Genesis: Abraham, Covenant, and Promise

Dealing With God's Judgment

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Old Testament Studies

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2010-08-01

Synopsis: In this sermon, John Weaver addresses how believers should respond in times of national judgment, using Zephaniah 2:1-3 as the foundational text. He argues that America is under God's escalating judgment due to moral collapse, economic decay, and corrupt leadership, yet most churches remain silent. The message is directed to the faithful remnant who perceive God's hand and desire repentance. Weaver expounds the command to 'seek the Lord' with an undivided heart, humility, obedience, and prayerful dependence. He clarifies that seeking righteousness and meekness means pursuing disciplined strength under God's control, not weakness. The sermon concludes with the hope that such wholehearted seeking may result in being hidden in the day of God's anger, urging believers to increase in holiness and submission as judgment intensifies.

[John Weaver] I want you to open your Bibles to the little book of Zephaniah that is right after the book of Habakkuk and right before the book of Haggai. So, as a minor prophet, the book of Zephaniah, chapter 2. Zephaniah, chapter 2. I want to bring a message tonight which I have entitled, How to Act in the Time of Judgment. Notice, if you would, Zephaniah chapter 2, beginning there with verse 1.

[John Weaver] God says, Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired. Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you, seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment. Seek righteousness. Seek meekness. It may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger.

[John Weaver] All I can begin is by saying what strange and dangerous times we live in. I believe that our nation not only has been under judgment, it is under judgment, and the judgment is simply going to increase with greater and greater severity. I don't know if any of you have been keeping up with our economic situation or not, But it's interesting that it doesn't matter if you're following men who are Christians or men who are non-Christians, all of them are saying essentially the same thing.

[John Weaver] In fact, Gerald Kalente is talking about the crash of 2010. Most of them are going 2011 and 2012, but Kalente says, oh, it'll probably come this year at least. It'll become a whole lot worse. Alice and I were watching a report just the other day of how many people in Southern California who are still in their homes, the news report said they were camping out in their homes. They had no electricity. They had no water. They could not afford electricity or water. One man had a water bill of $1,700 and they cut his water off.

[John Weaver] It's absolutely amazing, it's absolutely astounding, the times that we live in, because it seems as if our whole society, and yet even our nation, are disintegrating before our very eyes. Our morals have collapsed, our money is absolutely worthless, our politicians are corrupt, our government is tyrannical and despotic, and there seems to be no help from any direction or from any institution.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to think about this. In this country, we basically have churches on every corner of the land, and a lot of those churches are filled every Sunday, every Lord's Day, and yet the preachers are virtually silent. At least they're silent concerning the issues at hand. No one deals with justice anymore. No one deals with economics anymore. No one deals with law anymore. Very few preachers are asking questions, and very few preachers have any answers.

[John Weaver] And consequently, as a whole, most professing Christians are left simply out in the dark. You know what God says about those kind of preachers? In Isaiah 56 and verse 10, He said this, His watchmen are blind. They are all ignorant. They're all dumb dogs that cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Isn't that amazing? God says his watchmen are like dumb dogs that cannot bark. I've got a pastor friend. He's very elderly. He's had a stroke. He's alive, thankfully, by the grace of God.

[John Weaver] But I remember 40 years ago, preaching in his church and in his backyard, he had two great big German shepherds. He says, Brother Weaver, those are my watchdogs. And that week someone stole them. I thought, how can you steal a watchdog? But someone stole both of them. Evidently they didn't bark or couldn't bark or wouldn't bark. Do you realize God's preachers are supposed to have answers not just in normal times, but in dangerous times as well?

[John Weaver] God asks in Jeremiah chapter 9 in verse 12, who is the wise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken that he may declare it? In other words, once God has spoken, We are to declare whatever God has said. Did you know the Bible says in the book of Malachi, chapter 2 and verse 7, for the priest's lips should keep knowledge that they should seek the law out his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.

[John Weaver] So God's preachers ought to have the answers. Now, with everything that's going on in this country, with everything that's going on in our state, The most frequently asked question that I hear is, what shall we do? In light of the obvious judgment that is upon this country, people are asking, which way do we turn and how do we act? And do you realize the general population could care less about what is going on, and they evidence absolutely no desire for repentance and no desire for change. The psalmist David asked it kind of like this in Psalm 11 in verse 3. He asked, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

[John Weaver] Interestingly, the little book of Zephaniah gives us a directive and gives us an admonishment. In fact, it's Zephaniah who teaches us how to act in the time of judgment. Look in verse 3. We're going to come back to verse 3. I'm going to be expounding it, but look at it. Zephaniah says, Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment. Seek righteousness, seek meekness.

[John Weaver] It may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Now, before I begin to expound this verse, I want you to see the context in which this verse occurs. So let's go back to Zephaniah chapter one and let's begin reading there with verse two. Don't have to read all of chapter one. I think you're going to see the context is the context of judgment.

[John Weaver] God says, I will utterly consume all things from off the lands of the Lord. I will consume man and beast. I will consume the fowls of the heaven and the fishes of the sea and the stumbling blocks with the wicked, and I will cut off man. from off the land, saith the Lord. And I will also stretch out my 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 the Shemarim, with the priests, and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, and them that worship him, that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcolm, or Molech, And them that are turned back from the Lord, and those that have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him, hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God. For the day of the Lord is at hand. For the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice. He hath bid His guest, and it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish, watch, the princes and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel, in the same day also I will punish all those But leap upon the threshold, which fill

[John Weaver] their masters' houses with violence and deceit, and it shall come to pass that that day, saith the Lord, that there shall be a noise of a cry from the fish-gate, and a howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills. How, you inhabitants of Mektesh, for all the merchant people are cut down, all they that bear silver are cut down! Skip down, if you would please, to verse 13, Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation. They shall also build houses, but not inhabit them.

[John Weaver] They shall plant vineyards, but not drink thereof. The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteneth greatly. Even the voice of the day of the Lord, the mighty man, crieth there bitterly. 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. Skip down to verse 17. And I will bring distress upon men and they shall walk like blind men because they have sinned against the Lord and their blood shall be poured out as dust and their flesh as dung. Neither shall their silver nor their gold be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath.

[John Weaver] Now look over to chapter two very quickly, if you would. And notice beginning there with verse 4. I'm not going to read all of this. I'm just showing you the context. For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation. They shall drive out Ashdod at the noonday, and Ekron shall be rooted up. Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Chariothites. The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, the land of the Philistines.

[John Weaver] I will even destroy thee. There shall be no inhabitant. Skip down, if you would, to verse 7,"'And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah they shall feed thereupon, and the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down in the evening. For the LORD their God shall visit them and turn away their captivity.'" Verse 8, I've heard the reproach of Moab. Notice, if you would please, in verse 11, The Lord will be terrible unto them, he will furnish or famish all the gods of the earth, and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even the isles of the heathen.

[John Weaver] Ye Ethiopians shall be slain by the sword." You can read chapter 1, you can read chapter 2, you can read chapter 3. The whole context is the context of judgment. Now let me point out some problems that we have with judgment. One of the biggest problems we have with God's judgment is this. that at times people do not perceive the judgment of God. They don't view and understand God's judgment.

[John Weaver] We've had hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, floods, famines, and I get so exasperated at the reporters and the weathermen who say, well, Mother Nature is playing a trick on us, or it's Mother Nature. It's amazing how humanistic even the news people are and the weather people. And it's not Mother Nature, it's Father God. How in the world can you expect people to perceive things as judgment if you're always saying it's not judgment? You must understand also there are degrees in judgment. God oftentimes increases the intensity of judgment when we refuse to hear and heed the initial judgment.

[John Weaver] I want you to hold Zephaniah chapter 2, but turn back very quickly to the book of Amos. Hosea, Joel, Amos, look if you would, Amos chapter 4, and I want you to note the increased intensity and the severity that God uses to send His judgments. Notice Amos chapter 4, beginning in verse 6, God says, And I also have given you cleanliness of teeth in your cities, and one of bread in all your places.

[John Weaver] Yet you have not returned unto Me, saith the Lord. God said, What did I do to get your attention? I sent famine. Didn't do a bit of good, you didn't pay any attention to that. So what did God do next? Verse 7, And I also have withholding the rain from you, when there was yet three months to the harvest. I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city. One piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered into one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. Yet you have not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Now God said the famine didn't do it, so I sent drought. famine on top of drought. Yet he said you didn't listen to the drought either. Yet you've not returned unto me. Now watch verse 9.

[John Weaver] I've smitten you with blasting and with mildew when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your oligarch trees increased. The palmer worm devoured them. Yet you've not returned unto me, saith the Lord. You didn't listen to the famine. You didn't listen to the drought. So I sent blasting and mildew. I sent caterpillars. I sent palmer worms. They devoured what the famine and what the drought did not. Yet you still didn't listen to me, saith the Lord. Now watch verse 10. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manor of Egypt.

[John Weaver] Your young men have I slain with a sword, and have taken away your horses. I have made the stink of your camps to come up into your nostrils, yet you have not returned to me, saith the Lord. So God sent diseases. God sent plagues. God sent war. And here piles of young men and piles of horses stacked one on top of the other. And yet, says God, you haven't paid any attention. Oh. Look at verse 11. God said, I've overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and you were as a fire brand plucked out of the burning. Yet you've not returned to me, said the Lord. Now, let me tell you, when God sent his supernatural judgment against Sodom and Gomorrah, everyone knew that was the judgment of God.

[John Weaver] You could not deny it. God said, I've said judgments like that. You haven't paid a bit attention. And look what God said to Israel in verse 12. Therefore, thus will I do unto thee, O Israel, and because I will do this unto thee, O Israel, prepare to meet thy God. God said, well, you wouldn't listen. I'll just go ahead and kill you and take you out of the way. It's just that simple.

[John Weaver] So one of the problems we have with judgment is this. A lot of people do not perceive God's judgment. And even as judgment increases in severity and intensity, many times people still do not want to watch or to understand that that is God's judgment. And some people, like these Israelites that God spoke of, will not repent even under the strictest and the most severe judgment. And God says, in such an instance, The only thing left for them is destruction. And because God said, I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God.

[John Weaver] Now, let me tell you another problem. In light of a society and in light of a nation under the judgment of God. While many people are clamoring and going on their merry way as if nothing was happening and nothing was wrong. There exists a small remnant who see and understand the hand of God against the society and against this nation. And that small remnant want, they desire, they pray for, and they long for repentance and restoration. They want to return to God's Word. They want to return to God's law.

[John Weaver] The vast majority are indifferent. The vast majority are unrepentant. So in light of this fact that there is a small remnant, the question has to come up, what shall the righteous do? By the way, Zephaniah is going to answer that question. And I want you to look at verse 3 again. I'm going to explain it in just a moment, but look at verse 3. He said in Zephaniah 2, Seek ye the Lord, all you meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment. Seek righteousness, seek meekness.

[John Weaver] It may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. You know what he's doing? He's addressing the remnant. He's addressing the people that want repentance and that want restoration. It's kind of like God said to those people in Isaiah chapter 1 in verse 5. God asked, why will you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. In other words, God says I've sent judgment after judgment after judgment after judgment and didn't pay any attention. So.

[John Weaver] Destruction is the only thing that awaits you. But wait a minute. Here's what Zephaniah is saying right in the middle of verse three. My message is for the remnant. My message is for those who want repentance and restoration. My message is for those individuals who want to obey the Lord. Here's what Zephaniah is basically saying. Don't worry about those who will not Repent, don't worry about those who will not concern themselves. Don't worry about those who refuse to hear ineed.

[John Weaver] Zebanai says I will tell you what you need to do. That's what he's saying. What good is it to shout to someone who will not listen? God says, look, I will tell you what you need to do. I will tell you how you need to pay attention. And so I want you to look in verse three. And I've got about four points I want you to see.

[John Weaver] The very first one is this. The action commanded. He said in verse 3, Seek ye the Lord, all you meek of the earth. There's the action commanded. Seek ye the Lord. First and foremost, we're commanded to seek the Lord. And this action that is commanded is addressed to the meek of the earth. The meek of the earth are those who have humbled themselves and who have submitted themselves unto the Lord. The word meek refers to those who have profited under the scourges of God, who have profited under the afflictions of God, who have profited under the judgment of God. They have been chastised. They have repented. So this action that is commanded here is to true believers.

[John Weaver] The phrase here occurs a number of times in Scripture. I could quote Scripture after Scripture. Let me just give you a few of these very quickly. In Deuteronomy 4, verse 29, the Bible says, But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou shalt seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. We're commanded to seek the Lord.

[John Weaver] In 1 Chronicles 16, verses 10 and 11, Glory ye in His holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord at His strip. Seek His face continually. That's a command. 1 Chronicles 22 and verse 19. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord. How about this one? Everyone knows this one. Isaiah 55 and verse 6. Seek ye the Lord while He may be found.

[John Weaver] Call ye upon Him while He's near. Now, I could sit here and tell you scripture after scripture. Where God commands you to seek him, it is one thing to know that God commands you to seek him. It's quite another thing to know how to seek him. So how do you seek the Lord? This message tonight is not necessarily just on this subject, but I do want to give you several important points on seeking the Lord.

[John Weaver] First, it should be very obvious. It should be very clear. then if you're going to seek the Lord, there must be a genuine desire and there must be an undivided heart in seeking the Lord. What did He say in Deuteronomy 4 and verse 29? I quoted it earlier. But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. Very obviously, God is not going to be found in those who try to seek Him with a divided heart. We're told in the book of Jeremiah chapter 29 in verse 13, and you shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

[John Weaver] You cannot come to God lackadaisically, you cannot come to God half interested, you cannot come to God saying, well, it's all right if I do, it's all right if I don't know. There must be an undivided heart. There must be a genuine desire in seeking the Lord. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 15 and verse 12, and that they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul. God is not going to be found by half-hearted and seeking and slothful attempts at finding Him. He's not. We're told that King Rehoboam, you remember that was the son of Solomon, in 2 Chronicles 12 and verse 14, and he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. Did he do evil? because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. And on the contrary, we have in 2 Chronicles 27, in verse 6, so Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before the Lord. So if we're going to seek the Lord, it's very obvious we have to seek Him with an undivided heart.

[John Weaver] There has to be a genuine desire, a wholehearted desire. Secondly, if we're going to seek the Lord, we must seek Him with a humble and accurate estimation of ourselves. I want you to turn in your Bible, if you would, please, to the book of Romans, chapter 12, the book of Romans, chapter 12, and look at verse three. I'm going to show you this truth in light of the gifts that God gives, and then I'm going to make a deduction based upon this principle. Notice, if you would, In Romans chapter 12 and verse 3, the Apostle Paul wrote, For I say through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, now look, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Now God says when it comes to soberly assessing your gifts, You better not think more highly of yourself than you ought to think.

[John Weaver] Now, if I were to tell you tonight that God had given me the gift of song and singing, I know my wife will smile and laugh. All I have to do is open my mouth and try to sing, and you would know instantaneously that I cannot sing. I have a dear friend, a lady who loved to sing, but she really could not sing. In fact, she was deaf in one ear, but she tried to sing.

[John Weaver] And I was thankful for that. And I was making the statement one time that I could not sing. And she said, old pastor, I'll be glad to teach you to sing. And I thought to myself, well, I can already sing better than you, but I still can't sing.

[John Weaver] Now, you understand what I'm saying. It's like me trying to say, well, my gift is in managing money. Well, I'm a spendthrift. You've got to deal with yourself honestly and soberly.

[John Weaver] Now, if this is true in just ascertaining our gifts. It is equally true in coming to God. In other words, we have to deal accurately and give a true estimate of ourselves before the Lord. What do I mean by that? I want you to turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 51. Here's what I mean. I want you to notice, if you would, what God commands us. Look in Isaiah chapter 51, and we'll begin reading there with verse 1. Isaiah 51 and verse 1. Now, note if you would what God says.

[John Weaver] Hearken unto me, you that follow after righteousness. So you're seeking Him, all right. Hearken unto me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek the Lord. Look unto the rock whence you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence you were digged. Look unto Abraham your father and to Sarah that bear you, for I called him alone and blessed him and increased him." Now what in the world does God mean when he says, if you're going to fall after righteousness, if you're going to seek me, then you look to the rock which you're hewn and the hole of the pit that you're dug.

[John Weaver] Well, Brother Weaver, you don't understand. I'm in Abraham's lineage. Oh. May I ask you where Abraham was when God called him? He was a pagan, he was an idolater in Ur the Chaldees, and so was Sarah. So God says, you look to the rock from which you are hewn, you look to the hole of the pit from which you dig. In other words, when you come to me, you better come to me with a proper estimation of yourself. You've got to understand that we are sinners and we deserve nothing but punishment and justice. When God found us, we were nothing. When God saved us, we were nothing. And without Him, we are still nothing. That's a proper estimate, I would say. What did our Lord say in John 15? Without me, you can do how much? Nothing. It is God who saved us. It is God who brought us into His kingdom. That's why the Bible says in the book of Colossians chapter 1, giving thanks unto the Father who had translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son.

[John Weaver] So when we come before Him seeking Him with all of our heart, we have to come before Him in deep humility, recognizing the fact that in and of ourselves, we are absolutely nothing. And I've got news for you, folks. Pride is just as sinful in a preacher's heart as it is in anyone else's heart. It's just as wicked in a Christian's heart. I saw a cartoon years ago, I've never forgotten it.

[John Weaver] It showed these two monks walking side by side in their robes. They had their hands up their sleeves and one looked at the other said, you know, it kind of makes you proud that we're so humble, doesn't it? We can kind of get proud that we've got the right doctrine, we can kind of get proud that We attend church faithfully. We can kind of get proud in a lot of areas. And God says, if we're going to seek him, we have to come with a true estimate of ourselves. And the true and accurate estimate of ourselves is this, without him, we are nothing. Thirdly, if we're going to seek him, we must be careful to obey him in every area of our lives. That is, we must be constantly and continually bringing our lives into conformity to the Word of God.

[John Weaver] We cannot cease obeying God just because our society and just because our nation is under the judgment of God. Now, just stop and think for a moment how important this is. I have talked to Christians who have come up with this attitude, well, Brother Weaver, The whole world is a thieving, coveting, defrauding mess. I might as well get my part of it while I can. What? I've heard Christians say things like that.

[John Weaver] Everybody else is doing it. We might as well do it, too. We might as well get our share. Stop and think, why are we under the judgment of God to begin with? Because of our sin and because of our rebellion. And what did David say in Psalm 66 and verse 18, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. We cannot expect God to hear us if we're going to forsake him and refuse to bring our lives in conformity to his word.

[John Weaver] I want you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles. Chapter 14 and look at verse 4 2 Chronicles Chapter 14 and verse 4. 2 Chronicles 14 and look if you would please at verse 4. This is interesting. and commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to do the law and commandments." What was part of their seeking the Lord? Obeying Him. Doing the law and commandments. It involves obedience. So you can't seek God while you're disobedient. What does the Bible say in James 4 and verse 17?

[John Weaver] Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin. I want you to turn to the book of Mark chapter 4. I love this passage. In fact, I've got about a two hour message just on this one verse, but it is so it is so filled with truth. I want you to look at Mark 4 if you would please. And notice if you would, verse 24. Look at Mark 4 and verse 24. Notice what the Word of God said.

[John Weaver] And He said unto them, Take heed what you hear. With what measure you meet, it shall be measured unto you that unto you, and unto you that hear shall more be given."

[John Weaver] Now listen to what he said. Take heed what you hear, with what measure you need it shall be measured to you. Now, wait a minute. Here's what God is saying. To the exact same measure that you give to hearing the Word of God, God is going to measure that same amount of truth back to you. You can't say, well, I'm going to study my Bible ten minutes and get two hours worth of knowledge. Nuh-uh. You're going to get ten minutes worth of knowledge. To whatever degree that you give, To whatever degree that you measure out in hearing truth, to that same degree, God is going to measure truth back to you. And then He makes this statement, and unto you that hear shall more be given. In other words, God is not going to give you any more truth until you already obey the truth that He's given you. So if you're going to come to seek the Lord, At the very minimum, dear friend, you have to obey the truth that you already know and possess.

[John Weaver] Because if you don't do it, it is sin. And you cannot come to God and expect Him to hear you with iniquity in your heart. For David said, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.

[John Weaver] Fourth, very quickly, I'm trying to tell you what it means to seek the Lord. Seeking the Lord means we cry unto Him for help. Listen carefully. Seeking the Lord means we cry unto him for help. We are not instructing him as to what to do. So many want to tell God what to do. When to do it. And how to do it. No, if you're seeking God, all you're doing is crying for help.

[John Weaver] You understand that everything is in God's hands. Arthur W. Pink observed years ago, and I've never forgotten. When I read this statement, he said, one reason we don't like the pope. Is because we like to be the pope ourselves. We want to be in charge. We want to tell everyone else what to do. We even want to tell God what to do, but God is sovereign. We cannot dictate to God. We cannot instruct God.

[John Weaver] In fact, the Word of God says in Second Chronicles Chapter 20 verse four now listen and Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord. Even out of all the cities of Judah, they came to seek the Lord. What does it mean seeking the Lord? They came together seeking to ask help of the Lord, not to instruct him, not to tell him what to do, not to tell him how to do it or when to do it, just to ask his help. So seeking the Lord includes, at a minimum, these four truths. John Gill said this on seeking the Lord. He said they are here exhorted to seek the Lord, that is, by prayer and supplication, to know more of His mind and will, and especially their duty under the present circumstances.

[John Weaver] Implore His grace and mercy, protection and safety, in a day of common danger, and to attend the public ordinances of His house, in order to enjoy His presence and communion with Him. For to seek the Lord is to seek His face and favor, to have the light of His countenance, and the discoveries of His love, and to seek His honor and glory in all things, particularly the Lord Christ may be met who was to come in the flesh, and good men sought before he came, and now he is come, and to him should men seek for righteousness and life, for peace and pardon, for grace and all supplies of it, and for everlasting salvation, and all this before as well as since his coming, and such seek him aright, who seek him early, in the first place, above all things, who seek Him with their whole heart, sincerely, diligently, and constantly, and where He is to be found, in the ministry of His Word and ordinances." Certainly, the action commanded is to seek the Lord.

[John Weaver] I want you to go back to the little book of Zephaniah, and look, if you would please, at verse 3 again. Because here we have the action commended, not only the action commanded, but the action commended. He said, Seek ye the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have wrought his judgment. So here he commends these people. For having worked or wrought his judgment.

[John Weaver] Now, to do the judgment of God in this place means to form the life according to the righteousness of His law. The Hebrew word here is used frequently and it means equity or the right rule of living. Hence, to do judgment here, means that we live and bring our lives in conformity to His Word. We live according to His revealed will. We do that which is in line with His Word, which is the rule of judgment, not only for faith, but for practice as well.

[John Weaver] That is, we perform, we obey that which He has laid down for us. And we perform the works that He has commanded us from right principles with right views from the fruits of faith And. Fruits of repentance as well.

[John Weaver] Now here's an explanation of the word judgment. You don't have to turn there because I'm sure you know this verse. Do you remember what God said in Genesis chapter 18 and verse 19 concerning Abraham? God said, for I know him. that he will command his children and his household after him. And they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken." What did God say? I know Abraham. I know he's going to command his family and his household to do judgment and justice. So doing judgment is basically obey the Word of God. That's why Isaiah said, in Isaiah 1 in verse 17, learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, and plead for the widow.

[John Weaver] So very obviously, the action commended now is here are these people have at least been living a holy life, a godly life, And Zephaniah is saying, you continue to do this now. Look, if you would, back in verse three, because here's the third point, and that is the action clarified. He said, Seek ye the Lord, all you meek of the earth. That's the action commanded, which have wrought his judgment. That's the action commended. Now here's the action clarified. Seek righteousness. Seek meekness. Hmm. Let me say it is impossible to seek righteousness without at the same time seeking meekness or humility. When righteousness is sought, at the same time meekness or humility is sought. When the Lord says seek righteousness, He means the same thing as when He says do judgment. Righteousness is right living. It is doing that which is right in accordance and in agreement with the Word and with the Law of God. It is bringing the life in conformity to the Word of God. So, Zephaniah then is admonishing us to advance our lives in righteousness, in judgment, in obedience.

[John Weaver] Why? Because he understands and he knows that God is not going to forget our obedience. May I remind you? Of what the Word of God says in the Book of Galatians chapter 6 and verse 9. There the Apostle Paul wrote and let us not be weary with well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.

[John Weaver] Now what did he say? You continue to seek judgment. You continue to seek righteousness. You continue to seek meekness because we're going to reap. if we faint not. Do you remember that passage in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 10 where the Bible says, For God is not unrighteous to forget your labor and work of faith, and work of love, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. God is not unrighteous to forget that. Now He said, what? Seek righteousness, seek meekness. I want to clarify something about seeking meekness. Do not equate the word meekness with mousiness.

[John Weaver] In this day and time, most consider a meek individual one who is weak, anemic, feminine, and unmanly. According to the humanistic and modernistic view, the meek man is the 90-pound weakling that becomes a foot mat for everyone to ridicule, run over, and wipe their feet on. He is the epitome of everything that is to be despised. Biblical meekness is exactly the opposite. If I were to ask you not counting our Lord Jesus Christ. Who was the meekest man on Earth?

[John Weaver] I know that you know the answer. Numbers 12 in verse 3 says, Now Moses was the meekest man on the Earth. I want you to note what that meek man did. That meek man defended a brother He slew an Egyptian. He stood up the Pharaoh. He spoke the truth and let the chips fall where they may. He delivered Israel out of Egypt. He faced a rebellious group of Israelites over and over. And on one time, this meek man prayed, Oh God, I pray that a new thing will happen. I pray that the earth will open up and these rebels will go down alive into the pit. And the earth opened up. and swallowed them. He was the meekest man on earth. What?

[John Weaver] That's certainly not in agreement with what the world calls meekness. No, it's not. but it is biblical meekness. You know what our Lord said in Matthew 11 verse 29, now listen, take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest for your souls. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me." What did Christ say of Himself? For I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. In Matthew 21 and verse 5, it was prophesied concerning Christ, Tell you the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, sitting upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass. Our Lord was certainly not a mousy man.

[John Weaver] You don't get weak working in a carpenter shop. You don't get weak carrying wood all day long and using axes and using saws. No, no, no. Moreover, there is not a man alive. I don't care how strong he is. There's not a man alive that can suffer and endure everything that our Lord suffered and endured without complaining. Our Lord, by the way, endured ridicule and mockery and rejection and slander. He endured an unjust trial. Moreover, He was scourged and crucified.

[John Weaver] And yet we are told that He was meek and lowly.

[John Weaver] The Bible says that He endured the cross Despising the shame. For the joy that was said before him. You know what our Lord said in Matthew five in verse five. He said, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. If you read Rush Uni's Institutes of Biblical Law, you'll find that Rush is reporting that in one bathroom that he went into. This verse of scripture was on the bathroom wall. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And someone had written under the verse of scripture, if that's all right. That's the world's idea of meekness.

[John Weaver] Meekness, dear friend, listen to this, is an attitude or disposition that not only accepts and receives God's dealings with us without dispute and argument, it is also an attitude and disposition of submission to Him, resting in Him, leaning upon Him, trusting in Him above all things. Now, let me tell you what real meekness is. You remember I quoted that verse in Matthew 11, verse 29, where our Lord said, Take my yoke upon you. Do you know when our Lord says that we're to take his yoke upon us? He had reference to a real literal yoke. The yoke in those days.

[John Weaver] We would be applied to cattle or to oxen. I don't know. If you've ever seen an ox or not. But they're very big. Very strong. I told you about one of my pets. A big, huge Santa Gertruda's bull. He got up to 3000 pounds. General Beauregard. And for an animal so big. And so strong. He was so meek and gentle, it is unbelievable. But my wife and I went out one day. I took the tractor.

[John Weaver] I was going to hook up to an eight foot Harrah. It's got all these discs that cut the land. The Harrah weighs a thousand pounds or better. When I got to the Harrah, it had been flipped all the way over and the discs were sticking straight up in the air. I had to get a log chain, tie it, and pull it over before I could hook back up to it.

[John Weaver] And the only tracks were border guard's tracks. He came to the front of that Harrah, he put his head down, he was scratching his head, and then he just did this and flipped that thousand-pound Harrah totally over.

[John Weaver] I have seen that 3000 pound bull. Run. Jump in the air, twist and kick and turn all the way around before he ever hit the ground. You talk about strength. You talk about power. He broke through the fence one time. The horses were chasing the cows down a little lane. All the cows were running. The borrower guard didn't want to run. But he was running a little bit. He was agitated. And so instead of running down the lane, he just went through the fence. He burst that fence like it was pine straw.

[John Weaver] I saw it when it happened. I told Alice, I said, Might as well get the tools together. We've got to fix that fence. I said, let me get him in first. And I stood up on the hill and I called him. Remember now, the horses have been chased. He thought he was being chased. I called him. He looked up and saw me and he started running to me as fast as he could. And let me tell you, that old man got swinging left and right like that.

[John Weaver] And he was my pet. But I thought. I'm going to step a little closer to my truck just in case he doesn't stop. At least I can jump in the back of my truck. I knew he was agitated. You know what that big bull did? He ran straight up to me, stopped in his tracks. I stuck my hand out for him to smell it. And I looked at him after he smelled my hand, I said, come on, I'll put you up. And I turned around.

[John Weaver] and walked to the gate. He followed me like a little puppy. I opened the gate. He went right in. I fixed the gate. I shut the gate and went down and fixed the fence.

[John Weaver] Now what I'm trying to tell you is this. How could I harness that strength of that bull? The only way I could harness that strength is by putting a yoke on him. If I put a yoke on him, he'd pull my plow. He would do whatever I wanted him to do. I have a big horse, big, big horse. He's nothing but a pile of muscles, but I have to put a halter and a bridle on him to control him.

[John Weaver] Are you listening to me? An ox or a bull? Either one is exceedingly strong. When you put that yoke upon that ox or that bull, you now control that strength. You know what meekness is? Here's what our Lord said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly, and you shall find rest for your soul. Meekness is nothing less than disciplined strength under God. Our Lord acted the way the Father would have Him to act. He spoke the way the Father would have Him to speak. He moved the way the Father would have Him to move. If I control that horse, I have to have that bridle and rein. If I control that bull, I have to have that yoke. Our Lord said, you take my yoke upon you. You submit to me. And I'll tell you when to move and what to do and where to go. And what our Lord means by taking his yoke upon us is this, that we're to submit to our Lord more and more.

[John Weaver] every day, in every way, until the entirety of our life is brought under His control. I tell people I have done far more repenting since I have been saved than when I got saved. I repented of a few sins when God saved me, sins in particular and many in general. But after I got saved and started reading the scripture, I found out there was a whole lot of other things wrong with me that I didn't even know about.

[John Weaver] And if I'm a meek man, I take our Lord's yoke. And I submit more and more to him. Till he has total control of my life, Calvin said it like this. We learn that even the best are roused by God's scourges to seek true religion with greater ardor than they had done before. Though then it may be our object to serve God and to follow his word. Yet, when calamities arise and God appears as a judge, we ought to be stimulated to greater care and diligence.

[John Weaver] For it is never the case that any one of us fully performs his duty. Let us then remember that We are roused by God whenever adversity impends over us and when God Himself shows by manifest signs that He is displeased. This is the reason why the prophet bids the pious doers of righteousness to seek God and to seek meekness, however much they were devoted to Him before and that which is just and right.

[John Weaver] He said, it doesn't matter how holy you are now. What Zephaniah is saying, especially in the time of judgment, you want to become more holy. You want to become more godly. You want to become more submissive. You want to become more submitted. You want to become more meek. Here's why. Go back to Zephaniah. Chapter two and verse three. Watch this. Seek ye the Lord, all you meek of the earth, the action commanded. Which have brought his judgment, the action commended. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. The action clarified. Here's the action consummated. It may be.

[John Weaver] You shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Zachariah encourages obedience and submission by saying it may be. That you shall be hidden in the day of our Lord's anger. In other words, the Lord may spare you. You must remember that God's anger is going to be directed at the disobedient and rebellious. And you certainly don't want to be that. David said it like this in Psalm 27 in verse five, he said, for the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion in the secret of his tabernacle. Shall he hide me?

[John Weaver] He shall set me upon a rock. What did he say in the time of trouble? He shall hide me. In Psalm 31, In verse 20, David said, Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man. Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Peter said it a little differently, but he said it basically the same. He said in second Peter two in verse nine, the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished. So how do we act in the time of judgment? We seek the Lord, we seek his righteousness, we seek more holiness, we seek more submission, we seek more meekness.

[John Weaver] Let me tell you, where I want to be. I'm not a prophet, and I'm not a prophet's son, but I'm going to tell you this, folks. If God does not send repentance in this country, I believe in the next few years we are in for a really rough ride. I really believe that. But I want to show you where I want to be. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 91. I want to live my life in such a way. I want my mind and my attitude to be in such that I can honestly. Claim this song. Look in Psalm 91. It's a very short song.

[John Weaver] I think only 16 verses. Watch this. Psalm 91 verse one. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." What? He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God. And him will I trust.

[John Weaver] Surely he shall deliver thee from the stare of the fowler, and from the norns and pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the error that flyeth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Why? Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high thy habitation. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling, for he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

[John Weaver] Because he hath said his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble, and I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation." I want it to be only with mine eyes.

[John Weaver] The eye behold and see the reward of the wicked. I don't want to be involved in it. I want the Lord to be my fortress and my rock and my protection.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to look back at Zephaniah chapter two in verse three. I want to give you a quote. And then I want to make one application. I love this. Look at Zephaniah 2 in verse 3. He said, Seek ye the Lord, all you meek of the earth, which have brought his judgment. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Now look at this. It may be. It may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Old John Trapp said it like this based upon verse 3. John Trapp said. Probably, possibly you may. Probably you shall be.

[John Weaver] Pardon of sin you shall be sure of, mitigation also of sorrow, if not prevention. Saved you shall be, or more gently handled, or so inwardly calmed that you shall be able to call your souls to rest when others are at their wits' end. You shall be safe under the cover of God's wings and in the hull of His hand, when others that are without God in the world shall be as a naked man in a storm, an unarmed man in the field, or as a ship at sea without anchor, subject to dash and split against the rocks and quicksands.

[John Weaver] Possibly you may be, probably you will be. Now, one application. And the application is simple, we should at all times be constantly and continually. Bringing our lives into greater conformity to God's word, however. In times of judgment, in times of danger, we have to pay a special attention to being holy and godly and submissive and obedient. God, in His grace and mercy, may spare us or at least deal with us in a gentler manner. No parent chastens his child with severity when that child displays a repentant, compliant, and submissive attitude. I have six grandchildren.

[John Weaver] My youngest grandchild is a granddaughter who will be 17 this year. And she will tell you. Very quickly, her boast. And her boast is this. I'm the only grandchild that Papa has never whipped. You know why I never whipped her? She never needed it. She obeyed. She watched me whip the other grandkids, and she decided at a very early age she didn't want any part of it.

[John Weaver] Her mother was basically the same way. We have identical twins. I nearly had to beat them to death. I mean, come on, there were two of them and they were always into something. But Rebecca, my youngest daughter, I could just look at her heart and she would just melt. Daddy, I'm sorry, what did I do? We as parents never severely chasten a child when that child demonstrates a repentant, submissive attitude.

[John Weaver] and wants to change their life. Do you know the same is true of our Heavenly Father? The Bible tells us in Lamentations 3 and verse 33, listen carefully, For He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. God is not some old meanie up in heaven just waiting to beat us half to death. No, God does not afflict us willingly. God does not want to use the rod to us. I've never wanted to whip my children. I've never wanted to whip my grandchildren. The only reason I did whip them was because they sinned and they were wicked and they were wrong. But those that did what was right, I never chastened. The Lord does not willingly afflict us. He doesn't want to.

[John Weaver] So Zephaniah said, If you will continue to demonstrate an obedient, submissive, humble attitude, it may be the Lord will hide you in the day of His wrath. You may get away with all your possessions. You may escape with all your family. You may be blessed and protected in such a way. that you've never dreamed of. But he said, if you want the Lord's protection. You must be obedient and submissive, and the more God sends his judgment, the more you need to pay attention to obedience and submission. Father, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we bow to thee. We pray to thee and ask you, Lord, to help us tonight. Help us to see the danger that we're in as a nation, as a society.

[John Weaver] The corruption is all around us. And may we be especially attentive and we're going to increase in holiness and submission and godly humility and meekness. And may we exercise disciplined strength under God for your honor and your glory. In the name of Jesus Christ we ask and pray, Amen.

Dealing With God's Judgment

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	8410224620
Subject	Old Testament Studies
Course	Genesis: Abraham, Covenant, and Promise
Genre	Sermon
Date	2010-08-01
Dictation Name
Book	Book 077: Genesis: Abraham, Covenant, and Promise — Chapter 5
Source Timed Segments	98

Formatted Transcript

Opening

I want you to open your Bibles to the little book of Zephaniah, that is right after the book of Habakkuk and right before the book of Haggai. So, as a minor prophet, the book of Zephaniah, chapter 2. Zephaniah, chapter 2. I want to bring a message tonight which I have entitled, "How to Act in the Time of Judgment." Notice, if you would, Zephaniah chapter 2, beginning there with verse 1. God says,

Scripture Reading — Zephaniah 2:1-3

"Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD's anger come upon you. Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger."

Introduction: Strange and Dangerous Times

Weaver describes the current national crisis—economic collapse, moral decay, corrupt government—and notes that most preachers are silent, leaving Christians in the dark.

All I can begin is by saying what strange and dangerous times we live in. I believe that our nation not only has been under judgment, it is under judgment, and the judgment is simply going to increase with greater and greater severity. I don't know if any of you have been keeping up with our economic situation or not, but it's interesting that it doesn't matter if you're following men who are Christians or men who are non-Christians, all of them are saying essentially the same thing. In fact, Gerald Celente is talking about the crash of 2010. Most of them are going 2011 and 2012, but Celente says, oh, it'll probably come this year at least. It'll become a whole lot worse. Alice and I were watching a report just the other day of how many people in Southern California who are still in their homes, the news report said they were camping out in their homes. They had no electricity. They had no water. They could not afford electricity or water. One man had a water bill of $1,700 and they cut his water off.

It's absolutely amazing, it's absolutely astounding, the times that we live in, because it seems as if our whole society, and yet even our nation, are disintegrating before our very eyes. Our morals have collapsed, our money is absolutely worthless, our politicians are corrupt, our government is tyrannical and despotic, and there seems to be no help from any direction or from any institution. Now, I want you to think about this. In this country, we basically have churches on every corner of the land, and a lot of those churches are filled every Sunday, every Lord's Day, and yet the preachers are virtually silent. At least they're silent concerning the issues at hand. No one deals with justice anymore. No one deals with economics anymore. No one deals with law anymore. Very few preachers are asking questions, and very few preachers have any answers.

And consequently, as a whole, most professing Christians are left simply out in the dark. You know what God says about those kind of preachers? In Isaiah 56 and verse 10, He said this,

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 56:10

"His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber."

Isn't that amazing? God says his watchmen are like dumb dogs that cannot bark. I've got a pastor friend. He's very elderly. He's had a stroke. He's alive, thankfully, by the grace of God.

The Context of Judgment in Zephaniah

The book of Zephaniah is set entirely in the context of God's judgment, with vivid descriptions of destruction and wrath against sin.

God says, "I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. 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, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham; and them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him. Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill

their masters' houses with violence and deceit. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills. Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut down." Skip down, if you would please, to verse 13, "Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof. The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. 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." Skip down to verse 17. "And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD's wrath."

Now look over to chapter two very quickly, if you would. And notice beginning there with verse 4. I'm not going to read all of this. I'm just showing you the context. "For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up. Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! the word of the LORD is against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant." Skip down, if you would, to verse 7, "And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon: in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening: for the LORD their God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity." Verse 8, "I have heard the reproach of Moab." Notice, if you would please, in verse 11, "The LORD will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.

Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword." You can read chapter 1, you can read chapter 2, you can read chapter 3. The whole context is the context of judgment. Now let me point out some problems that we have with judgment. One of the biggest problems we have with God's judgment is this: that at times people do not perceive the judgment of God. They don't view and understand God's judgment.

Problems with Perceiving God's Judgment

People often fail to recognize God's hand in disasters, attributing them to 'Mother Nature,' and even as judgment intensifies, many refuse to repent.

We've had hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, floods, famines, and I get so exasperated at the reporters and the weathermen who say, well, Mother Nature is playing a trick on us, or it's Mother Nature. It's amazing how humanistic even the news people are and the weather people. And it's not Mother Nature, it's Father God. How in the world can you expect people to perceive things as judgment if you're always saying it's not judgment? You must understand also there are degrees in judgment. God oftentimes increases the intensity of judgment when we refuse to hear and heed the initial judgment. I want you to hold Zephaniah chapter 2, but turn back very quickly to the book of Amos. Hosea, Joel, Amos, look if you would, Amos chapter 4, and I want you to note the increased intensity and the severity that God uses to send His judgments. Notice Amos chapter 4, beginning in verse 6, God says, "And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places:

yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD." God said, what did I do to get your attention? I sent famine. Didn't do a bit of good, you didn't pay any attention to that. So what did God do next? Verse 7, "And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD." Now God said the famine didn't do it, so I sent drought. Famine on top of drought. Yet he said you didn't listen to the drought either. "Yet have ye not returned unto me." Now watch verse 9.

"I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD." You didn't listen to the famine. You didn't listen to the drought. So I sent blasting and mildew. I sent caterpillars. I sent palmerworms. They devoured what the famine and what the drought did not. Yet you still didn't listen to me, saith the LORD. Now watch verse 10. "I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt:

your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD." So God sent diseases. God sent plagues. God sent war. And here piles of young men and piles of horses stacked one on top of the other. And yet, says God, you haven't paid any attention. Oh. Look at verse 11. God said, "I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD." Now, let me tell you, when God sent his supernatural judgment against Sodom and Gomorrah, everyone knew that was the judgment of God.

You could not deny it. God said, I've sent judgments like that. You haven't paid a bit attention. And look what God said to Israel in verse 12. "Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." God said, well, you wouldn't listen. I'll just go ahead and kill you and take you out of the way. It's just that simple.

So one of the problems we have with judgment is this. A lot of people do not perceive God's judgment. And even as judgment increases in severity and intensity, many times people still do not want to watch or to understand that that is God's judgment. And some people, like these Israelites that God spoke of, will not repent even under the strictest and the most severe judgment. And God says, in such an instance, the only thing left for them is destruction. And because God said, "I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God."

The Remnant and the Question: What Shall the Righteous Do?

Amid widespread indifference, a small remnant sees God's judgment and longs for repentance; Zephaniah addresses them directly.

Now, let me tell you another problem. In light of a society and in light of a nation under the judgment of God, while many people are clamoring and going on their merry way as if nothing was happening and nothing was wrong, there exists a small remnant who see and understand the hand of God against the society and against this nation. And that small remnant want, they desire, they pray for, and they long for repentance and restoration. They want to return to God's Word. They want to return to God's law. The vast majority are indifferent. The vast majority are unrepentant. So in light of this fact that there is a small remnant, the question has to come up, what shall the righteous do? By the way, Zephaniah is going to answer that question. And I want you to look at verse 3 again. I'm going to explain it in just a moment, but look at verse 3. He said in Zephaniah 2, "Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness.

It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger." You know what he's doing? He's addressing the remnant. He's addressing the people that want repentance and that want restoration. It's kind of like God said to those people in Isaiah chapter 1 in verse 5. God asked, "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint." In other words, God says I've sent judgment after judgment after judgment after judgment and you didn't pay any attention. So destruction is the only thing that awaits you. But wait a minute. Here's what Zephaniah is saying right in the middle of verse three. My message is for the remnant. My message is for those who want repentance and restoration. My message is for those individuals who want to obey the Lord. Here's what Zephaniah is basically saying. Don't worry about those who will not repent, don't worry about those who will not concern themselves. Don't worry about those who refuse to hear and heed.

Zephaniah says I will tell you what you need to do. That's what he's saying. What good is it to shout to someone who will not listen? God says, look, I will tell you what you need to do. I will tell you how you need to pay attention. And so I want you to look in verse three. And I've got about four points I want you to see.

The Action Commanded: Seek the Lord

The primary command is to seek the Lord with an undivided heart, genuine desire, humility, obedience, and prayerful dependence.

The very first one is this. The action commanded. He said in verse 3, "Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth." There's the action commanded. Seek ye the LORD. First and foremost, we're commanded to seek the Lord. And this action that is commanded is addressed to the meek of the earth. The meek of the earth are those who have humbled themselves and who have submitted themselves unto the Lord. The word meek refers to those who have profited under the scourges of God, who have profited under the afflictions of God, who have profited under the judgment of God. They have been chastised. They have repented. So this action that is commanded here is to true believers.

The phrase here occurs a number of times in Scripture. I could quote Scripture after Scripture. Let me just give you a few of these very quickly. In Deuteronomy 4, verse 29, the Bible says,

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 4:29

"But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul."

We're commanded to seek the Lord. In 1 Chronicles 16, verses 10 and 11, "Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD. Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually." That's a command. 1 Chronicles 22 and verse 19, "Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD." How about this one? Everyone knows this one. Isaiah 55 and verse 6, "Seek ye the LORD while he may be found,

call ye upon him while he is near." Now, I could sit here and tell you scripture after scripture where God commands you to seek him. It is one thing to know that God commands you to seek him. It's quite another thing to know how to seek him. So how do you seek the Lord? This message tonight is not necessarily just on this subject, but I do want to give you several important points on seeking the Lord. First, it should be very obvious. It should be very clear. Then if you're going to seek the Lord, there must be a genuine desire and there must be an undivided heart in seeking the Lord. What did He say in Deuteronomy 4 and verse 29? I quoted it earlier. "But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul." Very obviously, God is not going to be found in those who try to seek Him with a divided heart. We're told in the book of Jeremiah chapter 29 in verse 13, "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."

You cannot come to God lackadaisically, you cannot come to God half interested, you cannot come to God saying, well, it's all right if I do, it's all right if I don't. No. There must be an undivided heart. There must be a genuine desire in seeking the Lord. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 15 and verse 12, "And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul." God is not going to be found by half-hearted and slothful attempts at finding Him. He's not. We're told that King Rehoboam, you remember that was the son of Solomon, in 2 Chronicles 12 and verse 14, "And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD." Did he do evil? Because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD. And on the contrary, we have in 2 Chronicles 27, in verse 6, "So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD." So if we're going to seek the Lord, it's very obvious we have to seek Him with an undivided heart.

Scripture Reading — 2 Chronicles 12:14

There has to be a genuine desire, a wholehearted desire. Secondly, if we're going to seek the Lord, we must seek Him with a humble and accurate estimation of ourselves. I want you to turn in your Bible, if you would, please, to the book of Romans, chapter 12, the book of Romans, chapter 12, and look at verse three. I'm going to show you this truth in light of the gifts that God gives, and then I'm going to make a deduction based upon this principle. Notice, if you would, in Romans chapter 12 and verse 3, the Apostle Paul wrote, "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." Now God says when it comes to soberly assessing your gifts, you better not think more highly of yourself than you ought to think.

Now, if I were to tell you tonight that God had given me the gift of song and singing, I know my wife will smile and laugh. All I have to do is open my mouth and try to sing, and you would know instantaneously that I cannot sing. I have a dear friend, a lady who loved to sing, but she really could not sing. In fact, she was deaf in one ear, but she tried to sing. And I was thankful for that. And I was making the statement one time that I could not sing. And she said, "Oh pastor, I'll be glad to teach you to sing." And I thought to myself, well, I can already sing better than you, but I still can't sing.

Now, you understand what I'm saying. It's like me trying to say, well, my gift is in managing money. Well, I'm a spendthrift. You've got to deal with yourself honestly and soberly.

Now, if this is true in just ascertaining our gifts, it is equally true in coming to God. In other words, we have to deal accurately and give a true estimate of ourselves before the Lord. What do I mean by that? I want you to turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 51. Here's what I mean. I want you to notice, if you would, what God commands us. Look in Isaiah chapter 51, and we'll begin reading there with verse 1. Isaiah 51 and verse 1. Now, note if you would what God says.

"Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness." So you're seeking Him, all right. "Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him." Now what in the world does God mean when he says, if you're going to follow after righteousness, if you're going to seek me, then you look to the rock which you're hewn and the hole of the pit that you're dug. Well, Brother Weaver, you don't understand. I'm in Abraham's lineage. Oh. May I ask you where Abraham was when God called him? He was a pagan, he was an idolater in Ur of the Chaldees, and so was Sarah. So God says, you look to the rock from which you are hewn, you look to the hole of the pit from which you are digged. In other words, when you come to me, you better come to me with a proper estimation of yourself. You've got to understand that we are sinners and we deserve nothing but punishment and justice. When God found us, we were nothing. When God saved us, we were nothing. And without Him, we are still nothing. That's a proper estimate, I would say. What did our Lord say in John 15? "Without me, ye can do" how much? Nothing. It is God who saved us. It is God who brought us into His kingdom. That's why the Bible says in the book of Colossians chapter 1, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son."

So when we come before Him seeking Him with all of our heart, we have to come before Him in deep humility, recognizing the fact that in and of ourselves, we are absolutely nothing. And I've got news for you, folks. Pride is just as sinful in a preacher's heart as it is in anyone else's heart. It's just as wicked in a Christian's heart. I saw a cartoon years ago, I've never forgotten it. It showed these two monks walking side by side in their robes. They had their hands up their sleeves and one looked at the other said, you know, it kind of makes you proud that we're so humble, doesn't it? We can kind of get proud that we've got the right doctrine, we can kind of get proud that we attend church faithfully. We can kind of get proud in a lot of areas. And God says, if we're going to seek him, we have to come with a true estimate of ourselves. And the true and accurate estimate of ourselves is this, without him, we are nothing. Thirdly, if we're going to seek him, we must be careful to obey him in every area of our lives. That is, we must be constantly and continually bringing our lives into conformity to the Word of God.

We cannot cease obeying God just because our society and just because our nation is under the judgment of God. Now, just stop and think for a moment how important this is. I have talked to Christians who have come up with this attitude, well, Brother Weaver, the whole world is a thieving, coveting, defrauding mess. I might as well get my part of it while I can. What? I've heard Christians say things like that. Everybody else is doing it. We might as well do it, too. We might as well get our share. Stop and think, why are we under the judgment of God to begin with? Because of our sin and because of our rebellion. And what did David say in Psalm 66 and verse 18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." We cannot expect God to hear us if we're going to forsake him and refuse to bring our lives in conformity to his word.

I want you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles, chapter 14 and look at verse 4. 2 Chronicles chapter 14 and verse 4. 2 Chronicles 14 and look if you would please at verse 4. This is interesting. "And commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment." What was part of their seeking the Lord? Obeying Him. Doing the law and commandments. It involves obedience. So you can't seek God while you're disobedient. What does the Bible say in James 4 and verse 17?

"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." I want you to turn to the book of Mark chapter 4. I love this passage. In fact, I've got about a two hour message just on this one verse, but it is so filled with truth. I want you to look at Mark 4 if you would please. And notice if you would, verse 24. Look at Mark 4 and verse 24. Notice what the Word of God said.

"And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given." Now listen to what he said. "Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you." Now, wait a minute. Here's what God is saying. To the exact same measure that you give to hearing the Word of God, God is going to measure that same amount of truth back to you. You can't say, well, I'm going to study my Bible ten minutes and get two hours worth of knowledge. Nuh-uh. You're going to get ten minutes worth of knowledge. To whatever degree that you give, to whatever degree that you measure out in hearing truth, to that same degree, God is going to measure truth back to you. And then He makes this statement, "and unto you that hear shall more be given." In other words, God is not going to give you any more truth until you already obey the truth that He's given you. So if you're going to come to seek the Lord, at the very minimum, dear friend, you have to obey the truth that you already know and possess.

Because if you don't do it, it is sin. And you cannot come to God and expect Him to hear you with iniquity in your heart. For David said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Fourth, very quickly, I'm trying to tell you what it means to seek the Lord. Seeking the Lord means we cry unto Him for help. Listen carefully. Seeking the Lord means we cry unto him for help. We are not instructing him as to what to do. So many want to tell God what to do. When to do it. And how to do it. No, if you're seeking God, all you're doing is crying for help.

You understand that everything is in God's hands. Arthur W. Pink observed years ago, and I've never forgotten. When I read this statement, he said, one reason we don't like the pope is because we like to be the pope ourselves. We want to be in charge. We want to tell everyone else what to do. We even want to tell God what to do, but God is sovereign. We cannot dictate to God. We cannot instruct God.

In fact, the Word of God says in Second Chronicles chapter 20 verse four, now listen, "And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the LORD: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD." What does it mean seeking the Lord? They came together seeking to ask help of the Lord, not to instruct him, not to tell him what to do, not to tell him how to do it or when to do it, just to ask his help. So seeking the Lord includes, at a minimum, these four truths. John Gill said this on seeking the Lord. He said they are here exhorted to seek the Lord, that is, by prayer and supplication, to know more of His mind and will, and especially their duty under the present circumstances.

"Implore His grace and mercy, protection and safety, in a day of common danger, and to attend the public ordinances of His house, in order to enjoy His presence and communion with Him. For to seek the Lord is to seek His face and favor, to have the light of His countenance, and the discoveries of His love, and to seek His honor and glory in all things, particularly the Lord Christ may be met who was to come in the flesh, and good men sought before he came, and now he is come, and to him should men seek for righteousness and life, for peace and pardon, for grace and all supplies of it, and for everlasting salvation, and all this before as well as since his coming, and such seek him aright, who seek him early, in the first place, above all things, who seek Him with their whole heart, sincerely, diligently, and constantly, and where He is to be found, in the ministry of His Word and ordinances." Certainly, the action commanded is to seek the Lord.

The Action Commended and Clarified: Seek Righteousness and Meekness

Zephaniah commends those who have lived righteously and clarifies that seeking righteousness must be accompanied by seeking meekness—disciplined strength under God's control.

I want you to go back to the little book of Zephaniah, and look, if you would please, at verse 3 again. Because here we have the action commended, not only the action commanded, but the action commended. He said, "Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment." So here he commends these people for having worked or wrought his judgment. Now, to do the judgment of God in this place means to form the life according to the righteousness of His law. The Hebrew word here is used frequently and it means equity or the right rule of living. Hence, to do judgment here, means that we live and bring our lives in conformity to His Word. We live according to His revealed will. We do that which is in line with His Word, which is the rule of judgment, not only for faith, but for practice as well.

That is, we perform, we obey that which He has laid down for us. And we perform the works that He has commanded us from right principles with right views from the fruits of faith and fruits of repentance as well. Now here's an explanation of the word judgment. You don't have to turn there because I'm sure you know this verse. Do you remember what God said in Genesis chapter 18 and verse 19 concerning Abraham? God said,

Scripture Reading — Genesis 18:19

"For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him."

What did God say? I know Abraham. I know he's going to command his family and his household to do judgment and justice. So doing judgment is basically obey the Word of God. That's why Isaiah said, in Isaiah 1 in verse 17, "Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow."

So very obviously, the action commended now is here are these people have at least been living a holy life, a godly life, and Zephaniah is saying, you continue to do this now. Look, if you would, back in verse three, because here's the third point, and that is the action clarified. He said, "Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth." That's the action commanded, "which have wrought his judgment." That's the action commended. Now here's the action clarified. "Seek righteousness, seek meekness." Hmm. Let me say it is impossible to seek righteousness without at the same time seeking meekness or humility. When righteousness is sought, at the same time meekness or humility is sought. When the Lord says seek righteousness, He means the same thing as when He says do judgment. Righteousness is right living. It is doing that which is right in accordance and in agreement with the Word and with the Law of God. It is bringing the life in conformity to the Word of God. So, Zephaniah then is admonishing us to advance our lives in righteousness, in judgment, in obedience.

Why? Because he understands and he knows that God is not going to forget our obedience. May I remind you of what the Word of God says in the Book of Galatians chapter 6 and verse 9. There the Apostle Paul wrote, "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

Scripture Reading — Galatians 6:9

Now what did he say? You continue to seek judgment. You continue to seek righteousness. You continue to seek meekness because we're going to reap if we faint not. Do you remember that passage in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 10 where the Bible says, "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister." God is not unrighteous to forget that. Now He said, what? Seek righteousness, seek meekness. I want to clarify something about seeking meekness. Do not equate the word meekness with mousiness.

In this day and time, most consider a meek individual one who is weak, anemic, feminine, and unmanly. According to the humanistic and modernistic view, the meek man is the 90-pound weakling that becomes a foot mat for everyone to ridicule, run over, and wipe their feet on. He is the epitome of everything that is to be despised. Biblical meekness is exactly the opposite. If I were to ask you not counting our Lord Jesus Christ, who was the meekest man on Earth? I know that you know the answer. Numbers 12 in verse 3 says,

Scripture Reading — Numbers 12:3

"Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth."

I want you to note what that meek man did. That meek man defended a brother. He slew an Egyptian. He stood up to Pharaoh. He spoke the truth and let the chips fall where they may. He delivered Israel out of Egypt. He faced a rebellious group of Israelites over and over. And on one time, this meek man prayed, "Oh God, I pray that a new thing will happen. I pray that the earth will open up and these rebels will go down alive into the pit." And the earth opened up and swallowed them. He was the meekest man on earth. What?

That's certainly not in agreement with what the world calls meekness. No, it's not. But it is biblical meekness. You know what our Lord said in Matthew 11 verse 29, now listen, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me. What did Christ say of Himself? "For I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." In Matthew 21 and verse 5, it was prophesied concerning Christ, "Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." Our Lord was certainly not a mousy man. You don't get weak working in a carpenter shop. You don't get weak carrying wood all day long and using axes and using saws. No, no, no. Moreover, there is not a man alive. I don't care how strong he is. There's not a man alive that can suffer and endure everything that our Lord suffered and endured without complaining. Our Lord, by the way, endured ridicule and mockery and rejection and slander. He endured an unjust trial. Moreover, He was scourged and crucified.

And yet we are told that He was meek and lowly.

The Bible says that He endured the cross, despising the shame, for the joy that was set before him. You know what our Lord said in Matthew five in verse five. He said, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." If you read Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law, you'll find that Rushdoony is reporting that in one bathroom that he went into, this verse of scripture was on the bathroom wall. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." And someone had written under the verse of scripture, "if that's all right." That's the world's idea of meekness. Meekness, dear friend, listen to this, is an attitude or disposition that not only accepts and receives God's dealings with us without dispute and argument, it is also an attitude and disposition of submission to Him, resting in Him, leaning upon Him, trusting in Him above all things. Now, let me tell you what real meekness is. You remember I quoted that verse in Matthew 11, verse 29, where our Lord said, "Take my yoke upon you." Do you know when our Lord says that we're to take his yoke upon us? He had reference to a real literal yoke. The yoke in those days

would be applied to cattle or to oxen. I don't know if you've ever seen an ox or not. But they're very big. Very strong. I told you about one of my pets. A big, huge Santa Gertrudis bull. He got up to 3000 pounds. General Beauregard. And for an animal so big and so strong, he was so meek and gentle, it is unbelievable. But my wife and I went out one day. I took the tractor.

I was going to hook up to an eight foot harrow. It's got all these discs that cut the land. The harrow weighs a thousand pounds or better. When I got to the harrow, it had been flipped all the way over and the discs were sticking straight up in the air. I had to get a log chain, tie it, and pull it over before I could hook back up to it. And the only tracks were Beauregard's tracks. He came to the front of that harrow, he put his head down, he was scratching his head, and then he just did this and flipped that thousand-pound harrow totally over.

I have seen that 3000 pound bull run. Jump in the air, twist and kick and turn all the way around before he ever hit the ground. You talk about strength. You talk about power. He broke through the fence one time. The horses were chasing the cows down a little lane. All the cows were running. Beauregard didn't want to run. But he was running a little bit. He was agitated. And so instead of running down the lane, he just went through the fence. He burst that fence like it was pine straw.

I saw it when it happened. I told Alice, I said, "Might as well get the tools together. We've got to fix that fence." I said, "Let me get him in first." And I stood up on the hill and I called him. Remember now, the horses have been chasing. He thought he was being chased. I called him. He looked up and saw me and he started running to me as fast as he could. And let me tell you, that old man got swinging left and right like that.

And he was my pet. But I thought, I'm going to step a little closer to my truck just in case he doesn't stop. At least I can jump in the back of my truck. I knew he was agitated. You know what that big bull did? He ran straight up to me, stopped in his tracks. I stuck my hand out for him to smell it. And I looked at him after he smelled my hand, I said, "Come on, I'll put you up." And I turned around

and walked to the gate. He followed me like a little puppy. I opened the gate. He went right in. I fixed the gate. I shut the gate and went down and fixed the fence.

Now what I'm trying to tell you is this. How could I harness that strength of that bull? The only way I could harness that strength is by putting a yoke on him. If I put a yoke on him, he'd pull my plow. He would do whatever I wanted him to do. I have a big horse, big, big horse. He's nothing but a pile of muscles, but I have to put a halter and a bridle on him to control him.

Are you listening to me? An ox or a bull? Either one is exceedingly strong. When you put that yoke upon that ox or that bull, you now control that strength. You know what meekness is? Here's what our Lord said, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Meekness is nothing less than disciplined strength under God. Our Lord acted the way the Father would have Him to act. He spoke the way the Father would have Him to speak. He moved the way the Father would have Him to move. If I control that horse, I have to have that bridle and rein. If I control that bull, I have to have that yoke. Our Lord said, you take my yoke upon you. You submit to me. And I'll tell you when to move and what to do and where to go. And what our Lord means by taking his yoke upon us is this, that we're to submit to our Lord more and more

The Action Consummated: The Promise of Being Hidden

The purpose of seeking God, righteousness, and meekness is the hope of being hidden in the day of the Lord's anger; God may spare the obedient.

ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger." Zephaniah encourages obedience and submission by saying "it may be" that you shall be hidden in the day of our Lord's anger. In other words, the Lord may spare you. You must remember that God's anger is going to be directed at the disobedient and rebellious. And you certainly don't want to be that. David said it like this in Psalm 27 in verse five, he said, "For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock." What did he say? In the time of trouble, he shall hide me. In Psalm 31, in verse 20, David said, "Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues." Peter said it a little differently, but he said it basically the same. He said in Second Peter two in verse nine, "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." So how do we act in the time of judgment? We seek the Lord, we seek his righteousness, we seek more holiness, we seek more submission, we seek more meekness.

Let me tell you where I want to be. I'm not a prophet, and I'm not a prophet's son, but I'm going to tell you this, folks. If God does not send repentance in this country, I believe in the next few years we are in for a really rough ride. I really believe that. But I want to show you where I want to be. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 91. I want to live my life in such a way. I want my mind and my attitude to be in such that I can honestly claim this psalm. Look in Psalm 91. It's a very short psalm.

I think only 16 verses. Watch this. Psalm 91 verse one. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." What? "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation." I want it to be only with mine eyes that I behold and see the reward of the wicked. I don't want to be involved in it. I want the Lord to be my fortress and my rock and my protection.

Now, I want you to look back at Zephaniah chapter two in verse three. I want to give you a quote. And then I want to make one application. I love this. Look at Zephaniah 2 in verse 3. He said, "Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness." Now look at this. "It may be." It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger. Old John Trapp said it like this based upon verse 3. John Trapp said, "Probably, possibly you may. Probably you shall be.

Pardon of sin you shall be sure of, mitigation also of sorrow, if not prevention. Saved you shall be, or more gently handled, or so inwardly calmed that you shall be able to call your souls to rest when others are at their wits' end. You shall be safe under the cover of God's wings and in the hollow of His hand, when others that are without God in the world shall be as a naked man in a storm, an unarmed man in the field, or as a ship at sea without anchor, subject to dash and split against the rocks and quicksands."

Application: Increase in Holiness and Submission

In times of judgment, believers must pay special attention to increasing in holiness, obedience, and submission, trusting that God does not willingly afflict but may deal gently with the repentant.

Possibly you may be, probably you will be. Now, one application. And the application is simple, we should at all times be constantly and continually bringing our lives into greater conformity to God's word. However, in times of judgment, in times of danger, we have to pay a special attention to being holy and godly and submissive and obedient. God, in His grace and mercy, may spare us or at least deal with us in a gentler manner. No parent chastens his child with severity when that child displays a repentant, compliant, and submissive attitude. I have six grandchildren.

My youngest grandchild is a granddaughter who will be 17 this year. And she will tell you very quickly her boast. And her boast is this. I'm the only grandchild that Papa has never whipped. You know why I never whipped her? She never needed it. She obeyed. She watched me whip the other grandkids, and she decided at a very early age she didn't want any part of it.

Her mother was basically the same way. We have identical twins. I nearly had to beat them to death. I mean, come on, there were two of them and they were always into something. But Rebecca, my youngest daughter, I could just look at her hard and she would just melt. "Daddy, I'm sorry, what did I do?" We as parents never severely chasten a child when that child demonstrates a repentant, submissive attitude and wants to change their life. Do you know the same is true of our Heavenly Father? The Bible tells us in Lamentations 3 and verse 33, listen carefully, "For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." God is not some old meanie up in heaven just waiting to beat us half to death. No, God does not afflict us willingly. God does not want to use the rod on us. I've never wanted to whip my children. I've never wanted to whip my grandchildren. The only reason I did whip them was because they sinned and they were wicked and they were wrong. But those that did what was right, I never chastened. The Lord does not willingly afflict us. He doesn't want to.

So Zephaniah said, if you will continue to demonstrate an obedient, submissive, humble attitude, it may be the Lord will hide you in the day of His wrath. You may get away with all your possessions. You may escape with all your family. You may be blessed and protected in such a way that you've never dreamed of. But he said, if you want the Lord's protection, you must be obedient and submissive, and the more God sends his judgment, the more you need to pay attention to obedience and submission. Father, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we bow to thee. We pray to thee and ask you, Lord, to help us tonight. Help us to see the danger that we're in as a nation, as a society.

Study Guide

Major Themes

National Judgment

Summary: America is under God's escalating judgment due to sin, and this judgment will increase in severity.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'I believe that our nation not only has been under judgment, it is under judgment, and the judgment is simply going to increase with greater and greater severity.'

The Silence of Preachers

Summary: Most preachers are silent on justice, economics, and law, leaving Christians without guidance.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'the preachers are virtually silent... No one deals with justice anymore. No one deals with economics anymore.'

Seeking the Lord

Summary: The primary response to judgment is to seek the Lord with an undivided heart, humility, obedience, and prayer.

Evidence: Weaver expounds Zephaniah 2:3, 'Seek ye the LORD,' and explains it requires genuine desire, accurate self-estimation, obedience, and crying for help.

Biblical Meekness as Disciplined Strength

Summary: Meekness is not weakness but strength under God's control, exemplified by Moses and Christ.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'Meekness is nothing less than disciplined strength under God,' and illustrates with Moses and the yoke analogy.

The Remnant's Hope of Protection

Summary: The obedient remnant may be hidden or spared in the day of God's wrath.

Evidence: Weaver quotes Zephaniah 2:3, 'It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger,' and cites Psalm 91.

Increasing Holiness in Crisis

Summary: In times of judgment, believers must intensify their pursuit of holiness, submission, and obedience.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'in times of judgment, in times of danger, we have to pay a special attention to being holy and godly and submissive and obedient.'

Key Arguments

God's judgment is real and often unrecognized

Summary: People fail to see disasters as God's judgment, attributing them to nature, and even increased severity does not lead to repentance.

Evidence: Weaver cites Amos 4:6-12, showing God sent famine, drought, blight, pestilence, and war, yet Israel did not return to Him.

The righteous remnant must seek God wholeheartedly

Summary: Zephaniah addresses the meek who have already obeyed, urging them to seek the Lord with undivided hearts.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'My message is for the remnant... Don't worry about those who will not repent... I will tell you what you need to do.'

Seeking God requires humility and accurate self-assessment

Summary: We must come to God recognizing we are nothing without Him, as illustrated by Abraham's pagan origins.

Evidence: Weaver references Isaiah 51:1-2, 'look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.'

Obedience is integral to seeking God

Summary: We cannot seek God while disregarding His commands; obedience to known truth is prerequisite for more revelation.

Evidence: Weaver cites Mark 4:24, 'with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you,' and 2 Chronicles 14:4.

Meekness is strength under control, not weakness

Summary: Biblical meekness is exemplified by Moses and Christ, who displayed great strength in submission to God.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'Meekness is nothing less than disciplined strength under God,' and references Numbers 12:3 and Matthew 11:29.

God may spare the obedient in judgment

Summary: The promise 'it may be ye shall be hid' encourages obedience, as God does not willingly afflict but responds to submission.

Evidence: Weaver quotes Zephaniah 2:3 and Lamentations 3:33, 'For he doth not afflict willingly.'

Scripture References

Zephaniah 2:1-3

Context: The primary text: a call to gather and seek the Lord, righteousness, and meekness to be hidden in the day of anger.

Isaiah 56:10

Context: God's watchmen are blind, ignorant, dumb dogs that cannot bark—a rebuke to silent preachers.

Jeremiah 9:12

Context: The wise man should understand and declare what God has spoken.

Malachi 2:7

Context: The priest's lips should keep knowledge; he is the messenger of the Lord.

Psalm 11:3

Context: If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Zephaniah 1:2-18

Context: God's declaration of total judgment on Judah and Jerusalem for idolatry and sin.

Amos 4:6-12

Context: God sent famine, drought, blight, pestilence, and war, yet Israel did not return; therefore, prepare to meet thy God.

Deuteronomy 4:29

Context: If you seek the Lord with all your heart and soul, you will find Him.

Isaiah 55:6

Context: Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.

Jeremiah 29:13

Context: You shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

2 Chronicles 12:14

Context: Rehoboam did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord.

Romans 12:3

Context: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think soberly.

Isaiah 51:1-2

Context: Look to the rock from which you were hewn; remember Abraham and Sarah's humble origins.

John 15:5

Context: Without me ye can do nothing.

Psalm 66:18

Context: If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.

Mark 4:24

Context: Take heed what you hear; with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Genesis 18:19

Context: God knew Abraham would command his household to do justice and judgment.

Galatians 6:9

Context: Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.

Numbers 12:3

Context: Moses was very meek, above all men on the face of the earth.

Psalm 91:1-16

Context: A psalm of protection for those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High.

Historical References

Gerald Celente's economic crash prediction (2010)

Context: Weaver mentions trends forecaster Gerald Celente predicting a crash in 2010, with others pointing to 2011-2012.

Southern California utility shutoffs

Context: News report of people camping in homes without electricity or water due to inability to pay bills.

Arthur W. Pink quote on human desire for control

Context: Pink observed that one reason we don't like the pope is because we like to be the pope ourselves.

John Gill's commentary on seeking the Lord

Context: Gill describes seeking the Lord as prayer, attending ordinances, and seeking Christ for righteousness and salvation.

Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law anecdote

Context: Rushdoony reported seeing 'Blessed are the meek' on a bathroom wall with the graffiti 'if that's all right.'

John Trapp's commentary on Zephaniah 2:3

Context: Trapp said 'Probably, possibly you may' be hidden, emphasizing the hope of mitigation or protection.

Important Quotes

I believe that our nation not only has been under judgment, it is under judgment, and the judgment is simply going to increase with greater and greater severity.

Significance: States the central premise that America is under escalating divine judgment.

His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.

Significance: Quotes Isaiah 56:10 to rebuke silent preachers who fail to warn of judgment.

Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger.

Significance: The key verse (Zephaniah 2:3) that provides the sermon's directive for the remnant.

Meekness is nothing less than disciplined strength under God.

Significance: Defines biblical meekness in contrast to worldly weakness, using the yoke analogy.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Significance: Quotes Matthew 11:29 to show Christ as the model of meekness and submission.

For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

Significance: Quotes Lamentations 3:33 to emphasize God's reluctance to punish and His responsiveness to repentance.

Discussion Questions

What evidence do you see that our nation is under God's judgment, and how should that affect our daily lives?

Context: Weaver describes economic collapse, moral decay, and corrupt leadership as signs of judgment.

Why are many preachers silent on issues of justice, economics, and law, and what does God say about such watchmen?

Context: Weaver cites Isaiah 56:10 and laments the lack of prophetic voice in churches.

What does it mean to seek the Lord with an undivided heart, and what obstacles hinder us from doing so?

Context: Weaver emphasizes wholehearted seeking based on Deuteronomy 4:29 and Jeremiah 29:13.

How does an accurate, humble estimation of ourselves affect our approach to God in prayer?

Context: Weaver uses Isaiah 51:1-2 to show we must remember our lowly origins.

In what ways does obedience to known truth open the door for more revelation from God?

Context: Weaver explains Mark 4:24, that God measures truth back to us according to our hearing and obedience.

How does the biblical concept of meekness as 'disciplined strength under God' challenge worldly views of meekness?

Context: Weaver contrasts Moses' and Christ's strength with the world's idea of meekness as weakness.

What does it look like practically to 'take Christ's yoke' and submit every area of life to His control?

Context: Weaver uses the yoke analogy to explain submission and increasing repentance.

How should the promise 'it may be ye shall be hid' motivate us to pursue righteousness and meekness?

Context: Weaver presents the hope of protection as an encouragement to obedience.

Applications

Seek the Lord with wholehearted devotion

Summary: In times of judgment, believers must seek God with an undivided heart, not half-heartedly or lackadaisically.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'You cannot come to God lackadaisically... There must be an undivided heart.'

Cultivate humility and accurate self-assessment

Summary: Approach God recognizing that without Him we are nothing, avoiding pride in doctrine or practice.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'When you come to me, you better come to me with a proper estimation of yourself... we are sinners and we deserve nothing but punishment.'

Obey known truth before expecting more revelation

Summary: God will not give more truth until we obey what we already know; disobedience hinders seeking.

Evidence: Weaver cites Mark 4:24 and says, 'God is not going to give you any more truth until you already obey the truth that He's given you.'

Cry to God for help rather than instructing Him

Summary: Seeking the Lord means asking for His help, not dictating what He should do, when, or how.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'Seeking the Lord means we cry unto him for help. We are not instructing him as to what to do.'

Pursue righteousness and meekness together

Summary: Right living must be accompanied by humility and submission; meekness is disciplined strength under God's control.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'It is impossible to seek righteousness without at the same time seeking meekness or humility.'

Increase in holiness and submission as judgment intensifies

Summary: In dangerous times, pay special attention to becoming more holy, godly, submissive, and obedient.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'in times of judgment, in times of danger, we have to pay a special attention to being holy and godly and submissive and obedient.'

Trust God's willingness to spare the repentant

Summary: God does not afflict willingly; He may hide or deal gently with those who demonstrate a submissive, repentant attitude.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'No parent chastens his child with severity when that child displays a repentant, compliant, and submissive attitude.'

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T03:19:46Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T16:14:53Z

Clean Transcript

Dealing With God's Judgment

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

I want you to open your Bibles to the little book of Zephaniah, that is right after the book of Habakkuk and right before the book of Haggai. So, as a minor prophet, the book of Zephaniah, chapter 2. Zephaniah, chapter 2. I want to bring a message tonight which I have entitled, "How to Act in the Time of Judgment." Notice, if you would, Zephaniah chapter 2, beginning there with verse 1.
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God says, "Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD's anger come upon you. Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger."
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All I can begin is by saying what strange and dangerous times we live in. I believe that our nation not only has been under judgment, it is under judgment, and the judgment is simply going to increase with greater and greater severity. I don't know if any of you have been keeping up with our economic situation or not, but it's interesting that it doesn't matter if you're following men who are Christians or men who are non-Christians, all of them are saying essentially the same thing.
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In fact, Gerald Celente is talking about the crash of 2010. Most of them are going 2011 and 2012, but Celente says, oh, it'll probably come this year at least. It'll become a whole lot worse. Alice and I were watching a report just the other day of how many people in Southern California who are still in their homes, the news report said they were camping out in their homes. They had no electricity. They had no water. They could not afford electricity or water. One man had a water bill of $1,700 and they cut his water off.
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It's absolutely amazing, it's absolutely astounding, the times that we live in, because it seems as if our whole society, and yet even our nation, are disintegrating before our very eyes. Our morals have collapsed, our money is absolutely worthless, our politicians are corrupt, our government is tyrannical and despotic, and there seems to be no help from any direction or from any institution.
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Now, I want you to think about this. In this country, we basically have churches on every corner of the land, and a lot of those churches are filled every Sunday, every Lord's Day, and yet the preachers are virtually silent. At least they're silent concerning the issues at hand. No one deals with justice anymore. No one deals with economics anymore. No one deals with law anymore. Very few preachers are asking questions, and very few preachers have any answers.
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And consequently, as a whole, most professing Christians are left simply out in the dark. You know what God says about those kind of preachers? In Isaiah 56 and verse 10, He said this, "His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber." Isn't that amazing? God says his watchmen are like dumb dogs that cannot bark. I've got a pastor friend. He's very elderly. He's had a stroke. He's alive, thankfully, by the grace of God.
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But I remember 40 years ago, preaching in his church and in his backyard, he had two great big German shepherds. He says, "Brother Weaver, those are my watchdogs." And that week someone stole them. I thought, how can you steal a watchdog? But someone stole both of them. Evidently they didn't bark or couldn't bark or wouldn't bark. Do you realize God's preachers are supposed to have answers not just in normal times, but in dangerous times as well?
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God asks in Jeremiah chapter 9 in verse 12, "Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it?" In other words, once God has spoken, we are to declare whatever God has said. Did you know the Bible says in the book of Malachi, chapter 2 and verse 7, "For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts."
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So God's preachers ought to have the answers. Now, with everything that's going on in this country, with everything that's going on in our state, the most frequently asked question that I hear is, what shall we do? In light of the obvious judgment that is upon this country, people are asking, which way do we turn and how do we act? And do you realize the general population could care less about what is going on, and they evidence absolutely no desire for repentance and no desire for change. The psalmist David asked it kind of like this in Psalm 11 in verse 3. He asked, "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
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Interestingly, the little book of Zephaniah gives us a directive and gives us an admonishment. In fact, it's Zephaniah who teaches us how to act in the time of judgment. Look in verse 3. We're going to come back to verse 3. I'm going to be expounding it, but look at it. Zephaniah says, "Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness."
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"It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger." Now, before I begin to expound this verse, I want you to see the context in which this verse occurs. So let's go back to Zephaniah chapter one and let's begin reading there with verse two. Don't have to read all of chapter one. I think you're going to see the context is the context of judgment.
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God says, "I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. 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, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham; and them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him. Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill
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their masters' houses with violence and deceit. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills. Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut down." Skip down, if you would please, to verse 13, "Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them;
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they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof. The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. 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." Skip down to verse 17. "And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD's wrath."
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Now look over to chapter two very quickly, if you would. And notice beginning there with verse 4. I'm not going to read all of this. I'm just showing you the context. "For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up. Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! the word of the LORD is against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines,
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I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant." Skip down, if you would, to verse 7, "And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon: in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening: for the LORD their God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity." Verse 8, "I have heard the reproach of Moab." Notice, if you would please, in verse 11, "The LORD will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.
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Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword." You can read chapter 1, you can read chapter 2, you can read chapter 3. The whole context is the context of judgment. Now let me point out some problems that we have with judgment. One of the biggest problems we have with God's judgment is this: that at times people do not perceive the judgment of God. They don't view and understand God's judgment.
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We've had hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, floods, famines, and I get so exasperated at the reporters and the weathermen who say, well, Mother Nature is playing a trick on us, or it's Mother Nature. It's amazing how humanistic even the news people are and the weather people. And it's not Mother Nature, it's Father God. How in the world can you expect people to perceive things as judgment if you're always saying it's not judgment? You must understand also there are degrees in judgment. God oftentimes increases the intensity of judgment when we refuse to hear and heed the initial judgment.
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I want you to hold Zephaniah chapter 2, but turn back very quickly to the book of Amos. Hosea, Joel, Amos, look if you would, Amos chapter 4, and I want you to note the increased intensity and the severity that God uses to send His judgments. Notice Amos chapter 4, beginning in verse 6, God says, "And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places:
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yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD." God said, what did I do to get your attention? I sent famine. Didn't do a bit of good, you didn't pay any attention to that. So what did God do next? Verse 7, "And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD." Now God said the famine didn't do it, so I sent drought. Famine on top of drought. Yet he said you didn't listen to the drought either. "Yet have ye not returned unto me." Now watch verse 9.
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"I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD." You didn't listen to the famine. You didn't listen to the drought. So I sent blasting and mildew. I sent caterpillars. I sent palmerworms. They devoured what the famine and what the drought did not. Yet you still didn't listen to me, saith the LORD. Now watch verse 10. "I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt:
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your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD." So God sent diseases. God sent plagues. God sent war. And here piles of young men and piles of horses stacked one on top of the other. And yet, says God, you haven't paid any attention. Oh. Look at verse 11. God said, "I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD." Now, let me tell you, when God sent his supernatural judgment against Sodom and Gomorrah, everyone knew that was the judgment of God.
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You could not deny it. God said, I've sent judgments like that. You haven't paid a bit attention. And look what God said to Israel in verse 12. "Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." God said, well, you wouldn't listen. I'll just go ahead and kill you and take you out of the way. It's just that simple.
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So one of the problems we have with judgment is this. A lot of people do not perceive God's judgment. And even as judgment increases in severity and intensity, many times people still do not want to watch or to understand that that is God's judgment. And some people, like these Israelites that God spoke of, will not repent even under the strictest and the most severe judgment. And God says, in such an instance, the only thing left for them is destruction. And because God said, "I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God."
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Now, let me tell you another problem. In light of a society and in light of a nation under the judgment of God, while many people are clamoring and going on their merry way as if nothing was happening and nothing was wrong, there exists a small remnant who see and understand the hand of God against the society and against this nation. And that small remnant want, they desire, they pray for, and they long for repentance and restoration. They want to return to God's Word. They want to return to God's law.
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The vast majority are indifferent. The vast majority are unrepentant. So in light of this fact that there is a small remnant, the question has to come up, what shall the righteous do? By the way, Zephaniah is going to answer that question. And I want you to look at verse 3 again. I'm going to explain it in just a moment, but look at verse 3. He said in Zephaniah 2, "Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness.
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It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger." You know what he's doing? He's addressing the remnant. He's addressing the people that want repentance and that want restoration. It's kind of like God said to those people in Isaiah chapter 1 in verse 5. God asked, "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint." In other words, God says I've sent judgment after judgment after judgment after judgment and you didn't pay any attention. So
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destruction is the only thing that awaits you. But wait a minute. Here's what Zephaniah is saying right in the middle of verse three. My message is for the remnant. My message is for those who want repentance and restoration. My message is for those individuals who want to obey the Lord. Here's what Zephaniah is basically saying. Don't worry about those who will not repent, don't worry about those who will not concern themselves. Don't worry about those who refuse to hear and heed.
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Zephaniah says I will tell you what you need to do. That's what he's saying. What good is it to shout to someone who will not listen? God says, look, I will tell you what you need to do. I will tell you how you need to pay attention. And so I want you to look in verse three. And I've got about four points I want you to see.
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The very first one is this. The action commanded. He said in verse 3, "Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth." There's the action commanded. Seek ye the LORD. First and foremost, we're commanded to seek the Lord. And this action that is commanded is addressed to the meek of the earth. The meek of the earth are those who have humbled themselves and who have submitted themselves unto the Lord. The word meek refers to those who have profited under the scourges of God, who have profited under the afflictions of God, who have profited under the judgment of God. They have been chastised. They have repented. So this action that is commanded here is to true believers.
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The phrase here occurs a number of times in Scripture. I could quote Scripture after Scripture. Let me just give you a few of these very quickly. In Deuteronomy 4, verse 29, the Bible says, "But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul." We're commanded to seek the Lord.
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In 1 Chronicles 16, verses 10 and 11, "Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD. Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually." That's a command. 1 Chronicles 22 and verse 19, "Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD." How about this one? Everyone knows this one. Isaiah 55 and verse 6, "Seek ye the LORD while he may be found,
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call ye upon him while he is near." Now, I could sit here and tell you scripture after scripture where God commands you to seek him. It is one thing to know that God commands you to seek him. It's quite another thing to know how to seek him. So how do you seek the Lord? This message tonight is not necessarily just on this subject, but I do want to give you several important points on seeking the Lord.
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First, it should be very obvious. It should be very clear. Then if you're going to seek the Lord, there must be a genuine desire and there must be an undivided heart in seeking the Lord. What did He say in Deuteronomy 4 and verse 29? I quoted it earlier. "But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul." Very obviously, God is not going to be found in those who try to seek Him with a divided heart. We're told in the book of Jeremiah chapter 29 in verse 13, "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."
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You cannot come to God lackadaisically, you cannot come to God half interested, you cannot come to God saying, well, it's all right if I do, it's all right if I don't. No. There must be an undivided heart. There must be a genuine desire in seeking the Lord. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 15 and verse 12, "And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul." God is not going to be found by half-hearted and slothful attempts at finding Him. He's not. We're told that King Rehoboam, you remember that was the son of Solomon, in 2 Chronicles 12 and verse 14, "And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD." Did he do evil? Because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD. And on the contrary, we have in 2 Chronicles 27, in verse 6, "So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD." So if we're going to seek the Lord, it's very obvious we have to seek Him with an undivided heart.
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There has to be a genuine desire, a wholehearted desire. Secondly, if we're going to seek the Lord, we must seek Him with a humble and accurate estimation of ourselves. I want you to turn in your Bible, if you would, please, to the book of Romans, chapter 12, the book of Romans, chapter 12, and look at verse three. I'm going to show you this truth in light of the gifts that God gives, and then I'm going to make a deduction based upon this principle. Notice, if you would, in Romans chapter 12 and verse 3, the Apostle Paul wrote, "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." Now God says when it comes to soberly assessing your gifts, you better not think more highly of yourself than you ought to think.
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Now, if I were to tell you tonight that God had given me the gift of song and singing, I know my wife will smile and laugh. All I have to do is open my mouth and try to sing, and you would know instantaneously that I cannot sing. I have a dear friend, a lady who loved to sing, but she really could not sing. In fact, she was deaf in one ear, but she tried to sing.
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And I was thankful for that. And I was making the statement one time that I could not sing. And she said, "Oh pastor, I'll be glad to teach you to sing." And I thought to myself, well, I can already sing better than you, but I still can't sing.
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Now, you understand what I'm saying. It's like me trying to say, well, my gift is in managing money. Well, I'm a spendthrift. You've got to deal with yourself honestly and soberly.
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Now, if this is true in just ascertaining our gifts, it is equally true in coming to God. In other words, we have to deal accurately and give a true estimate of ourselves before the Lord. What do I mean by that? I want you to turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 51. Here's what I mean. I want you to notice, if you would, what God commands us. Look in Isaiah chapter 51, and we'll begin reading there with verse 1. Isaiah 51 and verse 1. Now, note if you would what God says.
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"Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness." So you're seeking Him, all right. "Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him." Now what in the world does God mean when he says, if you're going to follow after righteousness, if you're going to seek me, then you look to the rock which you're hewn and the hole of the pit that you're dug.
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Well, Brother Weaver, you don't understand. I'm in Abraham's lineage. Oh. May I ask you where Abraham was when God called him? He was a pagan, he was an idolater in Ur of the Chaldees, and so was Sarah. So God says, you look to the rock from which you are hewn, you look to the hole of the pit from which you are digged. In other words, when you come to me, you better come to me with a proper estimation of yourself. You've got to understand that we are sinners and we deserve nothing but punishment and justice. When God found us, we were nothing. When God saved us, we were nothing. And without Him, we are still nothing. That's a proper estimate, I would say. What did our Lord say in John 15? "Without me, ye can do" how much? Nothing. It is God who saved us. It is God who brought us into His kingdom. That's why the Bible says in the book of Colossians chapter 1, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son."
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So when we come before Him seeking Him with all of our heart, we have to come before Him in deep humility, recognizing the fact that in and of ourselves, we are absolutely nothing. And I've got news for you, folks. Pride is just as sinful in a preacher's heart as it is in anyone else's heart. It's just as wicked in a Christian's heart. I saw a cartoon years ago, I've never forgotten it.
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It showed these two monks walking side by side in their robes. They had their hands up their sleeves and one looked at the other said, you know, it kind of makes you proud that we're so humble, doesn't it? We can kind of get proud that we've got the right doctrine, we can kind of get proud that we attend church faithfully. We can kind of get proud in a lot of areas. And God says, if we're going to seek him, we have to come with a true estimate of ourselves. And the true and accurate estimate of ourselves is this, without him, we are nothing. Thirdly, if we're going to seek him, we must be careful to obey him in every area of our lives. That is, we must be constantly and continually bringing our lives into conformity to the Word of God.
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We cannot cease obeying God just because our society and just because our nation is under the judgment of God. Now, just stop and think for a moment how important this is. I have talked to Christians who have come up with this attitude, well, Brother Weaver, the whole world is a thieving, coveting, defrauding mess. I might as well get my part of it while I can. What? I've heard Christians say things like that.
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Everybody else is doing it. We might as well do it, too. We might as well get our share. Stop and think, why are we under the judgment of God to begin with? Because of our sin and because of our rebellion. And what did David say in Psalm 66 and verse 18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." We cannot expect God to hear us if we're going to forsake him and refuse to bring our lives in conformity to his word.
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I want you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles, chapter 14 and look at verse 4. 2 Chronicles chapter 14 and verse 4. 2 Chronicles 14 and look if you would please at verse 4. This is interesting. "And commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment." What was part of their seeking the Lord? Obeying Him. Doing the law and commandments. It involves obedience. So you can't seek God while you're disobedient. What does the Bible say in James 4 and verse 17?
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"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." I want you to turn to the book of Mark chapter 4. I love this passage. In fact, I've got about a two hour message just on this one verse, but it is so filled with truth. I want you to look at Mark 4 if you would please. And notice if you would, verse 24. Look at Mark 4 and verse 24. Notice what the Word of God said.
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"And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given."
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Now listen to what he said. "Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you." Now, wait a minute. Here's what God is saying. To the exact same measure that you give to hearing the Word of God, God is going to measure that same amount of truth back to you. You can't say, well, I'm going to study my Bible ten minutes and get two hours worth of knowledge. Nuh-uh. You're going to get ten minutes worth of knowledge. To whatever degree that you give, to whatever degree that you measure out in hearing truth, to that same degree, God is going to measure truth back to you. And then He makes this statement, "and unto you that hear shall more be given." In other words, God is not going to give you any more truth until you already obey the truth that He's given you. So if you're going to come to seek the Lord, at the very minimum, dear friend, you have to obey the truth that you already know and possess.
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Because if you don't do it, it is sin. And you cannot come to God and expect Him to hear you with iniquity in your heart. For David said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."
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Fourth, very quickly, I'm trying to tell you what it means to seek the Lord. Seeking the Lord means we cry unto Him for help. Listen carefully. Seeking the Lord means we cry unto him for help. We are not instructing him as to what to do. So many want to tell God what to do. When to do it. And how to do it. No, if you're seeking God, all you're doing is crying for help.
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You understand that everything is in God's hands. Arthur W. Pink observed years ago, and I've never forgotten. When I read this statement, he said, one reason we don't like the pope is because we like to be the pope ourselves. We want to be in charge. We want to tell everyone else what to do. We even want to tell God what to do, but God is sovereign. We cannot dictate to God. We cannot instruct God.
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In fact, the Word of God says in Second Chronicles chapter 20 verse four, now listen, "And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the LORD: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD." What does it mean seeking the Lord? They came together seeking to ask help of the Lord, not to instruct him, not to tell him what to do, not to tell him how to do it or when to do it, just to ask his help. So seeking the Lord includes, at a minimum, these four truths. John Gill said this on seeking the Lord. He said they are here exhorted to seek the Lord, that is, by prayer and supplication, to know more of His mind and will, and especially their duty under the present circumstances.
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"Implore His grace and mercy, protection and safety, in a day of common danger, and to attend the public ordinances of His house, in order to enjoy His presence and communion with Him. For to seek the Lord is to seek His face and favor, to have the light of His countenance, and the discoveries of His love, and to seek His honor and glory in all things, particularly the Lord Christ may be met who was to come in the flesh, and good men sought before he came, and now he is come, and to him should men seek for righteousness and life, for peace and pardon, for grace and all supplies of it, and for everlasting salvation, and all this before as well as since his coming, and such seek him aright, who seek him early, in the first place, above all things, who seek Him with their whole heart, sincerely, diligently, and constantly, and where He is to be found, in the ministry of His Word and ordinances." Certainly, the action commanded is to seek the Lord.
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I want you to go back to the little book of Zephaniah, and look, if you would please, at verse 3 again. Because here we have the action commended, not only the action commanded, but the action commended. He said, "Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment." So here he commends these people for having worked or wrought his judgment.
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Now, to do the judgment of God in this place means to form the life according to the righteousness of His law. The Hebrew word here is used frequently and it means equity or the right rule of living. Hence, to do judgment here, means that we live and bring our lives in conformity to His Word. We live according to His revealed will. We do that which is in line with His Word, which is the rule of judgment, not only for faith, but for practice as well.
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That is, we perform, we obey that which He has laid down for us. And we perform the works that He has commanded us from right principles with right views from the fruits of faith and fruits of repentance as well.
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Now here's an explanation of the word judgment. You don't have to turn there because I'm sure you know this verse. Do you remember what God said in Genesis chapter 18 and verse 19 concerning Abraham? God said, "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." What did God say? I know Abraham. I know he's going to command his family and his household to do judgment and justice. So doing judgment is basically obey the Word of God. That's why Isaiah said, in Isaiah 1 in verse 17, "Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow."
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So very obviously, the action commended now is here are these people have at least been living a holy life, a godly life, and Zephaniah is saying, you continue to do this now. Look, if you would, back in verse three, because here's the third point, and that is the action clarified. He said, "Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth." That's the action commanded, "which have wrought his judgment." That's the action commended. Now here's the action clarified. "Seek righteousness, seek meekness." Hmm. Let me say it is impossible to seek righteousness without at the same time seeking meekness or humility. When righteousness is sought, at the same time meekness or humility is sought. When the Lord says seek righteousness, He means the same thing as when He says do judgment. Righteousness is right living. It is doing that which is right in accordance and in agreement with the Word and with the Law of God. It is bringing the life in conformity to the Word of God. So, Zephaniah then is admonishing us to advance our lives in righteousness, in judgment, in obedience.
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Why? Because he understands and he knows that God is not going to forget our obedience. May I remind you of what the Word of God says in the Book of Galatians chapter 6 and verse 9. There the Apostle Paul wrote, "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."
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Now what did he say? You continue to seek judgment. You continue to seek righteousness. You continue to seek meekness because we're going to reap if we faint not. Do you remember that passage in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 10 where the Bible says, "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister." God is not unrighteous to forget that. Now He said, what? Seek righteousness, seek meekness. I want to clarify something about seeking meekness. Do not equate the word meekness with mousiness.
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In this day and time, most consider a meek individual one who is weak, anemic, feminine, and unmanly. According to the humanistic and modernistic view, the meek man is the 90-pound weakling that becomes a foot mat for everyone to ridicule, run over, and wipe their feet on. He is the epitome of everything that is to be despised. Biblical meekness is exactly the opposite. If I were to ask you not counting our Lord Jesus Christ, who was the meekest man on Earth?
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I know that you know the answer. Numbers 12 in verse 3 says, "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." I want you to note what that meek man did. That meek man defended a brother. He slew an Egyptian. He stood up to Pharaoh. He spoke the truth and let the chips fall where they may. He delivered Israel out of Egypt. He faced a rebellious group of Israelites over and over. And on one time, this meek man prayed, "Oh God, I pray that a new thing will happen. I pray that the earth will open up and these rebels will go down alive into the pit." And the earth opened up and swallowed them. He was the meekest man on earth. What?
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That's certainly not in agreement with what the world calls meekness. No, it's not. But it is biblical meekness. You know what our Lord said in Matthew 11 verse 29, now listen, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me. What did Christ say of Himself? "For I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." In Matthew 21 and verse 5, it was prophesied concerning Christ, "Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." Our Lord was certainly not a mousy man.
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You don't get weak working in a carpenter shop. You don't get weak carrying wood all day long and using axes and using saws. No, no, no. Moreover, there is not a man alive. I don't care how strong he is. There's not a man alive that can suffer and endure everything that our Lord suffered and endured without complaining. Our Lord, by the way, endured ridicule and mockery and rejection and slander. He endured an unjust trial. Moreover, He was scourged and crucified.
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And yet we are told that He was meek and lowly.
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The Bible says that He endured the cross, despising the shame, for the joy that was set before him. You know what our Lord said in Matthew five in verse five. He said, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." If you read Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law, you'll find that Rushdoony is reporting that in one bathroom that he went into, this verse of scripture was on the bathroom wall. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." And someone had written under the verse of scripture, "if that's all right." That's the world's idea of meekness.
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Meekness, dear friend, listen to this, is an attitude or disposition that not only accepts and receives God's dealings with us without dispute and argument, it is also an attitude and disposition of submission to Him, resting in Him, leaning upon Him, trusting in Him above all things. Now, let me tell you what real meekness is. You remember I quoted that verse in Matthew 11, verse 29, where our Lord said, "Take my yoke upon you." Do you know when our Lord says that we're to take his yoke upon us? He had reference to a real literal yoke. The yoke in those days
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would be applied to cattle or to oxen. I don't know if you've ever seen an ox or not. But they're very big. Very strong. I told you about one of my pets. A big, huge Santa Gertrudis bull. He got up to 3000 pounds. General Beauregard. And for an animal so big and so strong, he was so meek and gentle, it is unbelievable. But my wife and I went out one day. I took the tractor.
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I was going to hook up to an eight foot harrow. It's got all these discs that cut the land. The harrow weighs a thousand pounds or better. When I got to the harrow, it had been flipped all the way over and the discs were sticking straight up in the air. I had to get a log chain, tie it, and pull it over before I could hook back up to it.
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And the only tracks were Beauregard's tracks. He came to the front of that harrow, he put his head down, he was scratching his head, and then he just did this and flipped that thousand-pound harrow totally over.
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I have seen that 3000 pound bull run. Jump in the air, twist and kick and turn all the way around before he ever hit the ground. You talk about strength. You talk about power. He broke through the fence one time. The horses were chasing the cows down a little lane. All the cows were running. Beauregard didn't want to run. But he was running a little bit. He was agitated. And so instead of running down the lane, he just went through the fence. He burst that fence like it was pine straw.
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I saw it when it happened. I told Alice, I said, "Might as well get the tools together. We've got to fix that fence." I said, "Let me get him in first." And I stood up on the hill and I called him. Remember now, the horses have been chasing. He thought he was being chased. I called him. He looked up and saw me and he started running to me as fast as he could. And let me tell you, that old man got swinging left and right like that.
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And he was my pet. But I thought, I'm going to step a little closer to my truck just in case he doesn't stop. At least I can jump in the back of my truck. I knew he was agitated. You know what that big bull did? He ran straight up to me, stopped in his tracks. I stuck my hand out for him to smell it. And I looked at him after he smelled my hand, I said, "Come on, I'll put you up." And I turned around
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and walked to the gate. He followed me like a little puppy. I opened the gate. He went right in. I fixed the gate. I shut the gate and went down and fixed the fence.
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Now what I'm trying to tell you is this. How could I harness that strength of that bull? The only way I could harness that strength is by putting a yoke on him. If I put a yoke on him, he'd pull my plow. He would do whatever I wanted him to do. I have a big horse, big, big horse. He's nothing but a pile of muscles, but I have to put a halter and a bridle on him to control him.
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Are you listening to me? An ox or a bull? Either one is exceedingly strong. When you put that yoke upon that ox or that bull, you now control that strength. You know what meekness is? Here's what our Lord said, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Meekness is nothing less than disciplined strength under God. Our Lord acted the way the Father would have Him to act. He spoke the way the Father would have Him to speak. He moved the way the Father would have Him to move. If I control that horse, I have to have that bridle and rein. If I control that bull, I have to have that yoke. Our Lord said, you take my yoke upon you. You submit to me. And I'll tell you when to move and what to do and where to go. And what our Lord means by taking his yoke upon us is this, that we're to submit to our Lord more and more
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every day, in every way, until the entirety of our life is brought under His control. I tell people I have done far more repenting since I have been saved than when I got saved. I repented of a few sins when God saved me, sins in particular and many in general. But after I got saved and started reading the scripture, I found out there was a whole lot of other things wrong with me that I didn't even know about.
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And if I'm a meek man, I take our Lord's yoke. And I submit more and more to him till he has total control of my life. Calvin said it like this. "We learn that even the best are roused by God's scourges to seek true religion with greater ardor than they had done before. Though then it may be our object to serve God and to follow his word, yet, when calamities arise and God appears as a judge, we ought to be stimulated to greater care and diligence.
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For it is never the case that any one of us fully performs his duty. Let us then remember that we are roused by God whenever adversity impends over us and when God Himself shows by manifest signs that He is displeased. This is the reason why the prophet bids the pious doers of righteousness to seek God and to seek meekness, however much they were devoted to Him before and that which is just and right."
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He said, it doesn't matter how holy you are now. What Zephaniah is saying, especially in the time of judgment, you want to become more holy. You want to become more godly. You want to become more submissive. You want to become more submitted. You want to become more meek. Here's why. Go back to Zephaniah, chapter two and verse three. Watch this. "Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth," the action commanded. "Which have wrought his judgment," the action commended. "Seek righteousness, seek meekness." The action clarified. Here's the action consummated. "It may be
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ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger." Zephaniah encourages obedience and submission by saying "it may be" that you shall be hidden in the day of our Lord's anger. In other words, the Lord may spare you. You must remember that God's anger is going to be directed at the disobedient and rebellious. And you certainly don't want to be that. David said it like this in Psalm 27 in verse five, he said, "For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me;
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he shall set me up upon a rock." What did he say? In the time of trouble, he shall hide me. In Psalm 31, in verse 20, David said, "Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues." Peter said it a little differently, but he said it basically the same. He said in Second Peter two in verse nine, "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." So how do we act in the time of judgment? We seek the Lord, we seek his righteousness, we seek more holiness, we seek more submission, we seek more meekness.
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Let me tell you where I want to be. I'm not a prophet, and I'm not a prophet's son, but I'm going to tell you this, folks. If God does not send repentance in this country, I believe in the next few years we are in for a really rough ride. I really believe that. But I want to show you where I want to be. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 91. I want to live my life in such a way. I want my mind and my attitude to be in such that I can honestly claim this psalm. Look in Psalm 91. It's a very short psalm.
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I think only 16 verses. Watch this. Psalm 91 verse one. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." What? "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
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Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
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Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation." I want it to be only with mine eyes
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that I behold and see the reward of the wicked. I don't want to be involved in it. I want the Lord to be my fortress and my rock and my protection.
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Now, I want you to look back at Zephaniah chapter two in verse three. I want to give you a quote. And then I want to make one application. I love this. Look at Zephaniah 2 in verse 3. He said, "Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness." Now look at this. "It may be." It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger. Old John Trapp said it like this based upon verse 3. John Trapp said, "Probably, possibly you may. Probably you shall be.
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Pardon of sin you shall be sure of, mitigation also of sorrow, if not prevention. Saved you shall be, or more gently handled, or so inwardly calmed that you shall be able to call your souls to rest when others are at their wits' end. You shall be safe under the cover of God's wings and in the hollow of His hand, when others that are without God in the world shall be as a naked man in a storm, an unarmed man in the field, or as a ship at sea without anchor, subject to dash and split against the rocks and quicksands."
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Possibly you may be, probably you will be. Now, one application. And the application is simple, we should at all times be constantly and continually bringing our lives into greater conformity to God's word. However, in times of judgment, in times of danger, we have to pay a special attention to being holy and godly and submissive and obedient. God, in His grace and mercy, may spare us or at least deal with us in a gentler manner. No parent chastens his child with severity when that child displays a repentant, compliant, and submissive attitude. I have six grandchildren.
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My youngest grandchild is a granddaughter who will be 17 this year. And she will tell you very quickly her boast. And her boast is this. I'm the only grandchild that Papa has never whipped. You know why I never whipped her? She never needed it. She obeyed. She watched me whip the other grandkids, and she decided at a very early age she didn't want any part of it.
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Her mother was basically the same way. We have identical twins. I nearly had to beat them to death. I mean, come on, there were two of them and they were always into something. But Rebecca, my youngest daughter, I could just look at her hard and she would just melt. "Daddy, I'm sorry, what did I do?" We as parents never severely chasten a child when that child demonstrates a repentant, submissive attitude
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and wants to change their life. Do you know the same is true of our Heavenly Father? The Bible tells us in Lamentations 3 and verse 33, listen carefully, "For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." God is not some old meanie up in heaven just waiting to beat us half to death. No, God does not afflict us willingly. God does not want to use the rod on us. I've never wanted to whip my children. I've never wanted to whip my grandchildren. The only reason I did whip them was because they sinned and they were wicked and they were wrong. But those that did what was right, I never chastened. The Lord does not willingly afflict us. He doesn't want to.
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So Zephaniah said, if you will continue to demonstrate an obedient, submissive, humble attitude, it may be the Lord will hide you in the day of His wrath. You may get away with all your possessions. You may escape with all your family. You may be blessed and protected in such a way that you've never dreamed of. But he said, if you want the Lord's protection, you must be obedient and submissive, and the more God sends his judgment, the more you need to pay attention to obedience and submission. Father, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we bow to thee. We pray to thee and ask you, Lord, to help us tonight. Help us to see the danger that we're in as a nation, as a society.
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The corruption is all around us. And may we be especially attentive and we're going to increase in holiness and submission and godly humility and meekness. And may we exercise disciplined strength under God for your honor and your glory. In the name of Jesus Christ we ask and pray, Amen.
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T03:19:46Z

Dealing With God's Judgment

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

In this sermon, John Weaver addresses how believers should respond in times of national judgment, using Zephaniah 2:1-3 as the foundational text. He argues that America is under God's escalating judgment due to moral collapse, economic decay, and corrupt leadership, yet most churches remain silent. The message is directed to the faithful remnant who perceive God's hand and desire repentance. Weaver expounds the command to 'seek the Lord' with an undivided heart, humility, obedience, and prayerful dependence. He clarifies that seeking righteousness and meekness means pursuing disciplined strength under God's control, not weakness. The sermon concludes with the hope that such wholehearted seeking may result in being hidden in the day of God's anger, urging believers to increase in holiness and submission as judgment intensifies.

Opening

Scripture Reading — Zephaniah 2:1-3

"Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD's anger come upon you. Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger."

Introduction: Strange and Dangerous Times

Weaver describes the current national crisis—economic collapse, moral decay, corrupt government—and notes that most preachers are silent, leaving Christians in the dark.

And consequently, as a whole, most professing Christians are left simply out in the dark. You know what God says about those kind of preachers? In Isaiah 56 and verse 10, He said this,

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 56:10

"His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber."

Isn't that amazing? God says his watchmen are like dumb dogs that cannot bark. I've got a pastor friend. He's very elderly. He's had a stroke. He's alive, thankfully, by the grace of God.

The Context of Judgment in Zephaniah

The book of Zephaniah is set entirely in the context of God's judgment, with vivid descriptions of destruction and wrath against sin.

Problems with Perceiving God's Judgment

People often fail to recognize God's hand in disasters, attributing them to 'Mother Nature,' and even as judgment intensifies, many refuse to repent.

The Remnant and the Question: What Shall the Righteous Do?

Amid widespread indifference, a small remnant sees God's judgment and longs for repentance; Zephaniah addresses them directly.

The Action Commanded: Seek the Lord

The primary command is to seek the Lord with an undivided heart, genuine desire, humility, obedience, and prayerful dependence.

The phrase here occurs a number of times in Scripture. I could quote Scripture after Scripture. Let me just give you a few of these very quickly. In Deuteronomy 4, verse 29, the Bible says,

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 4:29

"But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul."

Scripture Reading — 2 Chronicles 12:14

There has to be a genuine desire, a wholehearted desire. Secondly, if we're going to seek the Lord, we must seek Him with a humble and accurate estimation of ourselves. I want you to turn in your Bible, if you would, please, to the book of Romans, chapter 12, the book of Romans, chapter 12, and look at verse three. I'm going to show you this truth in light of the gifts that God gives, and then I'm going to make a deduction based upon this principle. Notice, if you would, in Romans chapter 12 and verse 3, the Apostle Paul wrote, "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." Now God says when it comes to soberly assessing your gifts, you better not think more highly of yourself than you ought to think.

Now, you understand what I'm saying. It's like me trying to say, well, my gift is in managing money. Well, I'm a spendthrift. You've got to deal with yourself honestly and soberly.

The Action Commended and Clarified: Seek Righteousness and Meekness

Zephaniah commends those who have lived righteously and clarifies that seeking righteousness must be accompanied by seeking meekness—disciplined strength under God's control.

Scripture Reading — Genesis 18:19

"For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him."

Scripture Reading — Galatians 6:9

Now what did he say? You continue to seek judgment. You continue to seek righteousness. You continue to seek meekness because we're going to reap if we faint not. Do you remember that passage in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 10 where the Bible says, "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister." God is not unrighteous to forget that. Now He said, what? Seek righteousness, seek meekness. I want to clarify something about seeking meekness. Do not equate the word meekness with mousiness.

Scripture Reading — Numbers 12:3

"Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth."

And yet we are told that He was meek and lowly.

and walked to the gate. He followed me like a little puppy. I opened the gate. He went right in. I fixed the gate. I shut the gate and went down and fixed the fence.

The Action Consummated: The Promise of Being Hidden

The purpose of seeking God, righteousness, and meekness is the hope of being hidden in the day of the Lord's anger; God may spare the obedient.

Application: Increase in Holiness and Submission

In times of judgment, believers must pay special attention to increasing in holiness, obedience, and submission, trusting that God does not willingly afflict but may deal gently with the repentant.

Dealing With God's Judgment

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	8410224620
Subject	Old Testament Studies
Course	Genesis: Abraham, Covenant, and Promise
Genre	Sermon
Date	2010-08-01
Dictation Name
Book	Book 077: Genesis: Abraham, Covenant, and Promise — Chapter 5
Source Timed Segments	98

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction: Strange and Dangerous Times: Weaver describes the current national crisis—economic collapse, moral decay, corrupt government—and notes that most preachers are silent, leaving Christians in the dark.
The Context of Judgment in Zephaniah: The book of Zephaniah is set entirely in the context of God's judgment, with vivid descriptions of destruction and wrath against sin.
Problems with Perceiving God's Judgment: People often fail to recognize God's hand in disasters, attributing them to 'Mother Nature,' and even as judgment intensifies, many refuse to repent.
The Remnant and the Question: What Shall the Righteous Do?: Amid widespread indifference, a small remnant sees God's judgment and longs for repentance; Zephaniah addresses them directly.
The Action Commanded: Seek the Lord: The primary command is to seek the Lord with an undivided heart, genuine desire, humility, obedience, and prayerful dependence.
The Action Commended and Clarified: Seek Righteousness and Meekness: Zephaniah commends those who have lived righteously and clarifies that seeking righteousness must be accompanied by seeking meekness—disciplined strength under God's control.
The Action Consummated: The Promise of Being Hidden: The purpose of seeking God, righteousness, and meekness is the hope of being hidden in the day of the Lord's anger; God may spare the obedient.
Application: Increase in Holiness and Submission: In times of judgment, believers must pay special attention to increasing in holiness, obedience, and submission, trusting that God does not willingly afflict but may deal gently with the repentant.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

God's judgment is real and often unrecognized

People fail to see disasters as God's judgment, attributing them to nature, and even increased severity does not lead to repentance.

Weaver cites Amos 4:6-12, showing God sent famine, drought, blight, pestilence, and war, yet Israel did not return to Him.

The righteous remnant must seek God wholeheartedly

Zephaniah addresses the meek who have already obeyed, urging them to seek the Lord with undivided hearts.

Weaver says, 'My message is for the remnant... Don't worry about those who will not repent... I will tell you what you need to do.'

Seeking God requires humility and accurate self-assessment

We must come to God recognizing we are nothing without Him, as illustrated by Abraham's pagan origins.

Weaver references Isaiah 51:1-2, 'look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.'

Obedience is integral to seeking God

We cannot seek God while disregarding His commands; obedience to known truth is prerequisite for more revelation.

Weaver cites Mark 4:24, 'with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you,' and 2 Chronicles 14:4.

Meekness is strength under control, not weakness

Biblical meekness is exemplified by Moses and Christ, who displayed great strength in submission to God.

Weaver says, 'Meekness is nothing less than disciplined strength under God,' and references Numbers 12:3 and Matthew 11:29.

God may spare the obedient in judgment

The promise 'it may be ye shall be hid' encourages obedience, as God does not willingly afflict but responds to submission.

Weaver quotes Zephaniah 2:3 and Lamentations 3:33, 'For he doth not afflict willingly.'

Scripture References

Zephaniah 2:1-3: The primary text: a call to gather and seek the Lord, righteousness, and meekness to be hidden in the day of anger.
Isaiah 56:10: God's watchmen are blind, ignorant, dumb dogs that cannot bark—a rebuke to silent preachers.
Jeremiah 9:12: The wise man should understand and declare what God has spoken.
Malachi 2:7: The priest's lips should keep knowledge; he is the messenger of the Lord.
Psalm 11:3: If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Zephaniah 1:2-18: God's declaration of total judgment on Judah and Jerusalem for idolatry and sin.
Amos 4:6-12: God sent famine, drought, blight, pestilence, and war, yet Israel did not return; therefore, prepare to meet thy God.
Deuteronomy 4:29: If you seek the Lord with all your heart and soul, you will find Him.
Isaiah 55:6: Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.
Jeremiah 29:13: You shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.
2 Chronicles 12:14: Rehoboam did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord.
Romans 12:3: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think soberly.
Isaiah 51:1-2: Look to the rock from which you were hewn; remember Abraham and Sarah's humble origins.
John 15:5: Without me ye can do nothing.
Psalm 66:18: If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
Mark 4:24: Take heed what you hear; with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Genesis 18:19: God knew Abraham would command his household to do justice and judgment.
Galatians 6:9: Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.
Numbers 12:3: Moses was very meek, above all men on the face of the earth.
Psalm 91:1-16: A psalm of protection for those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High.

Historical References

Gerald Celente's economic crash prediction (2010): Weaver mentions trends forecaster Gerald Celente predicting a crash in 2010, with others pointing to 2011-2012.
Southern California utility shutoffs: News report of people camping in homes without electricity or water due to inability to pay bills.
Arthur W. Pink quote on human desire for control: Pink observed that one reason we don't like the pope is because we like to be the pope ourselves.
John Gill's commentary on seeking the Lord: Gill describes seeking the Lord as prayer, attending ordinances, and seeking Christ for righteousness and salvation.
Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law anecdote: Rushdoony reported seeing 'Blessed are the meek' on a bathroom wall with the graffiti 'if that's all right.'
John Trapp's commentary on Zephaniah 2:3: Trapp said 'Probably, possibly you may' be hidden, emphasizing the hope of mitigation or protection.

Important Quotes

I believe that our nation not only has been under judgment, it is under judgment, and the judgment is simply going to increase with greater and greater severity.

States the central premise that America is under escalating divine judgment.

His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.

Quotes Isaiah 56:10 to rebuke silent preachers who fail to warn of judgment.

Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger.

The key verse (Zephaniah 2:3) that provides the sermon's directive for the remnant.

Meekness is nothing less than disciplined strength under God.

Defines biblical meekness in contrast to worldly weakness, using the yoke analogy.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Quotes Matthew 11:29 to show Christ as the model of meekness and submission.

For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

Quotes Lamentations 3:33 to emphasize God's reluctance to punish and His responsiveness to repentance.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

What evidence do you see that our nation is under God's judgment, and how should that affect our daily lives?

[Context]

Weaver describes economic collapse, moral decay, and corrupt leadership as signs of judgment.

[Question]

Why are many preachers silent on issues of justice, economics, and law, and what does God say about such watchmen?

[Context]

Weaver cites Isaiah 56:10 and laments the lack of prophetic voice in churches.

[Question]

What does it mean to seek the Lord with an undivided heart, and what obstacles hinder us from doing so?

[Context]

Weaver emphasizes wholehearted seeking based on Deuteronomy 4:29 and Jeremiah 29:13.

[Question]

How does an accurate, humble estimation of ourselves affect our approach to God in prayer?

[Context]

Weaver uses Isaiah 51:1-2 to show we must remember our lowly origins.

[Question]

In what ways does obedience to known truth open the door for more revelation from God?

[Context]

Weaver explains Mark 4:24, that God measures truth back to us according to our hearing and obedience.

[Question]

How does the biblical concept of meekness as 'disciplined strength under God' challenge worldly views of meekness?

[Context]

Weaver contrasts Moses' and Christ's strength with the world's idea of meekness as weakness.

[Question]

What does it look like practically to 'take Christ's yoke' and submit every area of life to His control?

[Context]

Weaver uses the yoke analogy to explain submission and increasing repentance.

[Question]

How should the promise 'it may be ye shall be hid' motivate us to pursue righteousness and meekness?

[Context]

Weaver presents the hope of protection as an encouragement to obedience.

Applications

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T16:14:53Z