Zephaniah 3- Truth in Love Network: "Growing up in all things into Christ" Eph 4:15

Welcome to Truth and Love Network, here with Rob and Dan. Tonight, we're going to be talking about Zephaniah, Chapter 3, the last chapter of Zephaniah.

We need to know what... How's it going,

Dan? Good. Good. Good to see you. So, we're looking for potential, you know, who knows when people are going to watch this or if anybody ever will.

But tonight, specifically, I'm hoping that we're going to get a little snow here and see some snow in the morning.

But chances are slim. Does it get old for you where you live? I don't know.

I like the snow. Although, we woke up Friday morning and we had about an inch and a half of ice.

It was just nasty. It's still all over the driveway.

If I didn't have four -wheel drive, I wouldn't be going anywhere. Right. Right. Yeah. I guess it does depend on the person.

If you like snow, you like it. If you don't, you don't. Yeah. It's one of those things. You're not in the middle a whole lot.

So, we're in Zephaniah tonight. We're going to end up the book, Zephaniah, Chapter 3.

So, if you have your Bibles and you want to look at Zephaniah, Chapter 3 with us and follow along with us, that would be great.

If you'd like for us to pray for you, let us know. We can do that as well. All you have to do is type me.

We can pray for you like that. If you have any questions, we really enjoy interacting with you.

So, if you want to leave a comment, if you want to leave a question, and it doesn't have to be about Zephaniah.

If you want to talk about the church, talk about another Bible verse, whatever is on your mind as you've been walking with the

Lord, learning about Jesus, studying his word, whatever is on your heart, we'd love to hear from you and share with us and ask questions.

And we'll try to answer those questions. If we don't know, we'll get back to you.

And here's one other thing. I've been talking to some folks here recently about accountability for the ministry.

So, those of you who are watching, let's rip it. We've got to show that.

Brother Claude is on. Let's rip it. So, I wanted to share this with you guys.

Speaking about accountability, some ministries, some podcasts have the ability to have a board of, what did

I call it? Board of directors? Board of directors, yeah, board of directors.

They have maybe a church, or they have sponsors that keep them accountable.

And somebody that you can go to if you have a concern with anything that we're doing, you can go to that board of directors.

But we don't have that. And maybe we'll have that one day. But we don't have that. But what we do have, and I feel like it is sufficient for now.

And Dan, you can give me your thoughts now or later on it. But there are multiple men, and of course, my wife as well, that are admins within the

Truth and Love Network Facebook page. If you have any concerns, you can send a message on that Facebook page.

And everyone that is an admin on that page will see the message. And I think that's one level of accountability for the ministry.

Everybody is able to see that message, and everybody is able to give a response, or we can talk about it if need be.

So, I feel like we do have a level of accountability. I wanted to share that with you and also give you the chance to share your concerns if you have any.

So, with that being said, I'm ready to jump in. Cool.

Any thoughts? You ready to go? I mean, I don't know if this matters to anybody, but I know that my elders at my church are well aware of what we do here.

And they stop by from time to time. And if they have any trouble, they will come down with me at the full force of a

Presbyterian band hammer. And they'll let me have it. They're a really great bunch of men who will have no problems telling me that I need to woe up or back off or repent if need be.

They're a really good group of guys. That's fantastic. And the guys, the elders at my church and other members of my church are aware of this ministry too.

So, I'm thankful for their acceptance. Hey, I'm okay with that.

Yeah. I'm okay with that. Even in New York, you represent North Carolina. Lost half of our

North Carolina followers, but it'll be all right. There's only two to begin with. Do we really want them anyway?

No. Zero percent. Would not recommend.

In Christian love, look past those comments, please, brothers and sisters.

I'm just now realizing, I guess, that Dan and I are on the same level here of feelings toward a certain team.

So, I'm very thankful for that. It was a good day yesterday.

We're going to try to keep that from translating over into our feelings towards each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

We are ABC. Anybody but Carolina.

I'm down with that. So, Zemini chapter three. Well, before I pull it up, let's do a little teeny tiny review.

We walk through the book of Daniel, and we're not doing anything chronological here. But just for timeline purposes,

Daniel was going on during the captivity of Babylon, where Babylon came and took them into captivity.

And Daniel had to speak to King Nebuchadnezzar, translating visions and dreams and that good stuff.

Here in Zephaniah, this is before the Babylonian captivity.

Is that correct? Yep. Okay. And he is during the reign of King Josiah.

And Josiah is one of the few pretty good kings. Most of the kings, it's my understanding that they were bad and not good.

Some of them just damn right terrible. They had a few that were decent, like Josiah, who wanted to bring some reform and bring them back to God.

And we think that maybe Zephaniah was part of that motivation for Josiah to bring back or bring those reforms to the nation because of his warnings.

We read through chapter one where Zephaniah is warning folks. Chapter two, he's warning the folks.

He's warning Jerusalem, and he's warning all the other nations. And he doesn't quit. He's got good news in here.

Yep. But he's still on the warning track. And so let's, as we looked at the end of chapter two, the end of chapter two was very interesting to me, the wordplay and the poetry aspect of it, as you were describing it.

Because if you look in, okay, verse 13 of chapter two, parts like wilderness, and then he gives this big long description.

Flocks will lie down in their midst. Beasts will range in herds. Both the pelican and the hedgehog will lodge on the tops of pillars.

Birds will sing in their windows. Desolation will be on the threshold. So you just got to tumbleweed and animal takeover in this desolate land.

And what an awesome picture here that he's drawing for us.

And now we begin in chapter three. And he's using some tough language here.

Verse one, woe to her who is a rebellious and defiled, the tyrannical city.

She heeded no voice. She accepted no instruction. She did not trust the Lord. She did not draw near to her

God. Now, who is Zephaniah talking about when he's talking about this rebellious, this tyrannical?

She accepted no instruction. She did not trust the Lord. She did not draw near to God. Who is he talking about?

Because we know that he was talking about Jerusalem at one time. He's talking about other nations. Who were we back to here in chapter three?

Well, you just kind of gave it away by saying back to, but here we go. If you look right there where it says she did not trust in the

Lord. Lord in all caps is the name of God. It's Yahweh.

And it says she did not draw near to her God. There is only one nation whose

God was the Lord, whose God was Yahweh. And that is

Israel, because they were called out from among the nations. And God said, I will be your

God and you will be my people. So right here, we're back to talking about the city of Jerusalem as a, it'd be like if you're talking about Washington, D .C.

You're going to talk about Washington, D .C. You don't just mean the little blip of land over there in between Maryland and Virginia. You're talking about the entire country, but you're using it.

You're focusing in on the point where the city where the leaders convened to do their dirty work, so to speak.

So this is his description, vivid description, rebellious and defiled.

And this is before. We know that when they went into captivity because of Babylon and then

God allowed them to go back. We know that they took Babylon with them, basically.

And so they remain they were defiled because of them bringing

Babylon back with them. And correct me if I'm wrong, but but this is before all that.

You're right. This is before Babylon. Yeah. Yeah. They haven't even gone off into their first captivity yet.

Exactly. So so you've got some. I mean, their heart is already on the wrong path before they even introduced to this culture and religion in the city of Babylon.

Right. They didn't accept the instruction of the

Lord, didn't trust the Lord, did not did not draw near to her God. Well, and I guess the answer would be because we talked about it last time when we were looking at Chapter two, how there were many of these cities as they were led to the promised land that they were supposed to destroy.

But they left high places and high places being these places of worship or these false religions.

And they left these high places. They left peoples that they were supposed to destroy. And so there there has always been this intermingling, this flirting with this replacing

God with with other idols, with other gods, with other images. Right.

That's always been present because they didn't obey the Lord. Right. And it wouldn't have even been so bad for them to not take over everybody as they entered the land right away, because even back when they were taking over the different places, the different cities and taking the land the first time, it said that they wouldn't be able to take it all over at once and they wouldn't be able to do it quickly, because if they did, then the land would be too much for them to handle.

The wild beasts would come up and all sorts of different things. They wouldn't be able to handle it. So there was a bit of of an idea that they were supposed to take a while to do it, but they were never supposed to stop taking dominion of the land that they were given.

That's where they got themselves into trouble when they allowed these false gods to stand, when they allowed the people who live there to stand over periods of time.

They got sucked into worshipping those other gods instead of turning and punching them in the mouth and getting them out of there.

It would have taken a little bit longer, maybe over the course of generations, but they were supposed to continue on doing that.

They didn't. They got complacent. They found a land. They wanted to rest. They settled down. They started prospering.

And because of their prosperity, they said, hey, we don't really need this god anymore.

And after several run -ins with the different judges and then three monarchs over the

United Kingdom, they broke off and you never saw another good king out of Israel. And you only saw a small sprinkling of good kings out of Judah.

Let's move on to the next few verses, and I like how the description as you as you read through the verses, you can tell that is how he's describing or the the aspects or arenas of where the corruption is.

Verse three. Oh, I've got to go to the other screen to control it.

All right. Verse three. Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are wolves and evening.

They leave nothing for the morning. So in my eyes, this is what I'm seeing. I'm seeing two different areas of their culture.

And then you go to verse four. Her prophets are reckless.

Her priests have profaned the sanctuary. They have done violence to the law.

So as I look at those two verses, I'm seeing his description of the corruption in basically all arenas of their culture.

A lot of the arenas anyway. It doesn't it doesn't necessarily mention the family, but it does hit on government and religion, which are two of the biggest spheres out there.

The government. This is interesting because it says her princes within her roaring lions, her judges are wolves at evening.

They leave nothing for the morning. In other words, they're devouring the people who are who they're in charge of, who they've been given responsibility to lead.

And this isn't just a problem that they had now.

This problem comes back to to haunt them later. If you look at the book of Micah, Micah chapter two, you see basically the same thing going on.

Only it seems like they've gotten better at it. It says, woe to those who devise iniquity.

It's just, you know, almost identical what it says up above and who work out evil on their beds at morning light.

They practice it because it is in the power of their hand. In other words, they scheme on ways to cheat people out of their money and houses all night.

And then when they wake up in the morning, since they have the ability to do it, they go out there and use their power to cheat people out of their property.

Since they covet fields and take them by violence and also houses and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house and a man and his inheritance.

Man, that sounds like our government, doesn't it? Hey, what's a new way that we can tax these people?

And then tax the tax and yeah, it's. They're not doing what they're supposed to be doing.

They're being evil, wicked people that the judges aren't providing true justice. The princes aren't protecting the people and giving them a good, safe place to live.

They are just devouring their own folks. They leave nothing for the morning.

There's nothing left. It's like we heard some coyotes yipping and hollering out back a little bit ago.

Maybe a week ago. And I had some old. Well, some stuff coyotes may like to eat.

And when we check it out the next morning, it's gone. There's nothing left. Just like that, they go and they find and they rip and tear and devour.

It's really interesting that the the prophets are spoken of in about the same manner.

It says the reckless. Another word for that is fickle or undisciplined.

They have no moral fortitude to them. That's the idea there. They're treacherous because they're dangerous.

Now, being dangerous as a man is not a bad thing. You want to be dangerous, but you want to be danger under control.

You want to be dangerous to those who need to be slapped down, those who are trying to hurt the innocent and wreck the weak.

You want to take care of people. You want to be dangerous enough to take care of the folks who need to be taken care of.

But you always want to do that with a moral compass that aligns with the word of God.

Were you doing things the right way? They did not have that moral compass. They were just treacherous. If you got close to them, you've seen somebody who doesn't know how to swing an axe.

You see them swing an axe. You're just like, oh, how do you have shins left? What are you doing with your life?

Please, please stop. That's the sort of thing. They had the power of prophecy speaking for Yahweh.

And like Calvin said, they're like a lunatic with a sword. They're just rolling around, hacking stuff off all over the place.

Like, why are you doing this? It says in the process that they profaned the sanctuary.

They did violence to the law. They took it. They twisted it. They shaded it.

They beat it into a weapon for their own destruction. That's not what the law was there for.

The law was to God to keep us as a schoolmaster until the Messiah would come. But instead, they took it as a way to browbeat the people who were beneath them.

This even came back after the captivity. That's why Jesus came in and he was so angry with the Pharisees.

Why are you straining in that? You can't fit through the camel through the eye of a needle.

You've neglected the commands of God for the traditions of men. And you had all of those things.

John the Baptist called them a brood of vipers. It was something that they just held on to.

We can see here that the government wasn't fulfilling its role. No. Religion wasn't fulfilling its role.

And I'm thinking here, looking at the people as a whole, the nation of Israel as a whole, and the state of their being, this really reveals to me, and of course, not just them, but I'm referring to all humanity in general as well, but it reveals the state of humanity.

And it relates a lot to our subject on Thursday night, last Thursday, and this coming

Thursday where we're talking about the doctrine of total depravity and total inability.

This really speaks to that to me and what I'm seeing here because in God's mercy, he gave his people here in this time more or less a quid pro quo covenant.

If you do this, I will bless you. If you do this, you will be cursed. So they had the opportunity in the aspect of the government.

They were given the command to take dominion, have dominion.

They had God on their side, and they were given the command to take dominion of the whole earth, and so therefore there was no kingdom.

There was no people that could stand in their way because they had a mandate and they had a

God on their side to back it up. And with religion, you know, you have all these other religions where they were cutting themselves, trying to get blessings from their gods.

They wanted great crops. They wanted a wet season. They wanted blessing, and they did all sorts of immoralities to try to appease their

God. When Israel had a God that said, if you do this,

I will bless you, but they wanted to intermingle with these other religions, these false gods that never answered.

When they had the God of gods, the king of kings and Lord of lords, they had the God and creator of the universe on their side saying, if you do this,

I will bless you. Here's the mandate. Go and have dominion. Take over. I will be with you because I'm giving you the mandate.

And it shows their utter depravity and our utter depravity that man would despise the mandate of God and the blessing of God when he's given it to us or he gave it to them.

Yep. And it's interesting that all of this was prophesied way back in Deuteronomy.

If you look at Deuteronomy 31, starting in verse 19, it says, now, therefore, right? Am I in the right spot?

Yeah. Now, therefore, write down this song for yourselves and teach it to the children of Israel.

Put it in their mouths that they may, that the song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.

When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them, and they will provoke me and break my covenant.

Then it shall be when many evils and troubles have come upon them that this song will testify against them as a witness, for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants.

For I know the inclination of their behavior today, even before I have brought them to the land of which

I swore to give to them. Whew. He was already telling them, you are going to,

I've given you this covenant. He told them just prior to this, I give to you today a choice, life and blessing or death and cursing.

Choose life. And he says, but I know what you're going to do. You're going to choose death.

And when you do, it's going to come to you. You're going to have judgment fall on you. It's amazing how things are still the same and so consistent and never change.

You have there in Deuteronomy where basically to sum it up, God knows man's heart. And then you come to the

New Testament where Christ says, or the New Testament says, Jesus did not entrust himself to them because he knew men and he knew what was in their heart.

Yep. Doesn't change. It's still the same. And God knows our hearts.

And all this is still about his graciousness.

He was gracious to give them that mandate, that covenant, but he was also gracious to give them the law to use it, to show them their simpleness and show us our simpleness.

Let's move on. So we don't run down too many rabbit trails and expound all our time.

We're going to go to part F before we know it. Verse five.

The Lord is righteous within her. He will do no injustice. What an encouragement. Every morning he brings his justice to light.

He does not fail, but the unjust knows no shame. What a distinction there between God and man.

Yeah. Big contrast. Right. Verse six. And if you have any other comments, just let them out.

I have cut off nations. Their corner towers are in ruins. I have made their streets desolate with no one passing by.

Their cities are laid waste without a man, without inhabitants. Yeah.

Verse five. He says, he's just, and he's not going to leave justice undone.

And then verse six, he goes, look, I did it before. Yeah. I've already done it before.

What makes you think I won't do it now? I'm going to be just. Yeah. You can bank on it.

Yep. Verse seven. I have. I said, surely you will revere me, except instruction.

Going back to the, I guess, earlier passage, except instruction.

So her dwelling will not be cut off according to all that I have appointed concerning her.

But they would, they were eager to corrupt all their deeds. So let me ask you this,

Robert. Yeah. And I, uh, God expected them to do better, but they didn't.

Was God wrong? So truly you will revere me.

Surely you will revere me. So that's where you're, that's where you're getting the comment. He expected them to, to do better.

Surely you will revere me and accept instruction. You're going to listen and you're not going to, you're not going to get put out of the land and, but then it says, but you did something else.

Yeah. So with God wrong, that's, that's a good question.

And the way, the way this is worded makes it really difficult to answer.

Um, because we've, we've looked at verses before where God has, has changed his mind or, or repented.

And, you know, we, we've been able to explain that and talk about that and talk about how God's, um,

God's plan A and plan B has always was, has always been plan A. If it looks like there was a plan

B that's because it was part of plan A in such a way. And that's, you know, that's similar to what's going on here.

Um, what would be your explanation?

I would say, no, it doesn't look like that at all. It doesn't look like that.

And here's why. Here's why. Because what God did with Israel specifically, he pulled up, called people to himself.

He gave them his law. He says, here's your instruction. He put redeemed folks there in the nation.

There were those who knew him, not pretend knew him, but knew him.

The redeemed individuals in the old Testament, they had his law.

You've had every chance to succeed. If anybody was going to succeed is going to be you, but you didn't.

And I think that's the language that's being used there. Surely of everybody out there who would accept instruction.

So they wouldn't get cut off. If there was anybody out there who was going to listen to me, it was going to be you, but you wouldn't do it.

I don't think God actually expected them to not to do well because he, in Deuteronomy said, you're going to fail.

He said, you're going to fall away. You're going to follow other gods. So what I think he's saying here is

I gave you every chance to succeed. You have no excuse. I've been more than merciful to you.

And yet you loved your sin more than you love me. So it's not necessarily describing

God's character, his nature, who he is in saying that he was expecting a certain outcome and then become disappointed.

What it's really saying is this is a statement to Israel to reveal to them who they are.

Right. He's given them every opportunity and every opportunity they've turned their backs on him.

Yeah. Because even in Deuteronomy, it says, choose you this day. Do you have life and blessing or death and cursing?

He gave them, remember us as Calvinists, we, or us too,

I don't know, anybody listening, we'll fight amongst ourselves later. But we believe that God really does have a moral responsibility placed upon us.

We really do everything that we want to because of our nature.

And yet it's in line with God's decrees. Yeah. So here, given every opportunity to succeed, these people use their will, use their choices to go against what

God had commanded them to do. Yeah. So it's not speaking of God's response. It's speaking of Israel's response.

And in my mind, I'm seeing the reaction. So if my dad was saying this to me, surely you should have done this.

And my response should be, surely I should have, it should be an attitude of reality, of humility, of repentance, of remorse.

Surely I should have done that. And I think it's revealing the response that Israel should have had.

Surely I should have responded this way instead of the other way. Yeah. It's kind of like if I were to take my boys fishing in a few years and I were just to let them go.

But before they left, I said, all right, now right here is a big, big hole.

You're going to want to drop your bait right there. You're going to want to use chicken breasts because that's the best. Drop it right there in the hole.

And what's going to happen is a big old catfish is going to come up and eat it. They come back the next day.

How many did you catch? Dad, we didn't catch anything. Well, why not, buddy?

Well, we went over there to the little creek and we dropped our worms over on the bank and we thought they'd come up and walk over and eat them.

Well, guys, that's not what I told you to do at all. I told you to do all of this stuff.

And surely you would have caught fish had you done what I told you. But y 'all were knuckleheads and went the opposite direction.

It's something that's going something like that. There will be every opportunity to succeed.

And yet they did not because they did not listen to God. So since you didn't wait on the

Lord, since you didn't eat his instruction. Right. Verse eight. Therefore, wait for me, declares the

Lord. For the day when I rise up as a witness. Indeed, my decision is to gather nations to assemble kingdoms, to pour out on them my indignation.

All my burning anger for all the earth will be devoured by the fire of my zeal.

So he's going to they're going to be one of the one of the nations now that he's going to bring judgment on.

Right. Right. Right. But even then you still get the idea in verse eight.

Therefore, wait for me, declares the Lord. Wait for him. How to you can either wait for him to see if he's going to do what he said he will or wait for me to be your deliverance.

It can go both ways. You wait upon the grace of the Lord or you just no wait around to stick it out to see if no, this guy is going to actually do what he said.

So even there, there's a little glimmer of hope in the face of great destruction. Right. Right.

And here we have some of this. Judgment, apocalyptic type language that we see in other places, you know, as we've as we've talked about eschatology and we we come across this type of language before.

And so here. Can we understand this and how it's used in the other eschatological places in the

Bible, because. You just you think it out, think it out logically.

He says, all my burning anger. You know, that's that's a word picture. Anger can't burn.

So it's just it's a descriptive word for all the earth will be devoured. The context here, we've been we've been talking about a localized place,

Judea, Jerusalem. Right. Ethiopia, the Ammonites, the

Moabites, the Philistines. Yeah. And then they will be devoured.

By the fire of my zeal. Yeah. And what's interesting is you go to the next sentence in verse nine.

For then I will give to the people's purified lips. Now, if you're thinking this through logically.

If he's going to devour the nations of the earth. By the fire, literal fire of his zeal.

Then who's going to be left to give people's purified lips? Yeah. Which lips are going to be purified?

Exactly. Exactly. So if if it's a literal burning fire.

Right. And I like what Gary DeMar has has brought up in his teaching. He says we we interpret the

Bible literally. Literal according to the literature. Right. And, you know, we don't see this as just as we discussed a literal fire.

We don't. Anger doesn't literally burn. We can't see that it doesn't. Anger doesn't get consumed and produce ashes.

So it's it's word pictures. It's. Figurative. It's describing something.

The the literal part of it is his anger. His indignation.

Yeah. That's his anger and his indignation is being described in figurative language. But it's a literal anger and indignation.

Like this is real judgment coming on people. So do you think this do you think this relates to the fire language of consuming the whole earth?

Because growing up, I was influenced by the dispensational premill viewpoint that the earth was first destroyed by water.

And then the second time that it's destroyed, it's going to be destroyed by fire. That that was my thinking.

That's how I was brought up. And so but but now from a post -mill perspective, do we see that that fire language as judgment language, not necessarily literal fire that consumes wood to consume the whole earth, but a purifying like we see here in Zephaniah?

Yes. And and here's why. We we would we would be overstepping our bounds to say that that is is not going to be a fire that is actually going to consume like cups and wood and rocks and metal elements and stuff.

If we didn't have language that suggested it otherwise, that was clearer than this, because you could you could

I don't think like you said, who's going to be left for their lips to be purified? That makes sense.

You also have to look at different language. I think of Isaiah of 1310. Speaking of a judgment coming upon a specific nation,

Babylon. It says that that the moon will turn to blood and the sun, moon and stars are going to fall from the sky and be destroyed.

Now, did the sun, moon and stars actually get destroyed in the judgment on Babylon?

Well, Babylon's not here anymore, but the sun, moon and stars are. So what we know from that language is that it was the the the light was going out on the nation of Babylon.

The sun, the the shown on Babylon won't shine on them anymore because the sun's gone.

No, but because Babylon's gone. So what it looks when he gives that language of of judgment of, you know, sun, moon and stars falling, we have fire coming and purifying.

He's not saying that there's going to be an actual fire that comes and purifies, but that his judgment will be rained down on them.

Scorched earth. We're looking at a terrible time of judgment where only a remnant is going to be left and that remnant is going to be purified through his through his judgment.

This happens in a smaller sections. We think of Babylon being judged,

Syria being judged, Jerusalem being judged on several occasions. We think of other nations who have risen and fallen.

The different empires, a big Turkish empire that fell away, Genghis Khan fell away,

Napoleon. They came back, you know, shrunk back down. We think of all these nations that tried to puff themselves up against God to say that we're going to take over the world.

I know this is my world. He put the kibosh on them, put judgment on them, and they fell.

They fell away. But in each one of those instances, he preserved alive a people for himself.

And those people were there to call upon the name of the Lord. And that's what we see here.

It's a picture of the end time when we see Jesus coming back and the full and final judgment is put over all of the nations at a singular time.

And all that remains are those who trust in Christ, those who believe in God and have had their sins forgiven through the blood sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

Well, if you ask me, Dan, that was a pretty good segue to move forward. Let's do a really good segue.

First, then I will give to the people's purified lips more hope language, more encouraging language that all of them may call on the name of the

Lord to serve him shoulder to shoulder. And we're not just talking about Jerusalem here, right? I mean, he was talking about other nations, and now he's talking about purifying their lips along with Jerusalem.

And causing them to your version that you were reading earlier said language.

Yep, purifying their language that they may call on the name of the Lord. So you have all these different remnants within all the different kingdoms calling on the name of the

Lord and together serving him shoulder to shoulder. Yep, yep.

And it's interesting. The one little verse in chapter 12 or chapter two.

What was it? Verse 12, I think. Maybe it was verse 10. I don't know. It's on some other page.

Verse 12. Yeah, Ethiopia, you're going down. Here's my sword. Now you see in chapter three, verse 10.

Oh, all the way over there in Ethiopia, my worshippers, my dispersed ones will bring my offerings.

He's talking about a, you know, wherever a nation falls, my kingdom will stand.

Which is, it's an amazing thing because look at the book of Daniel. That's the whole point of the book of Daniel.

Wherever a nation falls, my kingdom will stand. Whenever the little stone hits the statue and the nations fall, my kingdom will continue to grow.

It's God's justice and his mercy, his grace put out. It's in the destruction of these world powers.

The kingdom of God will grow. Wickedness is put down.

The kingdom of righteousness will expand. Is this a good time for you to go over the different kingdoms as you did when we were talking earlier?

In the description of the statue and Daniel, you started to go there. I can.

Yeah, I think that's amazing. What you're seeing here is you're seeing a buildup.

Since this happens before Daniel, before they even go off into captivity into Babylon, what you're seeing is

God telling the people, there's going to be nations around you and yours itself is going to fall.

The purpose of it, the end result of that is going to be a people that are called to myself.

This is why the book of Daniel is so incredible because after they go off into captivity, Daniel and his friends are trying to be faithful.

Daniel is able to interpret dreams and whatnot. And the dream that comes to him or comes to Nebuchadnezzar through him is one of the statues that you with four different types of metals.

You have the the head of gold, which is the Babylonian Empire, the chest of silver, the

Medo -Persian Empire, a little bit lower. You have the Greek Empire. And then down below, you have the

Roman Empire, both the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire itself with the

Caesars, the mixed clay and iron together. And then the picture in the story in Daniel is that there's a little stone, a little pebble that's been without human hands, cut without human hands.

So it's not something that's made by men, something from God. And it comes and it hits the statue and the statue, which is a picture of the world kingdoms, crumbles.

And from the ashes of the world kingdoms, that little stone grows larger and larger and larger until it fills the entire earth.

It fills the entire earth. And it gets good because that's the kingdom of God that spread over the entire world.

You see that theme a couple of times. So what he's he's saying here is that you're going to see these things start to take place.

You're going to see judgment. And yet I will give people purified lips. I'll purify their language so that they can call on me.

They're going to serve shoulder to shoulder, no longer just Jews. But look, people from Ethiopia are coming.

My worshipers, my dispersed ones, the ones over there, the ones over here, black, white, yellow, doesn't matter.

Everybody's going to come together to my kingdom. And then my kingdom is going to grow.

And that's why this is so important, because this is that little scarlet thread just kind of peeking its head out.

And then going back down, you see it peek its head out. Hey, look, hope coming. And then you see

Daniel come up. Then Jesus shows up. And when Jesus shows up at the time of the

Roman Empire, he sees. He runs through his life perfectly, does not sin, takes upon the sin of the world as he goes to the cross, he dies on the cross, raises on the third day, lays in the grave, raises on the third day, goes up and rules from heaven.

Then this is something that's very, very important and interesting. He says, where does judgment begin in Scripture?

Judgment begins at the house of God. And what took place in 70 AD? The judgment of the temple.

The Jews were judged first. And what's happened throughout world history ever since then?

Nations that come up against God are judged for their sin. And as they fall,

Christians take their place. Now, granted, those Christians sometimes turn their back on God.

And as nations turn secular and hideous and wicked, they are then judged again.

But what is always left? The kingdom of God growing and moving throughout all of history. This right here in Zephaniah is just a picture of what's to come.

It's part of God's full plan of salvation coming to men through the judgment of the world, but the preservation of his people through judgment, which is what baptism symbolizes for us.

So can we say it like this? I threw that in there. That was fantastic.

So can we say it like this? Throughout history from 70 AD until now, there's always going to be a remnant of Christians until the remnant is the kingdom.

Well, the remnant is the kingdom. But until the kingdom expands to where the kingdom of God is in.

That's all that's left. Right. The kingdom of God will expand until it fills the entire earth. Yeah.

Until the remnant fills the entire earth. Yeah. That's where I was going with it. So verse 11.

In that day, you will feel no shame because of all your deeds by which you have rebelled against me.

For then I will remove from your midst your proud, exalting ones, and you will never again be haughty on my holy mountain.

All right. We just went through this in Sunday school from somewhere completely different this morning.

Wow. And it just popped in my head. Let me. Let me get there.

I got you. I got you. Don't worry. I got you right here. So this was the time that you were talking about. Yeah. Put the music on.

Put on the music. He's finding the scripture. Dan's finding the scripture music. All right. So in that day, you will feel no shame.

So we're looking for that day when you just keep looking. We're looking for that day when he's bringing his remnant in from all the different kingdoms.

And in that day, you will feel no shame. And this is.

To me, this is pointing to the work of the Messiah. Absolutely.

Where because of him, because like you said before, him living the sinless life, him living a perfect life, and then his righteousness being imputed to us.

We can feel no shame because it's Christ in us. The things that you rebelled against me, and that's so encouraging because we want to, we want to listen to our flesh.

We want to listen to the, I want to say the demons in our ear figuratively.

You know, you're no good. You're no good to God. Look at all these ways that you've sinned against God. You rebelled against him.

How can he use you? You know, you hear all these things and you, you say all these things to yourself, but it's, it's

Christ that God looks at with, within you. And it's his power that can overcome, not just those, those thoughts of inadequacy, but those, but, but literally giving you the strength to move past that and move forward in serving his kingdom.

Yep. Did you find what you were looking for? I did. Okay. It's even better than I thought.

Look right here at verse 11 real quick. Okay. You will feel no shame because of all your deeds, by which you have rebelled against me.

For then I will remove from your midst, your proud, exalting ones, and you will never again be haughty on my holy mountain.

It's speaking in Matthew chapter 24. Jesus is speaking to his disciples about the coming destruction of the

Jerusalem and the temple. Verse 36 says, but of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my father only.

But as of the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the son of man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark.

And they did not know until the flood came and took them all the way. The flood is always a sign of judgment.

And took them all the way. So also will the coming of the son of man be.

Then look at this. Two men will be in the field. One will be taken and the other one left.

For then I will remove from your midst, your proud, exalting ones. Watch therefore that you do, because you do not know what hour your

Lord is coming, but know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken in for.

Therefore, you also be ready for the son of man is coming in an hour. You do not expect.

He's telling them there in Zephaniah, the same thing he's telling them here, only at a different time and a different circumstance.

He's telling them, you need to prepare yourself for the judgment that's coming upon the wicked of the world.

Those who are wicked will be destroyed. Those who have come to Christ and trusted in him to be there, his for, for God to be their salvation, they will remain while those who are wicked will be taken out of the way.

They will be destroyed off of the earth because it is God's holy mountain. And that's holy mountain says right there,

I believe is the same holy mountain that starts as a pedal strikes the, the toes of Daniel statue and grows to be his holy mountain upon the whole earth.

What you have right there is you have a picture of what God's doing in judgment upon nations all over the world and through it, bringing a people to himself.

That was a fantastic connection. And going along with what I was saying, you know, it's, it's

Christ in us and giving us the ability to overcome the power and the strength to serve him.

And then he's going to remove those who are, who are proud and exalting.

But then when those are gone, you will never be haughty again.

Why? Because we know it's Christ. There's no reason to be haughty.

There's no reason to be proud that you remove all the proud from among us. And all that's left is those who know that it's

Christ who did the work. It's Christ that's in us. It's all about Christ. There will never be anybody haughty again.

Right. And it's, it's that language where it says you'll never be haughty again. If you look at the, the nation of Israel when they came back and they had their people who didn't want anything to do with God taken away.

I mean, they had some bad apples of course when they came back they did become haughty again and it led to their further destruction.

So what you see there is some language that's pointing to the final work of the Messiah. He's not just talking, he is talking about a temporal thing, a thing that will happen in history.

He's talking about much more because what he's doing is not just something that's in history. It's something that transcends history.

It is a salvation that is full and final. He's not just dealing with our temporal circumstances.

He's dealing with the eternality of our souls. You know, what's going to happen later on. He's not just looking at the, at the here and now he's looking at the big picture when he, he says these things, even though all those things are pointing to the, the picture of later on.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And like you were saying earlier, this is still anti type language.

You know, we're, we're pointing, it's still pointing to the Messiah that comes pointing to Christ.

All right. Now, now we can get to this, this remnant that we've, we've been talking about.

We can get to it where Zephaniah begins to talk about it more specifically verse 12, but I will leave among you a humble and lowly people and they will take refuge in the name of the

Lord. And I think, I think that sentence right there is key as we, as we move on down and they will take refuge in the name of the

Lord. So I'm going to read these next few verses and see if you can see what I'm talking about, how that's, that's a key verse.

The remnant of Israel will do no wrong and tell no lies, nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths for they will feed and lie down with no one to make them tremble.

And that's where, that's where that section of that verse hit me. Why? What's the reason?

Because they've taken refuge in the Lord. Right. My father who gave them to me is stronger than, than all.

And no one will pluck them out of my father's hand. That's right. That's right. That's exactly right.

They've taken refuge in the Lord and there is no need to fear. So therefore there is no kingdom. There's no man here on this earth that can make them tremble.

And that's the power of the Holy spirit, because in our flesh, we, we're going to tremble.

We have a innate fear of man. But it's the Holy spirit work in us that helps us to realize our position in Christ, where we are.

Sabbath thing. Is that a, is that a good word? A real word Sabbath thing resting.

We found our refuge in him. Verse 14, shout for joy.

Oh daughter, daughter of Zion, shout and triumph. Oh Israel rejoice and exult.

With your heart. Oh daughter, daughter of Jerusalem. Lord has taken away his judgments against you.

He has cleared away your enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord is in your midst where you, where you fear disaster.

No more. Robert is, is

Jesus the king of Israel right now in this verse or in our time?

Yeah, absolutely. So we're not waiting for him to become king later.

No, no. And not only is he king of Israel, but he's, he's king of North Carolina.

He's king of New York. He's king of the United States. He's king of the oceans. He's king of the

North and South pole and all the stars of the heavens. So what you're saying is he is all authority in heaven and on earth.

I would, I would agree with that. Okay. There might be a verse that says that. Yeah. Just, just trying to pull out that that's a present reality and not something we need to wait for in the future.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And we can, we can own these verses to the aspect of the, the worship because of that reality, shout for joy, all daughter of Zion.

We, we are the new Jerusalem. We're the new Zion shout and triumph.

Oh, Israel, Israel from, from our perspective, interpretation is, is a continuation.

The church is not a replacement, but a continuation of God's people throughout all time.

So we can, we can rejoice and exalt with, with our hearts. Would you agree with that?

Yep. Okay. A hundred percent. And then he's taking his judgments.

He's taking them away. His judgments against us. He has cleared away our enemies, the

King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst. And there we go. he would take our refuge in him so that we don't, we don't have to fear disaster anymore.

What a comfort in that day, verse 16, it will be said to Jerusalem, do not be afraid.

Oh, Zion, do not let your hands fall limp. Verse 17, the

Lord, your God is in your midst. He's ever present. He's not far off.

He doesn't, he didn't set things in motion and, and leave us alone. The Lord, your God is in your midst.

He is a victorious warrior. So we can, it's like being a child and, and, you know, not being afraid because, you know, your, your father is, is there with you to protect you.

We have a victorious warrior in our midst. So that we don't have to fear.

He, he will exalt you, exalt over you with joy. And so he found, is this where, is this the verse that people use to, to say that he will sing over us?

Or is that another verse? He will be quiet in his love.

He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. So I don't think that speaks of our innate goodness, but I think it speaks of his, this, this speaks of his character and nature and what a good guy he is.

Yep. Yep. In fact, for, for everyone who might be listening, who has kids, this song's playing in my head right now.

Cause there's a, there's a guy, his name is Randall. Good game. He does a whole bunch of stuff.

He's got a whole thing called slugs and bugs and slugs and bugs has some silly songs.

They've got a TV show out now, but slugs and bugs also sings the

Bible. So it can help you memorize different Bible verses. There's three, I think four volumes of slugs and bugs out now.

And verse 17 of Zephaniah chapter three, it's definitely one of them. So no,

I got it. Well, it's such an, it is an encouragement, not to speak of our worth, but our value because of how do you wear that out?

Our value, because of the, the one who created us and owns us and had redeemed us.

Our value is in him, but he finds, he finds value in worth in his work, in his creation.

And, and, you know, we can, we can find joy in that, that he's, he's loving and he's compassionate.

I mean, this speaks to his, his nature, his nurture of us and his, how he feels about his creation, that we're loved by him.

Yep. Real quick, going back to, let's see.

Well, into verse 15, into verse 16, it says that the king of Israel, the

Lord is in your midst. You will not fear disaster anymore. And that day will be said, Jerusalem, do not fear

Zion. Let not your hands be weak. If you also then look at the book of revelation, which is a book about, you know, what's going to happen through the judgment of God.

But the cowardly, and then it goes on and lists a whole bunch of other ones, shall have their part in the lake, which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

Wow. I'll probably just open up a can of worms on that one, but cowardness, cowardliness, being a coward is sin.

And it's a sin because God has commanded us not to be afraid and to trust in him.

A coward, cowardness, cowardliness, cowardice. That's a word. A cowardice is a symptom of unbelief.

Now here's the good part about that. Cause none of that sounded good. Here's the good part about that.

Since cowardice is a sin, um, that sin can be forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ.

If we turn from it and trust in Christ to forgive us. So when we look at these, these commands to not fear, and we look at them in the, uh, when they're placed in context with God's faithfulness, uh, we need to take those things and put them deep in our hearts, put them in the forefront of our minds, let them control the way that we do our work and the things that we say and the things that we do, because we need to have faith and actually trust in the

God who says that he's coming to judge the living and the dead. And he's going to take away the wicked and reward the right, the righteous who trust in him.

We need to remember those things because those who fear, who are cowards don't do who, because they don't want to give up either control or they don't want to, they're too scared about what people will think.

People who will not give up their sin because they're too scared. Otherwise we'll find themselves judged harshly, but remember

Christ forgives. So turn from your sin, turn to Christ, trust in him, do not be cowardly.

And that's something that we'll probably be repenting of for like the rest of our lives. Cause it's really easy to get scared and clam up when you shouldn't.

And we shouldn't, because God is so good. Look at what it says right there. A victorious warrior.

What is your, what did your version say? It said a little something a little different instead of don't let your hands fall in.

Don't let your hands or let not your hands be weak, be weak. In that context of, of speaking of a warrior,

I'm trying to, I'm trying to figure out, I'd like to know what he means by falling up or, or why the original authors or the translators use that, that word.

And in the context there, you have a warrior, God being that victorious warrior. So the picture that I'm trying to draw in my mind is, is us having a, you know, a short sword and a shield in our hands.

And our hands becoming limp and giving up, dropping our sword and dropping our shield.

Yeah. Think of, think of the Israelite standing before Goliath. You know, they're all, all right, let's go fight.

Well, there's Goliath. Yeah. Yeah. They're done.

Howard is. Yep. They're done. Good stuff. Good stuff. All right. Verse, verse 18.

I will gather those who grieve. And this, now we're getting to the part where you tell me if I'm wrong.

This is just a picture of Jesus. I will gather those who grieve about the appointed feast.

They come from, they came from you. Oh, Zion, the reproach of exile is a burden on them.

I want to read that again and get a little better understanding of what that means. But verse 19, behold,

I'm going to deal with deal at that time with your oppressors. I will save the lane.

I will gather the outcast. I will turn their shame into praise and renowned in all the earth.

I mean, what a, what a beautiful picture of Jesus' ministry. Let's go back to verse 18. I will gather those who grieve about the appointed feast.

They, they came from your old Zion. The reproach of exile is a burden on them.

Do you have a grasp on what's going there? What he's referring to? Yeah. I, I don't know if I would have supplied the word of exile there.

Okay. Let, let me read the new

King James. I think it'll help shed a little light on it. And I don't normally use the new King James.

I just have it. I don't, I will gather those who sorrow over the appointed assembly.

Who are among you to whom it's reproach is a burden.

I think what he's saying there is I will gather those who grieve about the appointed feast.

Why they, I think they grieve because, and this could go one of two ways.

You're either talking about those who will be gathered and have their oppressors dealt with because they are so grieved over the way that the temple sacrifices and the way that God is being worshiped because it's, it's they're, they're looking at it and saying, this can't be right.

This is terrible. We need to repent. And they're not seeing anything happen in their day. They're not seeing any reform.

They're seeing people just worship God in the worst possible way, you know, by through idolatry or whatever else they're doing.

Or he's saying, I'm going to gather those in judgment who worship

God in a false manner, who are taking his worship as a, a light thing or a little thing who are not doing as they should.

No, to sorrow over it, either being sorrow over the way that it's been done or to sorrow over it because you don't want to do it the right way.

I'm not really sure which, because each one, if you look at each one of those, those italicized portions of Zion, the of exile, each one of those is something that had to be supplied by the translator, because there was no word there in the

Hebrew. So the Hebrew actually read something like they came from you.

Reproach is a burden on them. So what does that mean in English?

No, in Hebrew would have made sense in English or in Hebrew. It's I don't,

I don't, I don't know. And so people will supply words there. I think sometimes it's best to leave it a little vague.

Right. the, the context makes me believe that because it goes on in verse 19, behold,

I'm going to deal with deal at that time with all of your oppressors. Who's he going to gather?

He's going to gather those who grieve about the appointed feast. They came from you.

Oh, Zion or they came from you. Reproach is a burden on them. So there's a burden that's going to be dealt with upon those who are worshiping

God in an improper fashion. We're seeking after other gods who are not seeking and promoting justice who are using their political and religious standing and power and position in order to have their own gain.

Those people will be dealt with. I don't know how to say it.

I'm going to offer a different option or, or a similar option and you tell me what your, your thoughts are on it.

Cause he says, I will gather those who grieve about the appointed feast. So we're, we're here in a transition transition in a, in a different space.

We're, we're talking about the Messiah and his, his dealing with the remnant, his rescuing of the remnant, his, his victory over sin.

And so we have a different group of people than just the nation of Israel as a whole or other kingdoms as a whole.

We're, we're speaking of the, of the remnant and God's working in them. And he says, I will gather those who grieve about the appointed feast.

So you have a, in Christ among the remnant, we don't worship that way anymore where you, you celebrated and observed all the different feast days.

And now you have a remnant who worships in spirit and in truth, worships a different way.

You don't offer sacrifices. Jesus was the sacrifice. You don't necessarily honor and celebrate all these feast days at feast weeks anymore.

And so you have the, those who came from you who grieve about the appointed feast days.

They're not being observed anymore. Does that make sense? They, and they, they were the oppressors.

Hmm. I don't know if that would have made sense to someone living before Babylon.

That's true. I see where you're coming from. And it kind of makes sense from our point of view.

Right. But if you're looking at it from their point of view, they would, I don't think they would have had a frame of reference to understand it that way.

Okay. Okay. But you, you did have a, have you were dancing around a lot of good points there.

I liked some of what you said. Cause, cause,

I like that. Now that you made me laugh.

Cause, cause what, what it is getting to eventually will be, it, the only way that we knew how to worship at that point was through the temple and the way that God had revealed himself to them.

So there, there would be an application there to today's church as well.

I think that those who call themselves

Christians and we, we,

I don't, I mean, it's kind of, you sound kind of like you're puffing yourself up.

If you say it this way, but we who got everything right now, we don't have everything right. But we who, who believe that we're following the

Bible in a completely Orthodox fashion, we see people who are going clearly against scripture.

They're having all sorts of wild, crazy stuff going on in the, in the church, no grave sucking, naked cowboy, trying to say that what

God clearly calls sin is not sin. You have those things.

And we, as the church, the Orthodox Bible, believing church would be grieved over what some of our folks who claim the name of Christ are doing.

Just the same as some in that day who were Jewish would look at the temple and say,

God has given us this great way to worship him. We, we trust in him. He takes care of our sins.

He's given us his law to follow. His righteousness is right before our eyes. And yet you guys are worshiping the bales.

You're going and passing your children through the fire to Molech. And you're doing all this, that, and the other thing.

And it's just not right. So when we look at it in today's context, we see all these people doing these things like God has not told us to do that.

And they came from us. They, you know, they were, they didn't get the name of Christ because it fell out of the air.

I mean, it came, they came from us. They were at one point, even generations removed, they were Orthodox believing

Christians. And yet the reproach of burden has fallen on them.

What the burden of what the burden of paying for their own sins, because they've denied their, their creator, their savior.

They have gone away from us because they were not of us. And I don't know.

That's, that's where, that's where, this was what I got from it. Well, you made a good critique because I was trying to interpret with, with the lens of a contemporary context, instead of interpret from how the original audience and the original author meant it.

And so I appreciate you bringing that out in, in my attempt to interpret it. But where I was getting that from was being on a different social media platform and seeing what's going on there.

And I was not really aware of these folks until being on this other social media.

You've got these folks called Torah keepers and, and I can see these people grieving because they say

Christians aren't Christians. Aren't being the Christians that they're called to be from scripture because we're still supposed to observe the

Torah and they're grieving over the appointed feast. That's kind of where I was coming from because I was hearing those folks in the back of my mind, you know, harping on us because we're not keeping the

Torah that we should be keeping the Torah and observing the feast. Does that make sense? I do think that would apply, but I think it would apply backwards.

Okay. Like there's, there would be some of those that, that we would look at them and say, but that's not what

God said. And, and we would grieve over those who were like, why are you doing this?

This is not the way that God has told us to worship him. So, so yeah,

I see what you're saying, but it would be reversed instead of them being the ones grieved about the feast days, we'd be grieved about them not following Christ who was the fulfillment of those feast days.

Absolutely. Absolutely. That's right. All right.

Let's see. Where are we at? Behold, I'm going to deal with, we've read that one. What a beautiful passage.

And then the last verse at that time, I will bring you in. Even at the time when

I gather you together, indeed, I will give you renowned and praise among all the peoples of the earth.

When I restore your fortunes before your eyes says the Lord, what a promise. Yeah. He's going to, he's going to make our renowned and praise among the people.

So he's, I mean, we've got a God who, who doesn't, he doesn't need to, to share his glory.

He's not going to share his glory, but he offers this to us that, you know, our pride wants to do this in and of itself.

We, we want to be known. We, we want to be popular. We want to be celebrities. We want to make a lot of money and you know, we can go about that in a sinful way, but here, our, our

Lord loves us so much that he says, despite all that you've done, despite your disobedience, despite your, you're not following me.

I'm going to preserve this, this remnant and that not only I'm, I'm going to preserve you, but I'm going to exalt over you.

I'm going to love over you, rejoice over you with, with shouts of joy. And then

I'm going to make your renown and praise among all the peoples of the earth. And of course it's going to point back to him because of what he's done.

But, but still yet because we're on the victorious warrior side, it's, it's going to be, it's time for celebration.

It's time for singing hymns of joy because he has made, he has made this remnant a renown and praise among all the peoples of the earth.

And that way we can point back to Jesus and what he did and rejoice.

No other kingdom, all other kingdoms are going to fail. I mean, you think about what's going on now in the news where one nation is threatening or they're saying that this nation is threatening to invade another country.

And they've got tanks and military operations and soldiers and, you know, guns and bombs.

But when you're thinking of our, our Lord and King and this victorious warrior, that's, that's nothing that's not going to, that's not going to stop his kingdom and his, his renown.

Our renown is going to be all over the earth so that his renown and what he's done is going to be all over the earth. Yeah. And that, that word renown in the new

King James is fame. It's, it's literally, it means it's the word name or reputation, which is really, really interesting because when talking, speaking of salvation and revelation chapter two says to him who overcame and overcomes,

I will give some of the hidden manna to eat and I'll give him a white stone and on the white stone, a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it.

And again, if you look at the end of the letter to the church of Philadelphia, it says,

I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new

Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God. Now we'll write on him a new name.

Oh, that, that idea of a, of a name of praise, one that is given among the peoples of the earth.

It's, it's, it's all there together. All of this is pointing to the great work of God in salvation and how he's going to go about accomplishing it through what he's doing with this nation and moving forward in world history.

It's just absolutely beautiful to watch God work and do his thing because I, I don't,

I couldn't have planned all that. That's just, that's just incredible. I'm sitting here thinking about the, the people in our past, whether they have been through significant turmoil and, and, and pain who, who had no reason to have an eschatology of hope because of the, the things going on around them.

Um, those who were, were burned at this date for, um, you know, translating scripture for, for preaching outside of state sanctioned churches, um, for, for being persecuted for being

Christians and, and, uh, being grouped together and taken off into, to camps.

All these different circumstances throughout our history where, where people have been persecuted for the, for the word of God and everything.

Everything looks dim and there's, um, how could you even think that we will be delivered, but we can look back, you know, praise the

Lord. Uh, we're in a position where we can look back and we can see his kingdom continuing to grow.

Um, those entities have, have been demolished and they're gone and they will, like you said, they may rise their head again in different forms and fashions, but eventually, you know, they, they will be demolished.

They will be gone. And victory is the Lord's and will be the Lord's and will continue to be the

Lord's. And we can praise him and, uh, praise him for his victory and praise him for his, his victory to come.

Um, because it's, I guess we take ownership when, when it says our name, um, we'll be famous.

Our name is the kingdom of Christ. You know, it's not, it's not

Rob or Dan, you know, my name's not going to be famous and I shouldn't read that in a selfish way.

I need to read it as my name is the kingdom of Christ because, because of Christ, I'm in him and I'm in this kingdom and it's, his name is, is what's famous.

Right. Right. Right. Um, it is important to, uh, to, to, to bring out one aspect that, that it, our, our name will be famous, but the reason why our name is famous is not because of us.

Uh, I think, I think of the, the, the demon, uh, the guys trying to cast out demons and the guys are like, who, who are you?

He's like, I know Paul and I know Jesus, but I don't know who you are.

Paul got thrown in there. Not because Paul was some sort of great, famous, awesome person.

Paul was, was a blind stinking murderer. Uh, but the reason why he was known as a, a great caster out of demons and one that the demons feared was because he was known by Christ.

Right. Right. Well, same thing is true for Mary, you know, is she among women among all, among all the earth of all time.

But the reason that people know her and remember her is because of Jesus. Yep. Yep. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, Dan, you, you've already shared the gospel earlier in, in this study that, um, in Zephaniah, old

Testament, it's everywhere. It's everywhere. It's everywhere. And you, and you brought it out. Um, and, and that's what we would encourage.

Um, if you stuck with us this long, we thank you. We appreciate it. And our, our goal is to share that gospel that we see here in Zephaniah, that, that it all points.

It's what Dan called an anti -type. Um, it's not the type, it's the anti -type.

It's, it's the, it's the thing pointing to the type. And that's what we see here in Zephaniah.

Do what? Flip it. Where is that? Okay. Say it correctly. Uh, the, the type is thing pointing to the anti -type.

That's right. That's right. It doesn't make sense.

That's why I messed it up. Well, if you remember, that doesn't make sense. You can remember better.

So Jesus is the anti -type. Yeah. All these, all these are types of the thing, of the thing to come.

That's right. And so we, we pull those out of scripture because we, we, we want to see

Jesus and we want to see you see Jesus. We want to see, you know, Jesus, and we want to see you to come to him and repentance and faith.

Be a part of this victorious kingdom where you, um, you can be made alive.

Um, we were, we're dead in our trespasses and sin, and we need to be made alive. We need to, we need someone outside of ourselves.

Um, we don't want to be one of these halty ones, um, that, that Zephaniah talks about that will be removed.

The halty ones will be removed. The proud ones will be removed. We need to humble ourselves before God and come to him.

Knowing our need of a savior and to do that, the Bible commands us to repent of our sins and put our trust in Jesus Christ.

And, uh, we really appreciate you being with us, watching the video. Um, we,

I guess we are going to move on to a different subject or a different book. Dan and I will be discussing, uh, what we're going to look at next, but, um, send us a message.

If you have any questions, if there are any subjects that you'd like for us to tackle, let us know.

We'll be glad to try to do that. Dan, you want to close us in prayer? Sure. Uh, dear heavenly father, thank you for today.

Uh, wonderful day of worship and looking at your word. Uh, we pray that as we, uh, go from here, that you would, uh, cause your word to, uh, dig deep into our hearts, uh, that your spirit work in us, that we remember your son, uh, and his salvation for us.

We pray for those who do not know you, that you will prick their hearts, show them, uh, your goodness and convict them of their sin.

Uh, God, we pray that you would grow your kingdom and, use us to be a part of it.

We love you in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you guys again for watching. Remember that Jesus is king.

Go live in that victory and go speak with the authority of Christ, live in the victory of Christ and go out and share the gospel of Christ.