Dear Friend,

Surprisingly, God's prophet spoke God's Word prophesying God's coming judgment on God's people in God's country. Yes, you read it correctly, God's judgment on God's people in God's country. Why?

God's prophet, Zephaniah, set forth God's reasons: "I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and punish the men that are settled on their lees ..." (Zephaniah 1:12). "Settled on their lees" refers to unrefined wine. What did that have to do with Judah's situation? Let's see.

In ancient times, wine was poured into pots or vases and allowed to sit undisturbed for a period of time, while its sediment settled to the bottom of the container. After sufficient time passed, the refiner placed a cloth over the mouth of the vase and, as he poured the wine into a new container, the cloth caught the sediment. After this removal of its sediment, the wine was purer. The purest, or most refined wines, were produced by repeating this process several times. If this refining process was omitted, or cut short, the wine became "settled on its lees," or sediment-riddled and of poor quality.

Like this substandard wine, God's covenant people in Judah had become spiritually substandard in Zephaniah's day. They were "settled on their lees" (1:12), or "settled in complacency" (NKJV), or "stagnant in spirit" (NAS). Or even more accurately, they were "complacent in their sins" (NLT). What sins?

While Zephaniah enumerates many of Judah's sin-faults, he highlights one: "The men ... that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil" (Zephaniah 1:12). Or, "They think the Lord will do nothing to them, either good or bad" (NLT). What is this sin? It is the worst of all sins: unbelief! Where is it located? "In their heart," or hidden deep inside their personal spiritual and intellectual core, or in their innermost, most secretive, private thoughts. First this devastating thought - that God would do nothing! - was consciously on their minds. Then, when they did not dismiss it as evil, it sank down into their souls, into their very subconscious minds, where it took root, and began cancelling their faith and controlling their lives!

By this point they had lost all confidence that God would intervene in their lives, either to bless or punish them. Thus, they had accepted one of Satan's favorite lies: "You have A DO-NOTHING GOD!" What brought on this spiritually deadly condition? Undoubtedly, God's slowness to act in fulfilling His promises and threats. These divine delays had convinced them He would never act. But this was a grave mistake. God is never indifferent or inactive. Nor are His delays denials of His Word.

While we wait, God works. When God delays our blessings, it's only because He is "working all things together" elsewhere to increase our blessings and joy (Romans 8:28). When God defers judgments, it's only because He is giving wrongdoers time to repent, and never because He has changed His mind about their wrongdoing. When God defers answers to our prayers, it's only because He is preparing us to receive those answers with thanksgiving and humility instead of with the typically human ingratitude that invariably leads to pride - and judgment! Thus, every divine delay, whether to bless or judge, is intentional, beneficial, and productive, and in no way evidence of His indifference or refusal to intervene.

How tragic, then, that God's own people should mistake Him for a do-nothing God - no better than lifeless, manmade idols - when in fact He is a do-it-all-God! That is, He will always do all His Word. In His time and way, He will do everything He prophesies, promises, and warns, often more (see Ephesians 3:20), and will leave nothing undone.

Not long after Zephaniah released this prophecy, God judged Judah's sinful population that was "settled on its lees" by bringing the 70-year Babylonian Captivity - which was precisely what He warned He would do in His law centuries earlier (Deuteronomy 28:49-68). This devastating blow hit its mark, leaving an indelible mark on the minds of God's people. That generation never again fell prey to the lie that He was a do-nothing God. Why review this?

We are today in the very condition described above. God's extreme forbearance with sin in this nation over the last 50 years and, more specifically, in His church, has led many Christians to the same conclusion many Judeans held: Jesus is just another do-nothing God, like the lifeless ancient idols and the impotent figurehead deities of the world's many religions.

Please stop and consider that this unbelief is itself a kind of belief. It is faith in a do-nothing God. And this do-nothing faith, ironically, does quite a bit! It actively produces do-nothing Christians - or Christians who do nothing Christ commands: "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46).

For instance, we pray, but without fervor or faith, and do not actually expect God to answer. We listen to biblical prophecies, but don't expect to see them fulfilled. We read biblical warnings, but don't expect them to come to pass. We practice sin, but don't expect divine punishments to visit us. Or we obey Christ's teachings, but do not expect Him to send rewards into our lives.

We assemble with other Christians for worship, but do not expect God to manifest His powerful, peaceful presence in our midst or enable us to hear His voice speaking personally to us through our ministers' public messages. We harbor secret sins, because we do not believe our heavenly Father, as Jesus said, is present by His Spirit "in the secret place," and "sees in secret," and therefore knows our most private acts and thoughts (Matthew 6:6, NKJV). We don't examine ourselves, because we don't believe Jesus is examining us now (see Revelation 2-3) and will also do so in the end, granting or denying us eternal rewards at His Judgment Seat.

We don't forgive, because we think God has forgotten our unforgiving spirit and cannot see our roots of bitterness. We don't give tithes and offerings, because we believe Christ is no longer observing "how the people cast money into the treasury" of the church, its ministries, or its missions (Mark 12:41).

We hear Jesus' call to the ministry, but do not answer it because, as Jonah did initially, we believe He won't hold us accountable for our rebellion. We envy sinners and carnal Christians, because God seems indifferent to their sins, yet ever insistent that we deal with ours.

We don't believe in miracles because, like 18th-century deists, we don't believe our Creator-God intervenes in the history of His own world or the lives of His own people. We know Jesus said, "I will come again" (John 14:3), and that the Bible's signs of the times are evident everywhere, but we remain unconcerned and unchanged because, well, Jesus hasn't appeared yet, has He? So, since twenty centuries have passed without Him appearing, it appears certain He won't appear today!

These are just a few of the many ways do-nothing faith in a do-nothing God creates do-nothing Christians - whose doings achieve nothing for Christ and His kingdom! They remain "complacent in their sins," because they believe God is complacent in His rule - quite content to do nothing. Yesterday. Today. And forever! Let's bring this lesson home.

How are you trending today, my friend? Are you drifting toward sleepy acquiescence in the notion that Jesus is doing little or nothing in your life? That, therefore, it doesn't really matter what you believe or how you live? Or are you trending toward mature biblical faith, toward becoming a do-it-all Christian who does everything God's written Word and His Spirit's guidance ask of you? One who is developing an increasingly rock-solid confidence that Jesus Christ is a do-it-all God? One who is growing in the peaceful assurance that Christ will always do all He prophesies, promises, and warns in His time and way, which is always the best time and way?

Summing up, do-nothing faith produces do-nothing Christians, while do-it-all faith produces do-it-all Christians - believers who joyfully believe all the Bible says about the ever-living, ever-active, often-intervening Son of God, and who joyfully do all His Word and Spirit ask, and expect Him to do all His Word promises. And one more thing.

We began this message describing God's Word prophesying God's judgment in God's land on God's people. And why? Their inverted faith! Their belief in their unbelief! Their deep, hidden yet controlling conviction that Yahweh was a do-nothing God. It took the shocking Babylonian Captivity to break its control over them. My friend, history is about to repeat itself.

Jesus will soon appear to take His bride church to heaven. But today many Christians do not believe this. Or they believe Jesus will appear, but do not believe spiritual readiness is required, despite Jesus' and His apostles' repeated, plain New Testament warnings. So, again, God needs to correct His believe-nothing, do-nothing children who are persisting in their belief in unbelief - because some delay or offense in their past convinced them He is a do-nothing God. What judgment, or corrective divine action, will it take to shock them back to spiritual reality and biblical faith? Hopefully, warnings such as this message will awaken them. If not, when Christ appears, they will be left behind to experience Israel and the world's final test, the terrible 7-year Tribulation. Make no mistake, that "Babylonian Captivity" will do the job.

Friend, listen to Zephaniah. Have nothing to do with the lie that God is a do-nothing God. Get ready, look up! You are about to see our "do-nothing God" do everything He has prophesied to do in these last days.

Getting ready, looking up,

Greg Hinnant
Greg Hinnant Ministries