Reformation Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Having described a great day of the Lord, which was soon to come, eminent judgment for the rebellion of Israel, and the failed reformation of King Josiah, which would be brought to a halt due to his untimely death in battle. Zephaniah is not talking about a possible judgment. He is talking about a sure judgment and the only hope for those swelling in Israel is that through their repentance one might be hid from the wrath which was to come. In fact this seems to be a continued theme of God's calling to repentance - -Get beneath the blood-stained lintel-,- and -The rain is coming, that much is sure, so get on the boat--

Everything we need to know and understand the gospel, we find in the Gospel according to Zephaniah the prophet of Israel prior to their being taken into exile by that wicked nation of Babylon. Even as Nahum had pronounced judgment against Nineveh, even while Assyria was at the height of their powers, Zephaniah was sent by the Lord to warn and encourage Judah -the Southern Kingdom-, not yet exiled to repent and seek the Lord lest they be taken away in judgment. This warning which opens his prophecy speaks not only of the judgment that is near, but also that judgment that would come to the rebellious nation, when Christ Himself comes against them in the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

-But now-- Paul having outlined the ineffective pursuits of both Gentile and Jew alike, being under the law, unable to escape the legal system wherein all men are pronounced guilty before God, speaks of the One revealed who can actually take away the sins of men. Jesus Christ, whom God set forth as a propitiation, not only by decree but in His providence, a free gift to those most underserving so that He bring fulfill the promise so long ago that the Messiah would cancel sin and destroy the power of the Devil. This was a demonstration of God's righteousness, a demonstration that provides what it promises, a saving provision of a perfect Sacrifice for sins.

This Sunday evening we come up the very edge of the end of this terrifying and glorious prophecy which the Lord pronounced against Jerusalem and the nations through His man, Zephaniah. What we come to is a woe or word of condemnation against Jerusalem, that once glorious city of God, who had become a place filled not with worshippers but idolaters and apostates. Whether high or low born the people, as a corporate body no longer feared or honored the Lord, nor did they seek to keep covenant in the manner God had commanded. Those whom God had sent to provoked the fear of the Lord, did not fear the Lord, themselves. Though Israel was unfaithful, God would not leave them, but from a place of intimacy judge, and inevitably redeem and restore the meek of the land. This picture of restoration is seen not only in the return under Ezra and Nehemiah, but is emblematic of the great restoration that would take place when all the nations come to Christ upon the occasion of the destruction of the Temple in 70AD and the flo

Having reached the conclusion that righteousness before God cannot be achieved by those who be the Jew or gentile, are trapped within system, a law system, that reveals sin, but does not have a remedy for sin. This is what Paul means when he says all or -under,- or -in the law.- All men, without exception, are born in sin and death and it is here in Romans 3-21-26 the Paul now presents Christ, the righteousness of God, who becomes our righteousness by faith.

If there is any solution to the problem of pride it men, it is the assaulting of it with the many blows that Scripture provides in order to eradicate in our hearts any feeling or sense of our own worthiness before God, meriting in ourselves anything other than a sentence of -guilty.- For that is what we are - guilty before God, and if we are to know the Gospel, believe the Gospel, and be saved by the Gospel, we must lay hold of the true Gospel and not some wretched facsimile of it which perverts and condemns rather than delivers our souls from death. We cannot then move too quickly on, save we miss the sting of the laws condemnation before we feel the relief which Christ's blood and righteousness brings to wretched sinners such as ourselves. --This Sunday my thrust is to show in great granular detail how men display their lack of understanding, their wandering ways, their fallen nature, and their wickedness and rebellion at every level. Let us then dig a bit deeper into the nature of our sinfulness body and s

Natural man understands, and feels deeply that there is no one to stand between himself, a totally depraved creature, and the creator of heaven and earth, who is holy, and dwells in inexhaustible light. And so man seeks to hide from and make unto himself a means of dealing with the sense of the searing white heat of Divine wrath, either as Paul says by running from the law, or hiding behind the law, both human efforts to alleviate that penetrating sense of guilt. One creates a new god, the other blames the God which they know, one in uniquely Gentile, the other distinctly Jewish.--However the answer does not lie in putting God on the stand, for God is true and just in all that He does, and man is wicked and false in all that he does. The doctrines of God and man reveal that the only way to peace is that one stand between sinful men and holy God, effectually, completely, and mercifully that redemption and reconciliation might be won.

We come now to the third and final chapter of this poem of woe and comfort, a poem that proclaims woe to Nineveh and comfort to Judah, even as God proclaims from one mountain -1-15- salvation, and from another destruction -2-13-. Even as the kingdom comes, from heaven to earth, from that central place of glory, power, and planning, the Messiah has been on the move through the dual acts of judgment and deliverance in relationship only to whether or not men heed the warnings and exhortations of in His Word. The Messiah is preparing the world for His arrival, and has given to His people this Gospel, -Kiss the Son----There are certainly principles and frames that we can draw from the book of Nahum that are important for us today. One of those principles is it. The law of God is for all nations, and those nations who fail to keep the moral law of God that is revealed modally in his word, but also in creation, do so to their detriment now never had the word they had received the proclamation of covenant repentance

It would be possible and even likely, having read through Romans 2, to get the impression that Paul appears to give no benefit or privilege to circumcision, an institution of God in the Old Testament. However Paul is not crediting to circumcision only disadvantage, but in Romans 3-1-8, the privilege which the symbols of God's covenant with man are as real Divine blessing. We ought never scorn the privileges and blessings of God, but rather in the instance with those Old Testament sign and seals seek to best understand to what they point as elements which convey grace and the necessity of faith in the promise of the Messiah. What the sin of the Jews, in their denial of the Messiah, shows is just how far the fall and deep the denial of those who are stewards of grace. The way out of judgement is not to get God wrong in our understanding of His character and action, but to see Him as the truly true and just Judge.

In Nahum 2 the prophet outlines the nature of the destruction that we brought upon Nineveh through the instrument of violence and judgment, the Medes, who will fall upon her, take her people into captivity, and plunder that once great city. Idolatry, and the rejection of God's covenant promises and stipulations leads to the desolation of those who had a few generations before repented of their wickedness. God is no respect of persons. He shows no partiality. either you surrender to his call to keep covenant according to his revelation or you face judgment. God's glorious reign is displayed through the protection and advancement of his chosen people is shown not only in deliverance of those who keep covenant through the Messiah, but also the destruction of those who reject His holy will.

The Jewish people, the holy nation of God, the chosen family expressed in the Old Testament as a nation apart from all other nations in that they had received the privilege and prerogative of God's covenant favor. It is to this people that Paul focuses his address as he speaks of the unique aggravation of their offense against God if they fail to do or obey what was in accord with God's teaching. Paul further elaborates the point that the gifts that God had given to the Jews, do not justify them, but rather serve to show the depth of their own rebellion, as they who had been given much did so little with it. Truly, if a man be not changed by the grace of God, that leads to justification, there are no amount of gifts that can make up for the lack. It is not in receiving the law that we are justified, but in the keeping of it.

Nahum wrote at the end of the reign of the wicked king, Manasseh. Manasseh's reign began in 687 B.C. and ended around 682 B.C.. For nearly a half-century Manasseh brought sin and shame upon the nation of Israel, and through his idolatry and moral compromise Israel endured years of social, political, and moral decline. He failed to honor the Lord as his father Hezekiah had, and did much wickedness until his repentance and reform later in life. During his reign there was a period of prophetic silence either due to God's judgment or the persecution of the prophets, either way, Nahum's prophecies represent an end to that silence, writing sometime around 682 B.C. Nahum is not writing it Israel, his audience was Nineveh, though what he wrote was important to Yahweh's people even then.

-Having mentioned the righteous judgment of God in Romans 2-5- he -Paul- here illustrates that judgment, and the righteousness of it, and shows what we may expect from God, and by what rule he will judge the world. The equity of distributive justice is the dispensing of frowns and favours with respect to what is deserved and without respect to persons- such is the righteous judgment of God.- These words, written by Matthew Henry capture the sense of the next several verses in which Paul speaks of the relationship between a holy God and those who do and those do not receive the final sentence upon the brink of eternity. Do not seek to reject the reality that God is judge, and so seek to escape eternity by accusing him of injustice for matters internal or external for there is no impartiality with God.

Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah - why these prophets and why now-- I hope that by way of introduction and through the course of this opening sermon that I might provide some measure of insight and clarity as to why the messages of these prophets is so invaluable and needed for us today, standing at the brink, at that gapping maw of ruin and desolation that is the fruit of those choices made by men who refuse to submit to and abide by the timeless, universal, and glorious law of God. --We must know what day it is. We see the moral decay happening around us. The intolerance of the Word and of truth. Setting aside the distinction of Israel as a nation, unique in history, all men must know what is happening and why as it relates to covenant curses, who those come from, and how deliverance from Divine wrath can be had despite such present darkness. The call comes to us, even now, repent that God might show mercy and restore us in the way of light and life.

All men stand condemned before a holy God, and there is but one way to the Father, that way, that truth, that path to life is faith in Christ alone, for the just shall live by faith. Having set the theological foundation for the necessity of Christ's atonement, and path that leads to life, the question presented to all men is why do we live, practice, judge by any other standard than the one which God has revealed. For it is now made abundantly clear, that it is in no way enough that we merely avoid what certain heathens do, as though God grades based on a curve. For Paul transitions from those who seek freedom from judgment by hiding, to those who seek freedom from judgment by works of the law. Neither is it sufficient, for all men, apart from Christ stand condemned. --Judge all you like, but it does not matter that you are better than the man next to you, for all have sinned and fallen short. You cannot deal with the real problem of unrighteousness through the vain effort of self-righteousness. The judgment

Seeing then that those who reject the wisdom of God for the folly their sin, seeking to establish systems built upon idolatry and rebellion, abandoned the clear revelation of God for a wisdom of their own making. God does not leave them alone however, but instead reveals their shame through judgment. Of this Calvin writes, -As impiety is a hidden evil, lest they should still find an evasion, he shows, by a more palpable demonstration, that, they cannot escape, but must be held fast by a just condemnation, since such fruits have followed this impiety as cannot be viewed otherwise than manifest evidences of the Lord's wrath.- God is judging the wicked through their own wicked ambitions. Look all around you and you will see it. Do not give in, do not go along, rather proclaim the light in the midst of the dark places that men might see, repent, and confess Christ as their only hope of righteousness.

As it relates to the nature of man's bold-faced rebellion against the clear revelation of God's wrath against sin, Calvin succinctly puts forth to us the rub, as it were, -The arrogance then which is condemned here is this - that men sought to be of themselves wise, and to draw God down to a level with their own low condition, when they ought humbly to have given him his own glory.- -Romans, Calvin- From this exchanging of false for true religion, every man confesses by his own actions and intentions that he is the primary arbiter in what is true and false, what is good and what is evil, what is wise and what is folly. This Sunday what we will uncover and examine is the way in which sinful men respond to the wrath of God, and God's response to their high-handed rebellion, in giving them over to the very things they ask for in their rebellion.

Having completed his greeting and introductory statement concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ, which comes by faith and faith alone, Paul sharpens and expands upon his argument or thesis by showing how both gentile and Jew particular theological camps can find no salvation either by running from the revealed wrath of God or adhering to perfectly the revealed Word of God. Salvation comes only by faith.