God’s Call To Repent - Zephaniah 2:1-3. 
A sermon by Elise Beatrice

Let’s pray. 
Lord Jesus, please guide us with this passage. We love what You will do for us, as written in Zephaniah 3. You will rejoice over us with gladness. You will quiet us by Your love. You will exalt over us with loud singing. 
Wow, Lord. It will be such a beautiful singing, the best singing of all. We look forward to that. Lord Jesus. But before we ever come to hear Your wonderful singing, we must first begin by doing what is written here in Zephaniah 2:1-3.For You are giving those who are not yet in the light another call to repent. Please help us to understand Your words as You want them to be understood.
In Your Holy Name, Lord Jesus, I pray. 
Amen. 
This is God’s call to repent. God is addressing every shameless nation. Shameless nation here is any nation which loves sin. Even today, this call to repentance is an emergency because even if some of us might not live to see the last day, death must come before. So, whenever God is calling us to repent, it is always an urgent matter.
“Gather together. Gather together, you shameless nation. Gather before judgment begins. Before your time to repent is blown away like chaff.”
So, the Lord is saying to us here that our time for repentance can run out. Most people sometimes say, you know, ‘these words apply to those in the past.’ But the truth is, sin is not just for those in the past.
And ‘Shameless Nation’ does not only apply to those in the past because even as we are living today, if we look around us, we will see that it is a nation which no longer fears the Lord. Most nations are shameless. We look around us and we see people embracing sin, even in churches. They love sin; they conform to the pattern of the world. But as God is saying here, 
“Act now, before the fierce fury of the Lord falls and the terrible Day of the Lord’s anger begins.” 
We can run out of our time to repent. This means God is a merciful God, He’s a gracious God, and He’s always giving us many opportunities to repent. He’s always exposing evil so that we can see and turn from it. He’s always willing to help us see the truth, so that we can choose that truth in order to be saved. But many take God for granted. They take His grace for granted and they refuse to accept when He exposes evil for them to see. Because they block their minds. They would so much want for these words to not be true so that they can get away with sin, but it can’t be the way they want. 
These words are true, as God is speaking. He will come as He says. So He uses His prophets and anyone who hears, and anyone who serves Him, any of His true disciples to plead to people, to His creation, and also the ones in the churches, His people, and those who are called by His name but are not even doing His will to repent while it is still time.
“Act now, before the fierce fury of the Lord falls and the terrible day of the Lord’s anger begins.” 
This passage is speaking about two times: the day of the Lord, which will be on the last day when He Comes Again and it is also speaking about the terrible day when the Lord’s anger begins. So the day of the Lord’s, which will come on the last day, everyone who found himself there, and God’s wrath is upon them… It did not begin that day. There had been a day in their life when the Lord’s anger had begun. This represents the day in each person’s life when the Lord decides to no longer protect them.
Why would the Lord decide to no longer protect someone? Because He has given them so many opportunities to repent, and they did not listen. And while the Lord is waiting and giving people many opportunities until they fully know the truth, God still protects them somehow out of His grace. He shows them the truth by sending many people to speak to them, to plead with them. 
But eventually, once now they know the truth and still choose wrong, it begins the time of the Lord’s anger. Let’s not fool ourselves to think that the Day of the Lord in the Second Coming will only begin then. That will be the day the action will be seen by all. But it is not just on that day that the Lord will suddenly know who will be destroyed.
He knows who will be destroyed even now. He knows who will repent, and He knows who will not repent. So when He says, “You come now, repent while you still can because you are running out of your chances.” Many are running out of their opportunities: somebody may have a hundred opportunities all their life to repent of their sins, and when the Lord sees that there are only five left, He comes to you and says, “Now you have only five left. Then. Then I’ll turn my back away from you.” 

“Act now, before the fierce fury of the Lord falls and the terrible day of the Lord’s anger begins.” 

If you run out of those five opportunities, the five out of a hundred opportunities that you had, and you don’t repent, stillthe Lord declares you His enemy.
God is not our enemy, but many humans are God’s enemy. They make themselves God’s enemy by not listening to God. But God, out of His infinite mercy and grace, still goes to them and pleads to them for them to listen. But when they cannot listen, He turns His back away. This is why many are stuck in the darkness, which is why many are there, invaded by darkness. And no matter what they do now, nothing happens because they have run out of the time God had given them. They have run out of the many opportunities that God has always been giving them. The Lord says 
“The wicked behavior of the wicked person will not condemn them if they turn to repent, and the righteous behavior of the righteous person will not save them if they turn to sin.”
God hates sins. So, while I hear many believers say, ‘Well, these words apply to those in the past,’ I must remind you that these words apply to us today because sin is not only a matter of the past, it’s a matter of now. It’s a matter of all generations. And it will continue to be until Christ Comes Again to remove that sin from the earth. Until then, even today, people are living in sin. 
Isaiah 59:1-2. 
“Listen, the Lord’s arm is not too weak to save you. His ear is not too deaf to hear you call. It is your sins that have cut you off from God because of your sins. He has turned away and will not listen anymore.”

Hear that!
Do we really want to push God continuously until we get to that moment that He will say, “It is because of your sins that I can no longer listen to you.” Because they have run out of time. They have run out of the many opportunities that God has given them, and God has seen that they will never repent. 
Even when God sees that people are not understanding things He is still telling them. But there comes a time when He says, “No more. I have talked to you. I’ve sent many to you. I have given you my time. I have made myself available for you to see me. And you have not. You have refused to see. You have refused to listen.” 
So many people will say today, ‘These words apply to the people in the past since Christ died for us and took our sins away.’ 
But yet they still live in sin. It is true Christ died on the cross and He took our sins. But when people still live in sin, and still embrace sin, and still love sin, their sins remain. They have not really welcomed Christ and what He did on the cross.
In fact, Jesus our Lord said in Luke 13:25, 
“When the master has locked the door, you will be too late. You stand outside and knock on His door and plead, ‘Please open the door. Please let me in. Open the door.’ and He will respond. ‘I don’t know you.’” 

So this is our Lord who is speaking like this. These are His words. So, let’s not take Him for granted and take what He did on the cross for granted. And think that just because He died on the cross for our sins, it is a ticket for us to still live in those sins and still take things from demons. The same God who was speaking in Isaiah 59:1-2 is the same who is speaking in Luke 13:25.
So that means what He said back then, which applied to those people back then, is still what He’s saying today, which applies to us today. So, let’s not let the enemy and the false teachings consume our minds. Let’s not let our convenience cloud our good judgment. Then the wrath of the Lord will come upon us. 

“Gather together. Yes. Gather together, you shameless nation.”

God is not approving any shameless nation. He’s calling any nation who loves sin shameless. Meaning, ‘You’re not ashamed of what you do. Stop now before it is too late for you.’
“Gather before judgment begins.”
Because in our lives, there is a time when the judgment of God will begin. When we are ignorant or still spiritually blind, the Lord might still show His mercy while waiting for us to know the truth. 
But when the time comes that He told us the truth and exposed the lies for us to see, and we still embrace lies, the judgment of God begins in our lives. Then, though, it’s on the last day that we will see the wrath of God, that judgment in our lives had already begun a long time ago. It’s not on the last day that it will begin.
That will be the result of what everyone has done. What we do now will define where we end up on the terrible day. 

“Gather before judgment begins. Before your time to repent is blown away like chaff. Act now, before the fierce fury of the Lord’s falls. And the terrible day of the Lord’s anger begins.” 

Yes. Remember that, that terrible day when it begins… It means the day in each person’s life when the Lord decides to no longer protect them. He turns His face away and we lose our protection. And now we become the prey of the devil; he will do whatever he wants. And once we get to that level, when God turns His face away, many people may not find their way back because they have gone so far.
But in case they do and plead to God and they’re really genuine, the Lord will forgive them. But let’s not tempt God. Let’s not put Him to the test. Let’s not say, ‘Oh yes, because God says ‘the wicked behavior of the wicked person will not condemn them if they turn to repent,’ because He says that… That means I still have some time to do whatever I want and… and sin and do my own will until when I finally sense that I’m about to die or a deadly sickness is threatening me, I can come to the Lord then.’ 
Well, where’s your love for God? I’m speaking here what many people say to me sometimes. ‘Well, now I just want to do my own thing first. Probably then. And then when…’
What if death comes before? While you’re waiting to do your own will until a certain time that you decide to go to God, what if death comes before that? Where does that leave you? We cannot control death. We can’t tell when we leave this earth. 

“Seek the Lord, all who are humble. Seek to do what is right and to live humbly. Perhaps even yet, the Lord will protect you. Protect you from His anger on that day of destruction.”

Yes. The Day of the Lord is the Day of Destruction. And that will be when the Lord Jesus comes again. But before then, some of us might not leave on this earth until that Day when the Lord will Come Again. Death might come before. If death came before, while you were still in your sins, you’re still going to see the Lord’s Destruction. So,
“Before the fierce fury of the Lord falls and the terrible day of the Lord’s anger begins.” 
It begins in your life. Let’s not wait on the last day before turning from our sins. Let’s not wait. While… if you are putting yourself to wait, death comes and knocks you out. What would you say to the Lord? ‘Well, I was waiting until I could see that the Last Day was about to come. Then I could give my life to you.’
Where is love? Where is love for God? Where is the love that the Lord commands that,
“If you love Me, obey my Commandments.” 
Where is love, to thank God, Jesus, for what He has done on the cross for us. Where is love for Him? Where is love for our neighbors? Because every sin that we practice, whether willingly or unwilling, hurts people around us. Any disobedience to God contributes to the suffering of this earth. It contributes to people’s pain. People are bound to be hurt by every disobedience to God. 
So, yes, the Day of the Lord is the day that no one can stand. But the Lord is speaking here beforehand, before that Day of the Lord, so that those who are wise, those who are listening, those who are humble, can listen and understand and do what the Lord wants them to do, which is to repent and turn from their shameless ways.
But God cares. God cares about you. Some may not care about themselves, but the Lord, who’s using His prophet to plead to this and even using me now to speak this, cares. He cares about you. Of course, if you don’t know the severity of what danger you’re putting yourself in, you act like you don’t care. But once you finally find yourself in that danger, you realize that you care.
These are not my words. These are not something I chose because it is my truth. This is the Lord’s word and His truth. And what He says will happen. So yes, the Lord died on the cross for us. Let us embrace that. Let’s listen to Him. Let us live for Him. Let’s not take His grace for granted.
Because even His grace will run out. His grace is forever. But we might not have His grace in our life if we never go to Him for repentance, and His grace will not keep anyone from hell when people choose not to repent. So God’s grace stands as long as we are still on this earth, in the body, as long as we repent and live for God and get to know the Lord,the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for everyone. But though He died on the cross for everyone, if we do not accept that and embrace it and welcome Him, it’s like He died for nothing in your life, alone. 
In my life, He died for something because I have accepted Him. We have accepted Him in this church and strive to live for Him. 
And I pray. I pray with all my heart that whoever hears this will listen. The Lord wants you to listen. But we all know that our Lord won’t force anyone to listen. It is you who must decide to listen. To let Him save you. 
Lord Jesus, thank You so much for your grace, Lord. I came to you. I begged You, ‘Take my life and do whatever You want with it.’ And You took my life. You did. You have been working in me. You opened my eyes to see. And now I know. I know what’s going on this earth, this world and I look around and I see. I see the pain. I see the suffering. I see people stuck in darkness. I see the devil’s schemes, his tricks and his deception. And even though they overly oppressed me, I live for You. And I thank You for opening my eyes. I thank You for opening my eyes. And I thank You for opening the eyes of those who want to see, and the ears of those who want to hear. For until we see, we cannot be saved. Lord, thank You so much for Your grace, for Your mercy. For Your love. For Your continuous patience. For Your love, Lord. It is because of that love that You keep on pleading with those who will hear. I thank You, Lord, for being such a great God, so merciful and loving and compassionate, willing to forgive even those who have done… done worse in their lives. I just pray that they won’t miss this opportunity to come to you so that you can cure them and heal them and forgive them.
I pray they will see and they will understand that You are pleading here because You know how horrible hell would be. You just want to save people from that place. If it was not such an unbearable place, You wouldn’t die on the cross to save us, Lord. Please, thank You for Your mercy on those who come to You, who finally realize they have been living in darkness.
Holy Father, I thank You so much for Your Son Jesus. It all began with love. Love, Your love, God. You, The Love, sending Love, Christ, on the cross to die for us. Love. Love beyond our comprehension. I just pray in the name of Your Son Jesus that many will let the Lord love them, and that they’ll welcome the Lord’s love. Your love, God. 
In the name of Your Son Jesus. 
Amen.