I am going to say something to you this morning that I think you will find very hard to believe. In fact, some of you may wrestle with this truth for the remainder of your lives. Therefore, I am going to give you the main point of the message this morning, and then I am going to labor in the time after that to convince you that it is true despite whatever you might think.
And the message that I want us to hear is something that I think is much needed in the church right now. The reason I say this is because I think God is answering our prayers that he would show us his greatness and why he is to be feared. I am not saying that we’ve attained that, I am just saying that I am seeing him begin to reveal a little more of that to us.
For example, just a couple of weeks ago, I spoke to a brother in this body who told me that at times when would realize the wrath of God spoken in the Scriptures, he would actually tremble before him. I wish we all would tremble before his greatness, for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7).
Therefore, because I think many of us have at least caught a glimpse of how great, majestic, and fearful is this God of ours, I gladly share with you a reality that I think will quite possibly be the source of your strength in whatever you are going through in your life.
The truth is this: The God who spoke the creation into existence, who is so great that we could not look on him in all his glory and live, and who will pour out everlasting wrath on those to whom he is not their Lord—that God—actually rejoices over you and delights in bringing good about in your life.
Now, I know this is a bold statement, but I want to show it to you in a few texts.
Jeremiah 32:39-41—"I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own good, and for the good of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me. And I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul."
Yes, this is a text that is addressed to Israel, however, God is talking about this in the context of the new covenant which he had described one chapter earlier (31:31-34). And this new covenant is the covenant that Jesus made with his blood. Jesus’ words to his disciples were, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:25).
Therefore, I think this is a promise that we can clearly see extends to us. God rejoices in doing us good.
However, if you are still skeptical that this truth applies to you, then let me show it to you in a biblical-theological manner.
First of all, God does what he does because it delights him in his ultimate plan of glorifying his great name. Psalm 115:3 and Psalm 135:6 say, “Whatever the Lord pleases, he does.” And again, in Jeremiah 9:24, the reason God gives for his exercising of lovingkindness, justice, and righteous is because he “delight[s] in these things.”
Next, God assures us that one thing he does in the lives of his children is work all things together for good in their lives (Romans 8:28). Therefore, if God does what brings him pleasure, and he has assured us that part of what he does is working things together for the good of his children, then we can determine that God delights in bringing good about in the lives of his children.
This is exactly what Jeremiah 32:39-41 assured us, and it is what our text tells us this morning. The prophet writes, “The LORD your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy” (Zephaniah 3:17).
Isn’t it an incredible thought that God shouts joyfully because of his delight in you? That is where we find our worth in life. It is wrapped up in God. The most crucial thing in someone’s life is that he or she is known by God, and our greatest foundation for joy should be that this great God delights in us.
We do not have to read God’s promise to work all things together for our good (Romans 8:28) and think that it is something that he is doing begrudgingly. He works all together for the good of his children because he delights in doing it. Therefore, even when it looks like evil is rampant and men are sinning against you, you can say, “What you intend for evil, God intends for good” (Genesis 50:20) because he delights in that.
And no doubt you hear these words and are saying to yourself, “Well, that sounds good, and I cannot argue against it. However, it is hard to believe for myself. After all, you do not know what I’ve done or how I feel.”
Those questions are why I wanted us to focus on Zephaniah this morning as our text. I think that Zephaniah destroys almost every hurdle that we could put fourth which might come against the idea that God wants to work good in our life.
You might say that though God has put in you a hatred for sin, you have struggled with it much—even after your salvation. In Zephaniah 3:15, the prophet announces to Israel that God “has taken away his judgments against” them. And God has done the same in your life.
If you have truly been born again, then Paul writes (quoting David), “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sins the Lord will not take into account” (Romans 4:7-8). I do not know of any other way of interpreting that passage except to say that those who God saves, he forgives, and never credits sin to their account. Your sins are forgiven—past, present, and future. God has pronounced you just and righteous.
He has taken away his judgments against you. He is the one who is pleading your case. And as Paul asks, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Therefore, confess your sins, for God’s judgments are not against you, and delight in him. He is quick to show mercy. He is anxious to show mercy. He is the God who “is slow to anger, and abounding in love” (Exodus 34:6).
But maybe you are saying, “Yes, but the shame that I feel for what I have done is tremendous. I mean, I believe that he has forgiven me, but what about the shame of my sin? Does he do anything with it? For unless he does, it is hard to understand that God rejoices in me.”
Again, we can look to Zephaniah for that answer. Zephaniah 3:19 tells us that he gathers the lame and outcasts (of which we all are) and “will turn their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.” God does not simply want to cleanse your account of sin and credit righteousness to you. He wants to turn your shame into praise in all the earth.
And why do you think he wants to do that? He wants to do that because his passion is to fill the earth with his glory, just as we looked at last week.
Therefore, if you are thinking that God does not want to turn your shame into praise for him, then you misunderstand the passion of God. He wants to do it because he wants to be glorified in your life. And it is hard to separate God working for his glory and God working for the good of his children. His greatest glory and our greatest good were at one place in history—the cross. The reason God delights in doing good for us is because it overflows into praise for his name in all the earth.
He delights in us in order that others may see his glory.
Let me give you an example. What if Lili were to have some friends over for dinner, and while they were there I washed the dishes, washed the laundry, made the bed, vacuumed the floor, and waited on my wife hand and foot; what do you think would be their response? I do not doubt one bit that they would say, “Lili, you have an incredible husband!”
Now, suppose that my intent were to draw glory to how great I am while Lili’s friends were over, what would I do? I would do just what I described, right? But what would I do if my goal were rather simply to do good things for Lili? I would still do all the same things? Do you see how doing her good actually overflows into my glory? In the same way, God is (in giving himself) giving to his children the greatest joy known to anyone. He is conforming us into his image. He is working all things together for our good so that we will share in his glory. And he is rejoicing over us with shouts of joy. And all this will overflow into us praising him for how great and glorious he is. The reason God delights in us, and will delight himself in people from every nation, is because he is committed to filling the earth with his glory.
So in seeing that our peace for God continuing to delight in doing good for us is found in his zeal for his own glory, we see possibly a clearer picture of what the prophet means in verse 12 as he states that God’s people will “take refuge in the name of the Lord.” Our security for God working for our good is in his great name.
Therefore, understanding that God rejoices over working good in your life, then there is no reason for us to fear pouring our lives into the task of filling the earth with his glory.
He is with us and rejoices over us. Why should we fear anything? I think this idea is exactly what God wants us to realize as we begin to pour our finances, time, and lives into the task of missions. For how did he comfort the disciples after giving them the great commission? He told them that he would always be with them. And again in Hebrews, God assures us, “’I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,’ so that we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What shall man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5-6).
This promise is not comforting unless you realize this morning that God rejoices over working good in your life. He is running after you this morning saying that he wants to bless you with the eternal treasure of showing his power in you (2 Chronicles 16:9), by providing enough grace for every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8), and by using your life to bring glory to his name (Matthew 5:16).
Therefore, ignore all else and run wholeheartedly after this God who shouts joyfully over you because it delights his heart. Is there any reason to doubt that God will labor on our behalf as we labor to advance the greatness of his name? To anyone who is willing to say, “I will sacrifice all for the sake of spreading the name of Christ over the whole earth,” Jesus says, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.” There is no sacrifice in the Christian life because God delights in his children. You give your whole life and he gives you eternal life. You give up everything, and he will give you the one who created and sustains everything. He gives us himself.
His grace will be with you. Amen.