We must vanish from our heads, once and for all, the notion that perhaps God admits us into his kingdom begrudging as though our advocate Jesus Christ had found a loophole in the law,

done some fancy footwork in the plea bargaining and squeaked us by the judge.

How do we move out from under God's judgment into God's eternal joy?

That's the question John Piper answers from Zephania 3, 14 to 17 in this episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached at Bevland Baptist Church on September 25, 1982.

Chapter 1. In Chapter 1, the Prophet announces the judgment that is coming upon Judah and Jerusalem.

And you remember last week in Joel, this was called the day of the Lord.

So it is here.

Verse 7.

Be silent before the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at hand.

verses 14 and 15 use almost identical words to Joel 2-2, where it says,

the great day of the Lord is near and hastening fast,

the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter,

the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish,

a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.

But unlike Joel,

Zephania lists for us why this judgment is coming from. and and in chapter 3 verses 1 to 7 where he returns to his concern with Jerusalem.

The list begins in chapter 1 verse 4.

I will cut off the remnant of bail.

Now, Manassa, the king that was ruling in Judah just before Josiah, had set up

altars and high places to this foreign deity bail, even in the temple of Yachwa.

Well, when Josiah discovered the Book of Deuteronomy and its condemnations of idolatry, he went throughout Judea and tore down the high places, tried

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