Christ, The Breaker

Let us turn to the chapter that we read here in the book of Micah the prophet the contemporary of course with Isaiah as we see from the opening verse in chapter 1 it was in the reigns of the same kings that we read of at the beginning of Isaiah's book. And I want us to turn now to chapter 2 and the last two verses, verses 12 and 13.

God says through his prophets, I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee. I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah. as the flock in the midst of their fold. They shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. 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, and the Lord on the head of them."

And what we have in these words in the context, in the historical setting, is that promise that God will yet restore them as I said he's ministering the same period as Isaiah that's previous really to the dreadful calamity that befell Israel when they were overrun by the Babylonians and taken into exile and in the former parts of the chapter that's what's really being spoken of how the people would become so degenerate the God would visit his awful judgments upon them, and they would be taken away from that land that he had given to them, promised to them, in the days of their fathers. In verse 10, Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest, because it is polluted. It shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction. The wickedness in the land was was so great as we see in the opening verses well to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds when the morning is light they practice it because it is in the power of their hand they covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take them away and so they were oppressing the poor and the needy in the land what a terrible judgment it was and so We have that lament at verse 4, In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled.

He has changed a portion of my people. How has He removed it from me? Turning away, He hath divided our fields. Therefore they shall have none that shall cast a chord by lot in the congregation of the Lord." They're going to be taken away from that land which was their rest. That land that they came into the possession of in the days of Joshua. But so great was their wickedness. such was the evil day in which they were living.

And yet, when we come to the end of the chapter, in the verses that I've read as our text, here is the promise that there will yet be a return to the land after 70 years. Jeremiah speaks of 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And Daniel, of course, in chapter 9 of that book is, when he understands through reading the writings of the Prophet Jeremiah reprise as he sees the 70 years being accomplished that God would yet return his people, and so it was by the decree of the great Persian Emperor Cyrus that they returned to that land.

And here is a promise in the language of the Prophet Micah. Verse 12, I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold. They shall make a great noise by reason of the multitude."

And in some ways, does it not remind us of the language that we have at the end of Ezekiel 36, in chapter 37 of Ezekiel, of course, we have that vision, that great vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, which is a representation of where Israel was when they were in captivity. But God will restore them. That's the point and purpose of that vision. But previous to that, at the end of chapter 36, we have those words, Verse 37, Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.

I will increase them with men like a flock, as the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts. So shall the way cities be filled with flocks of men, and they shall know that I am the Lord. And the vocabulary, the language that we have here in this twelfth verse of Micah 2 is so similar. They are speaking, these men, of one and the same thing. I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold, and they shall make a great noise by reason of the multitude. And then we come to verse 13. the breaker is come up before him. They have broken up and have passed through the gates and have gone out by it and their king shall pass before them and the Lord on the head of them."

It's the Lord's doing. But of course, as is so often the case here in these Old Testament prophets, we remember that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And surely here in this 13th verse, do we not have a description of Him who is the Messiah, the Promised One, the Christ? It speaks principally then, primarily, it speaks not so much of restoration from the Babylonian exile and captivity, but it speaks of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want us to consider Christ as that One who is spoken of here as the Breaker.

The Breaker is come up before them, it says, and then is identified really at the end of the verse, their King shall pass before them and the Lord on the head of them. That One who is being spoken of then is none other than Him who is the King of Kings. and the Lord of Lords, spoken of in Revelation 19. But he is that one who is actually God's manifest in the flesh, the great mystery of godliness. Because we see that in the final words of verse 13, the Lord, Jehovah, on the head of them, the great I am that I am.

Remember the language of the Lord Jesus in John chapter 8, speaking to the Jews? If ye believe not that I am, He says ye shall perish in your sins. But as we've observed in times past, in that 24th verse of John 8, the He has been introduced in the translation. It more literally says, if ye believe not that I am, That is the Lord, Jehovah. If you believe not that I am, you shall perish in your sins. And then, at the end of the 8th chapter, does not Christ say, before Abraham was, I am?

He is the Lord. So I want us to consider Christ in this particular office, the breaker. He's 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 on the head of them." Dividing what we consider into some three parts. First of all, to see how the Lord comes up as the breaker when he accomplishes the great work of salvation, of redemption. And then to consider in the second place how what he accomplishes by his work upon the cross, he then applies. And we see him as the breaker when he makes that application, when he brings salvation into the souls of his people. And then finally to consider how we see him as the breaker, as that one who is head over all things to the church. in his mediatorial office as he rules and reigns, and in all the mysteries and all the paradoxes of Providence, we see him as the breaker who is always making a way for his people. Considering then for a while these three headings, first of all, Christ's work upon the cross, and do we not see him as the breaker there?

When we come to the New Testament, of course, we see that that middle wall of partition that was between Jew and Gentile is now broken down. And the Apostle Paul certainly speaks of that in addressing himself to the church at Ephesus, both in the end of chapter 2, and then in some detail, in the third chapter. The words that we have there in the second chapter of Ephesians in verse 13, Now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, remember he's addressing the Ephesian church which is primarily a Gentile church and so he's addressing Gentile believers But knowing Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. And so under the gospel there's no more that distinction that we have in the Old Testament where the Lord God says to Israel as a typical people you only have I known of all the families of the earth. No now in this gospel dispensation that is no more Jew and Greek, no more male or female, no more bond and free. The gospel is a universal gospel in that sense.

The middle wall of partition has been broken down. That's what the Lord has done by coming and accomplishing that great work. What was the purpose of Israel? They must be preserved as a distinct nation till Messiah comes. When Messiah comes, the only way of salvation now is in Him. It was ever the hope of the true Israel We know they're not all Israel that are of Israel and in the Old Testament there was always that true spiritual Israel in the midst of ethnic Israel.

But now the middle wall of partition is clearly broken down having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for to make in himself of twain of two one new man and so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, you Gentiles were afar off, and to them that were nigh to the Jews."

The old distinction is gone. And so we see it clearly again in the language of the second chapter of Colossians. There in Colossians 2 and verses 14 and 15 we read of Christ blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

All the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished a great salvation by his death upon the cross, and that salvation is for sinners, all manner, all types of sinners. The Lord Jesus is that one, the breaker is come up before them. And there's a hymn of John Kent's on the Breaker. It's not in Gadsby's selection, but he has these lines, this little couplet. The Breaker, once made sin to be, did from the curse, is Israel free. And what is his Israel? His Israel is really the spiritual Israel, the true Israel of God.

He is that one then who has made a way, he has abolished all that was against the sinner. He has dealt with the very matter of the curse of the broken law of God. He's redeemed us from the curse of the law, says Paul. being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree now we are satisfied all the demands of that law as many as are of the works of the law we are told they are under the curse cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them if we Offending just one point, we're guilty of all, says James. The law requires that full, complete obedience, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ who has come and rendered such an obedience. He's obedient in life, He's obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin, says Paul, is the law, but thanks be to God.

Oh, thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the breaker then when we think of the salvation that he has accomplished. He's accomplished salvation for Jews, for Gentiles, for male, for free, for male, for female, for bond, and for free. There's a wonderful freeness in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he's not only the breaker in terms of accomplishing the great work of salvation by his life and by his death, but he is also the breaker when it comes to the conversion of individual sinners. Then do we not see that in the way in which the verse proceeds? The breakers come up before them. They have broken up and have passed through the gates and are gone out by it. They've been delivered. There's that power in the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's that great promise of course in the 110th Psalm, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. And what is the day of his power? It's this day.

After his death, his resurrection, at the end of Matthew's gospel as he gives commission to his disciples, he tells them all power is given unto me. in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations." He has power in the sense of authority. But more than that, he has power to perform a work. And that's the thought there in the promise of Psalm 110 verse 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. He is the one who makes his people a willing people.

He's that one who rides forth as a great conquering king. We refer to those words in the 19th of the Revelation where we see him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords from verse 11 following right through verse 15, out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords." He rides forth, conquering and to conquer in this day. And it's a spiritual conquest that he accomplishes in the souls of sinners. when he brings them to that place of conviction.

Well, think of the sinner's condition. What are we by nature? Having the understanding darkened, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in us because of the blindness. Or the Martin says, the hardness of our hearts. There in Ephesians 4.18, the carnal mind. to the Romans, Paul says, of that carnal mind. That's our natural mind. It's enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God. Neither, indeed, can be. Doesn't the Lord make us, when he begins to deal with us, in order to bring us to himself, does he not make us to feel what our true state is?

That we can do nothing. We learn the awful doctrine of our total depravity. We're impotent. We're so utterly helpless. Paul says, God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all. The Lord does that. He concludes us in our unbelief, which is our state by nature. We're unbelievers. It's our fallen nature. It's what we've derived from Adam and Eve.

They rejected God's truth. They believed the devil's lie. Unbelief. If we turn to the lie of the devil, we're denying the truth of God. That's what they did. And how the Lord makes His people feel that. What things whoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty. God causes us to feel what that is. Before faith came, Paul says, we were kept under the law.

Shut up! Shut up to the faith which should afterward be revealed. Shut up then to ourselves, to our unbelief. As Heman says in Psalm 88, I am shut in, I cannot come forth. That's man's condition, and God turns the man to destruction. And then he says to that man, return, you children of men.

Oh, the breaker must do the work. He must break hard hearts. Hearts of unbelief must be brought to an end, destroyed. This is the work of God, is it not? The same power that was there in Christ's resurrection is there when the sinner comes to faith. the exceeding greatness of His power to us who do believe according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. For thy dead men shall live, Christ says, together with my dead body shall they arise." It's a miracle.

He breaks hard hearts. He's not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the hearts will break at the rock. That's what our heart is like, a hard rock, and it has to be brought to nothingness. The Lord has to come and break it up and humble us.

And we see it. We see it in the ministry of the apostles. We see it in the case of Lydia there in Acts 16, whose heart the Lord opened. that she attended unto the things that were spoken by Paul and Silas. The Lord had to open her heart, had to break into her heart, or she would never have attended to those things that they were preaching. This is the way of the Lord, and so he brings his people out.

They have broken up, and have passed through the gates and have gone out by it. It's interesting, isn't it? Sometimes we might use that expression to break up. Maybe when we think of our school days, we would break up at the end of term. We'd vacate the building. We'd probably move on. We'd move on into a new year. At the end of our school days, of course, we'd move on altogether. There's a breaking up in the sense of moving on.

And there's an interesting connection in Jeremiah 37, and there in verses 11 and 12, a connection between breaking up and separation. Here is Jeremiah, of course, and there he's witnessing the siege of Jerusalem, the time of the the overthrow of Jerusalem and Judah and there in verse 11 of the 37th chapter in his book it came to pass that when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin to separate himself thence in the midst of the people So as the army of the Chaldeans is broken up, then Jeremiah is able to separate himself.

And the Lord, does he not separate his people unto himself? If a man experiences that grace of God in conversion, the application of all the work that Christ has done, if his heart is broken and he is able to come before God with that acceptable sacrifice of a broken spirit and a broken and a contrite heart, is he not then in a different place? If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation. All things are passed away and all things are become new. Or the Psalmist says in Psalm 72, He shall break in pieces the oppressor. That sin that is so oppressive in the life of the child of God.

Paul knew it. The good that I would I do, not the evil that I would, not that I do, or wretched man that I am. You can deliver him. I thank God, he says, through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind I myself serve the Lord of God. but with the flesh the Lord of sin. The real Paul was that one who would serve the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a new man. He's in a different place.

Charles Wesley in the hymn says, he breaks the power of cancelled sin, he sets the captive free. Oh, the Lord is that one then who has not only accomplished salvation by his great work which he finished there upon the cross but he applies it and he makes that work effectual in the souls of sinners and then finally when we think of him as that one who is head over all things to the church in all the confusion often times of our lives in all his providences and the mystery of providence And the perplexity of the ways of the Lord, does he not make a way, does he not break up all the difficulties for his people? He leads them through all their trials and troubles, leads them through all their difficulties. We have those promises in Isaiah, Isaiah 14 verse 4, Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. That's what the Lord does. He's able to make a way.

And that's repeated in Isaiah 45.2, I will go before them, He says, and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of brass and cut asunder the iron bars." He is the one who is clearly set before us as the breaker. In all the mystery of the Lord's providences, He makes a way, and He's the only one who can make that way for us. And what is it?

It's that highway, and it's that highway of holiness. Again, the language of Isaiah, in Isaiah 35, and there in verses verses 8 and 9, "...and a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those who wayfaring men, though fools, shall not hear their end. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous bee shall go up thereon. It shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there."

Oh, God leads His people in a plain path He leads his people in the plain path, he gives them his word, thy word is a lamp, unto my feet a light, unto my path, says the Psalmist. And so the Lord is that one who will guide, direct, lead his people all their days.

He's not only the God of salvation, he's also that one who is the God of Providence, and we can look to Him in this office, the Breaker. He breaks up, our Sally comes, and He is pleased to make His dwelling in the hearts of His people. Oh, the Lord be pleasing to come and to visit us in this capacity. The Breaker has come up before them. They have broken up and have passed through the gate and have gone out by it. and their King shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them." Well, the Lord bless His Word to us.

Tonight, we're going to sing our second praise. It's Gadsby's hymn on this theme, really, of Christ as the Breaker. 553. The tune is Leicester 171. There's only one hymn in all the book. I did say that it is a hymn by... John Kent on The Breaker, but it's not in the book, sadly. But this is a lovely hymn of Gadsby's, 553.

I'll read the two opening verses, and then we'll sing from verse 3. The Breaker is gone forth in love with power and skill divine, descending from the realms above to quell his foes and mine. In love to Zion he has broke the powers of death and hell. and her from Sinai's dreadful joke has broken off as well. 553, the tune 171, and we sing from verse 3. Though death and loathe and sin agree, These great coutures He breaks their bonds, himself sets free With Zion on his breast

Christ, The Breaker

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