It won't go forth without accomplishing exactly what
you see needs to be accomplished.
Lord, I open myself up to you.
Let your word do a work in us.
Father, let your Spirit, Lord, just be evident
among us.
Bring this message home to our hearts, Lord.
Bring it home to our hearts.
Lord, let it tear down, but let it
bring encouragement as well.
Father in Jesus' name, we thank you.
Lord, we exalt your precious holy name.
Amen.
Zephaniah.
There's a lot of talk today about a
remnant.
A lot of messages being preached about a
remnant.
There's a kingdom message that's going forth strongly
today that teaches that there's not going to
be a second coming.
There's various forms of the kingdom message, but
one part of it teaches there's not going
to be a second coming of Jesus.
That simply what's going to happen, and the
saints are not going to be caught up
to be with the Lord, but what's going
to happen is there's simply going to be
Christ formed in his body.
A mighty army is going to form.
There's going to be a witness to the
world.
A remnant is going to be here, and
that's going to be the army, and they're
going to take dominion of everything.
I want you to understand that I'm very,
very suspicious when I hear a message about
all the dominion that we're going to take,
and I hear very little about the exaltation
of Jesus, because any dominion that we have
is in Christ.
Now, I believe with all my heart, when
I even read the book of Revelation and
I read some other things, I believe that
God is developing a mighty army of a
body of believers.
And I believe that he's developing this body
of believers to be a witness to his
word.
I believe more so than maybe we've ever
seen before.
As a matter of fact, I believe very
strongly that, because when I read the book
of Haggai, I understand that there's going to
be a greater army walking in greater power
than we see in the book of Acts.
I believe that.
I believe that's going to happen.
But we have to understand something.
They didn't walk in power in the book
of Acts apart from Christ.
And I think any speaking that's done on
dominion...
Listen, especially in America, we have such a
power-hungry people.
We're power-hungry, we're fame-oriented.
It's easy to have a message that talks
about how great we're going to be to
appeal to Americans, because that's the very thing
that's in the heart of America, is to
be great.
And so you give them a little bit
of religion to where they come to Jesus,
and then you tell them how great they're
going to be, and multitudes will follow that
kind of teaching.
What I'm saying to you is that I
not only see a remnant being formed.
I read my Bible and I see two
remnants being born.
Two of them.
One, I believe, is a small remnant of
people.
I look through the Bible as I begin
to see the fire that God says he's
going to bring to the earth.
I see figures, when God talks about his
remnant, of a small remnant.
When he says only a remnant will return
in the prophets, he's talking about a small
number of people.
Zachariah speaks of two-thirds being cut off
and one-third being purified by the fire.
A small remnant.
The book of Zephaniah talks about two remnants.
It speaks of both of them and it
describes them.
I want us to look at that.
I want us to see that not only
is there a remnant of God that's being
formed today, but there's a remnant of Baal
that's being formed today.
And I'm telling you, Baal is very much
alive.
In Paul's day, they had pretty much stopped
worshipping Baal as such, particularly in Rome.
But it was to the Romans that when
Paul cried out in distress for his people
and he says, what's going to happen to
the nation Israel?
What's going to happen to them?
What's going to happen to my people?
God reminded him of the same thing that
he told Elijah when Elijah cried out and
said, Lord, I'm the only one on Mount
Carmel.
In Romans chapter 11, God said to Paul
there are 7,000 who have not bowed
their knee to Baal.
Baalism has not died.
I see Baalism in the prosperity message.
I see Baalism in the kingdom message.
And it isn't so much the worship of
idolatry is of Baalism.
The worship of pleasure and sex is of
Baalism.
All of these things were part of Baal
worship.
Very much alive in our country.
Let's begin with chapter 1, verse 1.
The word of the Lord which came to
Zephaniah, son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son
of Amoriah, son of Hezekiah in the days
of Josiah, son of Ammon, king of Judah.
I will completely remove all things from the
face of the earth, declares the Lord.
I'll remove man and beast.
I'll remove the birds of the sky and
the fish of the sea and the ruins
along with the wicked.
And I will cut off from the face
of the earth, declares the Lord.
I'll cut off man from the face of
the earth.
Now I want you to see how complete
that destruction is.
He says, I'm going to have such a
destruction come upon the earth that the fish
in the sea, the animals on the land
and man will be completely wiped off of
the face of the earth.
Now, can I tell you something?
Even though this was spoken by Zephaniah the
prophet in the days of Josiah to the
nation of Judah, that has never been yet
fulfilled.
Obviously you can pick up almost any commentary.
Try it and go home and see if
you've got one.
You pick up almost any commentary and they'll
either spiritualize it like it's something that just
meant spiritually to Judah, or they will say
something like the prophet in his zeal made
a mistake and it or that it was
a redaction.
It was an addition.
My friends, it's not an addition.
It's not a mistake.
It speaks to the day we're living in
right now.
It speaks to the final and coming judgment.
I believe it speaks to our generation.
And he says in verse 14, let's look
at this.
Near is the great day of the Lord.
No, my goodness.
It's such a destruction that he spoke up
in.
Can you say near?
How much closer is it right now in
the time we're living?
Near is the great day of the Lord.
Near and coming very quickly.
Listen, the day of the Lord.
In it, the warrior cries out bitterly.
A day of wrath is that day.
A day of trouble and distress.
A day of destruction and desolation.
A day of darkness and doom.
A day of clouds and thick darkness.
A day of trumpet and battle cry.
It's interesting to me because when we hear
about the coming of the, of the Lord,
that coming day of the Lord, I want
you to, you can check this out.
You can look at it.
90% of the sermons that I hear
today that are spoken on Jesus coming again,
glorify out everybody in the church and say,
Jesus is coming.
How glorious it's going to be to be
with him in heaven.
Those of you who are saved for all
you lost people, it's going to be a
day of destruction.
Now, I believe that, but when I read,
I don't care if it's in Peter or
if it's in the prophets or it's in
the words of words of Jesus.
When he spoke of the coming of the
Lord, Jesus Christ, he first spoke to the
church and said, it's going to be a
day of gloom and darkness.
It's not going to be the kind of
day you expect.
Yes, it will be for the remnant of
those that are being purified.
And they're walking in the purifying fires of
the Lord to offer up holiness and righteousness
to God.
Their hearts are being changed, but it won't
be to all of those pretenders.
And when he speaks of the coming of
the Lord, Jesus, he speaks first to those
people who are in church.
Now you check out the scriptures and every
case he does that.
Now notice what he says.
First 16, it's a day of trumpet and
battle cry against the fortified cities and the
high corner tower.
I don't have time to take you through
all the scriptures, but you'll find that the
fortified cities not only speak of the fortifications
literally around the city, but it also has
a spiritual meaning.
I'm not spiritualizing it.
You can read it in the passages that
they're there and Isaiah, Jeremiah and the other
prophets.
And you'll see, you check it out.
It has a spiritual application.
You understand when God says this, it doesn't
mean he's just going to come tear down
the walls of the city.
We don't have any walls on our cities.
And yet if the Bible is an eternal
book, it not only speaks to those that
are behind us, it speaks to us and
those that have come before it has a
message for us.
When he says he's going to come against
the fortified cities, he's speaking right now.
He's speaking to the churches.
He's going to come against the big super
church.
I'm not saying that you can't be a
super church and lift up Jesus.
You can't have a big church and exalt
Jesus.
But he's going to come against what we
call super churches that are exalting themselves.
The high fortifications that men have trusted in.
He says, I'm going to come against them.
I'm going to tear them down.
Now he may not literally tear them down,
but he's going to leave them desolate and
he's going to abandon them.
And the high corner towers that we've been
trusting in most people today are looking at
men and not at God.
That's why it's so easy to build a
ministry.
If you can exalt yourself enough, if you
can do it enough and get the right
breaks, you can have one of the most
dynamic ministries possible in America.
Now there are some men of God that
have big ministries, but I'm talking about the
fact that we live in a country where
we promote people.
We exalt and promote men.
And he says, these high corner towers you've
been trusting in, I'm going to tear them
down.
I want to share this with you.
I won't turn to have you turn there,
but you can check it out.
A curse started way back when God brought
the people into the land of the wilderness,
taking them to Canaan.
And the curse is still with us today.
As a matter of fact, Mark, Jeff and
I, I'm going to take you there.
Mark Jeff and I was something because we'll
be coming back to it frequently.
Turn with me to Exodus chapter 20, Exodus
20.
So we can get a picture of the
remnant of Baal, what he's talking about when
he comes against the fortified cities in the
high corner towers, Exodus chapter 20, the 20th
chapter of Exodus.
God has just given us the 10 commandments.
And I want you to see what happens.
Verse 18, Exodus 20, verse 18.
And all the people perceived the thunder and
the lightning flashes and the sound of the
trumpet and the mountain smoking.
And when the people saw it, they trembled
and stood at a distance.
Then they said to Moses, speak to us
yourself and we will listen, but let not
God speak to us lest we die.
Now you read other accounts from this and
you'll see that he'd already spoken of to
them before they said that they'd heard the
voice of God.
They heard him speak, but they saw the
lightning.
They saw the mountain shaking.
They saw the quaking and they cried out
and said, wait, don't let God speak to
us.
Let's have a mediator.
People have been looking for a mediator ever
since you say, well, what are you saying
that there shouldn't be a pastor?
Absolutely not.
But I said this yesterday.
I've said again, every true shepherd, obviously there's
to be pastors.
Ephesians four, God calls pastors a gift from
him to the body of Christ.
Evangelists and prophets and apostles and pastors and
teachers are gifts from God to the body
of Christ.
They're in his ordained plan.
But no pastor who's really a shepherd after
God's own heart, I said it yesterday, wants
to be an answer man to tell the
people what God's saying.
Not if he's got a real heart.
First of all, he knows there's a burden
too much for any pastor to carry when
he's got to be the answer man for
everybody.
More pastors have broken under the weight of
that than possibly any other way.
But a real pastor wants his congregation to
have an active walking relationship with God.
We want to know how to get rid
of most of the problems in the church.
We've got to have godly pastors and godly
people.
And that's when the problems will go.
That may be simplified to say it.
It may say, well, that sounds easy, but
that's the only answer.
Now, listen, the people heard and they saw
and they said, don't let God speak to
us.
Moses, you go here for us.
And ever since then, we've had a people,
a curse, a people who said, pastor, you
tell me what the Bible says.
I won't get it for myself.
Now, the pastor is the lead and exhort
and to teach and to draw them.
There's a special anointing on him in order
to be able to see insights and draw
out to the people.
But he's not to be their answer man.
He's not to be their mediator between them
and God.
They asked for a mediator.
Now, look what they said.
Verse 19, they said to Moses, speak to
us yourself and we'll listen, but let not
God speak to us lest we die.
So the people stood at a distance while
Moses approached the thick clouds where God was.
Now, I want you to turn with me,
Deuteronomy chapter five, Deuteronomy five.
Later on, Moses is talking to these same
people about that very incident we just read
about.
I want you to see what God says
about the Deuteronomy five, verse
twenty three.
Remember, Moses is now recounting what happened and
it came about when you heard Moses is
speaking to the people.
He says, when you heard the voice from
the midst of the darkness.
Now, it's very clear they heard a voice,
didn't they?
I say it's very clear, isn't it?
They had already heard God before they ever
said, let's not let him speak lest we
die.
You heard a voice from the midst of
the darkness while the mountain was burning with
fire that you came near to me, all
the heads of your tribe, your elders, and
you said, behold, the Lord.
Now, remember, Moses is the one recounting this
to the people.
Behold, you said, behold, the Lord, our God
has shown us his glory and his greatness,
and we've heard his voice from the midst
of the fire.
We've seen today that God speaks with man,
yet he lives.
Now, isn't that interesting?
Now, notice what happens now, then why should
we die?
And where did they get that idea?
Why should we die for this great fire
will consume us if we hear the voice
of the Lord, our God, any longer than
we shall die?
For who is there of all flesh who
has heard the voice of the living God
speaking from the midst of the fire as
we have and live?
Well, they just live.
They had just heard God speak to them
and live.
But now they don't want to hear from
God.
They want to hear from man.
I tell you, no pastor really wants the
pastor of people like that.
You know why?
Because when they, when people like that, pastor
has people like that, when they get tired
of what that pastor is saying, they won't
go hear another man.
The only security a pastor has is in
teaching his people to hear from God.
Plus, if he's hearing from God and they're
hearing from God, they're going to be one
together.
Now notice this verse 27, go near and
hear all that the Lord, our God says.
That's what they told Moses to do.
Then speak to us all that the Lord,
our God will speak to you and what
they say.
And we will hear it then and we'll
do it.
Now here's a picture of a people who
says, if you just don't be army there,
you go spend time with the Lord on
the mountain, Moses.
And then when you come back, you tell
us what God says.
It's no problem.
When you tell us what he said, we'll
accept it.
And we'll go do it.
Now look at this.
See God's looking at all of this.
We're going to see what God saw.
I've been saying this to you for two
days now.
God sees things differently than man sees things.
Man looks at the outward appearance.
God looks at the heart.
Now look at this verse 28.
And the Lord heard the voice of your
words.
When you spoke to me and the Lord
said to me, I've heard the voice of
the words of this people, which they've spoken
to you.
They've done well in all that they've spoken.
In other words, what they said was right
with their lips, but there's a problem.
Here's what God sees.
Oh, oh, that they had such a heart
in them that they would fear me and
keep all my commandments that it may be
well with them and with their sons forever.
See, they said, you go here from God,
come back and tell us.
And we'll do it.
God looks down and he's looking at those
people and he sees their hearts.
He says, no, no, they won't do it.
They say they'll do it with their lips,
but they won't do it.
They don't have a heart to fear me.
They don't have a heart to fall after
it after me.
Now, what I'm saying to you is this,
the high quarter towers.
That have just wanted to have an exalted
ministry, I believe are coming down.
The fortified cities are coming down when they
come down.
All that have trusted in man, when you
trust in the arm of the flesh.
And it's coming down.
God says in these last times, I'm going
to deal with everything that's all the flesh.
I'm going to expose it for what it
is.
Well, let's turn back to this.
Now, can
you think of anything worse than finding everything
that you've trusted in all your life to
crumble right before your eyes?
I said, can you think of anything worse?
This very thing I'm seeing fulfilled right now.
We're seeing more pastors caught in adultery.
We're seeing more pastors exposed for their sins.
We're seeing deacons exposed, leaders exposed.
And I'm seeing distress on the faces of
the people.
They're saying, I've followed this man for years.
I've watched this man for years.
How could this be happening?
Look what the next verse says.
And I will bring distress on men.
When?
When the fortified cities they've trusted in, when
those things that they thought were strong, those
things that they thought were going to last.
Did Jesus say, did God say, I'm going
to bring a shaking and everything that can
be shaken will be shaken.
And only those things that cannot be shaken
will remain.
Well, when he brings it, guess what happens?
The stress comes over the whole land.
We're seeing it today.
And he says, the stress is going to
be there.
Now, here's what happens.
Not only do they get the stress, but
see, they don't have a relationship with God
themselves.
They don't know where to turn.
They don't know where to trust.
I'm not sure Brother David mentioned it yesterday
or not, but if he did, I'll repeat
it.
If not a particular church that has a
pastor that was caught in adultery and the
church, a group of a committee came against
that adulterous pastor privately that did the right
things to try to remove him.
There was an outcry in the church and
they had a vote and they voted to
stay.
We don't care if he does live like
that.
He preaches good.
I know of another place where a man
was caught in homosexuality.
The only thing that the majority of the
people could say about it was, I sure
hate to see him go.
I sure love to hear him teach that
Bible.
You know, why are people saying that?
Here's what they've been trusting in man.
They don't have a relationship with God.
And so when their high corner towers fall
down, they're in distress and they do this.
They walk like the blind because they've sinned
against the Lord.
They're like blind people.
Jesus warned us about it.
He said, let the blind follow the blind.
They'll both fall into the ditch.
And that's what he's talking about.
They don't know where to turn.
They're in distress.
Their trust was in the church.
It was in the man.
When he falls, distress comes and they're like
blind sheep.
Now, here's what happens because they've sinned against
the Lord and their blood will be poured
out like dust and their flesh like dung.
Now, look at this.
Neither their silver nor their gold will be
able to deliver them.
On the day of the Lord's wrath and
all the earth will be devoured in the
fire of his jealousy.
What's God jealous about?
James 4 tells us about his jealousy.
Again, don't turn there, but in James 4,
he begins to speak to the Christians and
he says to them, says, you pray, but
you don't get your prayers answered.
You ask, but you don't receive because you
ask with the wrong motive to go spend
it on your own lusts and your own
pleasures.
He says, don't you know that the spirit
that dwells within you, that God jealously dwells
or jealously desires the spirit that dwells within
you.
He jealously desires to have communion with you.
And then he says to them, you adulterous,
don't you realize that friendship, friendship with the
world is enmity to God and he who
makes himself a friend of the world becomes
an enemy of God?
That's what this is talking about.
God's jealous.
Oh, my, I'll tell you, it's not good
to be an enemy of God.
And there are more people in the churches,
I'm convinced, that are God's enemies than they
are his disciples.
Now, look what he says.
Here's what he says in the fire of
his jealousy.
He's going to come the whole earth.
How much of the earth?
All the earth will be devoured.
Does that speak to the last days?
For he'll make a complete end, indeed, a
terrifying one of all the inhabitants of the
earth.
Now, how do things get in such a
state as what we just described?
And notice what he says.
Verse four, I'll tell you what, before I
read that, let's go to verse seven.
Be silent before the Lord God, for the
day of the Lord is near, for the
Lord has prepared a sacrifice and he's consecrated
his guests.
Now, you know, he speaks of that in
the book of Revelation.
You know, when he talks about in the
book of Revelation, he says, all you birds
of the sky, beasts of the field, come
and eat.
He says, I've prepared a banquet table.
This is not a good banquet.
This is not the marriage supper of the
land he's talking about.
Let me show you why.
Be silent before the Lord God, the day
is near.
The Lord's prepared a sacrifice.
He's consecrated his guests.
Then it will come about on the day
of the Lord's sacrifice.
Now, this is not the marriage supper that
I will punish the princes, the king's sons
and all who clothed themselves with what kind
of garments, strange apparel or foreign garments.
What does he mean foreign garments?
Now, obviously, now listen to me.
Obviously, he's not talking about the sinners in
the world.
Let me ask you a question.
To an unregenerated heart is lost the foreign
garment or natural garment?
Natural.
What about greed and adultery and division and
strife, hatred, envy, anger?
Are those foreign garments to the world?
Are those natural garments?
Natural garments.
So when he says you've clothed yourself, clothed
yourself with strange apparel, foreign garments, he's talking
to those people who take the name of
Jesus.
And yet clothed themselves not with Christ, but
with the foreign garments of the lust of
the flesh.
He says, I want to have a banquet.
I've consecrated my guests and I want to
tell you who it is.
It's the power of the darkness.
It's his final judgment.
Now, notice what's happening.
I want you to again, Mark, Zephaniah, turn
with me to Ezekiel 16, 16.
I'm not going to read all of the
verses here, but follow through with me.
Verse one, Ezekiel 16, the word of the
Lord came to me saying, now remember, we're
going to look at foreign garments or strange
apparel.
The word of the Lord came to me
saying, son of man, make known to Jerusalem
for abomination.
And say, thus says the Lord God to
Jerusalem, your origin and your birth are from
the land of the Canaanites.
Your father was an Amorite, your mother a
Hittite.
Now he's speaking historically, but I want you
to apply this spiritually also as the prophets
speak to us, because we're told they wrote
this for our instruction.
Our birth, our natural birth was from the
Canaanites.
Is that right?
Now, what I mean by that is somebody
outside of covenant with God.
I'm not talking about, you know, your mother
and father being Christian or not Christian, but
whenever you come into this world, you have
to make a choice to follow Jesus with
all your heart if you're going to be
clothed with his righteous garments.
And that's all he's saying here.
You are a foreigner.
You're a stranger and alien to the covenant.
Now notice this.
As for your birth on the day you
were born, your navel cord was not cut,
nor were you washed with water for cleansing.
You're not rubbed with salt or even wrapped
in clothes.
But on the day you were born, you
weren't prepared to come into God's family at
that moment.
You weren't washed.
You weren't cleansed on the day you were
born.
That has to come with cleansing when you
join your heart to Jesus with him as
Lord master.
Verse five, I want you to see this
boy.
Isn't it just like the world?
No, I look with pity on you to
do any of these things for you to
have compassion on you.
Rather, you were thrown out into an open
field where you were born on the day
you were born.
Isn't that the way the world is?
Again, he's not talking about mothers and fathers.
Let me tell you something.
The world loves winners.
It'll pick losers to death.
As long as you're winning, you're going to
be in good friendship with the world.
But even the world, even the world, when
you start losing, you're not on top of
things.
The world kicks you to death.
And what he's saying is you're born into
an evil world, this present evil age you
were born into.
There was nobody, nothing in the world.
There was nothing about this world that wanted
to wash you or treat you kindly.
There was nothing about this world that wanted
to take you as a young babe and
care for you.
But I want you to know something.
Even when God saw us born, he wanted
to take us as a young babe and
cleanse us.
That's what he's trying to say.
He's telling us of his love for his
people.
Now, look what happens.
Verse six, when I passed by you and
saw you squirming in your blood, I said
to you while you were in your blood,
live.
And I said to you while you were
in your blood, live.
I made you like numerous, numerous like the
plants of the field.
Then you grew up, you became tall and
you reached the age for fine ornaments.
Your breasts were formed, your hair had grown,
yet you were naked and bare.
You reach an age where God can begin
to deal and woo that heart.
And a place where he can begin to
reveal himself to you.
He starts with a young child in a
godly home and he begins to woo you.
And you come finally to a place where
he can put his fine ornaments on you.
Verse eight, then I passed by you and
I saw you and behold, you were at
the time for love.
Isn't that precious?
I say, isn't that precious?
See, God loved him from the very beginning.
He says, now I saw you at a
time when I could just begin to pour
my love out on you.
And you could understand my love.
So I spread my skirt over you and
covered your nakedness.
And I swore to you and entered into
a covenant with you and you became mine.
What a precious picture, declares the Lord.
Then look what he does to it.
Then I bathed you with water.
I washed off your blood from you and
I anointed you with the oil of my
Holy Spirit.
I clothed you with embroidered cloth and sandals
of porcelain skin on your feet.
And I wrapped you with fine linen and
covered you with the silk and I adorned
you with ornaments.
I put bracelets on your hands and necklaces
around your neck.
It goes on and on.
In other words, he says, I clothed you
with the beautiful robe of my son.
I put the finest apparel on you, you
could possibly have.
Verse 15, we're talking about a person that's
been born again.
Verse 15, foreign garments, strange apparel, wooed to
God because he loved them, but you trusted
in your beauty.
And you played the harlot because of your
fame.
And you poured out your heart trees on
every passerby who might be willing.
Now look at this.
And you took some of your clothes and
you made for yourself high places.
What does it say?
Of various colors.
Is that what it says in the King
James?
Of what diverse colors?
High places of various colors and played the
harlot on them, which should never come about
nor happen.
It should never have happened.
Again, I hear the same cry for Jeremiah
chapter two, verse five.
What iniquity have you found in me, says
God, that you should turn away from me.
And yet they did.
Turn with me to Jeremiah 12.
They took God's colors and his ornaments and
made for themselves various colors.
Here's what God had to do.
Now we're seeing why there's going to be
such a destruction that he describes in Jeremiah.
Here's why the destruction is coming.
See, not only the people, not only do
the people do this, but what about the
preachers?
What's happened to the preachers?
You understand.
And I say this, and sometimes this sounds
hard.
I'm going to show you something in a
minute where God looks and blames both.
You absolutely can't.
If you are not a preacher, you can't
blame a preacher for the problem.
And if you're a preacher, you can't blame
the people for the problem.
Either one of them is a sin.
I can show you that in the word
of God.
But I want you to understand something.
You know why America is so corrupt, corrupt
and polluted?
Because the pulpit is so corrupt and polluted.
You know why the people are so corrupt
and polluted?
Because the pulpit is corrupt and polluted.
You know how the pulpit got corrupted and
polluted?
Because that's exactly what the people demanded.
That's what they want.
If you don't believe it, there's very few
churches you can put a righteous preacher in
without either having a church split before there's
ever any walk in righteousness and holiness or
having run off.
An appalling thing has happened in the land.
God's prophets prophesied greed for them own selves
and the people love itself.
Well, look at this.
Jeremiah 12, verse 7, what a statement.
I, God is speaking, I have forsaken my
house.
I have abandoned my inheritance.
I have given the beloved of my soul.
Now in Ezekiel 16, we just read about
his love, didn't we?
He says, I saw you, you were at
a time for love and I took you
to myself.
The world wasn't going to care for you.
The world abhorred you.
But I took you into my arms.
I loved you.
I bathed you.
And I adorned you.
And now he calls you the beloved of
his soul.
And that's the very thing he's abandoned.
I've forsaken my house.
I've abandoned my inheritance.
I have given the beloved of my soul,
where?
Into the hand of her enemies.
Now, I won't turn there.
I don't have time to turn there.
But for anybody who looks at this, and
I've heard this argument, well, but that was
Israel or that's Judah.
I mean, we're the church.
Well, anybody who says that's never read Romans
11.
Romans 11 says, if the root be holy,
the branches will be holy.
And then he goes on to say, don't
you get lifted up in pride because of
what happened to Israel, but you examine your
own self, lest the same thing come on
you.
And he said, if I dealt with the
natural branches that way, how much more am
I going to deal with the wild olive
branch that's been grafted in?
And then he says, he says that they
can return if they'll be grafted back in.
He says, but you, speaking to the church,
he said, you better watch your pride.
You better not get lifted up.
Behold, both the kindness and the severity of
God.
Severity to those who walk in rebellion and
his kindness to those who claim to that
vine.
But that's what he says.
In fact, he very clearly says that if
you walk in unbelief and rebellion, he says
you'll be cut off too.
See, and so this very much applies to
the church.
And he says, I've given the church, I've
forsaken the church.
Now understand what we don't, don't understand me.
Am I, am I down on churches?
No, I have not at all, but I
want to show you two remnants.
There's a church within the church.
There's a real church.
The church of God has some real churches
and some phony churches.
Southern Baptist has some real churches and some
phony churches.
Symbols of God has some real churches and
phony churches.
And even within those real churches, there's some
remnants of bail and there's a remnant of
God.
So understand what I say, but he's forsaken.
He's forsaken this church.
That's wearing various colors.
And notice this.
I've given the beloved of my soul in
the hand of her enemies.
Verse eight, my inheritance has become to me
like a lion in the forest.
She's roared against me.
Therefore I've come to hate her.
Why that strong language.
I say that strong language.
Look what he says is my inheritance like
a speckled bird of prey to me.
What that literally says.
I'm not sure what the King James says
there, but what it literally says to Hebrew
is my inheritance has become like a bird
of many colors.
I'll tell you something.
God planted his people in one nest.
It was the nest of righteousness and holiness.
They're all going to be birthed from the
same place.
They'll be birthed from a relationship with the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And they're to have one color, they're to
sing one song, and that's Jesus.
And they have become a many colored bird.
You know what happens?
It's a beautiful illustration.
If you go to an exotic pet shop
and you pick out one of those expensive,
brightly colored birds, take it outside and turn
it loose.
It probably won't live more than an hour.
You know why?
Because the other birds will attack it and
kill it.
If it's not in its natural habitat, they'll
attack it and kill it.
But you know what he says?
He says that you're a bird of prey
to me.
And are the birds of prey against her
on every side?
He talks about two kinds of prey.
Now, this is important.
See, not only are you a colored bird
and open to the prey of the enemy
as Brother David was mentioned last night, the
walls are down.
You step out there with any color.
There's only one color.
It's going to turn away the enemy.
It's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's bright red and you're clothed with that
from the inside out.
It turns away the enemy.
But if you're a bird of many colors,
you're open to the attack of the enemy.
But not only do you become a bird
open to the attack of enemy, you also
become a bird of prey yourself.
He says, I not only see you as
being attacked by the enemy, but I see
you as destroying others by your many colors.
You yourself are a bird of prey.
You're preyed on and you prey on others.
Now, you see, when the cup of all
of this gets full to where the Lord
can no longer bear it at the appointed
time, this destruction we just read about in
Zephaniah, it's going to be loose and poured
out on all the land.
I don't think you look.
Now, look what he says.
Go and gather all the beasts of the
field and bring them to devour.
Have you ever seen a time when there's
more Christians being devoured than right now?
I mean, I want to tell you something.
I get appalled.
Now, I hit this hard sometimes, but I
do.
I get appalled.
You go into a Christian bookstore and the
only thing you're going to find there that
sells are either books of testimonies about and
there is a place for this or the
destruction is right at our door.
It's there now, but there's going to be
a change or we're going to be bypassed.
Verse one, chapter two of Malachi.
And now this commandment is for you, O
priests, if you do not listen.
If you do not take it to heart
to give honor to my name, says the
Lord of hosts, then I will send the
curse upon you.
And I will curse your blessings and indeed,
I have cursed them already because you're not
taking it to heart.
How many of you can see the curse
on the land?
I had lunch and some of the leaders
of this conference pouring the heart out.
They weren't using these words curse and so
on, but they're pouring the heart out about
what they saw.
The curse on the land.
I want to say on the land, I'm
talking about in the church and it's certainly
on our country.
That's why when we read Zephaniah, I'm showing
you these things to let you know this
is why it's coming.
I have to show you something else.
Turn with me now that we're in Malachi.
I want you to look with me.
Well, I don't want to leave without showing
you this part.
I want you to see the difference between
godly ministers and ungodly ministers.
Verse five.
I'm going to read verse three because you're
going to see this in just a moment.
Behold, I'm going to rebuke your offspring and
I'll spread.
I want you to see this.
I'll spread refuse on your faces, the refuse
of your feasts, and you'll be taken away
with it.
When he talks about the refuse of the
feast, you know what he's talking about?
He's talking about the religious services.
In Isaiah chapter one, he said the people
had gotten to the place.
He said, take away the noise of your
songs.
Take away the abomination of your prayers.
Take away your feasts and your festivals and
your new moons.
Take them all away from me.
I'll not hear you anymore.
We've become so arrogant that we don't believe
it can happen to us today and we're
so blind we don't even see it happening
and we don't take it to heart.
We don't mourn for what we think.
And it's right here in our midst.
And what we see in terms of judgment
today is the outcry of God's heart being
grieved over the many colored birds.
Now we're going to come to the refuse.
It's going to pour on in a moment.
I want you to see.
Verse four.
You see, but I want you to see
this because we're going to get to those
two remnants of Baal.
As strong as that judgment is, and you'll
find this throughout the word of God, is
in Zephaniah this way.
He makes one of the strongest words of
judgment you can possibly read right there in
Zephaniah.
And then we're going to see in the
moment he not only talks about a godly
remnant, and here he is again.
He says the curse has come.
I've looked at your religious services.
I've looked at the way you're doing things.
You've forgotten me days without number.
You've become a speckled bird of prey.
You've taken my fine ornaments and garments that
I gave to you in love and I
clothed you with.
You've taken on, you've made various colors with
them.
And in spite of that, and he says,
you're not taking it to heart.
And so the very blessings that I gave
your curses, I want to say something I
shared this week and yesterday, the Southern Baptist
Church is under judgment.
But how much more are the Pentecostal churches
going to be under judgment?
That know the reality of the baptism of
the Holy Spirit and the anointing and power
of God and turn their back on him.
If you've got that blessing, how much more
judgments are going to be?
But then he turns around and look what
he said.
Verse four, then you'll know that I have
sent this commandment to you that my covenant
may continue with Levi, says the Lord of
hosts.
How many of you remember David's message yesterday
morning?
The covenant would leave.
I sons of Zadok, Ezekiel 44.
Those who didn't go after idols, one group,
he left them with idols to stand before
and minister to the people, their idols.
The other group, he cleansed him.
He said, you can come near my holy
thing.
One group didn't go after idols.
They laid them all aside.
One group went after idols.
The group who went after idols, he said,
you can't touch my holy thing.
So I will leave you right there and
minister to the people because that's what they
want.
You have to stay models of your heart
that they want.
And then he turns around and says, but
here's another group of Levi, Levi, the sons
of Zadok, they didn't go after the idols.
He says, I'm going to let them come
near my holiest thing.
And they're going to stand and minister to
me and before me.
But here he says, when all this refuse
gets poured out, there's going to be such
a separation of these two remnants with one
group.
I'm going to pour refuse on them.
The other group, I'm going to honor them
with my covenant.
Verse five, my covenant with him in the
midst of all this turmoil, you and I
can have this, my covenant with the sons
of Levi who don't go after idols.
What is it?
Life and peace.
My covenant was one of life and peace.
And I gave to them, them to him
as an object of fear or reverence.
So he revered me and he stood in
awe of my name.
Now, here's the true priest.
Now, look what's going to happen.
Ministers of God, I'm telling you, you get
your lives right.
Seek after God with all your heart.
This is exactly the promise we got before
God.
Verse six, true instruction was in his mouth.
And unrighteousness was not found on his lips.
I read to you in Zephaniah chapter one,
the people be confused when the high corner
towers and the fortified cities begin to break
up.
And out of those confused, distressed people that
walk around blindly, there's going to be some
of them that are going to come running
to a minister of Levi who's got no
unrighteousness in his lips.
Some of them are going to come.
Others are going to still wander into blindness
and darkness and go off into deception.
God's looking for a man with the heart
of David.
True instruction is going to be found in
his mouth.
Unrighteousness is not going to be in his
lips.
He walked with me in peace and uprightness.
And look at this.
He turned many back from iniquity for the
lips of a priest should preserve knowledge.
And I want to say to you, it
doesn't just mean ministers.
It does mean the ministers of God.
But every one of us is under our
God.
We've been made a kingdom of priests, a
procure your people for the lips of a
priest should preserve knowledge.
And men should seek instruction from his mouth,
for he is the messenger of the Lord
of hosts.
But as for you, here's the other side.
But as for you, these many colored birds,
you've turned aside from the way.
You cause many to stumble instead of many
being turned back from iniquity.
What happens instead of being turned back from
iniquity?
They're caused to stumble.
How?
By the instruction.
How many of you see that?
I say, how many of you see that?
They're caused to stumble by the instruction.
Let me say it again.
They're caused to stumble by the instruction instead
of being turned back from their iniquity.
They're caused to stumble.
I want to tell you something.
You're going to find a whole lot more
passages.
I mean, the weight of balance is far,
far more to the side of Scripture that
tell a minister that his job is to
turn people back from their sin, than it
is to teach them how to make wealth,
how to have what they want, how to
be free from fear.
You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says
the Lord of hosts.
Now, look at this.
Well, I want you to see.
Verse 10, God finds this amazing that this
would happen to his people.
He's absolutely astounded that this could happen.
Verse 10, Do we not all have one
father?
Has not one God created us?
Why do we deal treacherously against his brother
so as to profane the covenant of our
fathers?
Judah has dealt treacherously and abominations been committed
in Israel and in Jerusalem.
For Judah, here's the problem, has profaned the
sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves.
We read in Jeremiah 12 that he had
forsaken his church, but I told you there's
a church within the church.
There's a sanctuary he loves and is married
the daughter of a foreign God.
There's a Scripture I won't have you turn
there, but it's in the first, you'll find
it in verses three or four to verse
five and six in Second Corinthians chapter 11.
Here's what Paul says.
He said, I have a godly jealousy burning
in my heart.
Just for I fear.
That just as the serpent tempted Eve that
many of you have been tempted and led
astray from the simplicity and the devotion of
Jesus.
Simplicity of devotion to Jesus.
We've got so many things floating around today.
Tell us how we can do this and
do that, have this and have that.
And I'm telling you something, it perverts the
simplicity of devotion to Jesus with a whole
heart.
And you know what he says?
He says, because here's what's happened to you.
You've accepted another gospel that's preached another Jesus
and you've picked up a different spirit because
you've married the daughter of a foreign God.
Verse 12.
Now, look at this.
As for the man who does this, may
the Lord cut off from the tense of
Jacob, everyone who awakens, awakes and answers or
who presents an offering to the Lord of
hosts.
And this is another thing you do.
Now look at this.
You cover the altar of the Lord with
what?
With tears, with weeping and with groaning.
Because why?
Because you're mourning and you've taken it to
heart and you're mourning over the state of
things.
No, you're now crying over another thing because
he no longer regards the offering or accepts
it with favor from your hand.
I want you to see it again right
here.
Verse 15.
But not one, not one, not one has
done so who has a remnant of the
Spirit.
Is that what the King James says?
Is it close?
That's why a residue of the Spirit.
Not one who has a residue or a
measure or remnant of the Spirit.
Well, look with me at Malachi again.
I just feel that this is the direction
Lord wants us to go and then we're
going to go back to Zephaniah.
Look at Malachi chapter one.
It's something I didn't share this morning and
this is a good place for me to
share it.
I want you to see this.
Fits in exactly to Zephaniah.
Malachi 1.
I want you to see something.
Verse 10.
All that there were one among you who
would shut the gates, the King James I
think says doors, that you might not uselessly
kindle fire on my altar.
I'm not pleased with you, says the Lord,
nor will I accept an offering from you.
Now, I want you to see what he's
saying.
You know what he's talking about?
The gates.
He's talking about here the gates into the
temple, the doors into the temple.
You know what he says?
Listen to me.
Don't let this pass by.
He'd say, I'd rather you shut the thing
down and continue going the way you're going.
I'd rather you close the doors and continue
to offer the sacrifices and offerings you're bringing
to me.
I want you to see that word gates,
doors or gates.
I want you to see what he says
about it.
This is very important for us to see.
Jeremiah 7.
Keep in mind that all we're looking at
is why such a destruction has been proclaimed
in Zephaniah.
Jeremiah 7.
Here's why God said in Malachi, He said,
I'd rather you shut the gates to the
temple.
You know, as important, as important as all
the offerings were, as important as all the
feasts were in the Old Testament, that's not
the only place I can show you several
places where he says something similar to that.
He said, I'd rather you cut off the
offerings.
I'd rather you stop giving them than to
continue to give them the way you're giving.
You know, I don't know what happened.
We think we've got to keep and I'm
not advocating you shut your church doors unless
God says so.
But I want to tell you something, with
all the sin that I see rampant in
the churches, with all the division, all the
strife, I want to tell you something, it
wouldn't hurt things as bad as we think
it would if we just closed everything up
and then everybody that had a remnant of
the Spirit came and got before God on
their faces and said the doors will open
when we get our lives right.
We think the whole machinery would fall apart.
And you know what would fall apart?
Only that which can be shaken would be
shaken.
And that which would remain remains.
Now, he said, oh, that there'd be one
person among you who'd have enough courage to
stand at the gate, shut the gate.
I want to tell you something, we don't
have to do that.
That's why I say I'm not advocating that
we do it.
There's another way to shut the gates.
There's another way to shut the gates rather
than barring the doors is to do exactly
what Jeremiah was told to do.
Notice what he said.
Verse one, Jeremiah seven, the word that came
to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, stand in
the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim
by this word and say, hear the word
of the Lord, all of you of Judah
who enter by these gates to worship the
Lord.
What do you think it'd be like if
the preacher stood at the gate, at the
front door of the church and had associates
standing at the back doors so they couldn't
go into the Sunday school areas first.
Stood there and say, before you come in
here and worship, I just want to know,
are your hands clean to worship the Lord
this morning?
Is your heart pure to worship Him?
Do you realize that's exactly what he told
Jeremiah to do?
He said, you go place yourself right there
in the gate, the place, and when they
come in, you shout something to them.
Everybody who enters to worship, you tell them
this.
Verse three, thus says the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, amend your ways and
your deeds and I'll let you dwell in
this place.
But we've
got a ministry to protect.
I'm not advocating that you go do that.
I hope you understand I did that as
an illustration, but I wonder this.
I wonder how many of us would do
it if we heard God say do it.
Well, if you're not doing it from the
pulpit, you wouldn't do it at the door.
Amend your ways and your deeds and I'll
let you dwell in this place.
Do not trust in deceptive words saying this
is the temple of the Lord, the temple
of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.
For if you truly, truly amend your ways
and your deeds, if you truly practice justice
between man and his neighbor, if you do
oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow
and do not shed innocent blood in this
place and walk after other guys to your
own ruin, then I'll let you dwell in
this place.
Verse eight, behold, you are trusting in deceptive
words to no avail.
Will you steal, murder, commit adultery and swear
falsely and offer sacrifices to whom?
Bail.
We're going to see the remnant of bail
in a moment.
Offer sacrifices to bail, walk after other gods,
then come and stand before me in this
house, which is called by my name and
say we are delivered.
Then continue to do all the abominations that
you've always done.
And don't tell me that this is not
New Testament because the next verse says, has
this house, which is called by my name,
become a den of robbers in your sight.
The whole eye, even I have seen it.
Now listen to me.
Jesus quoted this verse and I want to
tell you something.
He also knew what was in verse 10
when he quoted verse 11.
He knew the scriptures pretty well and he
never took anything out of context.
Did he?
And you know what?
I saw something a couple of years ago
that I'd never seen before when he turned
over those tables of the money changers.
He didn't just chase the money changers out.
The Bible says that he chased out the
buyers and the sellers.
He chased out those that were selling unrighteousness
and he chased out those who were buying
what those were selling had to sell.
And he's doing the same thing today.
He chases out the buyers, the sellers, his
judgments against the buyers and sellers.
That's why I say to you over and
over in the Bible, Jeremiah, I won't have
you turn there, but Jeremiah, I'm going to
have you turn there.
I want you to see it.
You can't blame it on the preachers.
You can't blame preachers.
You can't blame it on the congregation.
Look at Jeremiah 14.
Why am I saying this to you?
Because nothing is going to change until we
stop trying to blame it on one another,
to the pope.
The pew stops trying to blame it on
the pulpit.
The pulpit stops trying to blame it on
the pew.
And we all get on our faces before
God and say, we're guilty.
You know, the number one indictment, the number
one indictment that God had against his church
in the Old Testament.
We just read it Malachi over and over
and over.
You'll read it throughout the prophets.
I said, what are we doing?
Where are we saying?
How many of you remember reading that?
It's all through the prophets.
Ezekiel, you can find it.
Jeremiah, you can find it.
Isaiah, you can find it.
Malachi, you can find it.
When they came, when God brought judgment, there
was always a group of people who said,
well, God, what have we done?
Where have we sinned against you?
The only thing that's going to change is
when we all get on our face before
God and cry out because God has been
blasphemed among us.
And there's a shame and reproach that's come
to our God.
Look at this.
Jeremiah 14.
Verse 10.
Thus says the Lord to this people.
You can later read who these people are.
And they're people who I want you to
read verse three with me.
Here's the people.
First, let's start with two.
Judah mourns her gate languish.
Are we talking about the gates or the
doors to the temple?
The gates languish.
You'll find that.
I want to show you a few scriptures.
You'll find that expression over and over the
gates languish.
You know what?
Every time that it talks about the gate
being in languish or the gates being torn
down, it's all because of sin.
And it's the very same thing that Brother
David mentioned yesterday when he talked about go
and proclaim to my people enough of all
your abominations and mark clearly the exits and
the entrances.
Because what's happened today is that the entrances
to God's house have been perverted and the
exits have been hidden.
We've perverted the way to come and join
yourself to Christ.
And we've perverted the way that you lose
and are broken off from the vine.
We hide it from the people.
Now, look what happens.
The gates are languish.
They sit on the ground in mourning.
The crab Jerusalem is ascended.
Verse three, their nobles have sent their servants
for water.
And they've come to the cisterns and found
no water.
And they've returned with vessels empty.
And they've been put to shame and humiliated.
I'm telling you, there are people going to
conference after conference after conference after conference.
I heard Brother David say just recently, because
I want to tell you something, it becomes
a burden.
It's a burden on my heart, too.
And we weep over this thing and go
before God and pray and cry out, God,
is there any sense in continuing having repentance
conferences and going to the pastors when so
few are repenting?
You know why?
Because there's no sense in having a meeting
after meeting after meeting if the people don't
come and go home with water.
And we've got people searching after meetings, but
the cisterns and the vessels return empty with
no water.
That's why I say to you, why don't
we continue having revivals where there's no water
just to get excited?
I'm not against having those.
I'm not against having them.
See, it's again, it's not don't blame it
on the people who plan the revivals.
Don't blame it on the preachers.
I'm telling you something.
There'd be water if the people would come
with prepared hearts.
It's not always because the man standing in
the pulpit doesn't have water to give.
Sometimes it's because the vessels are so broken
and got holes in them, they couldn't hold
the water that comes.
But now look what he says.
Verse 10.
Thus says the Lord to this people, even
so they've loved to wander.
They've not kept their feet in check.
Therefore, the Lord does not accept them.
Now he'll remember their iniquity and call their
sins to account.
So the Lord said to me, don't pray
for the welfare of this people.
My, what a statement.
When they fast, I'm not going to listen
to their cry.
And when they offer burnt offering and grain
offering, I'm not going to accept them.
Rather, I'm going to make an end of
them with a sword, famine, and pestilence.
Now look at this.
Jeremiah hears this and I'm telling you, it
crushes his heart because he sees the people
are going to be judged.
And he cries out and he says, but
ah, verse 13, Lord God, I said, look,
you can't judge the people like that.
He's saying, look, the prophets are telling them,
you'll not see the sword, nor will you
have famine, but you'll have lasting peace in
this place.
Let me ask you a question.
Is that happening today?
Jeremiah cries out and says, Oh God, don't
blame the people because the prophets have led
them astray.
Don't you see God's answer?
Then the Lord said to me, the prophets
are prophesying falsehood in my name.
I've neither sent them nor commanded them, nor
spoken to them.
They're prophesying to you a false vision, divination,
futility, and the deception of their own minds.
Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the prophets
who are prophesying in my name, although it
was not I who sent them, yet they
kept saying there'll be no sword or famine
in this land by sword and famine, those
prophets shall meet their end.
God says, I won't judge the prophets, but
now look what he says.
The people also to whom they are prophesying
will be thrown out into the streets of
Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword.
There'll be no one to neither them, nor
their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters,
for I shall pour out their own wickedness
on them.
He's saying, don't you blame it on the
prophets and don't you blame it on the
pew alone?
He says, we're all at fault.
Turn with me to Lamentations chapter
two, verse
five.
The Lord has become like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel.
He swallowed up all its palaces.
He's destroyed its strongholds that we see in
Zephaniah.
He's going to destroy the fortifications.
Lamentations is right after Jeremiah chapter two, verse
six.
He has violently treated his tabernacle like a
garden booth.
He has destroyed his appointed meeting place.
The Lord has caused to be forgotten the
appointed feast and Sabbath and Zion.
He has despised the king and priests and
the indignation of his anger.
Look at this now.
The Lord has rejected his altar.
He has abandoned his sanctuary.
My God, every prophet, every pastor, every teacher,
every evangelist in America ought to be crying
out, God spare your people.
Don't abandon us, God.
Verse nine, look at this.
Her gates have sunk into the ground and
he has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the
nations.
The wall is no more.
Also her prophets find no vision from the
Lord.
Do you see that?
Verse 13, here's what God says.
How shall I admonish you?
To what shall I compare you, O daughter
of Jerusalem?
To what shall I liken you as I
comfort you?
O daughter, virgin daughter of Zion.
God says, I want to comfort you.
I want you to say this.
All during this sin, God says, I want
to comfort you.
I want to find a way to comfort
you.
What can I say though to you in
your sin?
What iniquity are you finding in me that
makes me so unrighteous that you don't want
to love me?
Verse 14, now preachers particularly, listen to me.
I told you that God says that he
told Jeremiah to stand in the gate and
say, amend your deeds and your ways.
Why do you commit the sins you commit
and come and stand and sit in church
and stand before the Lord and cry out
Sunday after Sunday and say, we're delivered, we're
delivered, we're delivered, and yet worship fails.
And here's what he says.
Verse 14, your prophets have seen for you
false and foolish visions, and they have not
exposed your sin so as to restore you
from captivity.
Now, is that in your Bible?
I say, is that in your Bible?
How do you restore God's people from captivity?
He says it right there.
You expose their sins.
There is no restoration from captivity until our
sins are exposed.
I want you
to understand, I realize very much that
this is a heavy message.
And I want you to understand something.
I'm not a teacher of gloom and just
bad news.
But friends, I'm taking very seriously.
See, I realize that many of you are
hungry or you wouldn't be here this afternoon.
But there's two things that I know.
Number one, I know that you and I
both still need to be coming before God
repenting until we're cleansed and walking in the
power and holiness and righteousness of the clothed.
And I'm including myself.
Number two, I know that if the hungry
ones don't get this message, nobody's going to
get it.
We I hear this cry all the time
about it being too hard, not enough hope
in it.
Friends, there is no hope to restore us
from captivity unless our sins are exposed.
And I would say something.
We've become we have become a nation of
Christians, a body of Christians who just want
to be handled with kid gloves.
We want to be stroked.
We want to be pampered and we won't
be loved on.
We don't mind getting a hard message once
in a while, but we don't want to
hear it too often until we're comforting.
And I'm going to tell you something.
I believe in the comforting.
I'm with Brother David.
I don't believe anybody ought to leave depressed.
But if you let God, if your hopes
in Jesus.
That's a tremendous hope to know he wants
to cleanse me.
He wants to cleanse me.
You see how many times we've pointed out
in the midst of this.
God says, I love you.
I want to cleanse you.
But no, it's what he says in Zephaniah.
We just saw why this destruction is coming.
Now look with me at verse four.
Zephaniah one.
So I will stretch out my hand against
Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And I will cut off the remnant of
Braille from this place.
Now, see, understand there's two remnants.
There's two remnants.
Let me show it to you.
Look chapter three.
Look what he says.
Verse 12.
What I will leave among you, a humble
and lonely people, and they'll take refuge where
in the name of the Lord, the remnant
of Israel will do no wrong.
They'll tell no lies, nor will a deceitful
tongue be found in their mouths, for they
shall feed and lie down, and there's not
going to be anything that's going to make
them tremble.
Now, when he says there's not going to
be any deceit or lies found in their
mouths, it's exactly what we saw in Malachi
chapter two.
If there's no deceit found in their mouth,
that means there's true instruction.
And what does that mean is going to
happen?
They're going to turn many back from their
iniquity.
See, there is a hope to this message,
to those who are letting God cleanse them.
Now, back to Zephaniah.
I want you to see the remnant of
Baal and see who it is.
Zephaniah 1.
Here's the remnant of Baal.
First thing he's going to deal with.
And the names, this is chapter four, verse
four, Zephaniah 1.
I'll stretch out my hand against Judah and
against the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
I'll cut off the remnant of Baal from
this place.
And the names of the idolatrous priests, along
with the priests.
I said this message was from our day,
did I not?
And I would say something all through the
Bible.
I feel why he mentions priests twice.
It's because the idolatrous priests are those who
went after idols and led people astray.
And the priests are those that are the
priests and nation that were supposed to be
under God, but they're unto the remnant of
Baal.
And he's talking about the ministers and the
people.
Are you with me?
He says, I'm going to cut them off.
He's going to deal with the priests.
Every person has idols in the heart.
Now look what he said.
Verse five.
And those who bowed down on the housetops
to the host of heaven and those who
bowed down and swear to the Lord and
yet swear by Milcom or their king.
You know, here's who's going to get cut
off.
He's going to cut off those people that
swear by the Lord.
But then when they go home in their
private lives, they're bowing down to an idol.
They're bowing down to the lust of the
flesh.
They're bowing down to another master.
They're taking the name of the Lord, swearing
that they're following Jesus.
Outward they look holy, but inwardly they're ravenous
birds of prey.
And they've got more than one color.
I'm going to cut them off.
Verse six.
And those who turn back from following the
Lord and those who have not sought the
Lord, inquired of him.
Now, that's not two groups.
It's one group.
See, it's a double sin here.
I talked about it yesterday.
Not only have they turned back from following
the Lord, but they've never even taken the
time to inquire from the Lord where they
went astray.
They don't think they've sinned.
They think they're walking with God.
They think they're righteous and holy.
They think they're all right going to heaven.
And they've turned away from single-hearted devotion
to Jesus, and they're not even taking the
time to say, God wants this emptiness in
my life.
Verse nine.
And I will punish on that day all
who leap on the temple threshold.
Well, let me explain to you what that
means.
You'll find it back in Samuel, in first
Samuel.
You remember when the Philistines captured the Ark
of the Covenant?
They captured the Philistines, went in, they defeated
Israel, and they captured the Ark of the
Covenant.
And I tell you, it's the hardest thing
in the world for me to keep from
walking.
I usually walk when I teach.
It's been hard to stand behind here.
Why don't you hear?
They took away, and don't let the rain
distract you.
It'll come another day, but what I'm saying
may not.
Now listen.
They took the Ark of the Covenant, the
Philistines did, and they put it in the
house of their God, Dagon.
Then the Philistines went to bed at night.
They got up the next morning, here was
this statue of Dagon that had fallen, and
it was fallen over the threshold of the
temple.
It was broken in two, and the hands
and palms cut off, and it lay on
the threshold.
Well, immediately the Philistines got the Ark of
the Covenant out of that place, and they
got rid of it.
But now here's what happened.
From that time on, they had developed a
policy, and this was carried on by the
Philistines and the Ammonites, particularly.
And here's what would happen.
They would come to the threshold of the
temple, and instead of walking across the threshold,
they would leap over the threshold.
They'd jump over it.
Later on, you'll find it in Nehemiah 13,
but later on, the men of Israel married
the daughters of the Ammonites and the Ashdodites.
And Ashdod was the place where this practice
started.
Literally, what happened was, they adopted the same
culture and practice of jumping and leaping over
the threshold of the temple, but they lost
the meeting.
They didn't know why they were doing it.
They'd just come, and they'd leap out of
custom.
They'd leap out of tradition over the temple
threshold.
The Israelites did, when they went into their
temple.
It's a picture.
God says, I'm coming.
I'm going to judge every person that's turned
from the Lord, not inquired about their sins.
I'm going to judge the idolatrous priests and
the priests.
I'm going to judge those who swear by
the Lord and yet bow down and worship
other gods.
And I'm going to judge everybody who comes
to church Sunday after Sunday after Sunday out
of tradition, rote mechanicalism, and not know why
they're there to worship the Lord God Almighty.
He says, those people are part of the
remnant of Baal, who fill the house of
the Lord with violence and deceit.
That's exactly what happens.
There's so much violence and deceit in the
house of God because people go to church
out of tradition not to worship God.
And on that day, he declares to the
Lord, there'll be a sound of a cry
from the fish gate.
The fish gate, you'll find he talked about
Nehemiah 13.
Nehemiah went to cleanse the temple, and he
left for a few days.
He came back, and guess what happened?
The very abominations he found in the house
had already crept back in.
And so he sent the merchandisers.
You read it carefully.
It says they were merchandisers of all kinds
of merchandise.
That's exactly what I see in the house
of God.
All kinds of merchandise.
As a matter of fact, you tell me
what the world does that the church is
not doing in a different religious form today.
All kinds of merchandise.
You can find it in God's house.
And he says, I'm going to come back.
When Nehemiah came back, now listen to this,
he kicked them out.
Guess where they were coming in?
They were coming in through the fish gate,
the merchandising gate.