I Believe The Time To Repent Is Now
Text: Zephaniah 2:1-3
“Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together,
O undesirable nation,
2 Before the decree is issued,
Or the day passes like chaff,
Before the LORD’s fierce anger comes upon you,
Before the day of the LORD’s anger comes upon you!
3 Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth,
Who have upheld His justice.
Seek righteousness, seek humility.
It may be that you will be hidden
In the day of the LORD’s anger.” nkj
We do not know when God’s clock will strike midnight and He will say, “That’s it”. We simply know that it is coming. Zephaniah here gives out a warning that we would be wise to listen to.
1 Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, O undesirable nation
Over and over again God calls out in both the OT and the NT for mankind to repent. To turn from their own ways and follow God in faithful, loving relationship.
Jesus – Luke 5:32 “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
The Day IS coming
Before the decree is issued, Before the LORD’s fierce anger comes upon you, Before the day of the LORD’s anger comes upon you!
Notice his use of the word BEFORE. The Day is coming and because we do not know WHEN, we must look to God NOW and not put it off.
2 Corinthians 6:2, “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Deuteronomy 29:18-20 gives us a similar warning in this manner: “so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood; 19 and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart’—as though the drunkard could be included with the sober. 20 “The LORD would not spare him; for then the anger of the LORD and His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the LORD would blot out his name from under heaven.”
Luke 3:17 gives us the same warning regarding what Jesus will do. “Whose fan [is] in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.”
It isn’t something that will give you warning, it happens quickly and is gone.
The remedy is quite clear:
Repent and Seek God
3 Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility.
The old and new Testaments are filled with the same warning. Here are just a few, but notice that each warning has a great hope attached to it!
2Ch 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Eze 18:21 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
Acts 3:19, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,”
Zephaniah makes it clear along with these other verses we’ve looked at. If anyone will do this – leave behind sin and follow God,
You Can Be Spared
It may be that you will be hidden In the day of the LORD’s anger.
Proverbs 28:13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
Isaiah 55:6-7, “Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”
1 Thessalonians 5:9-10, “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.” nkj
Conclusion:
The Day IS coming
Repent and Seek God
You Can Be Spared
It’s Time To Believe!
Blessings,
Pastor Brent.
He is Risen!
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Church family and friends
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