If you will take your Bibles
and turn with me to Micah, Micah chapter 2. Our text will be found
in verses 12 and 13. Micah chapter 2, verses 12 and
13. The title of the message this
morning is The Breaker of Sin. The Breaker of Sin. God says, 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 a great noise by reason of the multitude of men. Here
it is in verse 13, the breaker. This is another title for the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Breaker. And we'll see that a little bit
later on. The Breaker is come up before
them. They have broken up and they
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. The Lord shall lead
them. The Lord is in front of them.
Now, in this book of Micah, it is a book of great promises,
but it is surrounded by great destruction. Great promises and
woes, promises of destruction. And in this, first of all, we
can see the depravity of man in this. God is, first of all,
demonstrating, picturing to us the depravity of our human nature. In chapter 1, the whole first
chapter is filled with sadness and hopelessness. I mean, you
start Micah out and you start in the first chapter and you
just stop. Man, it seems hopeless. It seems that the condition is
so bad that there's no sense in reading the rest because it's
so hard. It's so difficult. It's so melancholy. It's just downcast. The whole first chapter is sad.
because it pictures to us the condition of all of us by nature. Look at verse 2 of chapter 1.
Hear, all ye people, hearken, O earth, and all that is therein
is. And let the Lord God be witness
against you, the Lord from His holy temple. For behold, the
Lord cometh forth out of His place and will come down and
tread upon the high places. Tread. In other words, to smash
them into the dust. To crush them. As you would take
a piece of pottery and put your foot under it and tread it and
crush it, demolish it so that it is of no use, no value, But it is nothing but to be discarded,
cast out, and put in a fire. Nothing. It's worthless. It's
empty. When God shall come, the Word hears a warning to everyone. Listen to me. Every one of you,
listen to me. This warning is to all people
of the earth. God said, Hear ye all people. I will come down and tread on
the wicked. I will crush you with my almighty
wrath. That's what God says. I will
come down in judgment. Friends, God is holy. God is
righteous. He is just. He is far above whatever
it is we think of God. He is higher, infinitely higher
than that. Now, I know somewhat about holiness. I have no idea exactly how holy
God is, but whatever it is I can think is far above that. You see, you and I, we're sinners. We can forgive one another readily
without justice. If you come up and you stomp
on my toe and say, I hate you, Well, see, I'd probably come
back next week and say, oh, I'm sorry. I was just angry. I'd say, okay. You know why? Because I understand. I've probably
done that in some manner to someone else. And so I can just slide
it under the rug without any payment. God can't do that with
sin. God must punish sin. God will
punish all sin. This is important. God will not
slide one sin under the rug. He will not overlook sin. His
eyes are His flame of fire. He's seeking out sin in all the
earth so that He might punish it. God is love. But friends, if
you miss God as justice, you miss the beginning of the gospel.
If you miss the person of God and you start, go right to the,
most people just skip this, go right to the love, they don't
have any understanding of what atonement is. They have no understanding
of the great sacrifice of Christ if they don't know the character
of God. God is holy. He's immutable.
He's unchangeable. He is almighty. He is omnipotent. He is omniscient. He knows everything
about you. There are sins that every one
of us have committed that we would not even tell our spouse. Or our closest family member
about. Every one of us. Every one of
us has a sin that who I hope nobody finds that out. God already
did. And he knows it. Perfectly. It was. exposed to Him. And you can't hide. You can't
hide. Where shall you go that you would
hide from God? If He's in the mountains, you're
in the mountains. He's there. You're in the depths of the sea. He's
there. You go into space. He's there. You cannot hide from
Him. His eyes see all sin and He must
punish all sin. No one can escape this. Not one
of us will escape this. All of our sins will be punished. Every sin that you and I have
committed, God must punish it. Must punish it. Friends, God will discover your sins. I may hide them from you and
you may hide them from me, but God knows them already. You're
exposed. Look at this in verse 6. Look at verse 6. Therefore, I
will make Samaria as a heap of the field and as the planting
of the vineyard, and I will pour down the stones, pull, pour down
the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations
thereof. You see, they were worshipping
false gods in Samaria. And they had built up these big
monuments to these gods. And God says, I'll tear those
stones down and I'll expose the foundation of your gods. They're
nothing. They're nothing. Friends, God
has already turned over and discovered who we are. You don't have to
pretend. How often do we pretend with
each other? We put on a face. And somehow we think that that
face is going to, we can make that face with God and kind of
cover over our sins. If we don't think about it or
don't pray about it, maybe He won't know it. No. He knows it.
He knows it already. He knows you. He knows your heart. He knows your motives. He knows
your mind. He knows your will. He knows
everything about you. that you wouldn't tell anyone
else. He's discovered the foundation, and it's exposed. And you know
what? God in His Word exposes it to
everyone. In Matthew, the Lord Jesus Christ
was confronted by those Pharisees who thought that if you washed
your hands, you would be holy. If you didn't wash your hands,
you'd be unclean. Jesus said, That's, that's a lie. That's
a lie. He said, out of the heart proceeds
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts. All of these things come
from the heart. They come from the heart and
go into the mind and out through the body. They don't come from
the outside in. They come from the inside out.
Man has a heart problem. His heart is diseased. His heart
is full of sin. Full of sin. These are things that defile
a man. The heart defiles a man. Corruption in his heart. He is
so full of sin. Flip over to Micah chapter 7
and look at verse 2. The good man is perished out
of the earth. Where's the good man? He's gone. Is there any
good? Nope. He's perished out of the
earth. And there is none upright among
men. They all lie in wait for blood. They hunt every man his brother
with a net, that they may do evil with both hands. He's not talking about somebody
else. He's talking about you. He's
talking about me. See, that's the first thing we
do when we hear of depravity is we start listening to other
people. We listen. Oh yeah, oh yeah, I can see him. Oh yeah, I can understand. Go
at him. No, I'm talking to you. I'm speaking
to you. Personally, intimately, this
is our nature and every one of us has it. And it is so full
of sin that there is no goodness in us. None whatsoever. Our best deeds are as menstrual
cloths in the eyes of God. It's not my word, that's God's
word. Man's ruin is total. When Adam fell, he did not break
his arm. He broke his neck. He's dead. I was watching a movie with the
kids the other day and this guy said, well, he's only partially
dead. Partially dead? How is that partially
dead? You laugh at that. There's nothing
partially dead. You're either dead or there's
not. You're either dead or you're
not. Partially. That's what man believed. They
believed man's partially dead. That he's got half of his body's
good and half of it's evil. God says there is nobody good
in all the earth. Is that not clear? Is that not
plain? Just in case you missed it, we're
no good. We're no good. We cannot give
anything to God or add one thing to God by our doing. Nothing. Everything we do is sin. Everything. Everything. Everything. We not only sin, we sin with
both hands. We don't just halfway sin. There
is no such thing as halfway sin, is there? There's no such thing
as a half-truth. There's a lie and there's not.
See, God is very plain. We confuse things to make ourselves
feel better. We add levels of what's good
and what's bad. Well, that's good, but it's not
so bad. And this is not so good, but
it's really bad. No, all sin is bad. And all sin
deserves hell forever. One lie. And God could send you
to hell forever for one lie. But I know you ain't just told
one. I know because I haven't. And
if you tell me that you have, you just told another one. So
that makes two. So, we are so full of sin. So full of sin and
absolutely free from all righteousness. This is the declaration of universal
depravity, absolute ruin of man as it is brought out by the Holy
Spirit. Why then did the Holy Spirit
begin with this in this book? Why did He begin with such a
melancholy, such a sad condition? Because salvation always comes
this way. There is no hope of life if there
is no realization of death. There is no forgiveness of sins
if there is no sinner that needs forgiveness. You see, God begins where we
are. And He never holds back. He never
holds back. And this is the word that the
Holy Spirit uses to lead men to Christ. To lead men to Christ. The law does nothing to give
us any comfort. Nothing. Have you ever been in an uncomfortable
chair for a long time? I'm glad we got the cushions
because these things used to be very uncomfortable. I'll tell you what, you stay
there long enough and man, you'll get up and get out. It'll annoy
you so much that you'll have to get up and move away from
that place. And this is what the law does. The law comes in
in the power of the Spirit and it drives us to Christ. We want to get so far away from
that law that we run to Christ. You don't have to tell a man
to come to Christ. He'll come running. He'll come running when
God saves him. And this is what God uses. He
uses our condition. He shows us His glory, His holiness,
and our wickedness and our sins. The power of the Holy Spirit
will never lead a man to Christ without first discovering the
sin of his heart. All who are saved by grace will repent and sue God for mercy. Look at chapter 1 in Micah. I'm
trying to stay close by here so you don't lose your place
in Micah. Some of you probably haven't been here for a while,
so look in Micah chapter 1 verse 8. Therefore, I will wail and
howl, I will go stripped and naked. Oh, that sinners would hear their
condition. And I'll tell you, a man that
hears his condition will do this. He will weep and he will howl. In this condition, there's no
hope. There's no hope. If I were to close the book on
this and we were to walk out of here, we would be the most
sad people on the face of God's earth. Oh, that sinners would hear and
wail because of their sins. Man, I've heard people cry and
I've heard people wail about the consequences of their sins.
Haven't you? Their sins come in and they have
the consequences of the sin. They say, oh man, I hate sin. Oh, I hate sin. I hate sin. Oh,
I want to believe in Christ. And sure enough, when the consequences
goes away, so did they. So did their faith. You see,
they didn't want to be saved from sin. They just wanted to
be saved from the consequence of sin. They had no idea who
they really are and who God really is. Because if a man meets God,
If God reveals Himself to a man, he'll never forget what he saw. He'll never forget who he is.
And he'll never forget who God is. And that man wants mercy. You
see, I don't want help. I want mercy. I don't want God
to give me a pat and a push. I want God to save me and give
me life. That's what I want. I need resurrection
from the dead, not a band-aid of religion. And friend, come as you are. Man, God revealed that to you.
Don't try to make it better. It only grows worse. Isn't that
what the woman that had the issue of blood, she went to those doctors
and the scripture says she grew none the better but only worse.
You go to religion and you'll only grow worse and not better. God reveals who He is and who
you are. You go to works, you'll only grow worse. You try to patch
it up and move on, you'll only grow worse. Come as you are to
Christ. Plead for mercy. Plead for mercy. And I know this. He will save
you. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Number two, this book gives us
the discovery and hope of the breaker. Not only does this book
begin with the discovery of our sin nature, it also gives us
the remedy. It also gives us hope. It also
gives us Christ in the scriptures. And here he is found in verse
13. The breaker is come up before
them. Sinners, I want you to hear the
promise of God and the hope of all fallen men. Look in verse
12. I will. There's the hope of all
mankind. There's the hope of all sinners.
God said, I will. If you've got no I will from
God, you've got no assurance of anything. You must have thus saith the
Lord, or you have no hope in it." Well, I'm just hoping, I'm
just hoping God's going to accept my best. Do you have an I will? Because I do. I have an I will. Do you? God's not going to accept
your best. God says, I will not accept their
best. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. That's what God says. So, your
best is worthless. And God is going to send you
to hell if you go with your best. Well, I don't believe that. Well,
I'm sorry. But I have an I will. You don't. God says, I will. And therefore, there's hope.
He will what? He said, I will assemble. Oh, Jacob. All of them. What is that? This is a promise. God says, I will save my church. I will save my elect people. Israel, that nation, was only
a type, it was only a picture of God's true Israel. His elect
that he chose from the foundation of the world. If God had not
chosen a people for Himself, none of us would have ever chosen
Him. There would be no salvation if
God had not chosen a people. Now, this offends natural man
that God would choose some and pass by others. It really doesn't
matter to me. That's what God says. It's what
God has done. It is what God has willed to
do. And God says, I will bring Jacob My people. I will. And how many of them
will He bring? All of them. All of them. He said, I will surely gather
the remnant. What is a remnant? Isn't that
a portion of a group? A remnant? Yeah, it's a remainder. There's a big group. All of us
here can be one group. But God says, I'm going to take
a remnant, a small portion of that for myself. Out of all the
men of all the world that has ever lived, God has set aside
a remnant for himself. Remember Elijah, he thought he
was the only one left. He thought, he said, oh woe is
me, take me God and kill me. Because there's nobody believes
you but me. And I'm so great. I believe you. So just, you know, look at my
faith. I said, even kill me. I believe you that much. And
he said, just calm down. I've got 7,000 men. Do you realize
that there were over 2 million people in the land at that time? And God only reserved 7,000 out
of 2 million for Himself? It's a remnant. This idea that God loves everyone
without exception is a lie. It's not in Scriptures. They
don't have an I will. They don't. For Jacob have I
loved, but Esau have I hated. You see, God doesn't begin to
love people. Because if He ever began to love
you, He would change. And God doesn't change. He's
the same yesterday, today, and forever. He has loved me in eternity. He loves me in time. And He will
love me in eternity. If He's hated a man in eternity,
He's hated a man in time. He will always hate a man. God
doesn't change. Doesn't change. He said, I will. I will put them together as the
sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the midst of their fold." And
what's going to happen then? They shall. God says, I will, and they shall. That's how it works. You see,
I am saved because God willed it so. He said, Fred Evans will
believe on my son. And you know what? I shall. Believe on his son. I have. I am right now, and by God's
grace, I will till I die believe on his son only because he willed
it so. Only because He willed it so.
This is the great assurance and promise. This is the only hope
for sinners, is that God said, I will! And praise God that He
has willed to save some. I'll tell you what, if this offends
you, you really haven't heard the first part. You've missed the first part
if this is offensive. You see, we all deserve hell. And if God gave every man hell,
we would just be getting what we deserved. But praise God in
grace, He has chosen some. He said He would, and He will
gather them. He will bring them into one field, one fold. Jesus Christ said in John 10,
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and I give unto them eternal
life. And no man shall pluck them out
of My hands. For My Father which gave them
Me is greater than all. No man shall pluck them out of
His hands." Is that not security? Is that
not the most sure thing in all the world that His sheep will
hear His voice? Not the preacher's voice. Not
my voice. His voice. His Word. His message. And this is the Holy Spirit that
comes in power to reveal Christ. He reveals it to His remnant. Jesus Christ is the one that
God gave His sheep to. And they will come to Christ. The remnant of Israel that were
children of wrath, even as others. But by God's grace, though we
were strangers from the covenant of promise and separated by sin.
God has sent Christ to be the breaker. The breaker. This is a good this word breaker
means a breach. A breach. You know, if you were
storming a castle and the big walls, you would have to have
a breach somewhere. You would have to be able to
either scale the wall or you would break the wall down so
that you could have access into the enemy stronghold. That's
what a breaker is. It's a breach. A bridge, if you
will. A bridge. Even so, Christ Jesus is the
breaker of the law and sin. What separated us from God? The
law. The law. The law says, the soul
that sinneth, it shall surely die, and we have all sinned.
How in the world can that be broken down? The only way is
if there is someone to obey the law in our place. And Jesus Christ has made a breach. He is the mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus. He's the breach. He's the way
to God. He's the way through the law.
He made a way through it. by His obedience of it. And He broke down that middle
wall of partition. You remember in the Holy of Holies,
what separated those two inner rooms? What separated those priests
from the Holy of Holies? A veil. A veil, a curtain separated
them. What happened when Christ died?
The veil was rent in two and there was access to God. A breaker! He came and broke
down the walls of partition that separated us from God. And now
He says, come and welcome. Come. How? Only by the breaker. Only way in is by the breach. You won't be able to go around
this wall, you won't be able to go over this wall, and you
won't be able to dig under this wall. Go through the breach Christ
has made. It is the way. Christ made a breach by becoming
all our righteousness. And by shedding of His blood
on the cross, He paid for all our sins. Now, didn't I tell
you God was going to Punish all sin? Didn't I say that? That's
because God says that. He will punish all sin. Well,
how's there hope for me? God punished my sins in Christ. To the fullest degree and measure
of His justice, God poured out hell on Christ. For what? My sins. My sins. Did Christ pay for all our sins? Some people believe He paid for
all of the sins of all men. Well, that's not true. That's
not true. If He paid for the sins of all
men, then there would be no hell. And people say, well, He paid
for all sins but unbelief. Where in Scripture does faith
ever pay for unbelief. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins. If Christ paid for every sin
but unbelief, we're still all going to hell. Christ paid for
all the sins of all His people. He said, it is Finished. What else is there for us to
do? Nothing. Nothing. What do we have to do
for this righteousness? Nothing. Nothing. You see, my faith doesn't add
to His righteousness. I believe because He gave me
faith. I didn't have any faith myself. He had to give it to
me. And I believe that Jesus Christ has broken down every
one of my sins that stood before me, between me and God, and now
He has made a breach so that I have access to the throne of
God at any time I want. I have access to Him at all times. And this breaker has come up.
Look at that in your text. The breaker has come up. You
know, that word means ascended. I love this. It just gets better
and better. Ascended! What happened to Christ
after He had broken down the wall of partition? He ascended
to the throne of God. where He now sits ruling over
all things after the counsel of His own will. What is He doing? What is Christ doing? He's moving all things to save
His people from their sins. That's it. He's doing all things for the
good of His people and the glory of God. A leaf when it falls
to the ground, doesn't fall without His permission. And so all of
the troubles and trials we have, believer in Christ, it is because
our breaker has given them to us. It is because Christ has
willed our troubles for our good. For our good. He does all things after the
counsel of His own will. He is now risen and ascended
and we serve a living Savior. This is vitally important. Jesus
Christ is alive. You believe that? I'll tell you, many times I don't
act like I believe that. Thou hast given Him power over
all flesh. Do you believe that? A lot of times I don't act like
I believe that. We should always believe that
because that's true. That's true. He has power over
your flesh and He has power over all flesh. And He does with us
as He pleases. How are we to reckon ourselves? Should we reckon ourselves to
be great? Should we reckon ourselves to be proud and boastful? Scripture
says we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Have you accounted
yourself as a sheep before a slaughter? That's how every believer should
account their life. Whatever you will. And they have passed through
the gate and are gone out of it, and their king shall pass
before them. Those who have the breaker have
bowed to Christ." What a peace it is to be at the
feet of Christ. Is there any other joy? Is there any other peace? than
to lay at His feet and hear His Word. Not for us. Our King passes before
us every day. He speaks to our hearts every
day. He comforts us with His Word. He embraces us in our troubles. He holds our hand. He holds our
heart. And we have access to Him all
the time. Isn't that great? Do you have access to your president? No. We're not rich enough or
powerful enough to get there. Well, don't worry. I have an
access all right. I have an access to a king. And he is the king
of every president. He's my king. He's my king. And the king, the Lord is on
the head of them. He leadeth me. O blessed thought,
words with heavenly comfort fraught, whate'er I do, where'er I be,
it is my God that leadeth me." Is that not great? It should
be. Considering what we are by nature,
ruined, Considering what He has done, I will save you. What He has accomplished by the
blood and righteousness of Christ for us, it is finished. Christ has risen on the throne
of doing all things for our good. Our King has set His throne in
our hearts and He leads us. We don't even have to guess where
to go. You don't have to guess. God tells you what we're to be
about, our Father's business. You know, you're here for none
other reason but to glorify God. If you're a believer in Christ,
that's all you're here for. And if you live past today, it'll
be for the glory of God. If it won't be for the glory
of God, we won't make past today. Sheep for a slaughter. wherever
you lead. Job said, though he slay me,
yet will I trust him. This is the heart of everyone who believes in Christ. I pray
this be a comfort to you and a blessing. Let's stand and we'll
be dismissed in prayer.