Shut Up To Christ

What a precious, precious prayer that is. Let's open our Bibles to Micah chapter seven, Micah chapter seven. I've titled this message, Shut Up to Christ, Shut Up to Christ. What place is there but to be shut up to Christ? No safe place, that's certain.

And what a glorious work of grace it is when the Lord causes us to have no other options. If the call of God was not invincible, and if the grace of God was not irresistible, If God did not make us willing in the day of his power, if through the miracle of the new birth, he did not breathe life and faith into our hearts.

When we heard the gospel, we would weigh the cost and we would be like all men, loving the praise of men more than the praise of God. We would sacrifice the approval of God for the endorsements of men. We would do that. We would gladly trade the eternal salvation of our immortal soul for the popularity of our peers. That's what the natural man does. more concerned with what men think about him than with what God thinks.

And we are no different, except the Lord would make us to differ. In Micah chapter seven, there are some precious, precious verses beginning in verse five, and we'll go down through verse nine. But along the lines of what we've already been saying, we are social creatures and we are very easily influenced by the opinions of others, more so than we like to admit. We were reminded last Wednesday night and last Sunday how all the apostles were influenced by the hypocrisy of of Judas and joined in in rebuking Mary for having wasted the precious ointment which could have been given to the poor.

And we think about Peter on that night who said that he would die. He said, Lord, you know, he showed great great independence and great courage and great unconcern for the opinions of the other apostles. He said, I don't know about them, but as for me, I'm going to die with you. And then a little girl so intimidated him with her questions that he denied the Lord with cursing. We think about that night and think, well, Peter, Peter thought that he would be arrested and that he would be put to death with the Lord.

And that wasn't the case in Antioch many years later. When Paul came to Antioch and Peter was sitting with the Gentiles until the Jews from Jerusalem showed up and Peter got up from the Gentile table and went over to be with the Jews, disassociated himself with others in fear of what the Jews might think about him. Aren't these examples that we can relate to? How oftentimes we have been swayed and influenced by the opinions of others.

When the Lord asked Peter, asked the disciples, will you leave me also? That's when Peter made that bold declaration. And with all the weaknesses of Peter's flesh that we can so easily identify with, We identify also with Peter's confession when he said, Lord, to whom shall we go?

Thou alone has the words of eternal life. We know and are sure that thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Lord, you have shut us up to you. To which the Lord Jesus said, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. The confession that you made is a miracle of grace that God did, my father did, in your heart, causing you to make that confession. Flesh and blood did not reveal that unto you, but my father, which is in heaven.

And upon this rock, the confession that you make, that I am the Christ, the son of the living God. and that I alone have the words of eternal life, and that my people will be all made willing in the day of my power, and they will be shut up to me. That, that will be their confession as well. And upon this rock, I'll build my church. And the gates of hell and the opinions of men And all the influences of the flesh and the world will not keep my people from me, or me from them. Shut up to Christ. The only safe place to be in our text We begin in verse 5.

And don't you hate it when you're suspicious and cynical and skeptical of people? I don't want to be that way. I would rather be taken advantage of by someone that I misplaced trust in than to have to go through life always suspicious of other men. I want to be trusting.

And that being said, what might appear on the surface to be said in verse 5 is not the case. If you don't have a friend that you can trust, you don't have any friends. Friendship is based on trust. If you don't have a guide or a teacher that you have confidence in, then you'll never learn anything from them. Sometimes we lose confidence in the person that has responsibility for us.

And at that point, we can no longer hear them, no longer. And if you don't have a marriage, that you can share things that you can't share with anyone else. If you can't say to your spouse, honey, I want to tell you something. I would never say this to anybody else. But I trust you. And you'll understand what I mean by it.

Then you don't have much of a marriage. So that's not what the Lord's talking about here. He's not talking about being skeptical and suspicious and cynical when he says, trust ye not in a friend. Put ye not confidence in a guide or a teacher. Don't put your confidence in a teacher. And keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.

What the Lord is telling us is what we read in Psalm 146. Let's go back and look at those verses again. Psalm 146, just three of the verses at least, beginning of verse three. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no, you see that word help?

Perhaps you have it marked in the margin of your Bible as I do. It is the word salvation. We help each other. That's what friends are for. And we ought to trust our friendships and we ought to be trustworthy and faithful in our friendships. But when the Lord tells us in our text to not trust in men, he's talking about, he's talking about the eternal salvation of our souls.

He said, well, why would I trust in a man for that? Well, That's what the natural man does. He sacrifices the approval of God for the endorsement of men. He does what he does for the praise of men, or to be, as the Lord said to the Pharisees, seen of men. Is that not trusting in the opinions of men?

Contrary to that, when God gives faith in Christ, it results in the loss of friendships, in the loss of the approval of men we'll see that in just a moment we get to the next verse but let's let's continue looking here look at verse 4 his breath man's breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth to his earth in the in that very day that he draws his last breath his thoughts cease what good what good can his opinions do for you what good does his approval do for you Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his salvation and whose hope is in the Lord his God. Sadly, I've seen it far too many times.

The fulfillment of what the Lord said would happen in the parable of the soils When the seed of the gospel is scattered, and some falls on roadside soil, hardened soil, and it's not understood, and it's quickly plucked away. And some falls on thorny soil, and the cares of this world choke it out so that it produces no fruit.

And some falls on stony soil. And that stony soil is that. Very rich, mossy soil that covers rocks. And a seed falls in that wet, mossy soil. And it immediately springs to life. It germinates. It takes root as far as it can in the moss. And you think, well, there's life. There's life. But when the sun comes up and the moss dries out, the plant dies.

And the Lord likened that to so many who will hear the gospel and anon, they will receive it joyfully. But when the persecution and the separation of this world The heat of the persecution comes against them. And there's no root. The root of the matter is not in them. They'll dry up and die. You've seen it happen. I've seen it happen.

Someone hears the gospel, they go back to their church and they share with their religious friends what they've heard. And their religious friends make it very clear to them, you go in that direction and you're gonna depart from us and they go back. Well, they go home to their family members and they tell their family members what they've heard and the family members give them an ultimatum. You go down that road and it's gonna be a problem between us. And they soon give up on the gospel.

That's trusting in men. And it is what the natural man does, and it is what every one of us would do if the Lord did not cause us to value his word over the words of men. and his approval over the approval of men. We are social creatures. We love the attention. We love that.

I believe that's what the lust of the eyes is all about. When John said, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, that's pleasure. The lust of the eyes, wanting others' eyes on me, popularity, and the pride of life, power, to be able to choose. When Eve was tempted with the fruit in the garden, it goes all the way back to the garden, doesn't it? When Eve was tempted with the fruit, she saw that it was pleasing to the taste. That's the pleasure of the flesh. It was good to the eyes.

And it was able to make one wise, to make their own decisions, to discern for themself, in control of their own circumstances. The Lord summarizes that and said that's everything in the world. And just like the man that we just read about in Psalm 146, we go back to the earth from which we came. And we are earthy men. That which is of the flesh is flesh.

And if the Lord did not give us spiritual life, we would judge everything according to the flesh. We would make all of our judgments just like the natural man does. We would judge according to appearances. We would judge according to what we gain and lose in this world.

And the only thing that makes us to differ is that God would do something for us. that was irresistible, that was invincible, a work that would cause us to not trust in friends and not put our confidence, the confidence of our salvation, in the opinions of men who are seeking to guide us. We would rather be like the Bereans, who Paul said they were more, what's the word he used? They were more virtuous. They were more than those of Thessalonica.

Why? Because, and I've preached to men before who sat there like this, taking their notes. I preached at a place one time. One of the elders got up, one of the men in the church got up after I preached and gave a five minute prayer where he wasn't really praying to God, he was preaching to the people there and telling them all the things that I had left out of my message. You know, that's not what we're talking about, having a critical spirit.

Paul said they received the word with gladness. And they searched the scriptures to see if what I said was true. I want you to do that. And if I'm saying something that's not true to scriptures, then Lord, correct me. You correct me. He's talking about putting your confidence in a man above God. Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. If I'm not following Christ, don't follow me.

So when the Lord says, trust ye not in a friend, and put not confidence in the guide, and keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom, another thing I've seen way too often and sadly in families is the wife being the spiritual leader of a home.

And a man just believing whatever his wife said to believe. It happens often. I grew up in a home like that. My mother was a spiritual leader. Not that she believed anything, but my dad just believed whatever she said to believe. It happens a lot. And I believe that's what the Lord is saying here. Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in my bosom. Don't trust the eternal destiny of your immortal soul to your wife. You cry out to God for that. Don't talk to her about it. She can't help you. We would do these. This is what men do. This is exactly what men do. And we would do it if the Lord didn't make us to differ.

You're familiar with verse 6. Because it's the verse that the Lord quoted in Matthew chapter 10. For the son dishonored the father, and the daughter rised up against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's enemies are the men of his own house. You trust in men? You're going to suffer some persecution. When the Lord looked at that 5,000 that he had just fed, he said, you're just following me so that you can have your bellies full. If you really want to be my disciple, you've got to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.

And it's going to be a life where you're going to be at odds with everything in this world, and the men of this world, and the religion of this world, and the values of this world. You're going to be at odds against all of it. And worse than that, you're going to be at odds with yourself. Your greatest enemy is going to be right within yourself, your own flesh. You ready for that conflict?

And men count the cost, and they say, yeah, I can do that. And then they suffer a little bit of that, and they go back. What keeps us from going back? Same thing that brought us to believe. It's the Lord that keeps us. Let's turn to that passage in Matthew chapter 10, because the Lord is is telling us what Micah meant by these words. Matthew chapter 10, we'll begin reading in verse 32.

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. And whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Now it's kind of like when the Lord said, those who won't forgive won't be forgiven. It's not that we're meriting, God's forgiveness by forgiving, and it's not that we're meriting the Lord Jesus as our advocate before the Father because we have been his advocate in the world. No, no, the Lord's just telling us that these two things go together, they cannot be separated.

They go together. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I'm not come to send peace, but a sword. Now, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and by his shed blood, he has reconciled us to God, and he has made peace for us as our peace offering and as our sin offering. He's reconciled us. He's atoned for our sins that we can have fellowship with God. But that fellowship with God brings a sword with men.

And I want to reinforce here You know, I've seen people take these verses and I've seen them develop a martyr syndrome and I've seen them become mean toward unbelievers, unbelieving family members when they didn't, when they should not have been mean.

We ought to be kind and considerate and we ought to be at peace with all men whenever possible. We don't go around trying to stir up trouble. But it's not possible. When we stand for the truth and it creates the sword of persecution to come out of their mouth, then we have to just experience that sword, whatever it is.

Verse 35, for I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be of their own household, of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Now I've heard, I've seen people take this verse and say, well I, I need to not love you, I need to love God. No, he said more. You put the opinions of your family members above the opinion of God and you're not worthy. It's an indication, it's a testimony against you. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me.

This life is, this believing, we wouldn't, how do I say this? Because the joy and the comfort and the rest that we experience in our souls is worth it all and we would not trade it for anything. But there are sacrifices that we have in this life with people that we love and with things that we would be friends with. Friendship with the world is enmity with God.

He that findeth his life, verse 39, shall lose it. We live our lives just trying to get all we can in this world. We're going to lose our life eternally. But he that loses his life for my sake shall find it. Shall find it. Now let's go back to our text in Micah. The Lord has just told us what verse 6 is. Verse 5 is, don't trust in men for your soul. Verse 6 is, this is what men are going to do.

If you trust God, you trust Christ, you believe the gospel, count the cost. You go to battle and you don't. You're going to surrender if you haven't counted the cost of what the enemy's got against you. You're trying to build a tower, and you haven't counted the cost. You're going to be halfway through, and you're going to be ashamed of not being able to finish.

Verse 7, therefore, in light of what the Lord has told us here, If I had a choice to make, I would choose the approval of men over the approval of God if it was my choice. The Lord shut me up to Christ. Faith is not a decision. Faith is not a choice. Faith is what happens when God irresistibly makes you willing in the day of his power, when he births you by his spirit into the kingdom of God. A baby doesn't decide they're going to breathe when they come into this world. They breathe. You breathe right now. You don't make decisions. It's an involuntary action of your body to breathe. It's faith.

Therefore, and for this reason only, because God has stripped me of my choice, because he has shut me up to Christ, because he has made me to come unto thee, David said, make me to know wisdom, make me to understand the way of thy precepts, make me to go in the path of thy commandments. Lord, make me, turn me, and I shall be turned. And because the Lord has done this, therefore, and that's the only reason, I will look unto the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation, and my God will hear me.

He will hear me. What a precious, precious promise. He hears the cries of his children. Is his answer and his response always immediate? No. And that's what Mike is saying. Mike is saying, I'm going to cry. I'm going to keep knocking. I'm going to keep seeking. I'm going to keep asking. And I'm confident that when I ask, he will answer. When I seek, I will find. And when I knock, the door will be open unto me. He has made it to be so. He has given me this faith in Him, and I'm going to wait. I'm just going to wait on Him. Right now, I'm weary. Right now, I'm tired. Right now, I'm afraid. Right now, I'm not sure what the future holds, but I am absolutely certain David said this, I've never seen the righteous forsaken, and I've never seen their seed begging bread.

The Lord provides. These things the Gentiles seek after, but you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you. God will measure them as he sees fit and as you need them. And he will feed you with the bread that's convenient for you. It may not be all that we want, but it'll be all that we need. It'll be all that we need.

Verse eight. Rejoice not against me, O my enemy. The greatest enemy we have is our own unbelief, our own fear, our own flesh. Rejoice not against me, O my enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. How can we read these words without thinking of our Lord? Because he's our pattern. He's the one we're following. He's the one we're looking to.

And the enemies surrounded him. And he knew that he was about to die. But he also knew, destroy this temple. And in three days, I will raise it up. I will raise it up. And just as he was able and faithful to keep his promise to raise himself, he raises his children when they fall. When they become discouraged, they become defeated.

He says, don't rejoice against me, my enemy. And how we also see in these words, and you've had this experience in your own life with those family members we're talking about and with those friends that are looking for a chink in your armor, looking for something that they can criticize you for, something they can judge you for, something they can say, see, what are they doing that for?

To justify themselves. to say you're no better than me. No, I'm not. I'm not. But my God's a whole lot better than yours. Yeah, they look for ways to find some fault. And Micah says, when I fall, Don't rejoice over me, my enemy. I'm gonna rise again. And when I sit in darkness, when I'm sad, when I'm confused, when I don't know what to do, the Lord shall be a light unto me.

Psalm 139, the light is darkness to him. He knows nothing of darkness. In Him, there is no darkness. He is the light of the world. And He's gonna show me that light in time. He's going to reveal His person and His purpose in my heart. Pray these. These falls and these moments of darkness are very brief. They come, and then we cry, and he lifts us up, and he sheds the light of the gospel again. Perhaps even right now, he's shedding the light of his faithfulness and his love and his grace and his glory in the heart of someone who's been in darkness and he's fallen.

Verse nine, I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I've sinned against him. It's a blessing. It is a blessing when God withholds from me the awareness of his presence. He said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you, but it's a blessing to me when I sin against God for him to to chill my heart, to cause me to be like David and to cry, Lord, take not thy spirit from me, the bones which thou hast broken. Lord, it's when sadness and darkness comes in the soul as a result of sin, that's a blessing from God.

If I wasn't his, he wouldn't chastise me. Our Heavenly Father only chastised His children. If we're not chastised, we're none of His. Therefore, I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I've sinned against Him. But I know that He's going to plead my cause. And God pleads our cause the same way we plead our cause. The Lord Jesus is our advocate before the Father. If any man sin, my little children, I write these things unto you that you sin not, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. He will plead our cause. He will present himself on our behalf. He will apply his blood to the mercy seat. And we plead the same cause.

We don't plead the cause of our sorrow, of our repentance, or of our determination, or of our commitment. Lord, I'm never going to do that again. Lord, I'm really sorry. Forgive me. That's not bearing the indignation of the Lord because we've sinned against Him until He plead my cause till he enables me to plead the blood of Christ as my only cause and my only hope of forgiveness.

And when that happens, he executes judgment for me. Oh, the execution of God's judgment. What is that? It's the putting away of our sin. The justice, divine justice has been satisfied. This indignation that I'm experiencing from the Lord is not judgment. It's not punitive. The punishment of my sin has been made. It is the Lord correcting me.

It is the Lord bringing me once again to see that the only plea for my cause is the person and work of Christ, who was successful in putting away my sin once and for all. And I can come again and again and again to the To the throne of grace and find help in my time of need. How often?

Isaiah put it like this. Lord, we have sinned and in these is continuance. And we shall be saved. We shall be saved. How easily? We're tempted to not trust the Lord as we ought. And we experience our enemy rejoicing against us, and we experience the fall and the darkness of the light not shining, and we bear the indignation of the Lord because we've sinned against him, and then he pleads our cause, and he executes judgment for us.

And he then brings us forth to the light, out of darkness into his marvelous light. And the end of it all is beholding his righteousness. Brethren, God empties his vessels of clay. that he might fill them with the treasure of the gospel. He brings them down seemingly to the depths of hell, that he might raise them up into the glories of heaven. It is only at the end of a dark tunnel that we see the light of the countenance of Christ shining.

This is what Mike is saying. This is our, this is our life. This is the walk of faith. We walk by faith, believing God. bearing this body of flesh that is full of unbelief, suffering all the separations of this world, and yet, in the end, As the Lord tells us in Hebrews chapter 12, it produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness. It doesn't.

That's not, you know, we suffer for righteousness sake, does it? We used to think in religion that, of course, we were self-righteous, and righteousness was something we established and something we made contribution to. And so when the Lord said you will suffer for righteousness sake, we thought, well, we're going to suffer the indignation of men because we're living a good life. And when we read Hebrews chapter 12, where it says that, that the chastisement of the Father will lead us to the peaceable fruit of righteousness, while the chastisement of God will lead us to live a better life. Well, it leads us to Christ, who is our life. And suffering for righteousness' sake is standing on the gospel of God's free grace in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ as our only righteousness before God.

We have no righteousness outside of him. All our righteousness are his filthy rags. Precious, precious promises. In the end, through it all, I am thy shield. And I am thine exceeding great reward. Can't get any better than that. Tom, what are we going to sing? Let's sing 232. 232 in the Harbeck Temple. Let's stand together. CRY

Shut Up To Christ

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