All right, in Micah chapter 4,
I've entitled tonight's message, Christ Our Shepherd King. Christ Our Shepherd King. For He is both, isn't He? He
is our Shepherd and our King. And this passage of Scripture,
which is a prophecy of the last days, referring to the coming
of Christ into the world to accomplish His great work, and leading up
until His second coming, But this is an amazing passage of
scripture and I want to show you some things in other scriptures
as we go through that I think will help us to enter into the
joy and the peace and the assurance of God's grace that we have here. Micah, as you know, was a contemporary
with the prophets Isaiah and Hosea. Micah and Isaiah both
were the first to prophesy of the destruction of Jerusalem
and the temple look back up in chapter 3 in verse 12 This is
what he means here in this chapter Chapter 3 began his second message
and it continues all the way to the end of chapter 5 But he
concluded that first part of his message message in three
parts you might say as it's divided in the King James Version and
In verse 12, it says, Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed
as a field. In other words, because of their
sin, God's going to plow up Zion, that holy mountain, and Jerusalem,
that holy city, shall become heaps, like an ash heap, and
the mountains of the house as the high places of the forest.
In other words, those places where they went to worship their
idols. God's gonna bring it down, he
says. And of course, lying behind that is not just a God who is
mean and arbitrary, who throws temper tantrums, but a God who
is just. A missing note in the religion
today. A just God. And that he must
punish sin. He cannot fail to punish sin. And that's why we need to understand
at the outside, at the heart of the gospel, when we come to
understand how God saves sinners, that in salvation by grace through
Jesus Christ our Lord, we do not escape the just punishment
of God against our sin. We enter into it when we enter
into Christ, because he was made sin for us, Christ who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
And we need to understand that. And this is what people don't
understand today. They want to talk about God's
mercy and God's love and God's grace. And I love to talk about
those things too. But let me tell you something.
Any notion of mercy and love and grace apart from justice,
apart from righteousness and truth is not of God. It's not
the gospel. We need to understand that God
will punish sin. Abraham asked that question shall
not the God of the whole earth do right? Paul wrote in Romans
chapter 2 that his judgments God's judgments are always according
to truth and you can rest assured Whether God damns a sinner or
saves a sinner his judgments in both cases are always according
to truth He doesn't fake it He doesn't deny it. He doesn't ignore
it. And he certainly will not pervert.
He must be a just God as well as a Savior. So he must punish
sin. But here's the majesty of God.
Now here's the mercy of God too. Here's the grace and love of
God. The prophecy of judgment that Micah sets forth here in
chapter 3. And in other chapters, and then
you can see the other prophets of God, it's the same thing.
Their prophecies of judgment against sin was always accompanied
with a certain assurance of salvation and restoration and hope. This
is a message of hope now. And it begins here in chapter
four. But the hope and the assurance and the salvation is not in physical
Israel. Understand that it's not in looking
to a physical nation or a piece of geography in the Mideast The
hope and the restoration and the salvation is always connected
with the coming of Messiah the coming of Christ the anointed
one to save spiritual Israel And to save spiritual Israel,
God's elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation to
save them completely and to save them eternally. Now that's where
the hope is. Micah describes here the certainty,
the glory, and the beauty of the kingdom of Christ. That's
what he's talking about in chapter four. The destruction of Israel
doesn't mean And Paul wrote about this in Romans chapter 11, the
destruction of the physical nation of Israel, that rebellious people,
who is an example and an illustration and a type of all of us by nature
and how we'll all end up if it were not for the grace of God
in Christ. But their destruction does not
mean that God has ever or will ever cast off his people whom
he foreordained unto everlasting salvation. God always has and
always will have a remnant according to the election of grace. And
in fact I want to here's the majesty of this and Paul describes
this in Romans 11 to the destruction of the physical nation of Israel
and of that physical kingdom actually made way for Christ
more glorious spiritual and everlasting kingdom which is his church.
Unlike Israel under the old covenant, the church, the true church,
spiritual Israel, is made up of God's elect from many nations,
not just from one nation. Unlike Israel under the old covenant,
the church is a place where chosen, God chosen, God justified, God
redeemed and regenerated sinners walk together in the name of
the Lord our God. Unlike Israel under the old covenant,
the church is a kingdom of peace and security in Christ. Built
upon him as its foundation, energized by him as its heart, and ruled
and guided by him under his headship and lordship. That's what the
church is. It's almost as if Micah in this
message, after pronouncing God's just judgment against sin, And
listen to this now, it's almost as if Micah, the prophet, as
do all God sent prophets, is saying to Israel, is saying to
Judah in Jerusalem, there is hope, there is salvation, there
is restoration, there is assurance of blessedness and eternal life,
but do not look to yourself. Do not look to your own works.
Do not look even to the city of Jerusalem and a physical king. And don't even look to the physical
temple and a physical priesthood. Look to Christ. Even back then,
that was the message. It hadn't changed. It hadn't
changed at all. Salvation by, the only difference
is, is the time period they look forward to a future coming of
a Messiah. Today, we look back at the Messiah
who's already come and done his great work. It's almost as if
Micah is saying this, Israel, follow the example of your father
Abraham. Well, what was that example?
What did Abraham attain, as Paul wrote in Romans chapter 4, according
to the flesh? Nothing. Nothing. It was all of grace. Our Lord
said in John 8 56 he said your father Abraham rejoiced to see
my day and he saw it and he was glad Micah is saying to Israel listen
to the law of Moses you claim to follow Moses Listen to the
law of Moses. What did the Lord say in John
chapter 5 and verse 46 about Moses? He told the Pharisees
he said if you had believed meant Moses you would have believed
me for Moses wrote of me That's what Micah is saying here Look
to Christ. Don't look to yourselves. Don't
look to your fleshly heritage and pedigree with Abraham. Don't
look to your own works. They won't make you righteous.
That's nothing but dung. He says, look to Christ. God
promised him. God's going to send him. And
he's your hope. He's your salvation. He's your
wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption. All the earthly kings Mike is
saying this to Israel all the earthly king things in which
you trust will be destroyed Look at that verse 12 Zion Jerusalem
Your high places and the groves where you go to worship. That's
all going to be destroyed. It's all going to be dissolved
But there is the absolute certainty of salvation and eternal life
from God in Messiah who is to come in Christ who is to come. And these are the sure mercies
of David. We read about that in Isaiah
55, the sure mercies of David. What did he say there? He said
incline your ear and come unto me here and your soul shall live
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure
mercies of David David himself spoke of him on his dying bed
in 2nd Samuel 23 5 when he said although my house be not so with
God God has made a covenant with me that is ordered in all things
ensure and this is all my salvation and all my desire even though
he make it not to grow You see what what the prophets like Micah
what they were telling Israel is that salvation is not in this
earthly covenant this conditional covenant it's in another covenant
established through another mediator not Moses based on another priesthood
not Aaron and Levi. It's conditioned on Christ. And
you remember we read about this, I believe, in chapter 1 or 2,
where he spoke of that portion, that portion that they were going
to lose? Well, in Christ, there's that portion we cannot lose,
for he is our portion. So this covenant that is identified
by Isaiah and Micah as the sure mercies of David, an everlasting
covenant, it's not like that old covenant which they break.
You see, this is a covenant which assures the salvation of God's
people in Christ. Look at verse 1. He says, but
in the last days it shall come to pass. Sometime when you go
back through these first eight verses, underline all the shalls
and the wills. It reads like Jeremiah 31 when
he's talking about the promise of the new covenant. It reads
like Ephesians chapter 1. God will, God will, I will, I
shall, and you will as a result. It shall come to pass in the
last days. What's he talking about here?
Whatever he's talking about, I'll tell you, here's the background
of it, here's the foundation of it. This is God's powerful,
certain, predestinating purpose to save his people by his grace
in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's the foundation. This
message of hope and assurance continues all the way to the
end of chapter 5. And you want to know something
now? I know it's divided into chapters and verses, but this
is one message now from chapter 3 to chapter 5. And you know
what it's all conditioned on? It's conditioned on the coming
of Christ. and the work that he would accomplish in his obedience
unto death to establish righteousness whereby God could be just and
justified. Let me prove that to you. Just
glance over to chapter 5 and look at verse 2. Now this is
not the only place that you'll see a clear reference to the
Messiah. But this is one you'll recognize
just like that. Look at it. But thou Bethlehem
Ephratah. That's Ephratah just being another
name for that region. Well, you know about Bethlehem,
don't you? You know about the city of David? That's the city
of Messiah's birth. He says, though thou be little
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come
forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel. Who's he talking about?
David, King David, is already dead and gone by now. Who's he talking about? Well,
let me, you see that semicolon after Israel? What that shows
us is that the next line is going to identify who he's talking
about. And here he is. Whose goings forth have been
from old and from everlasting. That's the Alpha and the Omega.
That's the one who has no beginning and no end. That's Christ. So
everything Micah says here is conditioned upon the coming of
Christ into the world The Word made flesh dwelling among us,
His incarnation, His obedience unto death to do His great work,
to put our sins away and give us righteousness. Think about
it. All conditioned upon Him. Now
God gives this nation at this time up into captivity. They're going to go into captivity.
They're going to be destroyed and go into captivity in Babylon.
later on this is what Isaiah Micah and Hosea Hosea prophesied
in the northern game they were going to be totally obliterate
but Micah and Isaiah prophesied of the coming Babylonian captivity
it didn't happen until later in the time of Jeremiah but it
was coming but God was going to give them up in the captivity
but you know whenever they went into captivity God by his sovereign
power and rule always regulated it always tempered it to keep
them together until the time of Christ. You think about that. That's an amazing thing when
you read the scriptures about that. You know how the Babylonian
Empire later comes down and destroys Jerusalem, destroys the temple,
takes them off into the Babylonian captivity where they're living
in a foreign land, and some of the greatest prophecies of God
came out of that captivity through Daniel and Ezekiel. It's amazing,
isn't it? God kept them together by his
means. You know what this whole thing
boils down to, don't you? I mean, when you look at it and
you study these prophets, Israel's whole history was but a preparation
for this one great event of the coming of Christ into the world
to save his people from their sins. His name shall be called
Jesus. For he shall save his people
from their sins. His name shall be called Emmanuel,
God with. Their whole history was a preparation
for that one great event. Not just his birth now. That's
a great event. And that's what verse two speaks
of, his incarnation. But that's not all. See, that
was just the beginning of the whole process of redemption wherein
he went to the cross and put away our sins. All the promises
of God in him, in Christ, are yea, and in him, amen. Unto the glory of God, by us.
Look at it, in the last days, that's the new covenant days.
It shall come to pass. I was talking to somebody a couple
weeks ago about the issue of predestination, and I talked
about this before, and a fella came to me down south, and he
said, I don't believe in predestination. I said, you don't? He said, no,
and I said, so you don't believe the book of Revelation. He said,
well, I do. I said every word of it. He said
every word of it. I said, do you believe that it's
talking about future things in Revelation? He said, sure do.
I said, well, now are those things that will come to pass no matter
what? Or are they things that just
might happen if certain events fall in place and if man cooperates?
and does his part. He said there are things, those
are things that'll come to pass no matter what. I said, son,
that's predestination. This is what Mike is saying.
In the last days it shall come to pass. This is no maybe. This
is nothing conditioned on Israel or what's going on in the Middle
East today. Now listen to me. It shall come to pass. It's gonna
happen. Now, who determined that? God
did. You think God looked down through
a telescope of time one day and just said, well, look what's
going to happen down there. Boy, I'm so glad. No. It shall come to pass because
God's going to bring it to pass. And what's going to happen? Well,
look at it. That the mountain of the house of the Lord shall
be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be
exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it. What's
he talking about here? This mountain, this house of
the Lord, this established upon the mountain. He's talking about
the establishment of his church. That's what he's talking about.
Christ coming to build his church. He told Peter and the disciples
upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell
will not prevail against it. That's why he came. He came to
save God's elect. He came to redeem his people,
redeem his church by his precious blood. He bought and paid for
his people. He came to die for our sins. and drink damnation dry. He came
to bring in everlasting righteousness to be charged to his people,
his church. He came to bring life from his
death. And that's what the Holy Spirit
does when he brings in spiritual life in the new birth regeneration. He gives us each individual bricks
in this spiritual bricks in this body of the church. He gives
us spiritual life from Christ. That's what he does. And that's
what Christ came to do. And this is what he's building
here. That's what Micah's saying. He's coming. He's going to establish.
He's going to build his church. And he says here, the fact that
Christ's church shall be established in the top of the mountains.
You know what that means? That means that expresses the
glorious state of this kingdom. It's going to be exalted above
the hills. You know what he's saying there?
Now listen to me very carefully. I didn't see this before, but
what he's saying there is this, you know, You know, and we as
sinners, we can enter into the glory of this in Christ. There's
no higher state that you and I can be in on this earth or
in heaven than to be justified in Christ based upon his righteousness
imputed to us. There's no higher state than
to be a member of his church, than to be a citizen of his kingdom.
You've topped out. Now, I know there's more blessings
to come that we'll experience. We know that. But as far as our
state before God, as full-fledged members of the Church of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the true Church, as chosen, justified, redeemed,
there's nothing better than that. He's going to establish that
in the top of the mountains. You know, they say Mount Everest
is the highest point on Earth and everybody wants to climb
Mount Everest because that's the highest man can attain to
geographically. I guess, except if you get shot
out into space or something. I don't know. There's nothing
higher than this right here. You talk about lifting a beggar
off a dung heap. You talk about a Mephibosheth,
a dead dog who deserved death because of the fallenness of
his family. and now sits and eats at the
king's table. You see what I'm saying? He lifts
us up. And there's nothing higher. There's
no higher state than to be justified before God based on the imputed
righteousness of Christ. There's no higher condition than
to be cleansed from all my sins by his blood. You can't get any
cleaner than that. Religion can't clean you. Works
can't clean you, tears of remorse cannot clean you, but the blood
of Christ cleanseth us from all sin. There's no cleaner than
that. There's no higher calling than
to worship and serve God as a willing, loving bond slave. That's the
highest calling a sinner can come to by the power of God. And look at it, he says here,
now this establishment of this church, he said, people shall
flow unto it. And what he's talking about,
look at verse two, and many nations, people, many nations, who are
people? That's sinners saved by the grace
of God. And many nations, sinners saved
by the grace of God from out of many nations, not just one. So right now, now listen to me,
Micah's prophecy here is not just talking about the reestablishment
of one nation. It's many nations and and this
this this phrase here in the original. It's not out of many
nations You know a lot of people say well, it's talking about
Jews called out of me. No, this is many nations Many ethnic groups,
that's what he's talking about and he says many nations shall
come and They're going to say this come and let us go up to
the mountain of the Lord Now, I don't want to be oversimplifying
here, but it's like, come let us go to church. But it's not
just going to church. It's not playing church. It's going where
Christ is exalted. It's going where Christ is preached.
It's going where the truth is spoken without compromise, where
the gospel of God's grace is. It's where thirsty sinners can
get the water of life. It's where hungry sinners can
get the bread of life. It's where naked sinners can
find the robe of righteousness preached in the gospel, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed to the Jew first and to the Greek
also, to the Gentile also. And they'll come to the mountain
of the Lord. Salvation of both Jew and Gentile. That's what
he's talking about. And you know why this prophecy,
now this prophecy of the salvation of both Jew and Gentile It was
so offensive to the self-righteous unbelieving Jews. It was so in
Micah's day, so in Isaiah's time, it was so in our Lord's day,
it was so in Paul's day. It was so offensive to the self-righteous
unbelieving Jews. Now why? I'll tell you exactly
why. Because this prophecy, if it
were to come true, Or in Paul's day, if this preaching was true,
it proved that salvation was totally, completely by the sovereign
grace and mercy of God based on the righteousness of Christ
freely imputed and received by faith. That's what it proved. In other words, it proved that
salvation had nothing to do with their earthly heritage. or with
any conditions they could meet, or with their works or their
circumcision. It proved it. The gospel demands
that sinners, Jew and Gentile, come unto God, a just God and
a Savior, based solely upon the shed blood and imputed righteousness
of Christ, and count all else but dung in light of that. That's
why it was so offensive to me. And it also signified the abolishment
of the old covenant. You see, when this happens, this
is not according to the covenant that God made with their fathers
when he brought them out of Egypt and formed them at Sinai, which
covenant they break. You see, the self-righteous,
unbelieving Jews believed their participation in the obedience
of this covenant merited God's favor. Now, actually, they didn't
obey the covenant, but they thought they did. They claimed they did.
But what it did, this prophecy, if it would be fulfilled, would
abolish their hope and their only ground of salvation as they
were trying to establish a righteousness of their own before God. But
look here in verse 2, it says, He will come and let us go up
to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob.
I'm the Lord. I change not therefore you sons
of Jacob are not concerned. This is the God of the covenant
saves by grace So the way he says he won't save any other
way Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
He said he will teach us of his ways You see salvation if God's
way not our way. There's a way that seems right
unto men But the ways there that it leads to destruction What
is God's way? It's the way of grace. It's the
way of mercy in Christ. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by man. It's the way of justice. And it's the way of mercy. It's
the way of God justifying the ungodly through the merits of
the obedience and death of Christ and not by our works and our
efforts or our decisions. It's totally, totally by grace.
That's His way. And His ways are the ways of
grace. And it says, and we will walk in His paths. Now, before
we walk in God's paths, according to His revealed will, we have
to be taught of His ways. What's that teaching us? What's
that showing us? Well, look over at Romans chapter
6 with me. That's just another way of stating
the same thing that Paul writes here concerning the liberation
of a sinner. He says in verse 17 of Romans
chapter 6. He's talking about thanking God
for their deliverance. He says, but God bethink that
you were the servants of sin. That means you were in bondage
to sin. That's an unbeliever there. That's what he's described.
See, we're still sinners, sinners saved by the grace of God, but
we're not servants of sin in this sense. That's an unbeliever. He says, but you have obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. That's
God teaching his ways. What was that form of doctrine?
That's the gospel. The gospel that exposes my sinfulness
and reveals Christ a glory as savior. Reveals the power of
his blood and the beauty of his righteousness. And he says, when
you believe from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered,
he says in verse 18, being then made free, liberated from sin,
you became the servants of righteousness. What is a servant of righteousness?
He's a believer. He's one, a servant of righteousness
is a sinner saved by the grace of God who lives a life trusting
Christ, resting in Christ, abiding in Christ as his only salvation. His only hope. His only righteousness. His only life. His only hope
of glory. That's what a servant of righteousness
is. And that's what Micah's saying over here. God's going to teach
us of His ways and we'll walk in His path. His path is the
pathway of grace. Look at verse 2 of Micah 4. He
says, For the law shall go forth of Zion. That's the word of God.
And remember, now, when people go to the law like that, they're
not just talking, the Bible's not just talking about the Ten
Commandments, it's talking about the whole Old Covenant, which was a schoolmaster
to lead them unto Christ, to expose their sin. And it says,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Well, what's he talking
about? Well, the word of the Lord will
go forth from Jerusalem. That's where our Lord was crucified. That's where the gospel in that
area and you in Judah began to be shot out through the world.
To the Jew first and to the Greek also. All of that. All of these
so that from Jerusalem and round about Paul said I have fully
preached the gospel of Christ. This was God's way. God's means
of getting the gospel out. Look at verse 3. It says, and
he shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar
off, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their
spears into pruning hooves. Nations shall not lift up a sword
against nations, neither shall they learn war anymore. Now,
a lot of people, when they read this, and of course, if you read
this and studied it, you'll know that this is the exact same thing
that Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter 2. prophesying of the coming
of Christ to establish his church as the king as the Shepherd King
and A lot of people, you know, it's kind of funny, you know
how scholars will do sometimes they say well this proves that
the Bible is not true because either Micah stole it from Isaiah
or Isaiah stole it from Micah and I got to thinking now now
Usually when I go on a trip I come back and the first thing I do
is I listen to the two messages that you all heard brother Ron
and brother Allen I haven't heard them yet, because I haven't had
time to sit down and listen to them. But I know right now that
they basically say the same thing I do. And you know why? Because we're ambassadors. It
doesn't bother me a bit that Micah and Isaiah had the exact
same message, because the same God gave it to them. It's the
same gospel. So when you go to Isaiah chapter
2, you'll read the same words here. A lot of people may go
to this and they connect this with a future time of peace between
nations here on earth. And that's not what Mike was
talking about here. There's never going to be a time
of peace among nations here on this earth. Christ said that
he told him think not that I'm come to bring peace but I but
a sword. And remember, all this is connected
in this same message here with what Micah says over here in
chapter 5 about Christ coming out of Bethlehem. That's his
first coming. I know in Luke chapter 2 and
verse 14 at the birth of Christ, it says, glory to God in the
highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. But that's
not translated correctly, actually. It should read this way. Glory
to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with
whom God is pleased. That's how it really reads. Well,
who's God pleased with? Well, without faith, it's impossible
to please God. What is faith? Look in the Christ.
This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Well, what's
this talking about? He's going to rebuke these nations
of far all judge many people. They'll beat their swords into
plowshares. In other words, instead of warriors,
they're going to be farmers. That's what he's saying. They're
going to have weapons. They're going to have plows.
They're not going to shed blood. They're going to plant seed.
What's that talking about? Well, you know, under the old
covenant, Israel was commanded in many times to take up arms
against those who occupied the land of promise. They would go
to war on them. And while the ancient kingdom
of Israel often had to resort to war, physical warfare, because
of the enemies that surround them, this would not be the case
in the kingdom of the Messiah. That's what Micah is saying.
It's not going to be like that in the New Covenant, in the kingdom
of the Messiah. First of all, Christ said it. He said, My kingdom is not of
this world. It's a spiritual kingdom. What
does it mean he shall judge among many people? Well, how's he going
to judge? He's going to judge by the preaching of the gospel
by the preaching of righteousness By the preaching of how God can
be just and justify the ungodly and through that message He's
going to bring people who are by nature natural enemies together
In peace peace with God and peace among themselves under the headship
of Christ the Shepherd King Now let me prove that to you. Turn
to Ephesians chapter 2. Look at Ephesians chapter 2. In Ephesians chapter 2, this
great chapter that many of you are so familiar with, We normally
take this and we apply it to individual believers and that's
okay. Because what is said here does
apply to individual believers. Born dead in trespasses and sins. All of that in time past walked
according to the course of this world. But in essence this chapter
is really describing the church as a whole and the establishment
of the church. It talks about how we are quickened together
with Christ in verse 5. Now, the quickening there is
not talking about the new birth. Because in the new birth, we're
not quickened together. Many of you were quickened long
before I was. And I was quickened before some
of you, given life, spiritual life. When were we quickened
together? At the cross of Calvary, when
Christ died, was buried, and rose from the dead. We were in
him. He represented every one of his sheep. And when he died,
I died. He died, he went to the cross
for my sins. And if you're, listen, if you're
one of his sheep, when he died, you died. Just when I died, right
in him. And when he was buried, we were
buried. And when he arose again, we arose again. And that's why
he says, for by grace are you saved. Verse 10 says, we are
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. All of
us, the whole church. And look at verse 11. He says,
wherefore, remember that in you being in time past Gentiles in
the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision,
the Jews in the flesh made by hand, see that division, circumcision
and uncircumcision, Jew and Gentile, there was a division there. There
was an enmity there. He said in verse 12 that at that
time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel and strangers, foreigners. from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ
Jesus, you who were sometime far off are made nigh by the
blood of Christ. That's how we come near to God.
That's how we commune with God. That's how we're accepted with
God. For he is our peace. Christ is our peace. Verse 14. And he says who has made both
one who are the both their Jew and Gentile under the headship
of Christ the Shepherd King. And have broken down the middle
wall partition between us there is no barrier now between Jew
and Gentile in Christ. Having abolished in his flesh
that is by his body given on the cross for our sins the enmity
the hatred Even the law of commandments contained in ordinance, for to
make in himself a twain of two, Jew and Gentile, one new man. So make him peace. That's the
church. And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by
the cross, having slain the enmity thereof. Now go back to Micah.
That's what Micah's talking about. Those who are, he's using symbolic
language here to show that those who are natural enemies, who
draw swords against each other to go to war, how in Christ,
who is our peace, he's going to bring us together in one body
to where we're gonna lay down our swords and we're gonna become
farmers. And what do farmers do? They
sow seed. And how do we sow seed? We preach
the gospel throughout the world. The church, which is the pillar
and ground of truth. We're not gonna learn war anymore.
We're gonna learn peace in him. Look at verse four, Michael four,
and I'll hurry. He says, but they shall sit every man under
his vine and under his fig tree and none shall make them afraid
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken it. What is
this vine and this fig tree what what are the folks it's all about
well let me let me turn to a passage here and then we'll close to
that and pick up here next time on this issue of the shepherd
king priced our shepherd king as a company thought it that they shall sit every man
under his vine and under his fig tree now what is that that's
a symbolic reference to Israel under Solomon Solomon who was
a type of Christ and I want you to see that turn back to first
Kings chapter 4 To be sitting under his vine
and under his fig tree is symbolism that That means peace safety
and prosperity That's what it means Back over here in 1 Kings
chapter 4 is the first time that symbol is really used in describing
the kingdom of Solomon. But before I go to that, now
listen, you remember David, King David, Solomon's father, you
remember he wanted to build the temple, but God wouldn't let
him. You remember why God wouldn't
let him? What did God tell him? He said, I'm not going to let
you build this temple. Why? He said, because David, you're a
man of blood. You're a man of war. And David was a man of war. You remember when we studied
the life of David, I mean, he was in and out of trouble all
the time. He fighting enemies. I mean, it was just a war. He
was a warrior king. Now David was a type of Christ.
Christ going to war for his people against sin, against Satan, against
the curse, against the world. That's why he told his disciples,
he said, in the world, you're gonna have tribulation, but don't
be afraid, I've overcome the world. As a warrior king, he
overcame the world. All right? He did that great
work. But God told David, he said,
your son Solomon's going to build the temple. And you remember
how he described Solomon then in that context? He said, for
Solomon is a man of rest. Peace. David typified Christ
the warrior going to war against sin, against Satan, against the
world, and he accomplished it. Remember how he fought Goliath? Solomon is a type of Christ who
has finished the work of redemption. Christ, our rest, our Sabbath,
our shepherd, king. And listen how the reign of Solomon
is described here. Go down to verse 20. He says Judah and Israel. Now
you remember Solomon didn't reign over a divided kingdom. It was
the United Kingdom. So he says Judah and Israel were
many as the sand which is by the sea in multitude eating and
drinking and making merry. That's descriptive of the joy
that we have in Christ. And Solomon reigned over all
kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines and
into the border of Egypt. They brought presents and serve
Solomon all the days of his life. Now, who did that? Who's to say
did that here? Did you notice that? It included
the surrounding areas, the Gentiles, even the Philistines. When you
think of the Philistines, what do you think of? You think of
great enemies, great warriors against Israel. But here under
Solomon, he reigned over them. Jew and Gentile, they'll beat
their swords and weapons in the plowshares, you see? And then
it says in verse twenty two and Solomon's provision for one day
was thirty measures of fine flour and three score measures of meal
ten fat oxen twenty oxen out of the pastures and a hundred
sheep beside hearts and roebuck and fallow deer and fatted calf.
You see that that's the abundance that's pictures the abundance
of blessings that we have in Christ. For he had dominion over
all the region on this side the on this side the river from Tissa
even as a over all the kings on the side of the river and
he had peace on all sides round about him Solomon the man of
peace the man of rest Look at verse 25 and Judah and Israel
dwelt safely Look in your concordance on that word. What does it say? Confidently. That's faith. Every man under his vine and
under his fig tree from Dan even to Beersheba all the days of
Solomon. Peace. Now all that is a picture
and a symbol of what Micah describes here in verse 4 of the kingdom of the shepherd king
the man of rest who has accomplished the work who has established
his kingdom and we'll pick up there next time all right let's
sing as our closing hymn oh god