Micah, the book of Micah, seven
chapters full of truth that cannot be fully declared or known in
35 minutes. Know what? I hope you read it. So many verses that I do not
want to leave out. Cannot. Micah and Isaiah lived
at the same time. And their prophecies sound similar
because they are. It was all the prophets, really,
had the same message, didn't they? All of them. Our Lord said,
to me give all the prophets witness. They are they which testify of
me. His name means who is like Jehovah, Micah. And my, my. Or I look at chapter 1, verses
1-4, the word of the Lord came to Micah. Verse 2, Hear, O ye
people, hearken, O earth, all that therein is, and let the
Lord God be witness against you. the Lord from his holy temple.
Behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come
down and tread upon the high places of the earth. The mountains
shall be molten under him, the valleys cleft as wax before the
fire, as waters pour down a steep place. As said, this is the same
message as all the prophets. They spoke, he speaks of a holy
and righteous God. of his wrath and judgment. Why?
Verse 5. The transgression of Jacob is
all of this. The sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob? What is it? Why is the
Lord angry? Why? Is it not Samaria? Are not the high places of Judah? Samaria There's, now, since Solomon,
Israel was a divided kingdom, okay? And Solomon's a picture
of Christ, who, when he came, he divided. He said, I'm going
to divide. Man, his father and mother and so forth. But it was
a divided kingdom, and most, the majority of Israel worshipped
a golden calf. Do you know that? All the kings
of Israel were evil men, all of them. Only the kings of Judah,
some of those kings, most of those kings were true kings,
godly men, like Asa, Hezekiah, Josiah, and so forth. They worshipped
the Lord. Everybody else worshipped, and
they claimed to be God's people, but they worshipped golden calves,
idols, high places, images, and all that. Does that sound familiar?
God hadn't changed, man hadn't changed either. The majority
of people worship a God of their own imaginations, a God that
they make up, that man makes up, that man controls, a God
that's in man's hands. That's an idol. But the remnant,
the remnant of God's elect, God's chosen people, they worship the
Lamb. They worship the Lord, the sovereign
Lord. So Samaria was actually the seat
of all of this idolatry. It was just full of idols. That's
where King Omri, an evil Israeli king, set up all these idols. But there were high places in
Judah also. So verse 7, all these graven
images are going to be beaten to pieces. All these idols are
laid desolate. It's the hire of an harlot. Scripture speaks a great deal,
especially in revelation of the great whore. And that's religion. What's it all about? They're
hirelings. It's all about money. And religion
has its images today, all of its idols and its crosses. Romans
1 talks about They worship the creature rather than the creator.
That's the worship of man and his will and his works, right? The irreligious, those who don't
have any religious religion, they have an idol that's called
gold, called money. That's what people live for,
lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Nothing's changed. The message has not changed.
Chapter 2. Now look at chapter 2, verses
1 and 2. Woe to them that devise iniquity
and work evil upon their men. Verse 2. They covet fields and
take them by violence. Verse 3. They devise evil. They're haughty. Nothing's changing. When God looked down upon the
world right before He destroyed it by flood, He said, the imagination
and thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually. Isn't
that what He said? He said, I want to destroy man.
He said, the whole earth is corrupted my way and full of violence. And our Lord said, as in the
days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Right now,
this is the very last day, and those things are such indictments
against this world. Corrupted His way, His truth,
and it's full of idolatry. It's so much in the name of God,
drawn there with their lips. And it's just corrupt, and full
of violence. So violence is going to rain
down on this world. Not a pleasant subject, it's
truth. You know how blessed we are to
hear this? Because the religious world is
not hearing this. The irreligious world is not
hearing this. The hirelings of this world are afraid to say
these things. I don't think they really believe
them or they'd say it. He says in verse 7, O thou that
are named the house of Jacob, chapter 2, verse 7, you who are
called the sons of Jacob, is the spirit of the Lord straightened?
Are these his doings? Are they doing according to his
word? Is this the way the Lord would have it done? Is this what
the Lord said to do, all these high places, all this idolatry? You know, we love Isaiah 820,
don't we? The whole, Isaiah, it sounds
just like Isaiah. But Isaiah said, to the law and
to the testimony, if they speak not according to my word, there's
no light in them. If it's not, if everything that's
said and done is not exactly according to God's word, it's
not, it's not what God's doing. God's not in it. He's not in
it. Oh, Jacob, he said in verse 7,
Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? Doesn't
the Word of God make someone walk uprightly, walk by faith,
walk in truth? Yes, it does. That's how you
know that the majority of people are not Christians. If they were,
this nation, this is not a Christian nation, it's an evil nation.
Not one nation under God, it's one nation under God's wrath. But his sheep will hear his voice. He has a remnant. Throughout
this book and all the others, it talks about the remnant, the
remnant, the remnant. Who are they? The ones the Lord
chose. If he hadn't chosen them, if there hadn't been a remnant,
we'd be like Sodom and Gomorrah. That's what Romans 9 said. Look at verse 12. I will surely
assemble, O Jacob, all of thee. You know all Israel is going
to be saved? But now, he is not all Israel of Israel. Neither
of the children of the flesh, the children of God, the children
of promise, the children of choice, God's choice, not man. Election. And he's a Jew, not one outwardly,
but inwardly. Circumcision. of the heart. That sign of circumcision
was hidden, but so is the true circumcision of God on the heart.
That's where God lives, on the heart. So he says in verse 12,
I will surely assemble Jacob, all of thee. I will surely gather
the remnant of Israel. I'll put them together as sheep,
a flock, in the midst of their foe. They'll make a great noise
by reason of the multitude. What is that? Crying unto the
Lord and singing His praise. Isn't that wonderful? We didn't have to read long to
hear the gospel. The remnant, the remnant, the remnant, chapter
4, verse 7, it talks about the remnant. I'll make her that halted
a remnant. Chapter 5, verse 3, the remnant
of his brother will return, the children of Israel. Romans 9,
I just quoted it to you, but I'll read it for you. In Romans
9, this is what Paul wrote. He said, Isaiah cried. Though
the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the
sea, yet a remnant will be saved. And the Lord will finish the
work, his work, and cut it short in righteousness, because a short
work will the Lord make upon the earth, 4,000 years to the
time of Christ, and 2,000, that's the last days. A day is 1,000
years. But he'll finish the work, make
a short work of it, and as I quoted to you, chapter 11, verse 26,
all Israel shall be saved. How? Well, it's written, Thou
shalt come out of Zion, the Deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
how they're going to be saved. Not by works of righteousness,
as we've done. Not by anything we do, but by
everything He does for us. They all know that. All right,
Chapter 3 of our text. Chapter 3. As I said, this is
so full, and I cannot fully deal with or develop everything, but
we're going to just browse through it. But chapter 3, verse 1, here,
I said here, I pray you, heads of Jacob, you princes of the
house of Israel, is it not for you to know judgment? Should
we not know and understand the judgment of God? Verse 2, the
judgment of those who hate the good and love the evil. Do you
not see all around you how that man hates the good and loves
the evil? We see that. Isaiah said, Woe
is unto them that call evil good and good evil. Isn't it so? This gospel that
is truly the goodness of God, the glory of God, the salvation
of God, the truth of God, men hate it. Hate it. And this other gospel
that robs God of His glory, that says God loves everybody, which
makes the love of God worthless, And that Jesus died for everybody,
which means his blood is worthless. It didn't save anybody. But it's
man's will that saves. Man's choice. That's stealing
God's glory. That's trotting underfoot the
blood of God and elevating man's decision concerning it. Man's
acceptance of the blood. Salvation of God is not an offer
of God. It's an act of God. Man is dead. You offer him what
you will. Psalm 110 says, God's people
who are quickened by His grace are willing in the day of His
power. And this other gospel is not
some different doctrine. It's another gospel. A different
God. Another Jesus. Nobody is saved
by it. People are damned by it. Damned
by it. Is that too hard? Well, it is to
the world. I think y'all are too strict. Y'all are too narrow. Who said
narrow? Who is it that said narrow? Jesus
Christ. Is it straight as a gate and
narrow as the way that leads to thunder and lightning? Few
there be that find it, broad as the gate and wide as the way
that leads to destruction, and many that go therein. How is
it that you and I are in the way? Did we decide? Did one day
we made our choice and accepted Jesus, let Him in our heart,
and now we're in the straight and narrow way? No, no. Ask old Jacob, Jacob, why are
you loved and he saw hate? Because the Lord first loved
thee. Because he chose me. Because he came to me and wrestled
with me and changed my name and gave me his righteousness. That's what all of God's people
know. There are no exceptions to this. I love God's people. They're all taught of God. And
everyone that's heard and learned of the Father giveth Him all
the glory. A-double-L all the glory. And
trust Christ and Christ alone for their salvation. They look
to Him and Him only. That's as clear as I can make
it. It's just so. And no exceptions. It's not somebody
saved under a false gospel, another God, this other God, and another
Jesus, and all of a sudden they come to the knowledge of the
doctrines of grace. That's not it about. Paul didn't come to
a knowledge of the doctrines of grace. He met Jesus Christ,
the Lord, and put him in the dust. As soon as he met Christ,
all his doctrine is very clear now. I thought, this is what I'm going
to do. This is what I will do. This is what I will do. This
is what I've decided to do. When he met Jesus Christ, he
was in the nurse, on his face, and then he heard the Lord say,
no, this is what I will do with you. And this is what you will
do because I've chosen you to do. That's God's love. That's the Jesus Christ description.
There is no other. And you don't save none of this
other stuff. You need to renounce that. You need to renounce it. Paul
did. He said that it was done. It
was done. It's cow manure. Wish I could
use the word I want to use. Chapter 3, well, he said they
hate the good and love the evil. And then verse, well, verse 6
says that the vision is dark unto you. The sun goes down,
the day shall be dark. You know, that's Isaiah 29 in
it. The book is delivered to him that's learned it, to the
seminary professor, cemetery professor. And he said, I don't
know what that means. My mother was telling me, her
and dad, you know, went to these Southern Baptist schools. Dad
went to Tennessee Temple. My mother was a secretary at
Bob Jones University. Can you believe that? And said
they would look at the scriptures and sometimes they'd look at,
like, Romans. Dad said, when he got to Romans,
he said, let's just skip that. I don't know anything about that.
Well, you don't know anything about God if you don't know anything
about the book of Romans. Later on, when the Lord taught
him, revealed himself to him, where did he start? Romans. Well,
chapter 4. Look down at verse 8. Chapter 3, verse 8. He talked about the seers are
in darkness and so forth. But verse 8, here's what Micah
said, I'm full of the power of power by the Spirit of the Lord.
What's the power of God? The gospel. The Spirit of the
Lord takes the things of Christ, of judgment, of might, to declare
unto Jacob, verse 8, this is what I'm going to declare unto
Jacob, his transgression and Israel his sin. Now let me ask
you, Do you ever even hear the word in modern religion today,
sin? Do you ever hear a modern preacher
talk about transgressions and iniquity and sin and trespass? You won't hear it. You won't
hear it. In Ezekiel We looked at it, Ezekiel
16. This is what the Lord told the
prophet, Ezekiel 16. He said, The word of the Lord
came, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. And all of you who have heard,
you see when the Spirit of God comes,
He convinces of sin. Our Lord said that, didn't He?
John 16, 8 through 11. Didn't he? This is what he'll
do. He'll convince of sin, righteousness,
and judgment. Didn't he? That's the Spirit
of God. He takes it concerning Christ.
And Ezekiel said, cause them to know their abomination. That which is highly esteemed
among men is what? Abomination. Abomination to God. So God's true prophet, like Micah,
tells people of their sin and their transgression. Because
Jesus Christ means nothing to you. The true Christ of Scriptures
means nothing to you if you're not a sinner. The gospel, the
true gospel of a blood to shed for the remission of our sin
means nothing to you if you're not a sinner. I mean a hell-bound
sinner. a worthless, Brother Maurice
used to say, a dead dog sinner. Ask Mephibosheth what he thinks
of salvation for somebody else's sake. He said, I'm a dead dog,
not just a dog, a dead dog, but here I am sitting at the king's
table. Why? For Jonathan's sake. Here we are sitting at the king's
table. Why? For Jesus Christ's sake. So that's who we make much
of everything. That's who we devote this time
to. That's who we preach. That's all we do. That's all. Go back to Micah, chapter 3.
It says, verse 11, the heads, you have it, verse 11, the heads
judge for reward, the priests teach for hire. Politics and
religion is about one thing, isn't it? Money. Money, isn't it? And people can
see that. The world can see that. It's
clear to everybody. But they don't care. We'll pay you to tell us what
we want to hear. Right? All right, now here's the gospel,
right in the middle. Here's the gospel, chapter 4. I was going
to read all of chapter 4. I just can't do it. But look
at verse 1. In the last days it shall come
to pass The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established
in the top of the mountain. It shall be exalted above the
hill. The people shall flow unto it. Many nations shall come and
say, Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, the house of the
God of Jacob. He'll teach us his way. We'll walk in his path.
The law, the word of the Lord will go forth of his eye, the
word of the Lord from Jerusalem. What's that talking about? The
church. The church. Say, we're going
to build another temple and we're all going to gather there. No,
we're not. No, we're not. The Lord tore two of them down.
Why? Because that's not the temple
of God. Abomination of desolation got
in it every time. And our Lord said, when he went
into that temple, he said, not one stone will be left standing
on another. Salvation worship is not in a place, it's in a
person. The temple of God's people, the temple of God is His people,
His church, Christ Himself is that temple. Us in Him and He
in us. It's personal. Salvation is not
in a place or a thing, it's personal. It's personal. Temple. This is
talking about the church. Christ came, He said, I'm going
to tear this temple down. He walked in and the disciples
said, isn't this beautiful? Nope, I'm going to tear it down.
The only stone left standing, there will be one stone, not
one stone is going to be upon it, the chief cornerstone, which
represents Christ. Like that ark, when God destroyed
this world, there was one thing seen above all the things of
this world. The whole world was just underwater,
and one thing rose above it all, the ark. And that ark is Christ. Are you in that ark? Are you
the temple of God? In glory and revelation, it says
that they don't need a temple there. The Lamb is the temple.
They don't need the Son. He's the light. You see? You see that. How blessed are
your eyes. No, they're not going to build
another temple. You can be looking for them to tear down the dawn
of the rock and all that. You can look all you want to, it
ain't going to happen. It ain't going to happen. He came, our
Lord came and established his kingdom, was calling his subjects
into that kingdom, and the church is his temple. And no Jerusalem
is going to come down out of heaven and be put on a new earth. That's his people. Verse 4, it
says, they shall sit every man under his mind and under his
victory. None shall make them afraid. The mouth of the Lord
of hosts hath opened it." Oh, we sit under his vine now, right
now. He said, I'm the vine. You're
the branches. His fig tree, his cover, his
fruit, not ours. Ours are filthy rags. Our Lord,
as you know, cursed one physical thing on this earth. It was fig
tree. That's what man in the garden tried to cover himself
with, and man's still doing it today. His works. And God curses. We're under His
victory. His fruit. And look at verse,
oh my, where do we go? So many verses. It says verse
6, And that day, saith the Lord, I will assemble her that halteth.
I will gather her that is driven out, her that I have afflicted. David says, good that I've been
afflicted. I've learned her in statute. All these trials God
puts His people through in this world, persecution being one
of the principal ones, to show them that this is not your place.
It's not your city. These are not your people. God's
people are. God's kingdom. Verse 7, I'll
make her that halted a remnant, a strong nation. The Lord shall
reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth even forever. See, so it's not talking about
an earthly kingdom. Our Lord said, My kingdom is
not of this world, didn't He? If it was, He said, My service
was not. And He's going to reign in Mount
Zion. In fact, He reigns right now in Mount Zion. The world
can't see Him. We do. He reigns. He rules. He sits on the circle
of the earth. He reigns and rules. And Mount
Zion forever. See, the Lord's not going to
be in a building, a temple over there in that Middle Eastern
country called Israel. No, no, no. The Lord's going
to dissolve this ball. He's going to fold it up like
a vesture and cast it away. And a new heaven and a new earth
He's going to create. That's his people. That's his
kingdom. That's where he's going to be forever and ever. And that's
where we'll be. Verse... Chapter 5. Look at this. Chapter
5. Here's the Gospel. Are you with
me? Chapter 5. It talks about the
troops gathering against God's people. And they did, literally,
from the beginning. In the time when our Lord came,
Romans, they were under Roman bondage. And they smote, verse
1, they smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. Now
they did that years ago to a king, Zedekiah, but that's not who
this is talking about. It's talking about Jesus Christ. Because look
at the next verse. Thou Bethlehem Epitaph, though
thou be little among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall he
come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings
forth have been from of old and from everlasting." Did our Lord
come down here and reign and rule in that city, at that town
of Israel? They tried to make him king,
didn't they? And he wouldn't let them. Remember that? He wouldn't
let them make him king. Why? He already is. And so finally,
Israel said, OK, we'll kill you. We'll do away with you. We have
no king but Caesar. You just don't know. I am your
king. God made the decree long before
he came. This is my king, and I've set
him on my holy hill of what? Zion. Say it. Zion. That's a church. Zion's not that
rock over there in Israel. Zion is the rock of Christ Jesus.
And his church. He said, but he came, didn't
he? Made of a woman, fullness of time, made of a woman, made
under the law, to be ruler over his people. whose goings have
been of a hold from everlasting, verse 3, and he will give them
up until the time that which she which travaileth hath brought
forth and the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the
children of Israel. He shall stand, verse 4. He shall
stand. Job said he shall stand. My redeemer
shall stand at the latter day on this earth. He shall stand
and feed in the strength of the Lord. How? Strength or power. How much power did Jesus Christ
have? All power. Over what? All flesh, he said. What does that say about this
Jesus today? It has no hands but your hand.
He's an impotent, weak, and worthless. It's not the Jesus Christ. He
shall stand and feed his people, rule in the strength of the Lord
and majesty, majesty, in the name of the Lord his God. Verse
4, chapter 5, verse 4, I'm reading. And he shall be great. How great? The greatest. And this man, verse 5. Is this
not the best thing you've ever read? You know, it all says this. All the prophets give witness.
This man shall be the peace. He's our peace. When the Assyrian
treads in our palaces, he's our peace. Our Lord said, Satan has come,
he hath nothing in him. Now is the God of this world
cast out. He says, desire to sift you, Peter, like wheat,
but I, What's our hope? His Majesty. Seven shepherds, who's that?
Eight principal men. Anything in scriptures that the
Lord raises up to fight against the enemy is the Word of God.
The prophets, the apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Eight men
wrote the New Testament, you know that? Eight men wrote the
New Testament. Seven angels in the Church of
God. They wrote Revelation. There you have it. Don't argue
with me, because there's nothing else you can say about it. It's
the Word of God. That's His sword. Look at verse
6. They shall waste the land of
Assyria with the sword, but thus shall He deliver us when He cometh
into our land. What does the Lord use to deliver
His people? The sword. What is the sword? The sword of His Spirit, the
Word of God. He's not my word as a hammer and a fire and a
sword. It is. Verse 7, the remnant of
Jacob shall be in the midst of many people, like the dew. Oh,
there's going to be a people that no man can number, like
showers upon the grass. And God's people are as the dew,
as the rain, like him, and there are many, many. Man can't number
them, but God has. In verse 8, the remnant of Jacob
shall be among the Gentiles. That's us. That's it. The young lion among the flocks
of sheep, the lion lay down with the lamb, and so forth. Isn't
that wonderful? Wonderful. Now look at chapter
6, verse 1. Hear now, hear now, verse 2. Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's
controversy. Strong foundation of the earth,
the Lord hath a controversy with his people. He will plead with
Israel, O my people, what have I done unto thee? Wherein have
I wearied thee? Testify against thee. Doesn't
that sound just like Isaiah? Come now. Let's reason together. Ox knows his owner. Ass knows
his master's crib. My people don't know. They haven't
considered. Come now. Or your sins be as scarlet and
be as white as snow. They'll be red like crimson.
I'll wash you. Come on. Let's reason together. Come now.
Jeremiah. Isn't that what he said in Jeremiah?
What have I done that caused you to rebel against me? Well, they won't come. They can't
reason unless they're born of God, unless He does something
for them. And look at chapter 6, verse
6. Wherewith shall I come before
the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before
him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the
Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of
rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for
my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He hath showed thee, O man, what is good. And what doth the Lord
require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with thy God? Okay, let me ask each of you.
And as this is all through the scriptures, to obey is better
than sacrifice. That's what it says. Don't hang your head. You're
going to shout in a minute. Let me ask you, have you done
justly? Have you? Have you loved mercy? Have you
been merciful? Have you? Anybody? Have you walked humbly before
your God? Never? Like Psalm 24 said, Who shall
ascend unto the holy hill of the Lord? He that hath clean
hands, a pure heart, never lifted up his soul unto vanity or sworn
deceitfully. Anybody? I think I hear someone say, I
did. Who's that? Jesus Christ. You see, He did all of this first
and for us. Do you understand? What does
the Lord require of thee? Do justice, love mercy, walk
humbly before our God. Our Lord Jesus Christ did everything
that's required of us. Look at the next verse. It says,
The Lord's voice crieth the city. This is the man of wisdom. You
see his name? You hear it? The rod? Who appointed
it? Here it is. Of God are you in Him, who of God
has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
For God hath made Him to be sin for us. Who knew no sin? Who
walked justly? Who loved mercy? who walked humbly
before God. God hath made Him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. You can't take that out of there except in light
of Christ. I mean, you can't understand
this except in light of Christ. You know that? Now, Christ for
you is the hope of the Lord. Christ doing this for you is
your hope of glory. Right? Christ in you. Yes, this
is what he puts in the heart of his people. He makes them
just. Upright. Yes, he does. They love
mercy. You know what mercy they love
the most? Sovereign mercy. There was a time you didn't love
mercy. You didn't need mercy. Well, you do now. And to walk
humbly? You know the only thing that
will humble us before God? I mean the only thing that will
really humble us before God? Christ crucified. That's right. That's what Paul said. God forbid
that I should glory in anything save the cross of my Lord Jesus
Christ. I don't see any glory, I don't
have any admiration for anybody or anything but Christ crucified. Now that I've seen Him, His holiness,
His righteousness, His love, His mercy, His grace, His goodness. I see in myself none of that.
I see in no one none of that, except those that have Christ
in them. Now do you understand what that
means? And chapter 7 begins, Woe is
me. Woe is me. And then verse And
it talks about the persecution of God's people. Verse 7, I'll
look unto the Lord, I'll wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me. That's both Christ and His people. Oh, I wanted to read all of this,
but let's go down to the end. Let's go to the end. It says
down in verse 16, The nations shall see and be confounded with
all their might. They shall lay their hand upon
their mouth. Their ears shall be deaf. They'll lick the dust
like a serpent. They'll move out of their holes
like worms of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord
our God. Nobody is afraid of Jesus. And
where are they going to be afraid of the Lord Jesus? and shall
fear because of thee." Oh, but here it is. This is how he ends
it up. Who is a godlike entity who pardoneth
iniquity, passeth by the transgression
of the who? The remnant of his heritage. He retaineth not his anger forever,
because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again. He will have
compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities.
Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."
The sea of what? Christ's blood. Thou wilt perform
the truth. Don't you love that John Davis?
The Lord Jesus Christ performed the truth and showed it to us,
to Jacob. The mercy to Abraham, the covenant
which thou hast sworn under our fathers from the very beginning. Is that not the greatest book
in this book? Until we get to the next one. Same message, same Lord, same
salvation.