Book of Zephaniah - Ch. 1, Vs. 1-18 (03/31/2002)

Park Meadows Church

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First of all, I need to correct something I said last Sunday. To do this,

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I need to go back to John 1 .10. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

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Colossians 1 .17, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

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Now, since he made all things, we're talking about Jesus Christ. Since he made all things, and all things consist by him, then it stands to reason that if he died, all things would disappear.

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We're told in Ecclesiastes 12 .7, Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto

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God who gave it. So I was using the right thought, but the wrong language.

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I should have said the eternal son of God did not die.

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Jesus the Christ did, but the eternal son did not. Is everybody straight on that?

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Any questions? Alright, Zephaniah.

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We know very little about this man. He excites to repentance, foretells the destruction of the enemies of the

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Jews, comforts the pious among them with promises of future blessings, the restoration of their nation, and the prosperity of the church in the latter days.

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First verse. The word of the Lord which came unto

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Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gilgal, the son of Amaral, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, the king of Judah.

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So we have him pretty well identified as to who this is that's speaking. Hezekiah, king of Judah, was the great, great grandfather of Zephaniah.

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He promised during the days of the reign of, prophesied during the days of the reign of Josiah, which was the period of the last spiritual movement that took place.

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It wasn't a very big movement, but the revival did take place, didn't last long.

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Zephaniah knew something about the reigns of Ammon, an evil king, and of Messiah, also a terrible king.

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He saw that judgment was coming upon his nation and upon his people, and his message is a very, very harsh one.

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Two, I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the

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Lord. Certainly strong language. God says

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I intend to judge, and when I do, I will actually scrape the land. It will be as if a dirt scraper had been run over it, just as you wipe a dish clean.

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That's the way I intend to judge. As we move further into this prophecy, we will recognize that this judgment covers more than just the land of Israel.

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It is a worldwide devastation that is predicted here. The book of Revelation confirms this, places the time of this judgment as the great tribulation period.

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During that period, this earth will absolutely be denuded by judgments that will come upon it.

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Verse three, I will consume man and beast. I will consume the fowls of the air, the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked, and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the

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Lord. I will consume man and beast. All living creatures are included in this judgment.

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I read where some place around Jerusalem, I don't know where, and I don't know if they're still trying to make an effort together.

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All the animals that have become extinct, I don't know how they do that, but most of them that were in the time of the

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Bible. As more people increase in the world, the more extinct the species will become.

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God says that is exactly what's going to happen when he judges the land.

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Many species, in fact all of them, will become extinct at that time.

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This is a very heavy, severe judgment. Zephaniah four,

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I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, in the name of Comah, with the priest.

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This Comah, or Shemin -Roz, Shemin -Mam, how do you pronounce that,

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David? Shamran. The remnant, whatsoever remains of the idolatry of Baal, this place,

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Jerusalem, both the persons and the memory of them, these people are either called this from their black garments that they went in, or from the swarthy colors occasioned by the black smoke of incense.

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They were doorkeepers, they were priests, doorkeepers of the sextons of Baal.

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I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

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God now makes clear that Judah and Jerusalem are to be singled out for judgment.

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I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place. The things that bring the judgment of God upon the land is very specific.

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What is the one thing that God hates the most, Bill? Idolatry, false religion.

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The scriptures beginning with the book of Judges teaches the philosophy of human government, which you will find was true of God's people, and which has been true in every nation ever since then.

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The first step in a nation's decline is religious apostasy, a turning from the living and true

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God. The second step downward for the nation is moral awfulness. And the third step is political anarchy.

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A great many people think, and this

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United States thinks, that the problems in the government of Washington, D .C.

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I don't think so. Another group of people feel that if people could just be reformed, if they wouldn't steal, if they'd just treat everybody nice, we could raise our moral standards.

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That would solve our problems. Again, I don't think so. Very frankly,

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I believe the problem in this country is religious apostasy. The problem's out there, and it's here.

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The problem is that the church has failed to give God's message. I'm not talking about your church or other churches you know, necessarily.

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There's many Bible -teaching churches. They have wonderful pastors.

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They're standing for God, and I thank

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God for them. But the great denominations, by and large, have now departed from the faith.

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They have come to the place where they no longer give an effective message to the nation.

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As a result, from this religious apostasy have flowed moral awfulness and political anarchy.

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If you think this is just wild ravings of the fundamentalists, you're wrong.

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Let me quote to you a small part of an editorial out of a major newspaper, and this was several years ago.

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Quote, This betrayal of Christ in the name of Christianity is one reason for the moral and spiritual indifference with which this country is afflicted.

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The dismal fact is that the church has no longer influenced the development of the national character.

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People go to church mainly because of the impulse to participate in a service of worship, not because of any spiritual guidance.

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What a note of condemnation that is upon the church.

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This is true not just in this nation, but every nation in the world. There's four things that undermine the message of Christ.

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The undetermining of dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.

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They want to destroy it. Higher and higher taxes, the spending of public money for free bread and entertainment, the mad craze for pleasure, sports become every year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral, and for the building of great armaments when the great enemy is within.

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Five, there's a fifth one, the decay of religion, fading into mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide the people.

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Now, that was written in 1423 to describe the fall of Rome.

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You see how contemporary it is? The message carries out the spiritual principle of human government.

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The people are now on a toboggan. They were on the way down and out.

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Judgment was coming. Idolatry is where every great nation has gone off track.

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When a nation departs from the living and true God, or when it gives up great moral principles which were based on religion, when it goes into idolatry, these factors eventually lead it into gross immorality, into political anarchy.

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The interesting thing is that three kinds of idolatry, I believe, are mentioned here.

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I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place. The first form of idolatry is worship of Baal.

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Baal was introduced into the northern kingdom by who? Who? Introduced by Jezebel, whose father was the high priest of the worship among the

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Assyrians. In the southern kingdom, the worship of Baal was popularized and the altars of Baal were rebuilt during the reign of Manasseh.

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He reintroduced worship of Baal. He was a

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Jew, which was a very immoral form of worship.

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Along with the worship of Baal was worship of Astaroth, which introduced a female deity to have sex orgies and go straight down to hell.

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The name of what David said,

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Chemars, actually means black priests.

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I think it's interesting if you've noticed that maybe you haven't seen very many, but the worshippers of Satan wear black.

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It's quite interesting that it didn't originate with them. It comes all the way down from idolatrous priests who wore black robes.

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And there's a growing number of them. There's a movement in this country to worship

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Satan. Zephaniah says that these priests are to be judged.

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Fifth verse. And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops.

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Them that worship and that swear by the Lord and that swear by Malcolm or Moloch.

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Housetops. What's that got to do with evil worship? Well, their houses had flat roofs in that day, and they still have.

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They mixed idol worship and the worship of their true God, and they devoted themselves to God and Baal.

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Now, how in the world you can do that, I don't know. Yes. Yes.

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Well, I didn't mean it wasn't done, but you're right. The worship of horoscopes, of everything in that line.

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Looking to someone or something other than God for information. And then they worship the host of heaven on the housetops.

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They worship everything from the horoscope, the sun, the moon, the stars, as Greg pointed out.

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Zephaniah mentioned the second form of idolatry that became prevalent in the land.

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It was more subtle and very dangerous indeed. That's true even today that they use the housetop as their altar.

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Sixth verse. And them that are turned back from the Lord and those that have not sought the

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Lord nor inquired for him. You have two kinds of people here. What would those that turned back from the

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Lord be, Greg? And what would those that have not inquired of him be?

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You're right. Seven. Hold thy peace at the presence of the

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Lord. For the day of the Lord is at hand. For the

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Lord hath prepared a sacrifice. He hath bid his guests. Hold thy peace.

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Thou that murmur against God stand in awe. The day, a day of vengeance from the

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Lord, a sacrifice. The wicked Jews whom he will sacrifice by the sword.

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His guests summon the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air to eat the flesh and drink the blood.

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Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God. The suggestion here is hush your mouth.

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Don't talk back. Don't even open your mouth. In the presence of the living

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God. I cannot abide someone talking about Jesus as some sort of buddy.

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He's my good friend. In fact, God is the man upstairs.

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That we can be very flippant when we speak of him. It's all wrong, people.

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May I say to you that our God is a holy God. H -O -L -Y.

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Capital letters. If we were to come within a billion miles of him, we'd fall flat on our face.

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He is the great God, the creator of the universe. And what are we but small insignificant things.

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Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God. David, why hold your peace?

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That's exactly right. We don't have the intelligence. We don't have wisdom.

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We have nothing to add to God. For the day of the

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Lord is at hand. This is the first mention of the day of the Lord. In this book, the day of the

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Lord is presented here primarily as the time of judgment. If you want to fit it into God's program, it's in the great tribulation period.

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That's when it begins. Today you and I are living in the day of Christ. The day of grace.

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The day of the Lord will begin when the church leaves the earth. Then God will begin to move in judgment.

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With almost biting sarcasm, Zephaniah says, For the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice.

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He hath bid his guests. The guests are going to be the sacrifice.

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Eight. And it shall come to pass in the day of the

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Lord's sacrifice that I will punish the princes, the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.

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Now, Greg, help me out a little bit here. All of those that are clothed with strange apparel, what's it mean?

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The princes, the great ones who dreamed of being better than others, sons and grandsons of Josiah, died a captive in Egypt.

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Jehoiachin died in Babylon and was buried with the burial of an ass. Strange apparel.

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The garb of foreigners imitated by the wanton Jews. That was surely a harsh judgment.

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But they had the warning before from God to these people. This was like the day of the

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Lord. Nine.

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And in the same day also will I punish all of those that leap on the thresholds which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.

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In the same day or at the same time, their masters' houses, either the oppressing kings whose officers these were, or public officials, in this country would be public officials, and judges whose servants thus spoil the poor.

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They take advantage of them. Their violence, their goods are taken away from them by false accusation or by stubborn evidence.

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What was happening in that day was the great middle class disappeared, and you had the extreme rich and the extreme poor.

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Now, is that anything like today? The same thing is certainly happening in our country.

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God says to these people that he's going to judge them for this. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the

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Lord, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate and a howling from the second and great crashing from the hills.

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Now, the noise, the great outcry of lamentation, the fish gate, at which gate the

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Babylonians first entered into the city, the second, this gate is the second wall of Jerusalem, which on that side was fortified with three walls, crashing of those things broken into pieces, possibly the noise of doors, glasses, windows, chests be broken on the hills on which the city stood.

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And it shall come to pass in that day, this is clearly a reference to the day of the

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Lord, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate.

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The fish gate is what is known today as the Damascus gate. It was a gate through which they brought the fish from the

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Sea of Galilee and the Jordan rivers. It's located on the north side of the city of Jerusalem.

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And a howling from the second and a great crashing from the hills.

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The Damascus gate today is down in a rather low place. If you inquire of Jerusalem, you know that the city is surrounded by hills.

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Seth and I are saying that in any direction you would want to move, there will be this wailing of the people when the time of judgment has come upon them.

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That's true even today in a way. I was watching the news this morning.

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I shouldn't do that before I come, but I got caught up in it. And it's awful.

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Now, we can sit here in the security of our church and say that's awful.

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I don't know how it would be if I was in the middle of it. Someone comes in, positions themselves so, and they wear garments that you can't tell what's underneath.

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And all of a sudden that person blows up. And there's a waiting list.

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How you inhabitants of Mektish, for all the merchant people are cut down.

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All they that bear silver are cut off. Mektish is the lower town.

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Merchants people who were wont to lodge in that place, they bear silver that brought it with them to pay for what they bought.

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Mektish, rather the mortar instead of Mektish, the name applied to the valley of Sonom from its hollow shape, the valley between Zion and Mount Olive at the eastern extremity of Mount Moriah where the merchants dwell.

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There's supposed to have been a depression in the city of Jerusalem where the marketplace was situated.

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It was perhaps the cheese maker's valley. It was the valley that went along the side of the temple where the wailing wall is today, which is a good place for it.

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How you inhabitants of Mektish, for all the merchants, all of the people have disappeared.

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Well, then it shall come to pass at that time that I will search

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Jerusalem with candles and punish the men that are settled on their leaves that say in their hearts the

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Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. How many people in this country, in this town, don't even think of God?

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Greg, how many would you say? And we're in the

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Bible Belt. I will search,

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God says, after the manner of men who search dark places with candles and it shall come to pass at that time that I will search

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Jerusalem with candles. In other words, it's like taking a flashlight and going out to look for someone who's hiding in the dark.

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God says, I intend to search out Jerusalem just like that. I will bring the light of all of their evil and sin out in the open and punish the men that are settled on their leaves.

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That's a strange thing. Leaves. David, can you help me a little bit here?

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Yes. This is a idiomatic expression.

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Much like, take it easy. Don't worry. Well, they were taking it easy all right.

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We live in an affluent society and we're taking it easy.

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They did not believe they would be judged any more than people do today. God's not going to judge.

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They're saying in their heart the Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. They're saying

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God is doing nothing. God's not going to do anything about it.

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Very many people today say, I'll ignore God. He doesn't do good, he doesn't do evil.

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They're absolutely neutral about God, they think. This type of thinking, of course, is what led to the abominable theology that God is dead.

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Twenty or thirty years ago, that was a very prominent thing. God's dead.

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Only a society like ours could have produced that kind of theology. Because people in an affluent society say, we don't need

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God at all. As a result, they think that he doesn't do good, doesn't do evil, he's inactive.

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But they're greatly mistaken. Zephaniah is going to make that very, very clear to us.

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Thirteen. Therefore, the goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation.

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They shall also build houses, but not inhabit them. And they shall plant vineyards, but not drink of the wine of them.

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They're goods to become booty. The goods which they took by plundering, pillage, robbing, are going to be taken away from them in just the same way that they got them.

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Their houses a desolation in order. In other words, there will be ghost towns in Israel.

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That's hard to imagine. They shall also build houses, but not inhabit them.

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Plant vineyards, but not drink of the wine. God had given a law to these people that when a man planted a vineyard, he was not to go to war until he had eaten of the fruit of that vineyard.

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Another law said that if a man was married, he was not to be called up to war for a year.

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Here God is saying that they are going to plant vineyards, but they are not going to drink the wine of them because they've sinned.

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Fourteen. The great day of the Lord is near. It is near, and hasteneth greatly.

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Even the voice of the day of the Lord, the mighty man, shall cry bitterly. The great day of the

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Lord is near. This great day of the Lord is the time of the great tribulation.

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Tribulation in the future, in Zephaniah's day after Josiah ruled, there never arose in the southern kingdom another good king.

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He was the last one. Every one of them was bad.

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Now judgment is going to come upon the nation and upon the people for their departure from God, but they're only going to experience a very small portion of what is in the future in that great day of the

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Lord. Zephaniah says it is near, and hasteneth greatly.

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Even the voice of the day of the Lord, the mighty man, shall cry there bitterly.

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In other words, the concept of the wailing wall would come into existence, and it's going to be there until after the great tribulation period because Israel will never know peace until the prince of peace comes and they acknowledge him.

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How recent have you heard from our president now talk about peace?

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Let's bring peace. And they're sincere, but there never will be peace.

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Fifteen, and that day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness.

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Zephaniah is speaking here of the harshness, the intensity of the judgment that's coming.

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And the question nationally arises, how can a God of love do a thing like that?

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That question is asked by a lot of people in this country today. Even the great wrath is a judgment of God, but it has in it the love of God.

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Regardless of what takes place, God is love.

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It was like the farmer who had a weathervane on his barn, and on it was

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God is love. Someone asked him, he said, well, regardless of which way the wind blows,

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God's love. And that's true, but the other side of love is wrath.

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God cannot, and we cannot, love anything unless we hate something, for our life is made up of contrasts.

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God loves us because he hates sin. It's a little different.

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God could love us by himself, all alone, without hating sin, but it wouldn't be love.

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He judges because it is essential for him to judge that which is evil. He does that because he has to be true to himself, and he could not be good to his creatures unless he did that, unless he did hate evil.

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He couldn't love you. If God's going to prevent sin throughout eternity, if God does not intend to judge sin, if you and I are going to have to wrestle with disease and heartbreak and with disappointment, with sorrow throughout eternity,

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I cannot conceive that he is a God of love. But if you tell me that God's going to judge sin, that he's coming in with a mighty judgment, and that he's going to remove sin from his universe,

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I'll say hallelujah, and I'll believe that God is a

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God of love if he does that. Sixteen. A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities and against the high towers, a day of triumph.

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They're going to blow the alarm, but God does not intend to deliver them.

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Why? He intends to judge. He intends to deliver them over to their enemy, not deliver them from the enemy.

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It is to be a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities and against their high towers.

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Seventeen. And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the

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Lord, and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung.

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Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the

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Lord's wrath, but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all that dwell in the land.

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Therefore let not sinners be laid asleep by the patience of God, but when the measure of their iniquity is full, all his justice will both overtake and overcome them.

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They will make quick and thorough work. And quite interesting that the nation in which

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I live has spent billions of dollars throughout the world trying to buy friends.

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You can't buy a friend. Now we're liked in most of the world right now, but you cannot, we cannot, we say, well, what can we do about it?

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Well, the Church is not in the world to change the world or to be a beacon of Jesus Christ, to study, learn more of him, and to handle the next situation the very best

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I can. Is there a word from anyone?