Thank you. Okay, Micah chapter
7 and verse 1. Woe is me for I am as when they
have gathered the summer fruits as the grape gleanings of the
vintage. There is no cluster to eat. My soul desired the first ripe
fruit. The good man is perished out
of the earth, and there is none upright among men. They all lie
in wait for blood. They hunt every man his brother
with a net. That they may do evil with both
hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward,
and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire, so they
wrap it up. The best of them is as a briar. The most upright is sharper than
a thorn hedge. The day of thy watchman and thy
visitation cometh. Now shall be their perplexity. Trust ye not in a friend, put
ye not confidence in a guide. Keep the doors of thy mouth from
her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son dishonoureth the
father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of
his own house. Therefore I will look unto the
Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will
hear me. Rejoice not against me, O mine
enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord
shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of
the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my
cause and execute judgment for me. He will bring me forth to
the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. Then she that
is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said
unto me, Where is the Lord thy God? mine eyes shall behold her,
and now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets. In the day that thy walls are
to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed. In that day also he shall come
even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and
from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and
from mountain to mountain. notwithstanding the land shall
be desolate because of them that dwell therein for the fruit of
their doings. Feed thy people with thy rod,
the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the
wood. In the midst of Carmel let them
feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. According
to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show
unto him marvellous things. The nations shall see and be
confounded at all their might. They shall lay their hand upon
their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the
dust like a serpent. They shall move out of their
holes like worms of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord
our God and shall fear because of thee. Who is a God like unto
thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for
ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he
will have compassion upon us, he will subdue our iniquities,
and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. thou wilt perform the truth to
Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our
fathers from the days of old. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. This portion that we have here
in Micah, the little prophecy of Micah, is short indeed. And of course, like all of these
prophecies, was written for a particular audience at the time. And we've
only got seven chapters, and here we are in the seventh chapter. And we find that this prophecy
that we have is a prophecy which, though written for its moment
and its time, yet continues to resonate down through the history
of the Church. And I do believe that we will
find as we enter upon it and think about it for a little while
this evening, some good things to comfort our hearts and encourage
our souls. And yet here is Micah beginning
this portion of his prophecy with a weary cry. Woe is me,
he says. Woe is me. What a miserable person
I am. That's what woe is me means. What a miserable person I am. And we might think to ourselves,
well, this isn't a person that I would want to spend a long
weekend with. He's not a person that seems
to have very much to say to us or to encourage us. If he's telling
us that he's miserable, if he's saying that his life is woeful, well, maybe we wouldn't want
to spend too much time with him. But I think it's interesting
for us to note what it is that is causing Micah to lament so. And what is it? He cannot find
a spiritual man with whom to fellowship. He cannot find an upright man
with whom to worship God. And I think that maybe knowing
that, we could feel a little bit more sympathetic towards
this lonely soul. I've said it often and it bears
repeating. We are blessed to have friends
and brothers and sisters to fellowship with in the gospel. You're a
treasure. You are priceless in this world. You are the jewels of His crown. You are the precious gems that
the Lord God is going to gather in that day when He comes to
make up His church. You are that diadem. A treasure
indeed. And when one treasure meets another
treasure, that's treasure doubled, that's treasure multiplied. And it is a wonderful thing that
the Lord has given us one another to fellowship with and has given
us one another to enjoy the company of the saints in our life. Micah didn't have that. Micah
was a lonely man, spiritually speaking, he was a lonely man,
he was without a friend in these days. And maybe to an extent
we can identify with that because perhaps we have been in such
a situation in times past, maybe unable to get out to worship
because of the circumstances in which we're in. illness has
detained us and prevented us. Maybe we've had to travel away
from home and we've lost access to the fellowship of the Lord's
people. Maybe just a period of coldness in our own souls and
in our own spirits has seemed to make the Lord and the Lord's
people more distant from us. And this man Micah says, Woe
is me for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits. as
the grape gleanings of the vintage. What does that say to us? He's
saying, you know what? They've been out and they've
taken the harvest. They've taken in all the grapes
from the vines. And all there are are one or
two little grapes at the tops of the trees, at the tops of
the vines. He said, and that's what I feel
like. I'm just left up there all on my own. And I don't have
anybody to worship with. I don't have anyone to fellowship
with. My soul desireth the first ripe fruit. My soul desires to
be amongst those who love the Lord, to be with those who have
a sense of the sweetness of the Lord's presence with them. And it's a lovely thing that
he desires here. And he goes on to explain the
imagery that he has been employing. In verse two, he says, the good
man is perished out of the earth. The good man is perished out
of the earth. And then the verses that follow
tell us about the kind of people that he is encountering instead. He is saying that there are plenty
who do evil with both hands earnestly. That's quite an emphatic way
of describing it, isn't it? With both hands, they earnestly
look for opportunity to do evil. Someone once said that if wicked
people would be as ingenious about doing proper work as they
are about doing their evil work, they would probably be very successful
people. And this is what Micah has in
mind. People who are earnestly dedicated
to using all their resources to satisfying their own needs
at the expense of anyone else. And he speaks about a corrupt
society where the prince and the judge are asking for bribes,
they're looking for rewards for the things that they do. Where
the great men uttereth his mischievous desire and between the three
of them they wrap it up. I thought that was a lovely little
phrase, I must confess I hadn't noticed that before. But it says
that this, that these wicked people are conspiring together. They're getting together and
they are sorting out this world, the prince and the judge and
the great man. And their utterances are such
that they're just wrapping things up for their own good. The best of them is as a briar. I know, I guess that some of
you who've perhaps been hunting or fishing or out in the countryside
know what it is to have to go through a briar or go through
in amongst some trees or some wood where this briar has grown
up. And it's almost impossible to
get through without scratching your skin or tearing your clothes. And that's the point here. that
there is such a A barrier, such a wall has been put in front
of the Lord's people that they cannot find someone to worship
with, cannot find someone to fellowship with, and it just
seems to be this impenetrable foe before them, and he cannot
find anyone to joy his heart. The best of them is like a briar,
the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. The day of thy
watchman and thy visitation cometh now shall be their perplexity. And the writer goes on to speak
about the way in which men are not dependable and even the very
people of our own house betray us and set themselves against
us. And the picture here that Micah
has set before us is a picture of a lonely man, a picture of
a man who is not finding fellowship in his day. And in many ways
I think Micah is like us and we like him because we desire
to see better days for the Church of Christ. We desire to see more
that we can fellowship with and that we can enjoy the things
of the Lord with. And we look around and we say,
why is it that there are so many things set in opposition? to the gospel of Jesus Christ,
to the simple preaching of the gospel, to the way in which that
message is put out into the world. Why is it that there are so many
briars, so many hedges, so many impenetrable foes that are set
before the preaching of the gospel? And we long for the Lord to act
and to give us fellowship with other believers. We seek fruitful
days for the gospel of grace. I think that most believers would
say that that would be something that they would long to see.
Not to validate our own commitment. We believe these things and supposing
the Lord keeps us small. all the days of our life's experience
in the Church of Jesus Christ, so be it. We're going on to speak
about here the remnant of his heritage and a remnant is just
a little bit that's cut off at the end and that's all that the
Church is ever going to be and yet we long because this burden
has been placed in our hearts to see this message gaining traction,
getting an access into the hearts and the minds and the souls of
men and women and them coming to a knowledge of the truth because
we've seen, we know what is before those who think nothing of Christ. We see what the Bible says is
going to happen in a day that is soon to come. We long, we
crave the cluster of grapes and the first ripe fruit. But mostly
what we see in our day, as did Micah, is the briar and the thorn. Well, before we become too disheartened,
And before we sidle up close to Micah and join him in his
misery and self-pity, Let's see what the Lord teaches the prophet
before the end of the chapter and perhaps we'll get a little
bit of a perspective and know how to face our own situation
by seeing how he reacts to the things that are happening to
him. This is how we draw comfort from the Lord and how we draw
comfort from the Holy Scriptures that are food to our souls. and a light to our path. The
first thing I want to notice about Micah's words here is that
for all he has said from verse 1 through verse 6 about the troubles
that he's facing, he punctuates his writing with verse 7. And it's actually a pretty amazing
statement that he makes. He's saying, look, for all of
this trouble that there is in the world, for all of the loneliness
that I feel, for all of the misery that seems to be around about
me as far as the opportunity to worship God, because I'm encountering
this, I will look unto the Lord. I'm not able to look to men.
I'm not able to look to the comfort of my fellow man. Even the very
closest brethren that I have in this world, they're not going
to sustain and they're not going to help me. Therefore, I will
look unto the Lord. He says, I will wait for the
God of my salvation. I'll be patient. I will wait
on the Lord to give me that help that I need, that sustenance
that I require. And my God will hear me. I think that that little verse
there ought to be one that we put a little mark beside in our
Bible if we practice such a thing. I will look unto the Lord. I
will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. It's a wonderful
witness that he makes and it's a testimony of a tried and a
tested soul. It's as if we could say, troubled
one, what are you going to do? You who are tasting the bitterness
of this moment, you who are living through the trial of this time,
you who have the difficulties of these experiences of small
things and loneliness and trial and hardship, what are you going
to do? And Micah says to us, oh, I'm
going to look to the Lord. I'm going to find my comfort
in the Lord. Weary one, where are you going
to turn? I will wait for the Lord. He is the God of my salvation. He knows what he's doing. He knows what I need. He knows
the best for me. And I will wait upon him. And what's more, he will hear
me. That in itself is a very amazing
statement. Let's think about it for a moment,
what Micah is saying here. Here's a man living many, many
years ago and what we would regard in so many ways as being a backward
situation in a very technologically impoverished place, people still
working on the land, laboring to try and make ends meet, as
far as our modern world is concerned, without any real grasp or understanding
of what this world would ultimately become. A man who as far as science
is concerned, as far as culture is concerned, as far as a broad
view of the world is concerned, was probably pretty limited in
his grasp and understanding. And we see much more. We've got
telescopes now that allow us to probe into space. We've got science that allows
us to look at microscopic things. We're able to have a grasp and
a breadth and a knowledge about the things of this world. And yet that one who transcends
everything, the God who created all things. Micah says, he's
listening to me. He hears me. When I speak, the
God of all creation, the God of this universe hears me. Think about that for a moment.
Think about that when you have your own issues, your own troubles,
your problems, the things that have entered your life, afflicted
you, hurt you, bruised you, the things that disappoint you, the
things that are a trial and a temptation to you. Know this, child of God. that when you speak to the Lord,
he hears you. That's what Micah is telling
us here. He's saying, woe is me, I am a miserable man, but
when I speak to God, he hears me. Let me say it another way. Let me put it in a New Testament form. I will look to Jesus. I will
wait upon him. I will trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ for he is the God of my salvation. Micah was still a
man who was looking forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ and we have seen the fullness of the revelation of the salvation
of God Micah could say, the God of my salvation. And we have
found the Lord Jesus Christ to be just such a one. My sovereign
King. So that when all others desert,
when my own strength fails, when I feel so alone, when I feel
so insignificant and weak, Christ is my rock. Christ is my foundation. Christ is the God of my salvation. One to whom I can commit my cares. All of the weariness that I feel
in my body, all the concerns that I carry with me in my mind. I will turn to Him for all of
my needs. I will wait on Him and I will
prove Him faithful. Micah, we say to the old prophet,
to whom will you look? And Micah comes back with the
phrase, I will look to the God of my salvation. And I wanted
just, as I was thinking about these words of Micah, I wanted
just to see what that phrase looked like in the context of
the whole of scripture. So I put it into my little search
engine and I typed it in, the God of my salvation. And there are literally dozens,
hundreds of references to God, our salvation, or the Lord, The
Lord, our tower of salvation. The Lord, our horn of salvation. The Lord, our shield of salvation. Hundreds of references to the
salvation that comes from God. He's called our great salvation
and Jonah says salvation is of the Lord and all of these things
speak to us but the exact phrase, the exact phrase the Lord or
God, the God of my salvation, It only occurs another three
times in scripture. Twice in Psalms and once in Habakkuk. And I thought I would just read
those verses to you because they're lovely in themselves. So just
as a little encouragement, here is the other occasions where
the God of my salvation is referenced with these precise words. Psalm
18, verse 46. The Lord liveth. The Lord liveth. You see, that's why he hears
us when we pray. Micah says, he will hear me. He says that when I pray to him,
the Lord shall hear me. My God will hear me. Why? Because he lives. The Lord liveth. And blessed be my rock, and let
the God of my salvation be exalted. So that's one of the verses where
God is described as a rock, a sure foundation. And he will be exalted
as the God of my salvation. Psalm 25, verse five is the next
one. Lead me in thy truth. And teach me, for thou art the
God of my salvation. On thee do I wait all the day. So again, we see the loveliness
of this phrase being unfolded and expounded by the writers
of scripture. Lead me into thy truth. Teach
me, for thou art the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait
all the day. And in Habakkuk 3 verse 18, And
these little verses are just, in a sense, randomly plucked. because they've employed the
same phrase as we find here in Micah. And yet, do they not speak
to us? Do they not resonate? Do they
not lead us and guide us to understand some other elements and aspects
of the attributes of our God, who is the God of my salvation? He is a rock. Here's a rock upon
which we stand. In all of the fluidity, in all
of the movement, in all of the uncertainty of this world, here
is something firm. Here is a foundation that is
sure and steadfast. Something upon which we can find
objective peace and rest and hope. And this one is exalted. He is glorious. He is high and
lifted up. He is one who is worthy of our
approach. He is one to whom we can go and
find that he will speak words of comfort to our hearts. For
he has strength and he has power and he has authority to bless
his people. and the truth, thy truth, will
teach our hearts. So when we go to this one whom
Micah tells us will hear us, this one who is sure and steadfast,
this one who is faithful, this one who has authority, this one
who has power, this one who has a personal interest in us. We are shown here that he will
lead us, he will teach us, he will guide us and he will bring
us into an understanding of what it is to wait upon him and trust
in him. And so Micah directs us also
by his use to realise that in so doing in finding him to be
our rock, in finding him to be the one who has authority, in
finding him to be the tutor of our minds in these dark and difficult
times, we will find comfort and we will find peace. We will find
joy in the Lord. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. So we ask Micah a question. What say you, Micah, of the Lord,
the God of our salvation? Micah says, he will hear me. Do you remember Hagar of old,
how she spoke of the Lord who sees? Thou, God, seest me. Micah tells us of one who hears. We have a God who knows our circumstances,
a God who has designed our life to be as it is, a God who is
intimately and personally involved in our life's experience and
nothing is hid from him. He sees us and he hears us and
he responds to us. One who hears. Think on how personal
that is. Think on how personal it is when
we take our deepest concerns our troubles, our anxieties,
our hardships, our sorrows, to the Lord. We take them to the
Lord in prayer. We take them to the Lord with
the simplicity of a child. And that is, it's a grace to
know that we have such access into the very court of Almighty
God, this high and exalted One, this One who, who, holds all
things in place by the power of his word, yet he stoops, he
bends to hear you and me. It's a beautiful statement of
faith that Micah is here voicing of his dependence and trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the sentiment that he has
granted to us is lovely, I think, with the idea that we speak in
the simplest of terms to the Lord, in the most childlike way
we can go to him. No special words are needed. You don't have to go to university
to learn how to speak to God. No special words are needed.
No ceremony is needed. You don't have to write a cheque
and hand it over to a priest or a preacher or a parson in
order to get a special ceremony of introduction. You just say
what's on your heart and the Lord hears. And it's just Christ. It's just
Christ to whom we go. and he will hear you, and he
will answer. I thought it interesting, and
I won't make much of this, but I had looked up another verse,
and it triggered in my thoughts. Matthew chapter seven, verse
seven says this. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. Now there's no great connection
here by the fact that it's Micah 7, verse 7 and Matthew 7, verse
7, except that it makes it easier for us to remember. But here
in Micah 7, verse 7, Micah tells us that, my God will hear me. And in Matthew, we are told,
Do you ever feel that the enemy is winning? And we have got enemies. We've got enemies in this life
that we have to face. The world is an enemy, the flesh
is an enemy, the devil is an enemy and we are assailed constantly
as the Lord's people going through this world because this world
is not our home and there is these briars, these thorns that
seem to prick us and scratch us and tear at us as we try to
make our pilgrim way through this world. Micah says in verse
8 and 9, Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy. When I fall,
I shall arise. When I fall, I shall rise again. And I want that to be a comfort
to you tonight as well, because we know what it is to struggle,
and we know what it is to stumble, and we know what it is to fall,
and we know what it is to feel as if we're sinking and we can't
get back to the surface. But what Micah says is that for
all the enemies we have in this world, don't imagine for a moment
that you're going to beat us. because when we fall, we will
rise again. When I sit in darkness, the Lord
shall be a light unto me. And sometimes we feel that the
world is dark around about us, whether it's that external force
that is coming against us or whether it's even in our own
hearts, in our own minds, dark times, times of storminess, times
of coldness, times of hurt, When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall
be a light unto me. And of course, that's one of
the ways in which the Lord Jesus Christ describes himself. So
here's Micah so many years before, speaking about a light which
would come and illuminate his heart and his mind. And of course,
the Lord Jesus Christ describes himself as the light of the world. I will bear the indignation of
the Lord. We confess that there is a rightness
in the trials and the weaknesses that we have because there's
nothing good in us and there's nothing deserving in us. Because
I have sinned against him and that's one of the aspects of
the Lord's people is they know they are sinners and they know
the propriety of the wrath of God upon them. But they also know this, that
because of the promises of God in Christ, because of the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ, they have an advocate, one who speaks
for them. One, says Micah in verse nine,
who will plead my cause. And while I confess that I have
earned and deserved the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned
against him, Yet I have found comfort in this fact that one
has stepped forward to plead my cause. One has stepped forward
to execute judgment on my behalf. He will execute judgment for
me. He will bring me forth to the
light and I shall behold his righteousness. I think it's beautiful
the way these Old Testament writers grasped so much of the loveliness
of Jesus Christ so many years before the Saviour came and fulfilled
the revelation which God has given us. These men grasped something
in the darkness of their times which we have the joy of seeing
illuminated because of the apostolic writings and the testimony of
Jesus Christ himself. And here Micah rejoices in the
victory that he has in the Lord. How Satan, our enemy, must have
rejoiced to see the Church of Jesus Christ fallen, sinful,
and darkened. But Christ has pleaded our cause. He has interceded our case. He has carried our judgment. He has satisfied justice. And he has proved himself to
be an able and worthy deliverer and saviour of his people. Micah
says, I shall behold his righteousness. I shall see the Lord our righteousness. I shall behold my Redeemer. To paraphrase the words of another,
one of these Old Testament saints, I know that I will see him. I
know that my Redeemer liveth. I shall behold his righteousness. I shall see the Lord our righteousness. And I will kiss the sun in faith
and in gratitude. And even if it does appear that
the enemies of Christ are winning, yet the Lord in the midst of
their trials will sustain his people and nourish them and provide
for them. Micah goes on. Verse 14. Feed thy people with
thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the
wood. In the midst of Carmel, let them
feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. The Lord
has promised to sustain us in the midst of our trials, to feed
his people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage. Christ's
people are his sheep, his flock, and he inherited them from his
father. They were given to him by his
father in covenant promise. And they shall be fed. They shall
be fed. You know, the Lord never leaves
one of his sheep without that soul nourishing food, which is
his gospel. They shall be fed. The rod is
the preacher. He is the minister and he is
the administer of the gospel of truth to the souls of the
Lord's little ones. And Micah knew that. And even
in his day, he called upon the Lord to feed his flock, to feed
the people of his heritage. And the Lord declares to us, that he would bless his people
and that he would do marvellous things for them. Look at verse
15. According to the days of thy
coming out of the land of Egypt, I will show unto him marvellous
things. There's a promise to warm our
hearts on a cold night. The Lord has promised to show
us marvellous things. These marvellous things that
are the Lord's gift to his church and people are the marvellous
truths of the gospel which sustain us and hold us and comfort us
and assure and reassure us in the days of our trouble and trial
and worldly pilgrimage. Marvellous truths of atonement. Atonement. Atonement has been
effected by the Lord Jesus Christ. We who feel ourselves sinners
have been promised, have been told by God that the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ has atoned for our sins. We have been made
one with God because our sins have been dealt with by the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have been made holy. We have
been made righteous. We have been made like Him. We
have been united to Him. That's a marvellous thing. that
the revelation of such an amazing transaction has been granted
to us, given to us as our possession through the gift of faith by
which we lay hold upon these marvellous works which have been
enacted and executed by Jesus Christ on our behalf. I will
show unto him marvellous things like substitution, like substitution,
like the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was taken and placed upon
a cross that speaks of cursing, and that our sin was laid upon
his shoulder, set to his account, and God bore down upon him with
all the wrath of judgment and justice in order that we might
go free. that he might be made sin for
us and we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Propitiation is
the fact of God's goodness granted to us at the price of Jesus Christ
bearing the wrath of God against his own spotless, innocent soul. Marvellous accomplishments like
redemption like reconciliation, like peace with God. Works that
cause us to marvel at the fact that our sin has been removed,
that our iniquity has been pardoned, and that holiness has been bestowed
to us, that salvation has been freely granted and gifted, that
the glory of an eternal reign with the Lord Jesus Christ has
been granted and promised to us, and that heaven has been
opened. and that in that moment of our
passing from this scene of time into eternity, we will be welcomed
by the holy angels and the Lord Jesus Christ himself into his
presence forever and ever and ever and ever. Marvellous things
that have been shown to the church, marvellous things that have been
given to the people of God Things to confound the nations, but
thrill the people of God. Moses once sang a song in Exodus
about the deliverance of the children of Israel from the hands
of their enemies. And here it seems that the marvellous
things are connected with the type or the picture that was
granted to the children of Israel there at the time of the Exodus.
He says, according to the days of thy coming out of the land
of Egypt, I will show unto him marvellous things. Well Moses,
he sang a song about that and we find it recorded in the book
of Genesis. Moses' song Sorry, in Exodus,
Exodus 15. And in verse 11, he says, That's
what Moses had to say about the Lord in his song. Do you know
what we will sing when we get to heaven? Revelation 15, verse three tells
us this. And they sing the song of Moses. When they get to heaven, they
sing the song of Moses, the servant of God. And the song of the lamb
saying, great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are thy ways, thou
King of saints. Isn't that a beautiful connection,
a beautiful flow that we see here, right from Moses and the
deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt to the ongoing
testimony of Micah in his own day as one of those prophets
sent to the children of Israel, fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ
and echoed in eternity because the people of God are still singing
about the marvellous works of God, the marvellous things which
he has shown us of atonement and substitution and satisfaction
and the love of God to us in the death of Jesus Christ. Brothers
and sisters, consider our incomparable God. Micah began this chapter
bewailing his condition and lamenting his state and saying that he
is a miserable man. But see how he concludes the
assessment in the blessedness that he has
received from the Lord and from his Saviour. I think it befits us to ask such
questions of ourselves when we are down because times of hardship
and trial and discouragement and anxiety and depression, despondency
come upon the people of God. We're not immune to these things.
And I think that this is an example here in Micah's own situation
of some of the feelings that he had But look at verse 18, see what
he says there. Who is a God like unto thee? That's a question. Who is a God
like unto thee? These are things that we should
consider. There is no God like this God. He is incomparable. The things
that he has done, the ways of his purpose, the accomplishments
of his grace are beyond comparison. He pardons iniquity. He delights
in mercy. He subdues our sins in the depth
of the sea. I think I've mentioned this to
you before about this idea of our sins being plunged into the
depths of the sea. It's an amazing picture of the
fact that they will never be remembered against us anymore. Our sins are gone. in the depths
of the sea. Who sustains the remainder when
all the wicked have passed away, when all of the judgment of God
has been dispensed? What will be left? Who will continue? Who will still be there when
God's judgment and his indignation against iniquity has run its
course? That people who are standing
behind Christ. That people for whom the Lord
Jesus Christ bared his chest. That people for whom the Lord
Jesus Christ stepped into the gap and fulfilled all the requirements
to make a people holy. And we are called the remnant
of his heritage. That inheritance that he has
been given, we are the people, the small group, the remnant
of his heritage. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgressions of the
remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for
ever, because he delighteth in mercy. The people of his inheritance
are the elect of God, the chosen people, those that he loves before
time, those that he has anointed in Christ, the blessed of the
Lord, the little flock of his inheritance. Behold, what we
see here is covenant love. We see covenant promise and we
see covenant grace. Look at verse 20. We've said
it before. Whenever we see the patriarchs
mentioned like this, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac
and the God of Jacob, he's speaking about the covenant promises that
are our possession because of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here
it is again. Thou wilt perform the truth to
Jacob, those promises that were made. The promises that came
to Jacob, the chosen people. The mercy that was given to Abraham,
that people that are of faith after faithful Abraham, those
things that were sworn and promised and testified to in days gone
by, they will be accomplished. These are the promises of God.
And we observe the fulfilment of the purpose of God in the
death of Jesus Christ. And we meditate upon the application
of the benefits that Christ has accomplished as they are dispensed
to the flock, the remnant of his heritage. And we see the
application, the power of grace that is dispensed to us in our
personal experience of these things by faith. Micah says,
woe is me, but he ends upon a note of triumph. He ends upon a note
that sounds of mercy and redemption and deliverance and the faithful
promises of God. In Genesis 17, verse seven, we
read these words. I will establish my covenant
between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations
for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy
seed after thee. That is the seed of faith. In Isaiah 41 verse 10 we read,
Fear thou not for I am with thee. Be not dismayed for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ will be
to us all that we need. and 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for
he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. Thank you, Micah,
for your testimony to us. I'm sorry, Micah, that you felt
so lonely and so without friends and fellowship. But I'm glad
that that experience and the darkness of that day caused thee
to pen these beautiful words that we might read them tonight
and be encouraged by them as you were encouraged by them.
And see, in this remnant of the heritage of the Lord, the people
of the Church of Jesus Christ being sustained and helped and
comforted and encouraged in the faithful promises of our God
to us in our daily life. Amen.