Let us turn once more to God's
Word and turning to the portion that we read in Micah and the
end of chapter 2 Micah chapter 2 and I'll read verses 12 and
13 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee I will surely gather
the remnant of Israel I will put them together as the sheep
of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold. They shall
make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. The breaker
is come up before them. They have broken up and have
passed through the gates and are gone out by it. And their
king shall pass before them and the lords on the heads of them. and more particularly those words
in verse 13, to consider Christ as the Breaker, His promise of
the restoration. The Breaker is come up before
them. They have broken up and have
passed through the gate and are gone out by it. And their King
shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them. In the historical context, the
reference is to the restoration of the Jews after those 70 years
that they would spend in captivity, taken into exile, because of
those sins that the Prophet speaks so plainly against in the previous
verses. He says there in verse 5 of chapter
1, for the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins
of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of
Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places
of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? God speaks
about all their graven images shall be beaten to pieces. It
was because of their awful idolatries that God visited his judgment
upon them and removed them from the promised land and so they
found themselves for those 70 years languishing in exile amongst
the Babylonians. But here in these words, these
verses that we have at the end of this chapter we certainly
have that promise that God will yet gather them again to himself
He says, I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the
flock in the midst of their foes. We can think of the words that
we find at the end of Ezekiel 36, where God says, I will yet
for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for
them. I will increase them with men
as a flock. And then it goes on, of course,
in chapter 37 of Ezekiel to speak of that vision that is shown
to the prophet, the vision of the valley that's full of dry
bones. And this is Israel languishing
there in the captivity. They will be brought together
and they will become a great army and they will be restored
in God's appointed time. But there is something greater
than that deliverance and that return from captivity when we
read the words of the prophets. Isn't the Lord Jesus Christ himself
the spirit of prophecy? Did he not say to the Jews, search
the Scriptures? These are they that testify of
me. And surely, principally, the
promise that we have here in our text this morning, these
words in verse 13, very much center in the Lord Jesus Christ. We read of Him as the Breaker,
He is spoken of as their King who passes before them, and then
ultimately we see Him as the Lord, that is Jehovah, at the
very head of All of these words clearly refer to the Lord Jesus
Christ, that One who is indeed the King of Kings and the Lord
of Lords, who comes to deliver His people, the One who goes
before them. When we come to the end of Scripture,
there in the last book, in the book of the Revelation, Revelation
19.15, We're told, out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that
with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a
rod of iron, and he treadeth down the winepress of the fierceness
of the wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and
on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. Oh, this is the one who goes
before his people as their deliverer. in the course of his humiliation,
when we see him at that first coming into the world, when we
see him veiled in flesh, when we see him as one despised and
rejected of the people, even then we are reminded time and
again of the glories that belong unto him. Remember how he speaks
to the Jews in John chapter 8, if ye believe not that I am hurt,
If you believe not that I am, literally, He says, you shall
perish in your sins. Before Abraham was, I am. Oh, He truly is that One who
is the Lord God, manifest in the flesh. And so, as we come
to consider these words this morning, the Breaker, He's come
up before them. They have broken up, and have
passed through the gate, and are gone out by it. And their
King shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them. I want us to consider the Lord
Jesus Christ in this office as the Breaker. It is one of the
names that is given to Him as He executes that great work that
He undertakes in terms of the eternal covenant. and first of
all to see how he is the breaker with regards to salvation. And we see that in the way in
which he accomplishes salvation. Has he not broken by his great
work here upon the earth all the powers of darkness? Has he not broken up the kingdom
of Satan? Oh, is he not that one who has
come and by that great sacrifice has paid the ransom price for
his people? Remember how Paul, time and again
in his epistles, reminds those infant churches of the significance
of the work that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished. Writing,
for example, to the Colossians, Colossians 1.20, He says, And
having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to
reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Or this is the work. The sinner
in that state of enmity and alienation, he has come and he has reconciled
such unto the Lord God. Again he can say, And you, being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you? all trespasses, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His
cross. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it." He has broken sin. He has broken all the machinations
of Satan. This is the great work that the
Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished by his death upon the cross. He is our peace, Paul says to
the Ephesians. Having broken down that middle
wall of partition, that that was there between Jew and Gentile
in the Old Testament, God says to Israel, you only have I known
of all the nations of the earth. No hope really for the Gentiles,
but with the coming of Christ that middle wall of partition
is gone, broken down. And there is now that salvation
that is to be proclaimed even to the ends of the earth. Who
is the breaker? The breaker is come up before
the And what has he done? Or the hymn writer says this
breaker once made sin to be did from the curse is Israel free. No more the sinner under that
curse of the broken law because this one has come and in accomplishing
his work he has paid that ransom price that the holy righteous
and just Lord of God demands. Again, remember the language
of Paul, this time as he writes to the Galatians, as many as
are of the works of the Lord, he says, are under the curse.
For cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things written in
the book of the law to do them. If a man keeps the whole law
of God, James says, if he offends him one point, he is guilty of
all. All that law, it demands a full
complete and perfect obedience, and one transgression alone will
condemn. That is the dreadful curse that
comes. And what is the transgression? Not necessarily a wicked deed,
not necessarily a sinful word, but even a lustful thought is
sin. And the man keeps the whole law
and he offends once, in one point. He has one impure thought in
his life and he's condemned. That is the curse of the law.
But Christ, says Paul to those Galatians, hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. He is that one then
who has come to break all the power of sin, and He has done
it by the life that He lived and by the death that He died. He has satisfied the law in all
its particulars, in all its precepts. He has vanquished sin and Satan. He has triumphed now over death
and over the grave. O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin. The
strength of sin is the law. But thank me to God who giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the work
of salvation and what he has accomplished. He has actually
accomplished a great work. He has destroyed all the powers
of darkness. When we think of his work with
regards to salvation, it's not just the matter of the accomplishment
of it in the life lived and the death
of his dying. There must also, of course, be
the application that Christ has done must be made a blessed reality
in the lives, in the souls of all his people. And when he comes
to the work of conversion, do we not see him again as that
one who is the breaker? The breaker is come up before
them. They have broken up and have
passed through the gate and are gone out by it. Here is the application. It's interesting the language
that is used. It says they have broken up and
have passed through the gate and are gone out by it. We might
even think here in terms of the children at school at the end
of the term when they come to break up, when they go out through
the gate, when they depart. That's a sort of imagery that
we have set before us, passing through the gates. going out
by it. You see, in this work of the
Breaker, we see the Lord Jesus Christ as that one who is the
conquering king, who brings his people out. Oh, it becomes so
real in their lives, it's so personal. Isn't this the promise
that we have? that word that is spoken to the
Lord Jesus Christ in the psalm. So many of the psalms, of course,
are prophetic, messianic, they speak of him. And we're familiar
with the language there in the 110th psalm. The Lord said unto
my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies
thy footstool. The Lord shall send a rod of
thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thy
of thine enemies thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning
thou hast the Jew of thy youth." Oh here is that one who is able
to deliver his people, he makes them a willing people. By nature they that in that condition
where they are his enemies, alienated remember how Paul speaks again
writing to the Ephesians this time and that church at Ephesus
principally made up of sinners converted from amongst the Gentiles
but Paul reminds them of what they were and then what they
became by the grace of God But what were they by nature? Well,
he speaks there in chapter 4, having the understanding darkened,
he says, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts, the
hardness of their hearts, the old nature, the carnal mind,
the natural mind. He says it's enmity against God,
it's not subject to the law of God. Neither, indeed, can be. And all the strength of the language
that we find the apostle using when he speaks of the condition
of man by nature. And how strong those words are
there in Romans 8, 7. Speaking of the mind of man,
his natural mind, It says, that mind is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. So easy sometimes to misquote
the scripture. I've done it, and doubtless I
still do it many a time, but you know I've been struck by
the fact that we can so easily misquote a verse like that, concerning
what man's mind is, not subject to the law of God, Neither can
be, we might say. And we miss out that significant
word indeed. What an emphasis. It's an impossibility. That man's old nature should
ever change. That that he's born of the flesh
is flesh. And that that he's born of the
spirit is spirit. The old nature never changes.
This is why a sinner must be born again. He must be born from
above. He must be a partaker of a new
nature. And Peter speaks of believers
as those who are partakers of the divine nature. That seed
that is in them that can never see. Oh, but that conflict you
see between the old nature and the new nature. Oh friends, how
we have to learn in our experience what our real condition is by
nature. Our lost condition. Our state
of alienation. And this is how the Lord comes
as the breaker. He breaks up our cell. We sang
it just now in our opening hymn. God has concluded them all, Paul
says, in unbelief. that he might have mercy upon
all those that he saves those that he brings to true saving
faith he first of all concludes them all in unbelief he shuts them up to what they
are remember the prayer of Moses the man of God there in Psalm
90 thou turnest man to destruction That's the work of the Breaker
when He breaks us up. Thou turnest man to destruction
and sayest, return ye children of men. We have to be brought
to that even to the end of ourselves to see that there is nothing
in us, nothing that we can do. We have to learn the awful truth
of our total depravity, what sin really is. Oh, this is why
there must be one who is the breaker. The breaker has come
up before them. They have broken up and have
passed through the gate, it says, and are gone out by it. Oh, the glorious work, you see,
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Christ who is the one that
conquers. even when it comes to the application
of that great work of redemption. Think of the manner in which
God goes about these things. We have those words in Jeremiah
4, 3, "...break up your fellow grounds, and sow not among thorns."
When we read such words, the breaking up of the fellow grounds
not sowing among thorns. Does he not remind us of the
ministry of the Lord Jesus when he tells that parable of the
sower and his seed? And the sower makes a broad cast. The seed falls on all manner
of ground. But there is that good soil.
And it is that good soil that really receives the seed. You
see, there must be that breaking up. of the fallow ground, how
the Lord must come and break up the sinner's hearts. He's
not my word like as a fire, says Jeremiah. He's the mouthpiece
of the Lord. He's speaking the words of the
Lord, not his own words. He's not my words like as a fire,
saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rocks in pieces. This is how the sinners hard
heart must be broken in order that there might be that sowing
of the good seed and that seed taking roots downward and their
bearing fruit upwards. What a power is necessary in
order that that sinner who is shut up to what he is as a sinner
full of unbelief remember that that unbelief is at the very
root of all sin it's there in the garden of Eden In Genesis
chapter 3 when our first parents disobeyed God, what is the cause?
It's unbelief. Unbelief is the cardinal sin.
And that's what we are by nature. How can we ever come to saving
faith? It's a great power. It's the mighty work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Savior. All that same power that is there
in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus must come into the soul
of the sinner. Those words, that language that
we have in Ephesians 1, the exceeding greatness of his power to us
will do believe according to the working of his mighty power
which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead.
Oh, it's in the same manner as that power that was there when
Christ was raised. Not just the power of God, not
just the great power of God, no, Paul says the exceeding greatness
of His power to us would who believe. The Lord has to break
open the heart of the sinner. And isn't that what happened
with Lydia? His heart, the Lord opened. The Lord did it. He opens the heart, breaks up
the heart of that woman and she receives the ministry of the
Apostle. She believes the things spoken
by Paul. God be says he breaks his children's
hearts in twain and brings proud nature down. This is how the
work is accomplished. That is that work that is wrought
in the soul of the sinner as salvation is brought home and
applied. We have to see ourselves. We
have to know something of ourselves and what we are and our hopeless
and our helpless condition, our complete impotence. But then
we have to recognize the great power. of the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ or Christ is that one you say who is the breaker
who is not only accomplished the salvation of his people but
is there in the application of that salvation or do we know
him in that capacity as he comes to us what is the effect? what
is the effect? Well, there is, among other things,
a sanctifying effect here. When we think of breaking obviously,
passing through the gates, going out spite, there's a moving on,
as it were, there's coming into a new place. There's such a change
now in the life of a man. If any man be in Christ, Paul
says he's a new creature, a new creation. Old things are passed
away. All things are become new. Now, Micah here, we have to see
it in the historical context. He does speak of real events
in the history of the children of Israel. And it's all specifically
set in an historical context, a particular period of time in
the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah kings of Judah this
is when the Prophet is ministering about a hundred years or so before
the Babylonian exile and he speaks of the wickedness of the men
of those days we've referred already to their gross idolatries
here at the beginning of chapter 2, woe to them that devise iniquity
and work evil upon their beds when the morning is light they
practice it because it is in the power of their hand and they
covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take
them away so they oppress or defraud a man and his house even
the man and his heritage or the wickedness of men he's speaking
of these wicked men but Can we not interpret this also
with regards to ourselves, to the Gospel? Can we not interpret it in that
spiritual sense? Remember how David in the 139th
Psalm prays to God. Search me, O God, he says. Know
my heart, try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be
any wicked way in me. and lead me in the way everlasting. That's David's prayer. And here
we read of men, you see, devising iniquity upon their beds, their
evil thoughts, their wicked machinations, or their plans, their purposes. Well, it's Christ who will break
up all those works of darkness. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
does with regards to our own enemies. And I suppose chief
amongst our enemies really when we think about it is ourselves. It's ourselves, was it not that
good Scots minister Ralph Erskine who said, or that I had not a
myself. He felt myself, the real me,
to be his chief foe, his greatest enemy the old nature that we
just said can never be changed oh it's the Lord Jesus Christ
who must come and break up all the powers of darkness in our
fallen nature and how does he do it? well it's the work of
the Lord Jesus that lovely passage that we have
in in Isaiah chapter 9 concerning Christ and His birth, you know,
the passage, the Child born, the Son given,
but look at the context. Verse 4 it says, For thou hast
broken the yoke of His burden, and the staff of his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every
battle of the warrior is with confused noise and garments rolled
in blood, but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government
shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. Of the increase of his government
and peace there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David and
upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the
Lord of Hosts will perform this." Well, this is the Word, you see.
of Him who is the Breaker. And the Breaker is that one spoken
of in verse 6. When the fullness of the time
has come God sends forth His Son made of a woman. Here is the Son that is given.
But here also is that Child born. How Mary was told, the Holy Ghost
shall come upon thee, the power of the Highest shall overshadow
therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of the earth
shall be called the Son of God that holy thing that human nature that was joined
to the person of the eternal Son of God and he comes you see
to break the yoke of his bird and the staff of his shoulder
or he comes as that one who not only vanquishes sin in terms
of the guilt of sin, but the power of sin. The power of sin. He breaks the power of cancelled
sin and sets the prisoner free. Though if God is made unto us
wisdom, righteousness and sanctification, He comes to sanctify His people.
For this is how He breaks them, He brings them out, He delivers
them. He delivers them from sin in
every sense. How does He do it? He chastens
His people. And by His chastenings, He breaks
them off from their sins. Later in chapter 6, verse 9,
we read, The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, The man of wisdom
shall see thy name, hear you the rod, and do as appointed
it. Oh, there is a rod you see. In
a sense, He comes to break the back of His people. He will break
them from their sins. There is that that He's spoken
of concerning the chastenings of the Lord. Remember how Paul
speaks of it there in Hebrews 12. He says at verse 9, Furthermore,
we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave
them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily
for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for
our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous but grievous, nevertheless after would it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby. Or there is that that is of real
profit. He makes his children by year,
his breaking of them to be partakers. of His righteousness. He makes them a holy people also.
This is the great work then that the Lord Jesus Christ does as
the breaker, that work of salvation. How He has accomplished it, by
His coming, by His living, by His dying. Oh, He has defeated
all the powers of darkness. But how, thank God, He comes
and makes it a blessed reality. in the soul of the sinner there's
an application and we need that friends to know that great work
of God in our souls, that work of regeneration whereby we are
unable to believe and looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ to know Him who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption that as it is written here that
glory hath let him glory in the Lord but then let me just also
say something with regards to how we to see him as the breaker
also in the realm of providence in the realm of providence Psalm
107 speaks of God's providence it speaks of men in the various
stations different conditions of life and you remember how
that psalm concludes who so is wise and will observe these things
even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord or
to observe the providences of God and how God is our breaker
there is a mystery in God's providence it's a deep mystery there's much
that we find so perplexing The book of Esther, of course, is
a remarkable book with regards to the providence of God. As
you know, in Esther, God's name is not used once. And yet, the
book is full of the works of God, His providential dealings
with Esther, with her uncle Mordecai. His overthrowing of all the wicked
intentions of Haman, the great enemy of the Jews and we're told
at one point there in Esther chapter 3 how the city Shushan
was perplexed oh there in the city there was
much confusion how perplexing are the ways and the dealings
of God, it seemed that the Jews were going to be utterly destroyed
but it was not so read the book of Esther and remember the Lord
Jesus Christ as that one who who breaks up all the devices
of the devil Christ is the one who leads his people and he leads
them through all their trials and all their troubles and he makes a way for them He's
the breaker. You know the language that we
find in, again, in the prophecy of Isaiah. Familiar words. To many of you, I'm sure, they're
in chapter 14. Verse 4, every valley shall be exalted, and
every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Oh, He makes a way,
you see. The valley exalted, the mountain,
the hill made low. What a great work it is that
the Lord does in His providences. Again He says, chapter 45, I
will go before thee and make the crooked places straight,
I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in thunder
the bars of iron." And this all has to do with Cyrusus, the man
who issues that decree that the Jews are to return out of the
captivity, returning under Ezra and the rebuilding of the temple there in Jerusalem. How God, you see, is the one
who is able to overcome all these things. Previously here in chapter
1 of Micah we are told, "...the mountain shall be molten unto
him, the valley shall be cleft as wax before the fire, and as
the waters are poured down a steep place." Oh, the great power of
God! He can do these things. Nothing
is impossible with Him. But what a mystery, all the mystery
of His ways. And now we have to pray to Him,
lead me in a plain path, says the psalmist. That's His desire,
that God would make His way plain, clear. Again, in the language
of Psalm 5. Lead me, O Lord, in Thy righteousness
because of mine enemies. Make Thy way straight. before
my face? Or can we enter into these prayers
and these petitions of the Psalmist? Now we have to seek wisdom. The Lord Jesus is made unto us,
not only sanctification, He's made our wisdom. And where is
that wisdom found here in the Word of God? Thy Word is a lamp
unto my feet, a light unto my path. It's here that we find
instruction and direction. There's not only the promises.
We have this morning this great promise concerning the work of
the breaker. All thank God for the promises. But so often the
promises are also bound up, are they not, with the precepts.
How the Lord instructs us and directs us when we come to the
epistles. We have so many exhortations
when we come to the concluding part of those epistles of Paul all were to be those then who
would seek that the Lord be our teacher and our instructor in
all these things in salvation, in providence in everything,
the breaker He's come up before them they have broken up and
have passed through the gate and are gone out by it and their
King shall pass before them and the Lords on the heads of them."
Oh God grant then that we might be those who do have ears to
hear these things and desire only to be obedient to Him who
is always the Great Head of the Church. The Lord bless His Word
to us for His name's sake. Amen. Let us now sing our concluding
phrase, the hymn 553. And the tune is Belmont 101. The breaker is gone forth in
love with power and skill divine. descending from the realms above
to quell his foes and mine. In love to Zion he has broke
the powers of death and hell, and there from Sinai's dreadful
yoke has broken off as well." The Hymn 553.