The title of this message was
taken from verse 7, Micah chapter 7, where the prophet says with
great emphasis, he says, I will look to the Lord. That's the
title. These first verses of Micah chapter
7 are a lament. You know what a lament is. It's
an expression of sorrow. There's a whole book in the Bible
that the Holy Spirit inspired the prophet Jeremiah to have
recorded called Lamentations. Lamentations. And it's an expression
of deep anguish and sorrow over the sinfulness of his people. over the depravity and the idolatry
and unbelief of his people. Well, the first few verses of
Micah chapter seven, as he closes out his third message here, is
a lament. Starts off, woe is me. He's speaking not just for himself
as an individual, but he's speaking for the nation, the whole nation. There are two things about a
lament in the scripture that I think is important for us to
understand about it. A lament in the scripture, when
it comes to the people of God, is not an expression of utter
despair and hopelessness. In fact, there's two things in
a lament. Number one, a lament is actually sort of a prayer.
It's a crying out to God. And that's always good when a
sinner, inspired by the Holy Spirit, cries out to the Lord.
The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. The problem is that men by nature
do not know how to call upon the name of the Lord. Micah knew
how. God's people know how. We call
upon the name of the Lord through sacrifice. That's what the scripture
teaches from the very beginning. That's what the Lord taught Adam
and Eve. That's what he taught Cain and Abel. Cain didn't listen. He refused. But it's a prayer
of remorse, crying out to God. And that always ends up in good
for a sinner. The goodness of God. Secondly,
a lament is also an admission, a sincere, real, heartfelt admission
of sin and guilt. Because it's an admission of
sin and guilt from God's point of view. It's almost, you could
say it like this, it's taking sides with God against ourselves.
And that issues forth in repentance. So a lament is an act of repentance.
It's an act of dependence on God, crying out to God. But it's
an act of repentance. Micah's contemporary, Isaiah,
he showed forth a lament too. You remember in Isaiah chapter
6? He said, in the year the king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting
upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the
temple. And remember that great vision of the glory of God set
him forth saying this in Isaiah chapter six and verse five. He
said, then said I, woe is me. Just like Micah here, Micah seven
and verse one. Woe is me. Isaiah wrote, I'm
undone, literally cut off. In other words, I'm alienated
from God because of my sin. And because I'm a man of unclean
lips. And the lips speak out of the
heart. So Isaiah is not just saying
this is surface thing. He's not just saying I say bad
words. He's talking about issues that
flow from the heart. I'm a man of unclean lips. And
he says this, he said, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. what Micah is saying in Micah
7. Woe is me, woe unto my nation. We're a race of fallen people,
fallen in Adam, born dead in trespasses and sins. And he says,
For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. And listen
to Isaiah's words in verse 6 here. Remember I talked about calling
upon the name of the Lord, calling by sacrifice? He says, Then flew
one of the seraphims unto me, a messenger of God, having a
live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from
off the altar. What's the altar? That's where
the sacrifice is made. That's where a godly lament is
brought. to the altar of God based on
sacrifice. And so we see that a true lament
is a lament of a sinner crying out to God in Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ. God save me for Christ's sake. I don't deserve your salvation. I haven't earned your salvation. If you gave me what I deserved
and what I've earned, it would be death and hell. but save me
for Christ's sake alone." It's like that short lament in the
book of Luke chapter 18 that was stated by the publican, God
be merciful to me, the sinner. God propitiate for me. That's
the altar. that's the high priest, that's
the sacrifice that represents the blood of Christ which is
the only ground and basis upon which God will meet with and
commune with and bless a sinner the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ and all because of God's justice there is no
mercy. How many times have I said it
and how many times do the prophets say it? There is no mercy from
God without justice. People today don't know much
about that. They really don't know much about
propitiation, do they? Because that's what that is.
It's mercy. You know, you hear that people
talk about how the New Testament word is a derivative of the Old
Testament word, which meant mercy seed, and that's true. But it's
mercy fraught with justice, the blood of the Son of God incarnate. And Micah, he writes of the religious
and moral degradation of Judah and Jerusalem. He speaks for
the nation. And what he's talking about in
these first verses, and all of them, basically is this. He's expressing from his heart
what the nation needs to see and realize and admit about themselves. Realize their own state and condition.
And let me give you a passage to read on your own. This is
a parallel passage to Micah chapter 7. It's Isaiah chapter 3. That's
a parallel passage. And it's almost like Isaiah's
state of the nation address. And Micah 7, the first few verses,
is his state of the nation address. And when you read it, I want
you to think about this and pray about this because I want you
to know that it is also our state of the nation address today. It's, it's the problem today.
If you want to read, uh, read the updated news of today, read
Isaiah three and the first part of Micah chapter seven, because
they really describe our nation. Look at verse 8 of Isaiah chapter
3. You read the whole chapter on
your own, but let me just give you a few things here. He says,
for Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen because their tongue
and their doings are against the Lord. Now think about that. What they preach and what they
do is against the Lord. And what is the issue? What is
the issue? Well, look at Isaiah 3, he says,
"...to provoke the eyes of His glory." In other words, this
is the view of God. This is God's assessment of things
in the view of the eyes of His glory. Now, where is the glory
of God to be found? It's to be found in Christ. The
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And so everything that
he's talking about is related to how man by nature reacts in
nature to the gospel of the glory of God's grace in Christ, in
unbelief and idolatry, false religion. That's what he's talking
about. Oh, it filters all the way down to the dregs of society
and the robbers and the murderers and the thieves and all that.
Yes, they're included, but I'm telling you, it reaches to the
top. Look back at Micah 7, look at
verse 1. Listen to what he says here. He says, woe is me, for
I am as when they've gathered the summer fruits as the grape
gleanings of the vintage, and there's no cluster to eat. I'm
left unsatisfied, that's what he's saying. This is describing
after the harvest. And there's very little grapes
now on the vines. Very few apples on the tree. The big harvest has already been
brought in, and there's very little, and here his soul desired
the first ripe fruit, the very first, the abundant harvest.
But he's expecting fruit, but he finds none. He's left unsatisfied. So here's the time that's past
harvest when there are few fruits left, but not much. What's he
talking about? This is a type, this is a metaphor,
this is a symbol of the people of God. The people of God in
Judah and Jerusalem are very, very few. That's what he's talking
about. Isaiah said it this way, remember
in Isaiah 1, except the Lord hath left us a seed, a small
remnant, We'd be like Sodom and Gomorrah. Isaiah said the same
thing that Micah's saying. These two men of God are on the
same page. There's some people of God, there's
some believers, there's some justified sinners in Jerusalem,
but they're very, very few. The harvest, the first ripe fruit,
the days when there were godly kings and faithful people, those
days are long gone. And there's just very, very few.
And then he begins to describe how this happened, what it's
all about. Look at verse two. He says, the good man. Some of
your concordances may have the godly man. Some may even have
the merciful man. Either way. But the good man
is 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. What he's talking
about is they're trying to get a big following. Trying to gather
people together. And to be out for blood here
is not necessarily to murder everybody. They weren't going
through the streets with swords just lopping off everybody's
heads. But it's like notches on a gun.
That's the way, you know, I felt like that when I was in false
religion, you know, we would come back sometimes on Monday
and meet and they had always, the first question they all wanted
to know was how many decisions did you have? How many notches
can you put on your gun? Because the success of a meeting
was gauged by how many decisions you had. Not whether or not the
gospel of the glory of God was preached, wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed, but how many people could you get down an
aisle? And that's a similar kind of thing that's going on here.
Well, he talks about the good man. He talks about the upright
man. Now, what is a good man? What
is an upright man in the sight of God, according to God's standard? A good man. An upright man is
a justified sinner. He's one who's been brought to
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance of dead works.
That's the only good man. He's not good in himself. The
Bible says in Romans chapter three, there are none good, no
not one. He's not upright because of his accomplishments or his
works, he's good and upright because of Christ. Christ is
our good. You see, we can say we're good
not in ourselves, but we're good in Christ. He is our goodness.
That's what I'm saying. He is my goodness. He is my righteousness
before God. And this is the issue. Back over
in Micah chapter 6 and verse 8, look at verse 8. He said,
He has showed the old man what is good. What doth the Lord require
thee but to do justly? Now he's talking about a man's
relationship with God here. Look at it. And to love mercy
and to walk humbly with thy God. Talking about how we relate to
God. Now, he talks about how we relate to each other, too,
and we should relate in a godly way towards each other. But the
foundation of that and the motivation of that is a right relationship
with God. How are you going to deal justly
with God? How are you going to come to God and face the God
of justice who always does right and have that God say, Well done,
thou good and faithful servant. Well, you remember those fellows
who came to him in Matthew 7 saying, we preached in your name, we
prophesied, we've done many wonderful works, we've cast out demons.
He didn't say, well done, thou good and faithful servants. He
said, depart from me, I never knew ye, ye that work iniquity. What was the problem? They thought
that what they were enabled to do made up their righteousness,
their goodness, their holiness before God. But you see, Paul
said it this way. He said, Oh, that I may know
Him, Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ, the righteousness of God, which is by faith. This right here, you know, when
he says this, that there lay lying wait for blood, that's
murder. But it also refers to soul murder. You know, the Lord
told the Pharisees that they were of their father the devil.
In John chapter 8, verse 44, he said, In the lust of your
father you do. He was a liar from the beginning. He was a murderer. What did he
do? He murdered souls by his false gospel. And that's what
he's talking about here. They hunt every man his brother
with a net. Verse 3, look at that. He says
that they may do evil with both hands earnestly. What that literally
means is they are experts in doing evil. They're experts at
it. When it says they do it with
both hands, it's just a Hebrew way of saying they're experts.
They're good at it. They know what they're doing here. And
he says, and this, experts at doing, and they're sincere at
it, and then he talks about the prince, that's the nobles, that's
the leaders of the land. The prince, he asketh. And then
the judge, that's the civil magistrates. They asketh for a reward. They
want to seek gain for themselves. It's like false religion, you
know. Why do people serve God? Not for what he is intrinsically
in himself, but for what they can get out of him. They're not
willing, loving bond slaves of Christ. They're trying to get
a bigger mansion in heaven. So they're trying to earn their
keep, earn their way into God's favor for a reward. You see,
the upright man, the good man, the justified sinner, what is
our reward? Our reward is Christ. If you
have Christ, you have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
He that spared not his own son, how shall he not with him also
freely give us what? All things. Yes, we have a reward, a crown
of righteousness, Christ. A crown of glory, Christ. you say well that's just too
simple well that's the problem with natural man he doesn't like
that simplicity he's got to throw something of himself into the
mix to make it worthwhile for him he wants reward he wants
reward and that's why people always accuse the preaching of
true grace salvation by grace as an excuse to sin. You've heard
him say it. You've probably been accused
of, well, if I believe that, I just go out and sin as much
as I want to. What are they saying? Well, you've taken away my motive
for obedience. Well, what is your motive? I
want reward. I want to get more than you.
If I do more than you, I want to get more than you. Isn't that
the natural man? Didn't Christ talk about that
in a parable where he hired one servant at noon and another servant
at three o'clock and he gave them all the same? You know why
he gave them all the same? Because he was illustrating a
truth that what we have in salvation, whether God saves me at 12 years
old or if he saves me at 92 years old, what I have of salvation,
I didn't earn any of it and I don't deserve any of it. It's all in
Christ. Look here, he says, the great
man, verse three, the great man is the rich and the powerful.
That's what he's talking about, the ones who everybody looks
up to and says, I want to be like them. It says, he uttereth
his mischief desire. He's not ashamed of it, but he
speaks it right out. And so they wrap it up. What
that literally means is they weave it all together. In other
words, it all comes together into one thing, and that is self-righteous
works religion that'll damn the souls of sinners. They may have
different ways of going about it. They may not agree on everything,
but they weave it all together. They wrap it all up in a package
and hand it to a person and say, now just repeat after me. Say this, say that, do this,
do that. Look at verse four. Now he says,
the best of them is as a briar, and the most upright is sharper
than a thorn hedge. In other words, you know what
a briar and a thorn hedge is? That's part, you remember when
the Lord was pronouncing the curse upon the man in Genesis
chapter three and he cursed the ground and he said thorns and
briars were gonna come? That's curse, that's what he's
talking about. In other words, the best of them,
what they do is cursed and deadly. The most upright of them is sharper
than a thorn hedge. It'll stick you. It'll hurt. It'll poison you. You see, this
is not just talking about the dregs of society, the perverts
and the immoral and the irreligious. This is talking about the best
man can come up with without God, without Christ, without
grace, without righteousness. The best and the highest and
the loftiest that a man can attain in religion and morality will
not make that sinner righteous before God. It will not do it. It won't, listen to me, it won't
even get him closer. You know, a lot of people say,
well, it'll get me closer than some people. No, it won't. Actually,
it gets you farther away from God. Alienated in our minds by
wicked works. Remember, Colossians 1 spoke
of that. It won't do it. All of it's cursed. You see,
Christ is the only remedy for the curse. And here's the thing
about it. I want to turn over to, start
off with Matthew chapter seven. Let me show you a couple of verses
here. Now think about what he's saying in all of this. See, here's the picture. Here's
men preaching a false gospel of salvation by works. which
is against the covenant that God gave to Israel through Moses.
It's against the gospel. It's against the glory of God.
It's against the Messiah, the one who would come out of Bethlehem,
Ephratah, who would be ruler over Israel. It's against him.
It's unbelief. And they're preaching this false
gospel, and they're expecting to have the fruits of salvation.
That's what's going on. All right? But there is no fruit.
Now, why is that? Well, look at Matthew chapter
7 to start off with. He talks about in verse 13. Look
at verse 13. He says, enter ye in at the straight
gate. Now, you know what that straight
gate is. That's talking about a narrow passageway. And that's
the way of Christ. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Now, he says, now, there is a
wide gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction, and many there be which go in therein." That's
the way of false religion. That's the way of these briars
and thorns back over here in Micah 7. It's the way of man's
human righteousness, his attempts to make himself righteous, his
attempts to cleanse himself from sin by his works, his tears,
his remorse, his baptisms, whatever, whatever it is. And that's that
broad way that leads to destruction, but he says you enter in not
at that wide gate, but enter in at the straight gate, verse
14 of Matthew 7. He says, because straight is
the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life. That's
the way of Christ now, the way of his blood, the way of his
righteousness imputed. And few there be that find it.
And then a minute after that, what does he say? Now don't segment
this sermon so much. You know, people try, it's almost
like they segment it and it's like one part's not related to
the other. This is all related. So listen to what he says now.
He says in verse 15, beware of false prophets, which come to
you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
They're disguised. He's talking about those who
are deceptive. Now, what is a false prophet according... If you had
nothing but this passage to read, what would you conclude is a
false prophet? Well, he's a person who's leading people to the wide
gate, the broad road that leads to destruction. Now, he may look
like a sheep in some ways. He may have a disguise on. He may be like those in 2 Corinthians
11, Satan's ministers who transform themselves for a little while
as ministers of righteousness. They can say some good things,
some right things. I've heard a lot of you tell me that you
listen to a particular sermon and say everything was good up
to a point or they said a lot of good things. Well, see, preaching
the gospel, you know this too, is not just saying a lot of good
things. It's preaching Christ consistently, continuously. That's what those false prophets
can't do because their heart's not there. They can't stay with
Christ and Him crucified. So a false prophet is one who
brings sinners, leads sinners, points sinners to the broad road.
Alright? Now he says in verse 16, now
a true prophet, a true preacher, is one who points sinners to
the narrow road, the narrow gate, the straight gate, which is Christ.
And he says in verse 16, you shall know them by their fruits.
Now, people go all over the map about these fruits, don't they?
And nobody, and listen, I've read commentaries on this till
I'm blue in the face, and people are all over the map on it, and
nobody can really pinpoint it. Well, keep it in its context.
You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes
of thorns or figs of thistles? You're not going to get grapes
off a thorn bush. You're not going to get figs
off a thistle. Think about this now in the context
of Micah. The best of them is as a briar.
What are you going to get off a briar bush? You're going to
get briars. He says the most upright is sharper
than a thorn hedge. What are you going to get off
a thorn hedge? Thorns. There's not gonna be, listen,
what's he talking about? And the issue there is deadliness,
it's like poison. And what he's saying here is
these false preachers who are pointing sinners to the broad
road that lead us to destruction, there's not gonna be any fruits
of salvation come out of that. Sinners are not going to be saved
under the preaching of a false gospel. That's what he's saying. Look at verse 17. Even so, every
good tree bringeth forth good fruit. What's he talking about,
the good tree, there? He's talking about the preaching
of the gospel that comes from Christ, who is the good tree.
The offspring of Christ. The seed of Christ. Who are they? They're the saved of the Lord. Every good, even so, every good
tree. When Christ is preached, if God,
that doesn't mean everybody who hears it's going to be saved,
but if anybody's saved, it's going to be under that message.
That's what it means. But a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
You preach a false gospel, what's going to be the result? Salvation?
No, sir. Evil fruit. False professors? And so he says, a good tree,
now listen to this, verse 18, a good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit. Now, if the gospel is preached,
if Christ is preached, there may be, not everybody under that
message will be saved, but it's not gonna produce any evil fruit.
They're already evil. That's what we are by nature.
But he says, he says, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth
good fruit. A false gospel cannot bring forth good fruit. The gospel
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first, to the Greek also. And therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. You see, God plants trees of
righteousness that bring forth good fruit by His power and His
grace. But every tree that bringeth
forth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire,
wherefore by their fruit you shall know them. Go back to Micah
7 now. Look at verse 5, he says, now,
Now, he's pretty much finished with the lament, and he goes
right into this. He says, now, here's the issue,
here's the remedy, here's the ray of hope, here's the light,
right here. Trust ye not in a friend, put
ye not confidence in a guide. Keep the doors of thy mouth from
her that lieth in thy bosom. When it comes to salvation, you
can't trust friends, you can't trust family, you can't trust
husbands, you can't trust wives. The only one you can trust is
Christ. Period. Hopefully you have many friends
in Christ. Hopefully you have some true
guides who will guide you to Christ. Those are valuable. Hopefully
you have a husband or a wife that supports you and believes
with you in the Lord Jesus Christ. But when it comes to my salvation,
I cannot trust my wife to save me. I cannot trust the greatest
preacher that ever set foot on earth to save me. I cannot trust
any friend. I must trust the one who is my
ultimate friend, the friend of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and Him alone. He says in verse 6, For the son
dishonoreth the father, and the daughter riseth up against her
mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies
are the men of his own house. You remember the Lord. He quoted
this in the book of Matthew chapter 10 when he was sending his disciples
out two by two to preach the gospel. confessing Christ before
men, and he said, if you love father, mother, daughter, daughter-in-law,
mother, whoever, more than me, if you'll compromise God's glory
in the salvation of sinners for your best friend, your most respected
guide, even your husband or your wife, he said, you cannot be
my disciple. Can't do it. You can read that
in Matthew chapter 10 and verse 34. But look at verse 7, therefore,
for this reason now. Therefore, I will look unto the
Lord." That's the God of the covenant. That's the God of promise. That's the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob who promised to send Messiah, Christ, into the world.
That's the God who justifies the ungodly. That's the God who
said in Isaiah 45, 22 that we read, look unto me and be ye
saved all the ends of the earth for I'm God and there's none
else. Look unto who? A just God and a Savior. One
who can save me in strict, unflexible justice, and yet show mercy through
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. I'll look to the Lord. Salvation
comes from the Lord and Him alone. I will wait for the God of my
salvation. That doesn't mean it's going
to be far off, either. But what that means is literally,
it means that looking to Him, it's a sure thing. It's going
to happen. Any sinner who looks to the Lord shall be saved. Any
sinner who looks to Christ shall be saved. Looking to Him, it's
a sure thing. Look at verse 8. He says, Rejoice
not against... And He says, My God will hear
me. He's going to hear. He has never
and will never turned away any sinner who truly looks unto Him
as He reveals Himself. Not your idea of Him, not what
some of the friends and guides and husbands and wives tell you
about Him, but what He says about Himself. And he says in verse
8, Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy. When I fall, I shall rise.
You'll see me fall a lot of times. You'll see me mess up. But I
still have my security in Christ. I'm still washed clean from all
my sins by the blood of Christ. I still stand before God righteous
in Christ. And I still have His Spirit who
indwells me to keep me focused upon Him. When I sit in darkness,
the Lord shall be a light unto me. He'll always turn me back
to Himself. Christ who is my light, the gospel
which reveals that light by the power of the Holy Spirit, this
is our security. God is right in His judgments.
Look, He said it. He said in verse 9, look at it.
He said, I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I've sinned
against Him. I know. What he's saying here is this,
I know that if God were to judge me based upon my best, I would
be damned forever. I'll bear the indignation because
I sinned against Him. I'm a sinner. God's right in
His judgments against me because of my sin. But He said here,
until He plead my cause and execute judgment for me, What about this? Well, what is
he saying? Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldst
mark iniquities, who would stand? Whatever I go through in the
providence of God, it's right. Whatever chastisement God puts
me through, it's right. But I'm safe and secure because
He pleads my cause and He executes judgment for me. Christ as my
Savior, as my Advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous, who took
my sins upon Himself and drank damnation dry. who stood in my
place, having my iniquities charged to him, shed his precious blood
to pay for all my sins, and establish a righteousness whereby God could
justify a sinner like me. What is my cause? It's the glory
of God. How's that cause fulfilled in
my salvation by the grace of God in Christ, His blood and
righteousness alone? God executed judgment against
me when Christ died for my sins on the cross. And all my sins
were wiped away. And He pleads for me. And it
says here, in verse 9, it says, He will bring me forth to the
light and I shall behold His righteousness. He'll bring me
to Christ, my light, through the gospel light wherein the
righteousness of God is revealed. and I'll behold it." That's what
you behold. Now, there are people who think
they know better than God. They would tell you that that
should read this way, and I shall behold Christ instead of his
righteousness. My friend, the Bible does not
separate the two. The prophet here says, I'll behold
his righteousness. How do you behold his righteousness?
By beholding Christ. And that beholding there is not
just a glance. It's not just a glance of admiration. It is an intent looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. He is my righteousness. You see, he'll bring me into
the light that exposes my sinfulness and reveals my depravity, but
also leads me to Christ, God in human flesh, by whose blood
and righteousness alone I stand before God complete and accepted
and blessed forever. And then he says in verse 10,
then she that is mine enemy shall see it and shame shall cover
her which said unto me, where is the Lord thy God? Mine eyes
shall behold her, now shall she be trodden down as the mire of
the streets. All who are incensed against
him, all who will not submit, as Romans chapter 10 says, to
Christ and his righteousness as that which alone saves us,
cleanses us, and entitles us to glory, shall be ashamed. They'll be perplexed. You remember
he said perplexity, that's confusion. they'll be confused because all
they'll have is confusion. There's no hope. There's no salvation. There's no way of life and truth
and glory except in Christ. All right.