to be eternally dependent upon God, in all things.
To not only for our wisdom, but for our provision in life, we
cannot thrive in self-sufficiency.
Israel determine for themselves. If they would do this.
And they has gone on for so long that they've come to the
Pinnacle to the climax of their corruption.
And now, stand guilty, deserving of God's judgment for this crime
and for all of the sins that have flourished and brought
deadly fruit from it. And so we not only see that this
is just that God's justice and that it is deserved we see.
Next that it's actually applied. We see God's justice applied
verse, 8 shows us how God is going to apply his Justice.
Verse 8 is the climax of the book, just like, in any movie,
you come to a climax. And then there's resolution.
We are now at the climax in verse 8, verse 8 is the
Pinnacle. It is the The height of all the
justice of God being rained down in upon these people.
We see that God is going to unleash his judgment.
And he says there in verse a, wait for me, now, this is
ironic, and if you read the Bible at all, you know why this
is ironic? Because usually in the Bible,
when God says, wait for me, it's a good thing, right?
We practice Solitude is one of our spiritual disciplines in
this church, which is waiting on God.
And yet waiting here. Here is a waiting for judgment,
which is crazy, right? Psalm chapter 37 verse 9, verse
34. I mean, it's everywhere, all of
the Psalms, but you can, you see in there that God is saying
those who wait, on me will flourish those who wait on me,
will have life those who wait on me, will be blessed.
And here, what is the waiting for?
For when I Rise up to bring judgment on you. but when I Rise
up to bring judgment upon you, God is saying people wait on me
because the judgments coming which is a horrible reversal of
blessing. It's a horrifying.
A horrifying statement that God would call the people to do that
and then he said something weird.
He says, he says in verse 8, for the day when I Rise up to seize
the prey, What does he mean by that?
Now, this is not just some biblical trivia but in the book
of Isaiah, Isaiah is giving a similar mation message to the
people of Israel. And God always has prophets do
really weird things. He always has them, do weird
things to get their message across and one of the things
that God did with Isaiah was he wanted him to name his children
In such a manner that his children's names would be a
representation of the message for the nation of the prophecy
for the nation. And one of Isaiah's, son's got
the longest name in the Bible. So if you want to win a trivia
quiz, here you go. The longest name in the Bible is
Maher, shall hash? Baz name, your kids that Yes,
it's a great idea. Ma hair shall L.
Hash baths, literally, translated that.
That name reads like this when the prey quickens the spoil
hastens, when the prey quickens the spoil hastens.
And we see that here for the day when I Rise up to see the pray.
God is saying well I prophesied through Isaiah's son is coming
and wait for it because what that weirdly worded phrase.
Means it means the faster you run from God's judgment the
faster his judgments coming upon you mean you can run but you
can't hide. God has come in faster than you
can run. Which is crazy.
That's horrifying. And note here, there's a shift
in the language. It goes from Judah to now
incorporating the nation's my decision is to gather the
nation's God is not just going to bring this judgment upon
Israel. Israel is the center of it and
then like an atom bomb going out.
Its landing on Israel and its exploding out to the Nations
around them. God's judgment is being poured
out in this manner. And we're told how they're going
to be consumed in indignation, anger jealousy.
To the point of being consumed. It's a judgment of Fire.
Coming out from God. God is an assistance going to
cut them out at the legs. And what he's going to do is
he's going to force them to the ground to be dependent.
Israel and the nation's deserve this.
It is coming. And as we've already noted, this
cups corruption problematically is not alien to us.
We share in the guilt of the nation's.
We sharing the guilt of Israel, because if there's anything I
know about American society, there's anything I know about
us, rich comfortable Americans. It is that we are
self-sufficient. Our own self.
Sufficiency may not have manifested itself, the way in
which it has done for these Israelites or the Nations that
surround them. But no doubt we are
self-sufficient people. We have air conditioning for
goodness sake, right? We have bank accounts and 401ks,
we have the concept of retirement, which means that we
can depend on God for a paycheck today.
So that later we don't have to Right.
Retirement itself. The whole image of the concept
of the American dream and of retirement is the effort to
transcend our dependence upon God so that we can fully and
finally rest in the achievements that we've accomplished and not
have to worry to be secure because we've we've saved up
enough money so that we can rest.
It is the crowning Pinnacle of American Self.
Efficiency and all of us, chase it.
We Chase it because we hate being dependent upon God, just
as much as these people do did in this day, and that's why they
went after other gods. That said, well, if you
sacrifice your child to me, I'll give you everything you want
today. There's attractive, it's the
same way. Why are idolatries today are
attractive and to varying degrees?
We participate in and contribute to the corruption and evil in
our world today. And the question is, no, the
right question is. Okay.
God will, where's the love? Where's the grace?
Because now I this is we get to this point and here's the
problem. Here's the problem.
We started with God's judgment yet.
It's right. He's right.
We are self-sufficient, people. These Israelites are
self-sufficient. People is there a hippie in God?
That's going to love me. Is he going to win out?
Or is this just judge is going to come and burn me alive.
How do we deal with this? How do we work through this?
And so then in verses 9 to 13, we see how God's justice is
established. The last point then how God's
justice is established. And really if you have a Bible
like mine, it's unfortunate. I don't think it was put here
for bad reasons or whatever but you CA see a title at the verse
right before verse 9, it says the conversion of the Nations
and it gives the implication that Zephaniah has moved on to
another another subject. That he's that he's done with
verse eight and now we're going to change the subject and talk
about something different. We got the Judgment piece and
now we're going to move on to something a little bit more
happy. Well in the original scripture
in the Hebrew tax, there is no break here.
This is a following the same thought of verse 8.
In fact I would like to see the numbers removed out of here
because those were added much later in the in the history of
the church. We're not part of the Original
Scriptures, we put them they're here to help us find them but
here it implies that God is doing something different from
verse 8. Verses 9 to 13.
Show us how God's justice is established.
And it is not how you think it's going to come.
It is not how we think it's going to come something
miraculous happens here when God's judgment comes.
We find that it is beautifully and perfectly married with mercy
and it does not fully destroy. But instead when his Justice
falls upon the Earth, It purifies it not only purifies
but it transforms and it brings life out of corruption and
brings life out of death. You and I know this, we see this
kind of this kind of thing happening.
I mean when I was a kid I was growing up out in the on a farm
out in the middle of nowhere and I would always see farmers in
the fall, taking an intentionally burning their
property. You've all seen this growing in
Iowa, if you've will, even if you've been in town, any travel
out of town on I-80, anytime, you will see clouds of smoke
pouring up out of fields because farmers are literally bringing
death and judgement upon their fields literally burning their
fields, which you would think to yourself?
How's that gonna help? what God has built these
principles these realities into our world that through the fire
burning off impurities, and bringing carbon into the soil,
makes a nourishing environment for healthy, fruitful life to
flourish, And this is what we see happening in Verdun in
verses 9 to 13. Is that God's judgment and his
Mercy are so beautifully. Intertwined, that even the
expression of his judgment has Mercy built into it.
So that through it life emerges, which is wild you, and I don't
do this. You and I, when I bring judgment
on somebody, there's a reason why the Bible says be angry and
do not sin because usually, when we're angry, And we got judgment
to bring, it's got a lot of corruption built in with it.
We don't know how to do this. We just we struggle with this.
God's intention through his judgment here is not intended to
in to destroy to the uttermost. But to destroy in order to
purify and bring forth fruit. We see this, we see this through
these verses He says in verse 9 that at that time, I'm going to
change the speech of the people. He's going to change the speech
of the people. Why is God going to change
people's speech? That's such a weird thing and
speech is kind of a theme through this section.
He says, there are going to change the people speech in
verse 9 He also says he's going to says that they're going to
call upon my name which means that they're going to use their
speech in such a manner to depend upon God in verse 10,
they're going to be worshippers. So they're going to be
worshipping God using their mouths and worship to him.
Rather than Idols, in verse 13, they're going to speak.
No lies. They're not going to have a
deceitful tongue in their mouth. What is going on with speech In
this passage? Well, the reason why is because
Because of what Jesus tells us in Matthew 15 Verse 18 should be
up on your screen. Jesus says this about our
speech, he says, whatever comes out of your mouth proceeds from
the heart. This means that the Israelites
worship of other gods, their corruption there, their refusal
to worship God and worship other Idols came not just not just
from a sense of a not just from an intellectual problem, but it
is what they felt in their heart.
And what God is showing us here in verse in verses, 9 to 13, is
that God is actually aiming his judgment to purify the hearts of
his people. That's at the bottom of what's
Happening Here. God's judgment is not
destroying, but transforming In this passage, he's transforming
us. Not just in our thoughts and in
our actions, but at the deepest level of who we are as humans in
our very Al's, he's transforming The Souls of the people because
of the mouth and Essence, is the PA system for the heart.
God is saying here, when I bring my judgment, it's for this
reason. I'm going to transform your
hearts and through God's judgment will come a miraculous
transformation of the human heart.
And not just in Judah, but globally.
And we see this we see this throughout the scriptures in
Isaiah chapter six, beautiful picture of the glory of God
filled In the temple in the prophet.
Isaiah is standing there. And what does he realize?
I am a man of unclean lips. He says, woe is me.
I'm guilty. Just like, Israel.
I have unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.
And what does God do? He brings a coal burning fire,
and he touches it to his lips. Not to burn them, so he'll never
speak again, but to purify them to go out and prophesy.
This is what God is doing in this text.
He is bringing the fire of judgment not to utterly destroy,
but to purify our lips and to purify our hearts to transform
us into the worshipers and the people that he has called us to
be. we struggle with this because our judgment doesn't
produce that. and we know this when judges sit in courts with
Lady Justice, Lady Justice has to be blind because she's so,
she's so prone to corruption and yet what we find in our prisons,
We find Injustice in our prisons and the way in which our law
Lady Justice can't look at the laws and she certainly has no
empathy on anybody and she's not going to see.
Oh man, there's way more black people in prison than there are
white people. Is there a problem with the
laws. She doesn't see it.
She doesn't see that and not only that, she can't rule in a
way that's helpful in that way. But not only that, she can't
rehabilitate anybody who's in there and you talk to a
teenager. My kids are teenagers, and one
of the things, my kids are always very fascinated with.
And I think young people in general care about this, as we
look at our prison system, and we think to ourselves, wouldn't
it be nice if when prisoners came out of prison?
They weren't only paying the price of Justice but came out
changed on the other side. Wouldn't that be nice and
cultures all around the world have tried different strategies,
to figure out a way to rehabilitate people because our
methods of Justice while they get some sense of justice and
some weird and almost Right Way can never actually change the
hearts of the people that are inside.
And yet what we see God doing here is in his exercise of
Justice, he doesn't just establish justice but he makes
just people Out of their corruption, which is incredible.
And we see this in verse 9, they call upon the name of the Lord,
not bail. They learn to be dependent upon
God and not Idols. They learn to be dependent upon
God and not self-sufficient. God is transforming you.
Like he is transforming these people into dependent people to
be in the ideal state, in which he intended to create Us in
verse 11. They're not going to be exalted.
They're not going to be haughty, they're not going to have pride
ourselves efficiency. They're going to be dependent
and verse 12, they are going to be humble and lowly ones which
means they're going to go to God in Refuge.
He says they're they're going to hide in him not in bail.
They're gonna hide in him and not in their 401K.
They're going to hide in Jesus, where their safety, not in their
own self, sufficiency It leads to no Injustice.
It leads to no lies. It means they begin to image God
in verse 5. God transforms people so that
people start to look like him. Which is.
Wild because our image of Justice just looks like death.
But for God, his Justice brings life and transformation.
Which is incredible. It's good news for us.
It's not just true for Israel. Centuries ago is true for us
today and God has done this for us in Jesus.
Amen. God is doing this through Jesus,
in his gospel work. Jesus, did this for us in his
life. In Matthew chapter 4, Jesus goes
into the Wilderness to deal with the gods of the Nations, he goes
into the Wilderness facing Satan.
In his most vulnerable state not having eaten for 40 days and 40
nights and what a Satan do. He comes to him and he says,
hey, you're hungry Turn that turn that stone into bread and
have a meal. And what does Jesus say?
I don't depend upon bread from my life.
I depend upon the word of God. Jesus is the dependent man.
He is the dependent atom that we needed.
He is dependent upon God in ways that we cannot be.
He is humble dependent for us. And then Satan says, throw
yourself from this Temple if you really trust God.
If you're so dependent upon God, go ahead and throw yourself from
this Temple will see how really did how reliable this God is for
you. And it's a I mean I got to give
Satan some credit here. This is good trick.
You and I wouldn't have thought of this.
This is a good trick because he puts Jesus in a catch-22.
Hey if you really trust God, if you really dependent upon him
you can just throw yourself off. But then also if you don't do it
then you're also proving that you don't really depend upon
God. So he tries to get Jesus in a
catch-22 and what he says is, you know what, I'm not going to
put God to the test. Meaning I'm not I depend upon
him so fully and so much that I don't need to have it proven to
me or anybody else? I have just resigned myself to
Humble, dependence upon him. And then Satan offers him power
Prestige, and glory. And Jesus instead Delights in
God. More than he Delights in the
power and the and and Prestige of the world, Jesus proves
himself to be the man of humility that we cannot be.
Jesus himself proves himself to be the man who Rejects
self-sufficiency and depends upon God and he does that for
you. And me he goes to into the cross
a dependent man. And indoors, the wrath of God in
verse 8, upon himself for our forgiveness, Jesus, endured this
fire of God, so that we would not be consumed but so that he
would bear the punishment of God, the wrath of God, for our
hope of forgiveness. And then he rises from the dead
emerging from the scorched, Earth of God's justice, like a
new shoe bringing forth, New Life, New Creation, New Hope,
and Transformation for all who trust in him?
That is the got that is what God has done for you.
Through his death. And Resurrection comes the
transformation in our hearts that we see here, this is where
your hope is. This is where my hope is.
And as we find safety, and Jesus were transformed.
We aren't just pronounced forgiven.
We are transformed through this expression of God's judgment.
Our hearts are transformed into dependent worshipers of God and
him alone. And this gives us what this is
another reason why the speaking In tongues and Acts chapter, 2
is so important because they have tongues that send.
It says the content of their tongues was sink was speaking of
the wonderful Deeds of the Lord, their tongues were used to
praise God. And there's a reason why all the
nations are there because their hearts were transformed to speak
in a language that would that would extol God and not the gods
of their Nations. See we struggle and I struggled
without a reconcile. God's use of pain.
It feels like Injustice. It doesn't feel like Mercy feels
like the opposite. But what we find is that through
in Jesus Christ, all of our pain is used as transformation into
life and Paul makes this explicit in Romans chapter 5 in
Romans chapter 5. That should don't know if it'll
be up on the screen but Romans chapter 5 verses 3 to 5, oh,
there it is, not only that, but listen to this, we rejoice in
our sufferings why We know that suffering produces endurance and
endurance, produces character and character produces hope.
God's God's power and the perfect marriage of mercy and
Justice are so beautiful that every ounce of suffering in your
life, produces only good and life in you which is absolutely
mind-boggling. We can't do that in prison
systems and you would think that's like the most important
place to do it. We can't do it.
Yet, God does through the work of Jesus.
So that Paul could say that the sufferings and Romans chapter 8
and verse 18, he says the sufferings of this present age
are not worth comparing with the glory that is yet to be
revealed. That our pain and our suffering,
the experience of the pain of God's, justice of his discipline
is for our good and we see this beautifully imaged in verse 13
and verse 13. The very end look at look at
what look at what is for these people.
They shall graze meaning they have food to eat.
They have provision They have life and then they're going to
lie down and they're going to rest.
They're going to be at peace safety, and None Shall make them
afraid. The people of Israel went to
Idols out of fear. This is why we go to Idols were
afraid. I mean, we're afraid of being
poor and destitute going hungry. It's why we build 401ks and work
for retirement, right? It's what we do.
We're afraid. And that produces anxiety.
Relational dysfunction. And when you look at the
sacrifices that the gods demanded of the people just
destroys life and Society. They get attempt to get a statue
to care about your plight in life.
Try to figure out a way, how can I, how can my bank account care
for me? But now in God, they have
abundance, they can be vulnerable and comfortable at
the same time. Imagine that being vulnerable
and comfortable enough to lie down and sleep.
Without fear. God has delivered these people
from The Tyranny and the false hopes of the idols, so they can
rest. There's not just safety.
Then in Jesus from God's judgment, there's safety in
Jesus for all of life. For all of life.
And the question for us is, where are we seeking to
transcend our dependence upon God.
We're in your life today, we're in your life.
Over the last season. Are you seeking to transcend
your dependence upon God? So you can have what you need
and rest. I'll guarantee wherever that is.
There is pain dysfunction and death in your life and only in
Jesus. Only in Jesus, will you find the
safety you need and God will be learn from this text and what
the hard thing. I wish God used tacos and naps
to teach me dependence upon him. Right?
I want tacos and naps. That would be awesome if that
was the pathway. Of God teaching.
Me dependence. But in some weird wisdom of God,
he knows that pain is the most effective path way and I don't
know if it's because my head is so thick or my heart is so hard,
but that's the pathway, it's so no, this wherever you are.
Seeking, wherever you're seeking self-reliance above, dependence
upon God, God is more committed than you will ever dream.
At bringing whatever pain is necessary to cut your legs out
and show you that Independence upon him.
That is where life is for you. And that sounds scary, but in it
is safety. And so we can rest in Jesus
knowing that let's pray and ask him for help to do so Lord, we
thank you for your word. And Lord.
Yeah, I do wish that you use tacos and naps but you're a much
wiser than me and I pray that you would even as I struggle
with this is, It's a painful reality to Envision.
I just pray that not only in me, but in the hearts of all of
those here that they would, they would see that they would see
the joy that there is and being disciplined and taught to depend
up on you. Lord, the fight for joy in the
Christian Life. It does include pain.
We know that we pray that your spirit would help us to endure
it with rejoicing knowing where it's leading us and we pray that
you would give us Hearts to receive that.
In Jesus, we brain Athens. It does include pain.
We know that we pray that your spirit would help us to endure
it with rejoicing knowing where it's leading us and we pray that
you would give us Hearts to receive that.
In Jesus, we brain Athens.