Now, I've entitled this message
from the first verse there, to no judgment. To no judgment. He asked this question, is it
not for you to know judgment? Back over in our opening reading
in Psalm 89, that verse 14 struck me as I was studying and preparing
for this message. When he says this, the psalmist
says this, Psalm 89, 14. He says, justice and judgment
are the habitation or the establishment of thy throne, of God's throne.
And then he mentions mercy. He says, mercy and truth shall
go before thy face. He continues on, he says, blessed
is the people that know the joyful sound, the sound of joy. And, of course, that's the gospel.
And he says, "...they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice
all the day, and in thy righteousness or in thy justice shall they
be exalted." Now, that is a great description of gospel blessedness,
isn't it? Gospel blessedness. Well, back
over here in Micah chapter 3, the Lord God exposes in this chapter the beginning
of Micah's second message. He exposes the self-serving princes,
the nobles, the leaders, from the king all the way down to
the lowest civil magistrate. He exposes them for what they
are. He exposes the prophets that are prophesying for hire,
their hirelings. Brother Lloyd read John chapter
10 in the study a while ago. It talks about the hireling there.
the one who's in this just for what he can get out of it and
not for the glory of God and the preeminence of Christ and
the salvation of sinners and the edification of God's people.
And he also exposes covetous priests as the men who had led
Israel into apostasy, unbelief, idolatry, and ultimate doom. You know, it's one thing when
people, by nature, are ignorant of and not submitted to the sovereign
goodness and mercy of God, to the righteousness of Christ,
and the claims of God, and the mercy of God in the gospel. But
it's another thing when the leaders of the people lead them that
way. And that was the problem in Judah. That was also the problem
in the northern kingdom, Israel, and Micah really addresses both
here. But here's what he says to them,
they basically, they hated righteousness, they hated justice, and they
perverted equity. And that word equity is an important
word here. You know, I've talked to you
about that because many times in the Scripture, sin is described
as inequity, iniquity. And that comes from the word
equity, that which is equitable or just or that which balances
out. It's almost like if you look
at it in a court of law, it goes something like this, that the
punishment fits the crime. It weighs out. You'll hear somebody
who may have committed a crime and gone to jail and they let
them out of jail and we'll say they paid their debt to society. Whatever society's debt was,
they met that equity. And when anything is unjust or
unbalanced, the Bible calls it inequity or iniquity, and that's
what it is. He says down here in verse 9
of Micah chapter 3 that they abhor judgment, they hate righteousness. That's what that means. It means
they hate judgment or justice and they pervert all equity. They pervert that. And this people,
they brought the people of God that they claim to serve under
the sentence of destruction. That's what this ends with, and
the only hope of salvation, the only hope of redemption here
is in the living God, who is a just God and a Savior, whose
throne is established with judgment and justice. along with mercy
and truth. And again, the key word here
is justice. It's justice. Now, you remember
back up in chapter 2, the last two verses, how he spoke of mercy. He says, I will, verse 12, remember,
in Micah chapter 2, rather. In verse 12, he said, I will
surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee, I will surely gather
the remnant of Israel. This is God doing His great work
of mercy, His great work of grace, salvation. He's going to assemble
and gather. He says, I will put them together
as the sheep of Bozrah. He's going to bring His sheep
into the sheepfold, and that's a prophecy of the salvation of
God's people out of every tribe and nation. God's elect in Christ. He says, the breaker has come
up before them, that breaker is one who breaks through all
the obstacles, all the barriers that would hinder or stop the
salvation of his people, and that breaker is Christ. He broke
through. He broke through this world.
He broke through humanity. He even broke through the law,
not by breaking the law, but by keeping the law. He was obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. He broke through sin.
He broke through condemnation. He broke through the curse. He
broke through Satan on the cross and redeemed us from our sins.
And all of that's mercy. But now here in chapter 3, he
speaks of justice. Justice. Micah prophesied of
mercy, but here of justice, and both under the name of Jacob.
Listen to it in verse 1. And I said, here I pray you,
O heads of Jacob. Another name for Israel and Judah.
And the idea here is this, God is a God of abundant mercy. There's no doubt about that.
And we, listen, we love to speak of God's mercy. We love to speak
of God's grace and God's love, even God's compassion. You know,
basically in the New Testament, there are two words for mercy.
One of them is just bare compassion, having compassion on sinners. And that's what he's talking
about when he says, "'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain
mercy.'" Compassion. We ought to be a compassionate
people because our God is a compassionate God. But the other term, mercy,
which is used several times, is the term that's related to
a word that's translated propitious or propitiation. You can find
that in the book of Luke, chapter 18, in the parable of the Pharisee
and the publican, beginning at verse 9. The publican, when he
beat upon his breast and he said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner,
he literally meant, God, be propitious. And that sets the tone of God's
mercy and compassion to show that it's not mercy without justice. It's not compassion without righteousness
and truth. God must be just when He shows
mercy. And I'm going to tell you something
now. This is the missing note in the false gospels of today.
Think about this. God is a God of love, a God of
grace, a God of mercy, but don't ever think that that means He's
not just in punishing sin. The Bible says, God hateth all
workers of iniquity. iniquity. And the first issue
that is confronted in the salvation of sinners, the first issue that
is confronted and dealt with is God's justice, God's law. The Bible says, in the fullness
of the time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, that's
His incarnation. What's the next phrase? You all
know what it is? Made of what? Made what? Made under law. Now why was he made under the
law? Because he had to satisfy the law. He had to satisfy justice
in order to do what? To redeem them that were under
law. He had to establish righteousness. He had to establish equity because
of our iniquity. That's the heart of the gospel.
So that any notion of mercy from God that perverts or ignores
or denies justice is simply a wrong view of God. In fact, it's idolatry. That's exactly what it is. Isaiah
set that tone in Isaiah chapter 45 and verse 21 when God's identifying
himself there even in Judah and Jerusalem to distinguish himself
from all idols. And he said this in verse 21
of Isaiah 45, let me read it to you. He says, Tell you and
bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath
declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time?
You know, this is no new man, this is from the beginning. And
he says, Have not I the Lord? And that word, Lord, there's
Jehovah, covenant God, promise, God who justifies the ungodly.
And he says, there's no God else beside me, and here's how he
identifies himself, a just God and a savior. There's none beside
me. There's no false religion that
portrays their deity, their false idol, as a just God and a savior. Salvation by grace through Christ
did not and does not allow us to escape the justice of God.
In fact, it embraces the justice of God as fulfilled and satisfied
by Christ on the cross. And so we bring judgment to people
when we preach the gospel. Now let me show you that before
we go through Mike. I turn to Isaiah 42. I want you to see
this. I want you to see how the scripture
puts it. I had a fellow tell me one time, he said, well, you
know, he said, oh, that's true, but you shouldn't put it that
way. And I said, well, why not? He
said, well, people won't understand you. And I said, well, I'm not
in the business of whittling down and honing my message to
what people can naturally understand. You see, your understanding is
dependent upon one thing, and that's the Spirit of God opening
your understanding, and my understanding too. Natural man won't receive
the things of the Spirit of God. But look at Isaiah 42. Now, this
is a prophecy of the coming of Christ. And I want you to look
how God puts it. All right? This is how God puts
it. He says, Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, speaking of Christ
in his humanity, upheld by the power and Spirit of God, mine
elect, God chose his son. He chose his people in his Son,
in whom my soul delighteth, this is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased, hear ye him, I have put my spirit upon him,
and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Now how's he
going to do that? Well, according to strict justice,
we all deserve what? Is he just going to come down
here and just make a clean sweep of things and just kill all of
us because we deserve it? Now listen to what he says, verse
2. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be
heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break,
and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth
judgment unto truth. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged,
till he have set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall
wait for his law. Now when did he set judgment
in the earth? on the cross of Calvary when
God judged His Son for the sins of His sheep, His people, His
elect, charged to Him. And when He brought judgment
to the Gentiles means the gospel. It's the gospel wherein God is
revealed as both a just God and a Savior. Now, go back to Micah
chapter 3. Well, what does all that have
to do with this? Well, listen to it. See, this is the society
of the old covenant here. This is society as God set it
up under the law of Moses, all right? And in that law, their
whole existence as a nation in that promised land was the organization
that God set forth through the old covenant law. And that's
how they were to live. It applied to their civil leaders. It applied to the king, when
God gave them a king. These laws, this covenant law
now. In other words, they had a standard
of right and a standard of wrong, a standard of judgment that they
were to go by under God's revelation, God's revealed covenant. The
Ten Commandments, the civil laws, the ceremonial laws, every bit
of it now. And it was different. It was
different from any other nation. Now, other nations had laws,
don't get me wrong. Everybody's got a conscience.
Romans chapter 2 teaches that. Even the heathen have laws and
rules for society, rules for existence. But not like this. This was special. This was something
else. This was a covenant that God
brought and created this nation. And let me tell you something,
they weren't a nation until Mount Sinai. Now, they were a promised
people to Abraham. But people talk about the Jewish
nation, you know, but before Sinai, there were no Jews. That
came from the tribe of Judah. And I think I read something,
I think it's the book of Esther is the first place in the Old
Testament that they're called Jews. Talking about Mordecai
the Jew in the book of Esther. Very first place. And that came
from Jews. Before then, they were called
Hebrews. The descendants of Abraham. Well, God brought them together
and boy, this was special because this whole covenant was given
to that nation to establish the identity and the distinctiveness
of the one true and living God and that He is a just God and
justice was to be served and justice was to be done in this
nation on all fronts from the highest magistrate, even the
king, all the way down to the lowest of the low It was to be
a just society, and you know why? Because God is just, and
they were the people of God. Now, ultimately, what was the
message of that justice? Well, the message ultimately
was that we're sinners, and if God gave us what we justly deserve,
we'd be in hell. Why was the law given? Because
of the transgression. to show us we're sinners and
cannot be saved, cannot be blessed, cannot be made righteous by our
works and our efforts. And then God set on that covenant,
He set inside that covenant, that ceremonial law, those beautiful,
wonderful pictures and prophecies of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
tabernacle, the priesthood, the blood of animals, sacrifices,
the altar, the table of showbread, the golden candlestick, and you
go on and on and on. We've studied those things and
they're beautiful pictures of Christ. They're not as beautiful
as Christ himself, but they are beautiful pictures of Christ.
And that message was that given the fact that we are sinners,
and that if God gave us what we justly deserved, We could
not be saved. What was that given to do? To
drive us to his promise of salvation by grace through the coming Messiah. That's what he gave that to the
Israelites for. And so, justice was to be upheld
in every way because it was a reflection on God. It was a reflection of
the state of a person's heart. For example, If I knew, if I'm
really convinced that I deserve nothing but God's wrath, how's
that going to shape my attitude towards you? It's going to help
me in my struggle to be compassionate towards you. Well, what's happened
here in Micah, in the book of Micah, in Judah, and in Israel,
they forgot all about it. Listen to what happened. He says,
verse 1, I said, here I pray you heads of Jacob, that's the
civil leaders. That would include the king too.
And you princes, nobles of the house, the leaders, the influentials,
the somebodies. He said, is it not for you to
know judgment? If anybody should know something
about justice, it ought to be you. A civil magistrate. It ought to be you. You're the
guardians of the land. You're the guardians of the people.
You're the protectors of the people. You're the judges of
the people. You're the one who passes judgment
in the land. So if anybody ought to know judgment,
it ought to be you. Verse 2, here's the reality though. Who hate the good? They hate
good and love the evil. That's a description of natural
man by nature. hate good, but love evil. Israel's civil leaders were to
lead the people in the ways of God, in the ways of that covenant. Even down to the heads of families.
The heads of families were to be spiritual leaders in their
home, just like today. And the justice that Michael
was speaking about, as I said, is justice that's found in that
covenantal law. And the lawgiver is the Lord
himself. In other words, they weren't
just exacting and enacting upon man's law. Here's God's law.
God's law. These men were to act, these
civil leaders, I'll tell you exactly what they were to do.
They were to act as types. Types of Christ, our King, whose
scepter is a scepter of righteousness. His rule is the rule of righteousness. You see, that's why salvation
is a matter of law and justice and righteousness and equity. We were talking about that. I
think, David, you mentioned how that picture in the book of Esther
when they came in to see the king and he had that scepter
and he had to extend that scepter if they were going to have an
audience with the king. If he didn't extend that scepter, you
didn't have an audience with the king. You were in disfavor
with the king. And in the gospel, that's a great picture. Think
about Christ. His throne is established with
judgment and justice. And if you want mercy from this
king, he must extend that scepter of righteousness. He must be
honored. And that's what Christ does in
the gospel to all his people who come to him like that old
publican. God, be merciful, be propitious, be a satisfaction
for me. I don't have righteousness. I
don't deserve the least of your mercy. I don't deserve the least
of your blessings. I'm totally dependent upon Christ
for all my wisdom, my righteousness, my holiness, my redemption. I'm totally dependent upon God
for salvation. If God were to give me what I
justly deserved in myself, it would be eternal damnation. But
He, to every convicted sinner, He extends that scepter of righteousness. And it's a scepter of His own
work and making and His obedience unto death on the cross. And
these kings and these magistrates and these judges, they were to
be types of that, extending justice where justice was due and mercy
where mercy was due, not in order to pervert justice. They were
to administer justice and mercy according to the law. Now again,
other nations had laws, but not like this. Look at verse 2, he
said, "...who hate the good and love the evil, who pluck off
their skin from off them and their flesh off their bones,
who also eat the flesh of my people and flay their skin from
off them and they break their bones, chop them in pieces as
for the pot and as flesh within the cauldron." Now, what do you
think he's talking about there and all that? Is he talking about
cannibalism? No. First of all, they hate good
and love evil. because they pervert justice.
They don't judge properly. Their judgments are for sale. They take bribes, all of that.
And it's a great picture of the natural man. You know, Christ
said in John chapter 3 and verse 19, He said, this is the condemnation. And that condemnation is by the
law. And here's what he says, that light has come into the
world, goodness in Christ, salvation by God's grace, righteousness
through Him, and men love darkness and hate the light. That's what
this problem is here. That's what it is today when
it comes to salvation. When sinners hear about salvation,
Totally, totally by the sovereign mercy and grace of God, based
totally upon the shed blood and imputed righteousness of Christ,
they don't want any part of that. And they'd rather hear about
themselves and their own works and what they can do, what they've
done for God and what God's enabled them to do. You see, that's inequity. Iniquity. That's why Christ stood
before those in Matthew chapter 7 and said, Depart from me, you
that worketh iniquity. It doesn't balance out. You're
a sinner. And all that you think you've
done for the Lord will not atone for one's sin. It's inequitable.
It's unjust. There's only one way that a sinner,
a man, can be made just before God, and there's only one way
that God can be just in making him just. And that's through
the obedience and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, His work,
His righteousness alone. That's the only way. And any
other way, if you prefer any other way, but the way of grace
that reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ,
you hate the good and love evil. That's the picture here now.
You love inequity, if you prefer any other way, but the way of
total sovereign free grace in Christ. That's the issue. These people here now... This
description here of them plucking off the skin from the people
and breaking their bones and eating their flesh, what he's
saying is this. These men who were civil magistrates,
they should have been leaders of the people. They should have
been their shepherds. But instead they ended up being
butchers. And they butchered justice instead
of guiding and feeding. and keeping the flock, they were
flaying the flock, so to speak. Instead of feeding, they were
feeding upon the flock. And like false preachers who
seek to bring their hearers under the law and get them to do this
or get them to do that under the black whip of the law, that's
what they're doing. Look at verse 4. He says, then
shall they cry unto the Lord. They're religious now. You see,
don't ever think these men who are perverting justice now, they're
not religious. One old commentator said, they
go to church on Sunday, and then on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
they pervert the law. They pervert justice. But he
says, but God will not hear them. He will even hide his face from
them at that time as they have behaved themselves ill in their
doings. They're alienated from God by
their wicked works. And that applies to these magistrates,
these civil leaders who were perverting justice and taking
advantage of the people. It applies to false preachers
and their followers who seek an audience with God, who seek
to pray to God based upon their own worthiness, their own merits,
their own works, anything but the blood and righteousness of
Christ. That's the problem. You see, as I said, salvation. blessedness, eternal life. It's all founded upon justice
and judgment in Christ. Salvation is first a matter of
justice, and mercy must be in line with it. And that's where
we run to the cross. That's where we say, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross. of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's where we see the glorious
truths of substitution. I need someone, well we see representation,
I need someone to stand in my place because I can't stand before
God on my own. I need a high priest. Substitution,
I need not only one to stand before me in my place, I need
one to take my place. under the law of God, under the
justice of God. Take my punishment. That's why
Christ was made sin. He who knew no sin, that we may
be made the righteousness of God in him. Imputation, that
glorious truth. I need one to whom God will transfer,
will impute, will charge my sins, who will stand willingly under
my guilt and take it upon himself for me. and die that death that
I deserve and earned. And then satisfaction. I need
not only one who can do all that, but one who can drink damnation
dry, who can pay the penalty. And there's only one who can
do that, and that's the God-man who establishes judgment and
justice. And then in the new birth, now
think about this. Law and justice is at the forefront
of the new birth. And I'll tell you why, because
when God... The first thing the Holy Spirit is said to do in
conviction is conviction of what? Sin. By the law. And then the next thing He must
do is purge the conscience. You know what the conscience
is? That's the seed of judgment in your heart. in my heart. It's what accuses me and excuses
me. It's my standard, you see. And
when God the Holy Spirit comes in and teaches me and gives me
life and knowledge, ears to hear and eyes to see, He teaches me
that God's standard of righteousness and holiness and justice is way
too high for me. I cannot attain to it. Listen, without His grace and
mercy in Christ, I'm dead eternally. And he drives me to Christ and
purges my conscience with the blood of Christ. Now in verse
5 he begins to bring an indictment against the prophets. Listen
to this. He says, thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets
that make my people air, that bite with their teeth. The picture
here is somebody that's hungry and ready to devour. And they
cry, Peace, and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even
prepare war against them." What he's saying here is the prophets,
whoever will pay them the most and feed them the most, they'll
speak peace to. But those who won't put anything in their mouths,
those who won't pay them or feed them, then they declare war on
them. That's right. They're hirelings. And he says
in verse 6, Therefore night shall be unto you. In other words,
you know truth in the Bible is considered to be light, the day. But they don't have truth here.
Therefore night shall be unto you. Darkness, ignorance. They're
ignorant of, not submitted to the righteousness of God. Because
they're not preaching justice, even mercy in Christ. That you
shall not have a vision. You're not going to have a word
from God. That's what that means. That's what a vision is in the
Bible. It's a word from God. and it shall be dark unto you,
that you shall not divine, that is, you shall not prophesy, that's
what that means. When you prophesy, you see, when
you preach, if you're preaching rightly, you're preaching what?
The Word of God, that's the divine, not the Word of men. And then
he says, and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the
day shall be dark over them. So even the light they have,
they turn into darkness, just like the Pharisees. Remember
Christ said, the light that's in you is darkness. You have
the means. It's like people sitting under
the preaching of the gospel, but they don't hear it. We were
talking about this today. Think about the parable of the
seed and the sow. Right now in this audience, and
those who are listening over the live streaming, and those
who will hear a tape, they are basically, here's what Christ
is saying, there's four types of hearers. And only one type
is the good ground hearer. That's startling truth, isn't
it? Well, don't let the light of God's truth be darkness to
you. Seek the Lord. And then he says in verse 7,
Then shall the seers, that is who see the future, be ashamed. You see, the seers here were
prophesying future peace and prosperity and power for Israel
and Judah. Not going to happen. Not going
to happen. And the diviners, those who claim
to preach the Word of God, they're going to be confounded. In other
words, this is what they're sure that's going to happen, but it's
not going to happen, they'll be confused. And it says, Yea,
they shall all cover their lips. In other words, when their prophecies
and their words don't come true, here's what they're going to
do. Shut my mouth. For there is no
answer of God. How can you figure it out? That's
what he's talking about. I can't figure it out. I thought
there'd be peace and prosperity and abundance in the land. What's
going on, God? That's what they're asking. No
answer. God's silent. You know, there's several times
in Scripture where we see God's silence. And it's not a pretty
picture, is it? You see, God speaks to his people
through his son. Read it in Hebrews chapter 1.
And you know, even before that in the old covenant, he spoke
through his son, because Christ himself said this in John chapter
5, 39, you search the scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life. They are they which testify of me. Here's the prophets
who tell people what they want to hear, not what they need to
hear. I tell you what, what did Judah
and Israel need in their day? They needed bold prophets like
Isaiah, like Micah, like Hosea, who would stand forth by the
power and courage of God's grace now and tell the truth. You're in trouble. That's what
Micah's doing. I think about there, you can
read about this sometime. You remember Ahab, King Ahab? when he was making a pact with
the... Ahab was an evil king of Israel, the northern kingdom,
and he was making a pact. I can't remember the name of
the king of Judah at that time. Started with a J, but most of
them did. But I can't remember. It's recorded in 1 Kings chapter
22, and he was making a pact with that king, and they were
getting ready to go out to battle. I think it was against the Assyrian
army. And the king of Judah asked Ahab, said, well, you know, you
have all these prophets who are saying, peace, peace, and saying,
you're going to win, go get them, Ahab. And he said, don't you
have any other prophets around who might speak a word? And he
said, well, there's one. His name's Micaiah. It's a derivation of Micah here.
Is there any God like our God? That's what it means. He said,
but he never has anything good to say about me. And you can
read about it in 1 Kings 22. He sent for Micaiah, and sure
enough, Micaiah said, well, you're going to be defeated. You're
going to get what's coming to you. And Ahab turned to the king
of Judah and he said, see there, I told you. You don't have anything
good to say about me. But he spoke the truth. I think
about the prophet Nathan who stood before the sovereign king
of Israel, David, and said, David, you're the man. Thou art the
man. It didn't hold back. That's what
we need in preaching today. We need some preachers who will
stand up and tell the truth about God and about sin and about what
we need and the only way we can have it in Christ and Him crucified
and risen again. The only way. Look at verse 8
now. Micah describes himself here.
He's not bragging here. He's just telling the truth.
He says, but truly I'm full of the power I've got the authority,
that's what he's saying here, I've got the power. Well, Michael,
what makes you think you've got all... Well, here's the key,
by the Spirit of the Lord. My authority, my power is not
my own, it's not in myself, it's not in my natural abilities,
it's by the Spirit of the Lord, the Lord God, whose throne is
established with judgment and justice. The Lord God of the
covenant, He says, and of judgment. I'm speaking of justice, He says.
Not a perversion of justice. You see, all false gospels are
a perversion of God's justice. But there's only one message
of truth and justice that lines up with mercy and grace, and
that's Christ and Him crucified and risen again. That's salvation
by God's grace, that grace that reigns through righteousness,
through justice unto eternal life. How's that? We're sinners and if God gave
us what we deserved, it would be eternal damnation, but there
is a justice that reigns unto eternal life. Do you wanna hear
about that? I do, I wanna hear about that.
I wanna hear about a justice that can give a sinner eternal
life. Well, where is that Romans 521?
It reigns through justice unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's how. God is a just God and a savior.
And he says, and of might and power. That's what he means there.
I've got this power from God. And he says to do what? To declare
unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. Justice. What does justice, what does
God's law say about your person and your works and your efforts
and your motives and your heart? Sin, sin, the wages of sin is
death. So look at verse, and this is
Micah's ministry as a prophet of God. He's bold to proclaim
the truth. He's like Stephen at Pentecost
who stood up and boldly said, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised
in heart and ears, you've resisted the Holy Ghost, you've rejected
the gospel, the message of grace in Christ. Well, look at verse
9. Now, here he kind of lumps them
all together. He's talking about the civil leaders, the prophets,
and the priests, all of them. He says, verse 9, Hear this,
I pray you, you heads of the house of Jacob and princes of
the house of Israel that abhor judgment and pervert all equity. in their civil dealings with
the people and their judgments of the people. They took bribes,
they dealt unjustly, they gave judgments that were perverted.
It wasn't a reflection on the God of the covenant nor the laws
of His covenant. Had nothing to do with mercy.
Remember Christ told the Pharisees, you're so meticulous in your
religion to tithe mint and anise and cumin that you've forgotten
and left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice.
and truth and mercy. That's what these were doing
here. Verse 10, they build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem
with iniquity. They were prosperous in this
day, but not based on justice, not based on truth. It's like
false religion today. You know, false religion is very,
very prosperous, isn't it? Think about it. I mean, they
fill stadiums. They build edifices. They have
big bank accounts, you know, all of this. But it's not built
upon the foundation of justice. It's not built upon the foundation
of Christ. See what I'm saying? And that's
what's happening. He says in verse 11, "...the
heads thereof judge for reward." It's like a person who's seeking
to serve God for what he can get out of Him. I'm trying to
earn my rewards. And he says, and the priests
thereof teach for hire what they can be paid, their hirelings.
And the prophets therefore divine, they preach for money. And I'll
guarantee you they're like preachers today who spend their time on
TV begging and begging for money, that's the blessing of God. And he says, yet will they lean
upon the Lord, that's what they're saying. Oh, it's all of God. Remember those false preachers
in Matthew chapter 7? They said, we do it in your name. And just as sincere as they can
be, and they say, is not the Lord among us? None evil can
come upon us. They believe the message of the
false preachers. And then, here's the bottom line. He says, therefore, shall Zion,
for your sake, be plowed as a field. Ever seen a plowed field? Not
very impressive, even though a lot of work goes into it. Well,
God puts the work into it. And he says, "...and Jerusalem
shall become heaps..." That's like ash heaps. Destruction. "...and the mountain of the house
as the high places of the forest." Just like a desolate forest. That's what it's talking about.
Now, this took place... This is a prophecy in verse 12
of the destruction of Judah. And it took place not too long
after this, in the book of Micah, not too long after the time of
Micah, when God sent judgment unto Jerusalem and Judah, under
Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army, and put them into captivity
for seven years. And that's when that took place.
But God always, think about this now, let me leave you with this
thought. Whatever God does, whatever He does, in whatever way he does
it. It's always just, it's always
right, and it's always fair. That's right, isn't it? Now,
God is not always merciful. He's not always merciful, is
He? But when He is, He's still just. He's still right. He's still
fair. Now if God gave us nothing but
pure justice, what would we get? Well, we'd get what we deserve.
We'd get what we've earned. What is that? The wages of sin
is death. So how in the world can a sinner
like me find mercy with God? Where can I find that mercy that
doesn't pervert justice, that doesn't ignore it and deny it?
Where can I find not but one place? Christ said, I am the
way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. That's the heart of the gospel.
Did you know that? God is just to justify the ungodly through
Christ, his son, the God-man, and based upon his obedience
unto death, his blood, and his righteousness alone.