If you'll turn back with me now
to the book of Micah. And just hold your place there
and let me say some things by way of introduction into this
message. In the first epistle of Peter,
the very first chapter, the very first letter, He gives a brief review of the
salvation of God's elect. He tells us that we are elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ. God has a people. This is what
Peter said, that he's chosen from the beginning unto salvation. He's chosen them to save them. He's chosen them to show them
mercy, kindness, love. They were set apart for it, not
because of anything in them, but solely by the good pleasure
of God. They have nothing to owe their
election to but God. Anyone who denies this denies
the word of God and you've made God a liar. He says this over
and over and over and over all through the scriptures. And the
same God who chose us ordained the means of our salvation. Peter
said where he's chosen us in Christ, we're elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit. In 2 Thessalonians 2.13, Paul
makes that same statement, identical to the one Peter gives, but he
adds the words and belief of the truth. Sanctification of
the Spirit and belief of the truth. The sanctification of
the Spirit is to enable totally depraved sinners to know the
truth and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not so much that He sends some energy in
you or something in you to make you believe as it is He just
simply opens your eyes to see the truth And now you believe. It's through sanctification of
the spirit and belief of the truth. John declares this work very
plainly at the beginning of his gospel witness. In John chapter
1. He says in verse 12, but as many
as received him Talking about receiving Christ, he came to
his own, his own received him not. Came into the world and
he made the world, the world received him not. But to as many
as received him. Why did they receive him and
nobody else would? Now watch this. To them gave
he power to become the sons of God. He enabled them to. even to them that believe on
his name which were born, not of blood, not of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Sanctification
of the spirit is an inward work which enables, Colossians 1 verse
12, it enables us to be partakers of the inheritance of enlightened
saints. We join with them in their faith. We have a common faith. And then he goes on to tell us,
and the sprinkling of the blood. The sprinkling of the blood.
What in the world's he talking about? He's talking about, it's
the blood of Christ is our redemption. He gave his life on that cross
and the blood is the testimony of it. You see what I'm saying? Now we can't, we don't have access
to that blood, but we do spiritually, we do by faith, we do by the
word of God. And the Holy Spirit helps to
show us that blood sprinkled on our hearts that we are his
elect. Now here's what Paul said. Knowing,
brethren, beloved, your election of God, because our gospel came
not unto you in word only. but it come in power and it come
in the Holy Ghost. And you become followers of us
and the Lord. He sprinkles that blood by faith. You see that blood shed for you. Shed for you. We see that accomplished redemption.
He tells us that in Romans 3, 24 and 25. Justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus, whom God sent forth, he's talking
about in the Old Testament now, whom God sent forth to be the
propitiation for our sins, now listen, through faith in his
blood. Sprinkling of the blood is a
spiritual work. The sinner's brought to see his
redemption accomplished in the death of Christ, our substitute. And then it says, unto obedience
and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ
is not an option. It's not a suggestion, it's a
command. And you either obey it or you
don't. There's no middle ground, there's
no vacuum, there's no gray area. He that believeth not shall be
damned. It's a command. When I'm up here preaching to
you, I'm not offering you suggestions. I'm telling you, by the word
of God, believe on Him, or you will be damned. That don't sound
like a suggestion, does it? It doesn't sound like an offer. Religion wants to get up and
offer this. It's not theirs to offer. And it's not an isolated act. We believed on him. There's a
first time in there. I didn't know much about it.
When I was born the first time, I don't know anything about it.
I had to read the record and see where I was born. I didn't
know anything about it. Along about five or six, though,
I can remember back then, And that's when I started having
some sense about it in time. We're born of God. We believe
God. And sometimes it takes a little
while before you're aware of it. Faith is the gift of God. He
said, not of works, lest any man should boast. Believers are
his workmanship, created unto such works, these good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in. What
good work? Believing, repenting, worship,
love, all these things. Also, we're not of them that
draw back on the perdition, but of them that believe to the saving
of the soul. And God's going to prove this
work to be His through trials. He's going to try. You say, I
believe. OK, He's going to try that. We'll see. We'll see. And what makes trial so precious
is that they prove your faith to be genuine. God will unveil his precious
work by fiery trial so that the end of the work is under the
praise and honor and glory of Christ. And all of this, that we might
receive the end of our faith, even the salvation of our soul. Now watch this, I'm still in
1 Peter 1. Of which, verse 10, of which
salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied
of the grace that should come unto you. They talked about your
salvation. They talked about the grace of
God. They talked about the Christ who would come and his accomplished
redemption. And they searched when it came
to them. They searched what or what manner
of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, now
listen, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, unto
these old prophets. Now watch this. unto whom it
was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister
the things which are now reported unto you by them who have preached
the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven,
which things the angels desire to look into. Micah knew when
he stated those last two verses of chapter two, Many other things
as the book progresses. He knew that he wasn't talking
to these people that God had already condemned. He knew that
he was talking to a people yet to come. He knew that. That's what Peter's telling us
here. I wanted you to see that so that
you don't think I'm just making things up when I'm telling you
these old prophets are talking about your salvation. They're
laying the foundation for your faith. This is what Paul had
to tell the Jews. This is what he had to preach.
This is the point he was establishing. Now here in the book of Micah,
about 750 years before the appearance of Christ, God sends his prophet
to cry against natural Israel. The people of Micah's day are
a vivid picture of our day. Evil never changes, does it? Evil never changes. Depravity
is always depravity, Satan is always Satan, and God is always
God. Nothing changes. Now we've so far covered 360
years in the preaching of these minor prophets, just the ones
that I've told you about. We've covered 360 years of time
in the prophets, and it is as though time stayed the same. The problem is the same. The
cure is the same. God is the same. Satan is the
same. It just plays over and over and
over. The land of Israel was full of
empty, meaningless religion. It was full of it. Sprinkled
with the traditional religious ceremonies, it was plagued with
false prophets who prophesied for hire, Micah said. The hire
of which God's prophet calls the hire of a harlot. They were committing spiritual
adultery. And even worse, their leaders,
their governors, their leaders, the kings, men of power and position, devised
wickedness. Dare I say that's going on in
our day? More so than I've ever seen it.
I'm 71 years old. As far back as I can remember,
I've never seen anything like it. Their leaders devised wickedness. Their nation was filled with
religious hucksters and the people rebelled in it. They loved it. They loved it. I used to go down
here to a little place to eat, down here on Route 29, and I'd
go in there and all the churches around, they'd come over there
to eat on Sunday afternoon and you could just sit there and
listen to them. They just reveled in those lies that they'd heard
that morning. And they'd sit in there and talk about it. Oh,
what a loving man that man is, you know. He's standing up there
lying to them. Selling their soul for profit. In Micah 3.11 it said, the heads
thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for
hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money. And because of their willful
practice of these things and their influence upon the souls
of men and their dishonor which they brought against God, he
sends them word of an irreversible Curse. Chapter two, verse three,
he said, I devise an evil from which you shall not remove your
necks. I'm gonna put a noose on you
and you ain't getting away. That's what he tells them. They
were doing all this evil in the name of God. You go down here
and you see crosses. Church of God, it says on the
sign out front. Assembly of God, it says on the
sign out front. They were doing these things
in the name of God. According to them, they were
celebrating God. You ever heard that word in our
day? I hear it all the time. Celebrating God. Worshipping
Him. Yet their places of worship were
filled with pagan images. Idols. Forms created by evil
imaginations to represent God. God tells the people in Isaiah's
day, and Micah was contemporary with Isaiah. Isaiah said to the
people of his day, he said, God said, who were you liking me
unto? Huh? Who were you liking God? How will you represent him with
an image? What image will you make? A snake? A bull? A calf? What are you
gonna make that sets forth my image? Nothing. Nothing. And that, in his commandments,
he said, I have no other gods before me. Don't put, you put
Dagon out here, I'll flatten his face on the ground. I used to drive up to Michigan
and preach for a church up there. And on the way up, there was
this big lake and this big statue. It must have been 100 feet tall.
It was huge and had this image of Jesus. And he had his hand
in the air like that, and he was coming up out of the water.
And when I passed there, I said, boy, I hope the Lord does something
with that. A few months passed by and I went back up to preach
to them again and I went up there and lightning had hit that big
image. And that looked like it was shaking its fist at God.
It was standing there in that water. God took its head off
from one arm and it was just standing out there. Their land was full of this kind
of stuff. Just full of images. But you don't have to make a
form out of wood or out of metal to have an idol. Any kind of
false image of God is idolatry. When men stand in the pulpit
and misrepresent God, they're giving to those people an idol
to worship. God loves everybody. Oh, no he
don't. Oh, no, he don't. I beg your
pardon. He said, Esau have I hated. It didn't say, and commentators
like to say, well, he just loved him less. No, he hated him. Totally
different word. He hated him. God hates all the
workers of iniquity. You think he liked these people
here that he cursed forever? Now, come on. Their land was
full of images, some of them physical images, others mental
images. Jesus Christ is God come into
the flesh, and he said to be the image of the invisible God. Colossians 115. The brightness
of the Father's glory, Hebrews 1. and the express image of his
person. He established who God is. There's only one place you can
learn anything about God, and that's in that man, Christ Jesus.
That God come into the flesh. And not in his outward body,
but in his character and nature. It's expressly forbidden for
any image to be used in the worship of God, yet their land And there
are places of worship we're just filthy with. God sends them his testimony
against them and declares to them their doom. God tells them, since these things
have become your love and hope and rejoicing, I'm going to turn
you over to Him. In Micah 2.11, it said, if a
man walking in the Spirit That's not a capital S on that spirit. That's just talking about some
principality that's invisible and you can't see. If a man walking
in the spirit and falsehood do lie, that's what he's gonna do.
He's gonna lie to you. He gives one example. saying,
I'll prophesy unto thee of wine and strong drink. I'm gonna stand
up here and preach to you and tell you it's okay, you can get
as drunk as you want to, anytime you want to. He said, I'm gonna
send you a prophet, and that's one of the things you wanted,
I'm gonna give him to you, and you're just gonna revel in him,
you're gonna rejoice in him, and that's gonna be your prophet.
My prophet doesn't have anything to say to you. He gonna speak
to my people. My sheep hear my voice. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians
2 where you say, well that was back in 750 years before the
coming of Christ. What's that got to do with us?
I'll show you what it's got to do with you. 2 Thessalonians 2. Verse 7. Well the mystery of
iniquity does already work. Only he that now letteth will
let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that
wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit
of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Verse nine, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan,
with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. Now watch
this. And for this cause, God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie and
that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but
had pleasure in unrighteousness. That's exactly what Micah told
Israel. Exactly, and that's what Paul
tells us. In Ephesians chapter two, verse
two, Paul describes our former condition saying we walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience. Now you think on that. This prophet,
he's going to walk in the spirit, but it ain't going to be the
spirit of God. I grew up in religion where men would get in the spirit.
Didn't you? You've had a taste of that. They get in the spirit, and they
go to chanting, and they go to talking about this, that, and
the next thing. Well, preacher, ain't you afraid
you're going to blaspheme God? That man wasn't sin of God. He
wasn't sin of God. How can you say that? Because
he didn't preach Christ. That's why. They were looking
to everything in this day except God and Christ. They were just having a big whoop-dee-doo
and religion fit right in. This guy had his idea about religion,
that's okay, brother, you go there, you do what you want to.
This one over here, he's real staunch and plain, he's kinda
intellectual and he wants that, so okay, you go establish yours
over there. The land was full! Is it not
full today? Don't you see it on every corner?
They're all not alike, but they are in one thing. None of them
preach Christ, none of them. Way back here in the days of
the prophet, old prophet Micah. God said, I'll send you one,
and he's going to preach to you what you want to hear, and that's
going to be your prophet. This is the curse of and the
end of unbelief. You'll find it again in Romans
chapter 1. They didn't believe God. They
didn't want anything to do with the witness of conscience and
creation. They denied all those things.
And God gave them up to strong delusion. He gave them over to
their reprobate mind. To do what? To dishonor their
bodies between them. What do you see going on today?
Huh? This is the end of unbelief.
Now remember, this prophet knows that he's not talking to them,
he's talking to us. I showed you that in the book
of Peter. Things he's saying, it wasn't
for them, it was for us. All right, well that's enough
of that. Let's look down here now at Micah 2 verse 12. Here's the word of assurance
to his people. Here's what Micah looked at and
said, this is for a people yet to come. Now listen to this. He said, I will surely assemble,
O Jacob, all of thee. Now I showed you several times
that Jacob, God singled out Jacob. to show us what election is. He was symbolically the head
of election. God chose him. They were twins. Him and Esau were twins. And
Esau was the eldest. But Esau sold his birthright
to Jacob. But he said, I said this before
either one of them were born, either one of them had done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election,
might stand. The elder's gonna serve the younger.
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. I'll surely gather the remnant
of Israel. I'll put them together as the
sheep of Basra. Basra means sheep coat or sheepfold. That's what that's talking about.
I'll gather them like sheep in a sheepfold. As the flock in
the midst of their foe, And they're going to make a great noise by
reason of the multitude. They're going to be a number
that no man can number. No man can number. And then he says in verse 13,
the breaker has come up before them. And they've broken up. And they've passed through the
gate. And they're gone out by it. And their king shall pass
before them and the Lord on the head of them. Now God, who sends
this prophet to declare his curse upon men, now gives assurance
to his elect. He said, I'm going to assemble,
O Jacob, all of thee. My friend, the Holy Ghost is
not flippant when it comes to words and terms. He uses exactly the term that
he intends to use, and here he uses the word assemble. Assemble, I will assemble thee. God's elect are called out of
darkness and they're brought into the assembly. Paul said in Hebrews 12, 22,
we are come unto Mount Sinai, his church. and unto the city
of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable
company of angels, to the assembly and church of the firstborn,
which are written in heaven." His visible church in this world
are made up of assemblies all over the world. You won't find
God writing to an individual, you'll find God writing to his
churches. Understand what the Spirit says
to the churches. He says it over and over and
over. Forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together as the manner of some is. Don't separate yourself. Don't go out here for convenience
somewhere and camp out. God has assemblies. He has places
where he's promised to meet with, where two or three are gathered
together. There I'll be in the midst. This visible church in this world
is made up of assemblies all over the world, groups and places,
according to the will of God and for the ministry of his gospel.
And Micah's prophecy here, which Peter plainly tells us, is for
us, speaks of the assembly of God's elect. Well, how many of
them is he going to assemble? All of them. All. All of them. Isn't that what he said? I'll gather the remnant of Israel.
Now watch this. I'll put them together. Huh? That doesn't say I'll leave you
out there alone, does it? I'll put them together as the
sheep in the sheepfold. Wow. Wow. The sheep in the sheepfold, are
they keeping social distancing? I don't think so. Sheepfold full. Full. As the flock in the midst of
their fold. They shall make a great noise
by reason of the multitude of men. That is what the Lord has
purposed to do in our day. and a portion of the glory that
follows our Lord's ministry in his day, I will surely, no doubt
about it, assemble, O Jacob, all of thee. Secondly, he tells
us in verse 13, the breaker has come up before them. What in
the world's he talking about? Well, I vision a tsunami. Not
no little wave coming in and hitting the rocks on the shoreline. Because these people were in
bondage. These people were in the midst of all this going on,
and the curse of God, and all of these things going on in the
land, all this false religion, and turmoil, and chaos. And he said, but the breaker,
they're down there looking out at the sea, praying to God, and
here comes a tsunami, or a rogue wave, whatever you want to call
it, and this thing comes up and towers up above. A great wave. I thought about
that for the longest time and I kept thinking water, water. What in the world is he talking
about? He's talking about an irresistible force. You're not
going to stand out there on the beach when this 60 foot wave
comes crashing in and still be standing there when it goes past
you. It ain't like those little things
that comes up around your knees. He's talking about a breaker,
a huge wave coming in. He's talking about an irresistible
force, something never before seen. Never in the history of
the world has any power ever been manifest like the power
of the Holy Ghost. Never. And he came as a gift upon God's
elect because Christ redeemed us. He said it's expedient for
you that I go away. If I don't go away, I can't send
the comforter. And nothing's gonna happen. But
I'm gonna go away, and I'm gonna be seated at the right hand of
God, and my first gift to you is the Holy Ghost. Never has
there been a power like the Holy Ghost. He came as a rushing mighty
wind upon God's elect. And these men suddenly saw the
truth, knew the truth, preached the truth, would die for the
truth. This was a power that didn't leave you unaffected.
12 men turned the world upside down. What kind of power is that? 12
men. And then look at this, he said,
the breakers come up and they have broken up. This awesome power that takes
of the things of Christ and shows them unto us tears down our refuge
of lies. It breaks it all up. It takes
away our vain imaginations and topples our false gods to the
ground. It breaks these hearts of stone.
Hearts adamant like flint, he said. But this breaks the heart
of stone and it turns them into jello. My father was a self-righteous
Nazarene preacher for 50 years. He was so dug in you couldn't
tell him anything. I finally had to just quit talking
to him because it always ended up in an argument. He'd just
get louder and louder and louder and finally I'd leave him gone. 50 years preaching a false gospel. He was dug in, in his refuge. Then the gospel came and the
power of God's spirit. And the Lord brought him to see
that all his righteousnesses were as filthy rags. In John
10, our Lord alludes to this. In John 10, two and three, saying
that he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and
the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name,
and leadeth them out. Verse 26, but you believe not,
because you're not my sheep. That's over in John 10. You believe not, because
you're not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. They don't stand there unaffected
when the gospel comes. They're broken up. There's power
that attends this. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they'll never perish, and nobody's going to pluck them
out of my hand. Our breaker has broken down the
middle wall of petition. There was a huge difference all
through the Old Testament between Jews and Gentiles, Jews and Gentiles. Christ said, I tore down the
middle wall of petition. There was a petition in the temple
divided the Gentiles in their worship from the Jews. He said,
I tore down the petition. And I've made of twain through
myself one new man, one spiritual Jew. And by virtue of his presence
and work, he vanquished all of his enemies. He brought us out
from under Satan's spell, and Satan's lies delivered us from
his lying ways. And his bold principalities and
powers Made an open show of them on his cross. He used them. He's
talking about Pilate and Herod and all these men, principalities,
evil men, men of power and position. He used them to accomplish his
redemption on the cross. He made an open show out of them.
Don't you know I have power to crucify you and I have power
and you're not even gonna talk to me? You had no power at all
except they were giving you my father. He made an open show
out of it on the cross. He broke the yoke of the law,
become the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that
believeth. And having received from his
father all power in heaven and earth, he sends us into a hostile,
unbelieving world with confidence to preach to dying sinners. And in his times he shall show
who is the blessed and only potentate King of kings and Lord of lords,
who only hath immortality and dwells in a light which no man
can approach. And at the final coming of Christ,
all the kingdoms of the earth shall be broken and brought to
kneel down before him. And this whole world will then
be likened to the chaff of the summer threshing floor, and they'll
be smashed to pieces as the potter's vessels. And then Micah tells
us in verse 13, and I'll wind this up. It says, their king,
in that day, their king shall pass before them. He's passing by you this morning. I'm preaching to you the king
of glory. He's passing by, He goes before
us, don't He? Huh? That's why we gather here.
To remind us of that, to tell us that, to teach us that. Our
King shall go, He shall pass by before them, now watch this,
and the Lord on the head of them. Hmm. Now hear what I'm saying. It does not say he is the head
of them, though he is. It says he's on the head of them. As our federal head and representative,
we're one with him. When God sees him, he sees us. You think about that. He's on
our heads. God looks at us. Russell, he
sees us. If he didn't, he'd be destroyed. But he sees his son. He's on
the head of us. We're one with him. In Jeremiah
chapter 23, and you can read this after a while in verse six,
it says, and this is the name whereby he shall be called, talking
about Christ, the Lord, our righteousness. When he comes, that's what they're
gonna call him. Now watch this. In Jeremiah chapter 33, in verse
16, it said, and this is the name wherewith she shall be called. Now he's talking about his church,
his elect. The Lord our righteousness. When
he sees you, he sees the Lord his righteousness. All my soul. You think of the grace and the
love and the mercy that God has bestowed upon us. May he teach
us for Christ's sake. Thank you.