Let's open our Bibles to Micah, Micah chapter 2. And our text is found in verse 36. And I've titled this message, I'm sorry, I want to make some comments about Ezekiel 36. in introducing this text, but our verse is verse 13. Say, I must have a different Bible than you have, right? There's only 13 verses in my Micah chapter 2.

Mine too. I'm sorry. The breaker is come up before them. They have broken up and have passed through the gate and are going out by it. and their king shall pass before them and the Lord on the head of them." I've titled this message, Christ the Breaker. Clearly, this is a reference to him.

And the importance of that is Ezekiel chapter 36, the Lord said, I do not this for your sakes, speaking of his salvation. He said, I don't do it because you've merited it, because you're worthy of it, because you deserve it. That's not why I'm saving you. I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, for you have profaned my name.

But I do this. for my own holy namesake. I do this for my own holy namesake. How many names the Lord has given us of himself to reveal his covenant promises to save his people. I do this for my holy namesake. If the Lord is pleased to reveal himself to us by his namesake, then we will find in those names the hope of our salvation. What those names tell us about him, he shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

Jehovah saves, that's his name. He is the I am, the self-existent, eternal, self-sufficient creator and sustainer of all of life, both physical and spiritual, I am, I am. And I save in the manner in which I save. I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy.

The names that the Lord gives us of himself are so important. And many of the names that he gives us are only mentioned once. I think of the name Melchizedek. That name only appears once in the Old Testament where the King of Salem and the priest of the Most High God, the one that was without father and without mother and without descent, the one to whom Abraham paid tithes, a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then when we get to Hebrews, the glory of Christ is revealed through that name, Melchizedek.

We have the name, the branch given to us. And John said, the ax has been laid at the root of the tree. Israel's about to be cut down, but from the root of Jesse will come forth a branch. And the Lord Jesus is called in the scriptures, that branch that brings about the fruits of righteousness and salvation for his people. Jacob when he was blessing his sons just before he died blessed Judah and said this he said Shiloh or he said he said the scepter will not depart from Judah until Shiloh come Shiloh the one who prospers the only place where that name is given but what a glorious promise that the the scepter of God's reign will not depart from the house of Judah. And it didn't depart from the house of Judah, the succession of kings in the house of Judah until Shiloh come, the Lord Jesus, the one who prospered in the work of salvation that he accomplished on Calvary's cross. The Lord Jesus is called the rose of Sharon, speaking of his beauty and the aroma of his grace and glory. These names tell us who he is. And here in our text, he's called the Breaker.

And Job, you remember, said, I don't have a daysman between me and God. The Lord Jesus is called the daysman. And that word means that he is the one who is going to mediate between me and God. He's the one who's going to satisfy the needs of God's holy justice and reconcile me to God. And then Job in the end said, I had heard of thee by the hearing in my ears, but now mine eyes have seen thee. I've got a daisman. I've got an advocate with the Father. So many glorious names that the Lord has given us of himself. In one place he's called the nail, fastened in a sure place. A nail on which we can hang all the hopes of our salvation and it will not bend and it will not fail.

Here he's called the breaker. This word means the one who is able to open up the way. Let's read this verse again. The breaker is come up before them They have broken up and have passed through the gate and are gone out by it and their king shall pass before them. He's broken open the gate. He has provided the way and he's called the breaker.

He has, by the work of his redemption, broken the power of sin. There was a time when sin was so powerful that we were dead in it, dead in our trespasses and sins, unable to believe, unable to see. And because the Lord Jesus, as the breaker, took the sins of his people in his body and put them away by the sacrifice of himself once and for all, he broke the power of sin so that we now are able to believe. and the hearts of his people. The Lord tells us that, um, that we are, uh, that sin shall not have dominion over us, for we are not under the law. The strength of sin is the law. The law's been kept. He has satisfied the demands of the law. You're not under the law, you're under grace. Sin shall not have dominion over you. He broke the curse of the law.

He went and did business with the law of God by his perfect obedience, his active obedience in his perfect sinless life and his passive obedience when he became our our substitute on Calvary's cross and received the full wrath and judgment of God's wrath for the sins of his people. He satisfied everything the law required.

I think of the story of Ruth and Naomi, um, and Boaz, the kinsman redeemer, another another type of Christ in the scriptures. But in order for Boaz to redeem Ruth, the Moabitess, he said to Naomi, he said, there is a kinsman. You have a descendant of your husband, Elimelech. Remember Elimelech died in Moab. Naomi and Ruth come back by themselves to Bethlehem. And then she meets Boaz and Boaz falls in love with Ruth. But Boaz has to redeem the property of Elimelech. And Naomi is that part of that property. And so Boaz says to Naomi and Ruth, there is a kinsman that's nearer to you than I am.

And he must be reckoned with. And Boaz went to the city gate. And the scripture says that there were 10 elders there. A picture of the Ten Commandments, the law of God. And Boaz said to this kinsman redeemer, who goes without a name, if you're going to redeem Naomi, redeem her. And the kinsman said, I will redeem her. And Boaz said, in the day in which you redeem Naomi, you must also redeem the Moabitess Ruth. And that kinsman redeemer said, that kinsman said, I cannot redeem the Moabitess, lest I mar my inheritance. To take for the law to be able to redeem a sinner, it would have to lower its standard. The law cannot redeem. The only thing the law can do is cast judgment on sinners, condemning us to death. That's all the law can do.

Boaz reckoned with that kinsman. And he alone was able to redeem not only Naomi, but Ruth. The Lord Jesus as the breaker. He broke the curse of the law by being made a curse for us. For cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. The law was satisfied when it poured out the full fury of God's wrath on our sin bearer, on our substitute, on the Lord Jesus. He reckoned with the law and he broke the curse of the law. And here the Holy Spirit inspires, inspires Micah to call the Lord Jesus the breaker. the breaker. He's the one that he's the one that breaks the heart that breaks the heart of stone.

The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. The Lord tells us to break up the fallow ground that the seed of the gospel might be might be planted in fertile soil. Remember the the parable of the four soils, and only in the fertile soil, that broken ground, that fallow ground that was broken by God's spirit. The Lord tells us to break up the fallow ground of our heart.

But what God commands, God must provide. And the Lord Jesus, as the breaker, is the one who breaks our hearts. He's the one that breaks our hearts. He's the one that broke David's heart. Psalm 51, David doing everything he could to cover up for his sin, to hide his sin, to try to atone for his own sin. And finally, Nathan breaks the heart of David. Spirit of God breaks his heart.

Thou art the man, David. Thou art the man. David cries in repentance. And part of that cry is, oh Lord, make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken might rejoice. Lord, you've broken my bones. You're the breaker. You broke the curse of the law. You have broken up the fallow ground of my heart. You have broken the power of sin.

And then in Hosea chapter 10, the scripture says that we are to break down the altars of our idols. And again, we see that what the Lord calls on us to do, he provides. He's the one that causes us to break down the idol. the altars of our idol, and causes us to look only to Christ for all the hope of our salvation. We can find hope nowhere outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. How are all those idols that we once coddled, those idols that we once looked to, those idols that we trusted for the hope of our salvation, how are they broken down?

My children shall cast away their idols. They shall bow to their idols no more. Oh, I know that our flesh is attracted to the glitter of this world, but the idolatry of worship that we would bow to is broken by the breaker, the Lord Jesus Christ. has caused us to acknowledge those false gods for who they are, and to confess that they're not able to save. They're not able to save. Lord, thou alone has the words of eternal life. We believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Thou art the way, thou art the truth, thou art the life. There is no other. Christ is all, and he is in all.

How did that happen? How did that happen? The Lord, as the breaker, did a work of grace in our hearts. We would not have been broken to that end. I think about the Lord Jesus when he was walking with those disciples in Luke chapter 24 on the road to Emmaus, and their eyes were holding so that they could not discern who he was. And when they got to the house, They pleaded with him to come in, and he did. And the scripture says, in the breaking of bread, their eyes were opened. And that's when they cried, oh, did not our hearts burn within us when he spoke with us along the way.

He was talking to us about himself. Beginning with Moses and the Psalms and the prophets, he was expounding unto us those things concerning himself. Oh, fools and slow of heart, must not these things so have been accomplished? Must not the son of man, but we couldn't hear until the breaker broke open the bread of life. And when he opened up the bread of life, that's when we saw. That's when we saw him in his word. That's when we were able to believe on him. That's when we were able to rejoice in all that he has revealed. in his word.

In Genesis chapter 38, there is a story that is very sordid, it's very shameful, and it is scandalous. One chapter, Judah. Judah, the one in whose name carried the lineage of Christ, Until Shiloh came, the scepter should not be removed from Judah. Judah's name means praise. Judah is the one from which the word Jew comes from. And yet Judah, he had a daughter-in-law.

Her name was Tamar. She was married to his eldest son and he died. And in order that the eldest son's name might be continued, she was passed down to the next son. And then he died. Judah, in fear that his younger son would die as well, sent Tamar to her house. And he left her, and he forgot about her. Tamar, needing to have a child in order that this is all representative of salvation, is it not? The childbearing in the Old Testament should be saved by childbearing. Tamar dresses up as a harlot.

Judah's wife dies. Judah's tending sheep in another city, and Tamar presents herself as a prostitute. Judah lies with her. And he gives her tokens, you remember? And then word comes to Judah that Tamar, his daughter-in-law, is pregnant and that she has played the harlot. And Judah, in his self-righteous indignation, says, bring her to me. She'll be put to death. She comes, and she brings Judah's tokens. And Judah bows his head in shame and says, She is more righteous than me. Let her live."

Well, the story goes on. It ends at the end of chapter 38 with the birth of Tamar's twins. And you remember the story when she's giving birth to these twins, the first boy puts his hand out of the womb and the midwife, thank you, the midwife ties a scarlet thread around the boy's wrist. But then he draws the, the boy draws back into the womb and something, I mean this child's already in the birth canal and they, and they flip in the womb, and the other one comes out first, and then the one with the scarlet thread. And the first one that comes out, his name is Breaker. Breach is the name that's given to him. Fares, Fares is his name. It's the same exact name. that we have here in our text. The breaker is come up before them.

Now, as shameful and sordid as that story is, far as the breaker, the breach, is in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ. Much like Rahab the harlot is found in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ, much like Ruth the Moabitess is found in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ. What's the message here for us, brethren?

That God uses the wickedness of man to accomplish his purpose. The wrath of man shall praise him. The greatest example of that is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Has there ever been an event in the history of the world where man has not been allowed to demonstrate his greatest evil? And yet, in the greatest evil that ever took place comes the salvation of God's people.

Here's our hope. that in all of our sin and all of our shortcomings, we have a God who sovereignly uses all things for His glory and for the good of His people. He's not... He's not deterred by our sin or by the failures of this world. He reigns sovereign and supreme over all these things.

Phares had to be born before Zerah. Now, Zerah is the one that had the scarlet thread around his wrist, and his name means rising. Phares means breach. Phares is the one who is in the lineage of Christ, and he is the one who had to break out before there was any hope of rising. Now, I hope I'm right on this, but I believe both of these boys represent the Lord Jesus Christ. I know Fares does, but I believe Zarah does as well. The one with the scarlet thread around his wrist. The one whose name means rising.

For before the Lord Jesus could rise from the dead, before he could victoriously defeat death, he had to go, he had to break death. He had to break the grave, he had to break Satan, all the breaking that the Lord Jesus accomplished. He broke the curse of the law. He breaks out his people. This is what the breaker is, I believe. And all these things had to be done.

And as scandalous as that story with Tamar and Judah is, it's no more scandalous than the cross. He doesn't even compare to the scandal of the cross. And yet the Lord Jesus went to the cross as the breaker in order that Scarlet thread Much like we see with with Rahab the the harlot you remember she she put a a scarlet thread out the window We know what that what that thread represents. It's the atoning work of Christ Here we have a revelation of the Lord Jesus, but I do this for my namesake Do we even remember that the Lord Jesus is called the breaker, and yet he is. And what a significant name it is. What glory he gets in the picture of Fares, in that miraculous birth where he comes out before his brother in order to break the way, in order to be the breach Salvation might be accomplished. Let's look at our text again. Micah chapter one, verse 13.

The breaker is come up before them. The one who breached the womb first. And they have broken up with him. The Lord Jesus is called the firstborn among many brethren. So we see in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, everything that God requires in order for us to be broken of sin, For the law, the curse of the law to be broken, for our hearts to be broken, for the word of God to be broken open, all of these things had to happen. These are all just pictures. Break forth and cry, Oh, Baron, for the desolate has more Children than she which has a husband. We are able to break forth and cry. We're able to know that because of what the Lord Jesus did in breaking forth from the womb, and breaking the curse of law, and breaking the power of sin, and opening up the gate. Notice, notice, they have passed through the gate.

It's the Lord Jesus that opened up the gate. He had to break forth in life before we could. He's called the firstborn from the dead. He said, because I live, you shall live also. I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Why? Because as the breaker, I broke down the barrier between you and God. I broke open the gate of death. I broke open the grave.

If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, Romans chapter six. Here's what the Lord Jesus accomplished. He opened up the gate. You remember in John chapter 10, where the Lord Jesus goes into the sheepfold and he calls the sheep by name. And he says, I am the gate. My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.

They shall come out of that cursed legalistic religion and they shall follow their shepherd and there shall be one shepherd and one fold. The Lord Jesus as the breaker did all of that. He did all of that. He refused to be pressed into the mold of man-made religion, a religion that denied his father of glory in salvation. And he broke out. He broke out of all of that. And he calls us to break out. Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord.

I was talking to someone recently. They said that they knew someone who was in a false church that they believed was a believer. that God had told him to stay in that false church so that he could be an example to others in that church. And maybe, I told him, I said, I don't know how as a believer you could sit under the lies of a false prophet.

And the fact that you're there, we wouldn't stay in a false church. We wouldn't use that excuse of, well, I'm gonna proselyte these folks. I'm gonna be a witness to them. No, you're not. Your presence there is a testimony against you. No, we come out. Why? Because the Lord Jesus went outside the camp. We come out from among them. We have boldness to follow him. Why? Because he's the breaker.

He opened up the gate, my sheep follow me. And then we cannot think about the Lord Jesus opening the gate without considering what he told us in John chapter 14, when he said, you believe in God, believe also in me. For in my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. But I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, so that where I am, there you may be also."

The Lord Jesus sent his works before him and recommended himself to the Father as he broke through the gates of heaven and took his rightful place on the throne at the right hand of the majesty on high. And the gate now is open for all of his people. Let's read this again. The breaker has come up before them. They have broken up and have passed through the gate and are gone out by it and their king shall pass before them.

And the Lord is the head of them, the Lord. is the head of them. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 63. Look at verse 8. For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie. So he was their savior. He's talking about what I just described.

You can't listen to someone tell lies about the Lord. You can't participate in someone with someone who tells lies. You can't tell lies about yourself. You can't promote yourself as having something good about yourself. You know that everything about you is sinful. The Lord has taught you that. And you cannot tell lies about how it is that God's pleased to save sinners. You can't tell lies about a freewill works gospel. You have to tell the truth. You know the truth. The truth is what has set you free. My children will not lie.

So he was their savior. Verse nine, in all their affliction, he was afflicted and the angel of his presence saved them. And we're looking at the Lord Jesus being so much better than the angels in Hebrews chapter one last Sunday. This is him, this is the angel of the Lord, which shall save them in his love and in his pity. He redeemed them and he bare them and he carried them all the days of old. Here is the breaker who's gone before us.

Here is the king, the king who is our head. The one who said, I will never leave you or forsake you. The one who told the apostles, you go back into Jerusalem and the Holy Ghost will come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and unto the outermost parts of the world. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the earth.

Here's our breaker. He breaks down. He breaks down. our fear of being forsaken. The Lord Jesus, being forsaken of his father, made it certain that we would never have to fear being forsaken. And he tells us in this one verse, their king shall pass before them, and the Lord shall be the head of them. He shall be the head of them. Just as the head just as every part of our bodies depend upon our head for their life. So the Lord Jesus is the head of the body of Christ. He's our king. He's the one who accomplished all the breaking down of those things that we could not. We could not. He's he's the far as He's the breach that had to come forth in order to do this work of breaking down before we would have any hope of rising with him in glory.

I do this not for your name, for you profane my name. You have nothing in you that would merit my mercy, my grace, I can't find anything in you that would obligate me to save you. So I'm going to do it for my namesake. And one of my names is The Breaker. Tom? Number 53. 53 in the hardback 10. Now, let's stand.