Turn again to the prophecy of
Micah chapter 7, we read from 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 them. 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 fawn-hedge,
The day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh, Now shall
be their perplexity. Trust ye not in a friend, put
ye not confident 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 eye shall behold her. now shall she be trodden down
as the mire of the streets. 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. When I fall I shall arise. This is a tremendous picture,
summary of the heart of the Gospel. 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. When I fall, I shall arise. A tremendous summary of the Gospel,
isn't it? Of the heart of the Gospel. Of
the salvation of a sinner, a fallen sinner. For all have fallen in
Adam. When Adam transgressed against
the Lord in the beginning, all his posterity transgressed with
him. And all they who are born of
Adam, having sin passed down through them by natural generation,
being born sinners conceived in iniquity, all have been born
as fallen, corrupt sinners. speaking lies from the womb,
shaking their fist at Almighty God, seeking their own desire
and their own glory. All are fallen. without a hope
in nature of arising from that fall. They are dead in trespasses
and sins, dead spiritually and dying physically. God's wrath
and God's judgment is upon them and they have no strength by
nature to arise from such a state. We're dead, we're fallen, we're
rebels against the Holy God. You are, I am, fallen and yet
here the prophet writes by the spirit of god rejoice not against
me oh mine enemy when i fall i shall arise i shall arise when
i sit in darkness the lord shall be enlightened to me The Lord
shall be a light unto me. This cannot be but by the Gospel. We cannot arise from such a state
but that God in almighty power and wonderful saving grace should
look upon us in mercy and lift us up. When I fall, I shall arise. This can't be but by the gospel. How could we by nature say such
a thing? We cannot. The natural man might
praise himself with his own pride and vaunted claims and say, I'm
strong, I can stand again. But in the end, he's destroyed. It's empty words. He cannot arise. He is fallen and he is lost. But here the Prophet speaks not
in that sort of natural pride, but he speaks with a truth. When
I fall, I shall arise. And when I sit in darkness, the
Lord shall be a light unto me. This is true because of the Gospel. And it's true. because of that
One that the Gospel makes known, the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom
the Prophet speaks in figure. It's true because He came into
the darkness as the Lord our Light, and He, at the cross,
under judgment, fell under the wrath and the judgment of God
against the sins of His people. At the place of execution he
fell, fell under judgment, he died, he suffered, but he rose
again. When I fall, he could say, he
could say, when I fall I shall arise. I have power to lay down
my life and I have power to take it again and when he came and
when he was slain he took away the cause that would keep us
in the grave forevermore He took away the very cause that brought
the judgment of God down upon his head. Though he fell under
God's judgment against sin, he took away the sin. He took away
the sins. He took away the fiery indignation
of God. He took it all away. He took
the cup of God's wrath and he drank it to the dregs, such that
there was nothing left, no cause of judgment, no sin left on him,
no sin that he any more bore because he drunk the cup of God's
wrath against every sin, such that there was no cause to keep
him in the grave. So he arose victorious in righteousness,
having wrought the salvation of his people. When I fall, he
cried, I shall arise. And he arose with a mighty shout
from the grave. And his people, who looked for
him, who looked unto him, who believed upon him, who waited
for him, rose victorious with him. And the prophet's cries
were brought to pass. The prophet who looked and rested
in Christ, when he said, when I fall in Christ, he arose. And when he sat in darkness,
the Lord indeed was a light under him. because his saviour had
fallen for him and his saviour came in the darkness for him. His saviour, the light of God,
went to the cross and bore his sins and was made sin for him
such that the darkness came upon the earth, the light of the sun
was taken away. But as Christ suffered under
God's wrath in the darkness, God was his light. Christ rested and trusted and
looked upon his father, he trusted in him by faith and though he
sat in the darkness, though he hung upon the cross in the darkness,
bearing God's fury, crying out under his father, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? even so he knew why and his father
was his light even in that darkness his faith wavered not and all
the judgment was drunk up to the dregs such that he arose
victorious He says, I will bear the indignation of the Lord. He will bear it. He will bear
it. He will drink the wrath of God. He will take the judgment. I will bear the indignation of
the Lord because I have sinned against Him. Because I have sinned
against Him. Well Micah could write that.
Because Michael was a sinner like you and I are sinners. And
we can say that we have sinned against him. But how could Christ,
the Son of God, the spotless Lamb of God, the One who knew
no sin, the One in whom there was no sin, how could He say I will bear the indignation of
the Lord, because I have sinned against him. When he had not
sinned, never once did he sin. Before, during or after the cross,
never once did Christ sin. Then how could he say, because
I have sinned against him? Because as is made plain in the
Psalms, in Psalm 40 and elsewhere, He so took our sins, He so bore
the sins of His people, that He spake as if He were they. He spake as though he was the
sinner. He took those sins to be his. He took the guilt of those sins
as though it was his. And he would say unto God, I
will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned
against him. Well, he hadn't, but so did he
take those sins to be his that he spake as though he had. and having taken them upon himself
he bore the Lord's indignation, he bore the Lord's wrath, his
anger and his judgment and he suffered in those hours of darkness
until God pleaded his cause and executed judgment for him and
he could say he will bring me forth to the light and I shall
behold his righteousness He will bring me forth to the light and
I shall behold his righteousness. God made Christ to be sin. He bore the sins of his people
in his own body on the tree and in such a state justice demanded
his death and God's indignation poured out against him. But he
knew that in such a state God would bring him as the sinner's
substitute. to the light and to his righteousness
and God would judge what Christ was made to be in the sinner's
place according to God's light and righteousness according to
his purity And because God's righteousness demanded the death
of the sinner, it demanded the death of Christ. It demanded
that that fury of God against sin be poured out upon this suffering
Saviour. So he was brought forth to the
light and he beheld God's righteousness in judgment upon him until That
judgment had met against every sin which he bore. And until sin had been destroyed,
and until he was led forth from the grave, spotless, every sin
having been taken away, every charge having been answered,
righteous in God's sight. because the wrath, the eternal
wrath of God had been propitiated, appeased, quenched and those
in Christ who were at war with God were brought to peace with
God the Father. Peace. He will plead my cause I will
be brought forth to the light and I shall behold his righteousness
and every sinner saved by Christ will say the same. In Christ
God's indignation has been poured out for against my sins. I sinned but he poured out his
indignation on him. and He has led me to the light
and led me to behold His righteousness. He's led me to look upon this
Saviour suffering for me and bringing forth the righteousness
of God for me who was but sin through and through. But now
in Him I'm righteous. So the Prophet can say in prophecy
of Christ, then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame
shall cover her which said unto me, where is the Lord thy God? Where is the Lord thy God? For Christ's enemies, of which you and I are one, when
they beheld him crucified, when they beheld this one who said
he was the son of God, nailed to a tree, suffering and dying,
being brought to the greatest weakness, the greatest depth. When those enemies beheld him
there, they laughed and scoffed and mocked and cried out, where's
thy God? You who say you can build the
temple in three days, you who claim to be the son of God, you
who have said and done all these marvellous things, where's your
God now? Where's your help now? Look at
you now. And we've said the same in our
hearts. We've looked upon Christ and
despised and rejected him. We've put him to death in our
hearts. We've said crucify him, crucify him, away with him. I will not worship him. And we've said, where's your
God? If you are God, if you are the
Son of God, if you are so great and mighty, if you are so sovereign
and in control, why were you nailed to a tree? And yet here, having been nailed,
having fallen, and arising again, victorious. He can say of His enemies, of you and I who once said, where
is the Lord thy God? That shame shall cover them. And when we're brought to see
this sight, then shame will cover us, for we will know that we
despised and rejected Him. We will know that it was our
sins that put Him to death. Our hatred put Him to death.
and we will know that they could not keep him in the grave. For
surely, truly, as the centurion said who looked on, truly this
was a righteous man. This was the son of God who fell and rose again. Rejoice not against me, O mine
enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. It's a tremendous picture of
the gospel, rising up at the end of this book, at the end
of this prophecy, with great hope and triumph in the forthcoming
promise of Christ the Savior and what he would do in dying
for his people. But as with so many of these
prophecies, this hope at the end is presented following on
from those judgments that are described of God against the
sins of His people. The first three chapters give
an account of God's judgment and fury and anger against earthly
Israel and her rebellion against God and the judgments which would
come upon them. But it's in that context that
Christ is presented here as the one who stands in their place.
It's in that context that that people have sinned and gone astray
and God's fury will be poured down upon sin. That Christ is
presented to us as the one who stands in the place of the sinner.
and delivers those who have fallen and those who are without strength,
who cannot arise by themselves, the one who comes with almighty
power, who when he falls, he rises again. there's their hope,
there's the hope of the house of Israel, there's the hope of
the house of Jacob, there's the hope of guilty sinners like you
and me who have gone astray, who have earned God's judgment
and wrath because of our rejection of him and because of our selfish
and worldly desires for our own self-glory. We've hated God. We've brought down the judgment
upon our heads. We're in the gospel. God says
of sinners like you and I, look, behold my son. Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. Behold the one who can say, when
I fall, I shall arise. Now the account in this prophecy
is very much picked up and summarised in the seventh chapter. The first
three chapters describe God's anger and wrath against the state
of man and the opening verses of chapter 7 recap this in many
ways. For we read, woe is me, for I
am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the great
gleanings of the vintage. There's no cluster to eat. My
soul desired the first ripe fruit. Here the prophet cries out for
ripe fruit and he finds none. He looks upon the world around
him. He looks upon mankind. He looks
upon the people of God. He looks upon Israel. And they've
all gone astray. There's no good. There's no good
to be found anywhere. He says, the good man is perished
out of the earth. And there is none upright among
men, none. You can look everywhere, there's
none. There's no good men. They all lie in wait for blood. They hunt every man his brother
with a neck, every one. despite the veneer of self-righteousness
that people paint, despite the civilization and the way in which
they act to hide what is in their hearts, despite the appearance
of kindness one to another, deep down, cross any man, put any
man into the right circumstances, and they all lie in wait for
blood. They'll say they love you one
day but take something away that they want. Cross them, get on
the wrong side of them and they'll slay you in a moment. Everyone
will. It's only God's grace that keeps
us from such deaths. It's only because God hedges
society about and restrains the worst of sin that keeps men from
all slaying one another. But the anger that people have
for each other that's manifested when people cross them and get
in their way and do that which they don't want is simply a manifestation
of what the Prophet speaks of here. They all lie in wait for
blood, they hunt every man his brother with a net and you're
the same. This is why when people irritate
you and annoy you, you get angry with them. This is why when people
take what you want, you try to get it back. This is why we argue
with our brothers and sisters, with our parents, our employers,
our employees, with everyone that gets in our way. chapter 7 goes on that they may
do evil with both hands earnestly all their strength and effort
is put into it when they desire a thing when we desire a certain
thing we'll put all our strength into it we'll go after it earnestly no matter how evil it may be
The prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward, and the
great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire. So they wrap it up from
the greatest in society to the worst. The base and the lowest
men in society are full of sin, and the top are full of sin. The leaders, the princes, the
judges, the great men, they're full of sin. The best of them
is as a briar, the most upright is sharper than a fawn hedge.
The day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh, now shall
be their perplexity. No wonder God's judgment, no
wonder God's wrath burns from heaven against the unrighteousness
of man. It's all deceit, all covered
up by a veneer of so-called love, a veneer of so-called noble aims,
a veneer which can deceive men and women in this world, but
which is not hidden from God who looks upon the heart. Oh you may say, In my experience
I know this world is full of violence. I know there are those
who hate. I know there are those who do
wicked things. But it can't be true of everyone. I love my family. I love my friends. I have those who I trust. I'm sure there's good in man.
perhaps not in some but there's those I've seen such good such
kindness towards me. Well the prophet goes on 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. The corruption and the rebellion
and the sin of mankind is not just in those afar off. but in
those who are close to us. We do have friends. And have
a friend is a great thing, but you will know from time to time
that there are those friends who let you down. There are those
friends who become your enemies. There are those friends who turn
against you. And sometimes this is with your
own house. How many there are How many there
are in our day and age where husbands and wives split up,
where those who once loved each other turn against each other,
where the children of families rebel against their parents,
where they become full of hatred because the parents stand in
their way of doing what they will. A man's enemies are the
men of his own house. The Spirit of God here is stressing
to us not that every enemy that we have is always in every house
or not that every friend will let us down but that everyone
everyone in this world is full of sin and everyone has a heart
which if left unrestrained by God will lie in wait for blood
and take his brother with a net. Everyone is able to do what Cain
did to his own brother Abel. Every one of us could be a Cain. Don't ever put that away from
you and say I could see myself falling but I could not imagine
I could ever have done what Cain did to his own brother. Cain
is an example of us all. And the difference in Abel lied
in the grace of God which was set upon him. which led him to
the truth of the Gospel, and led Abel to see that there was
one coming for him in centuries in the future, who as the lamb
which he slew as a sacrifice before God typified, there was
one coming for him who would take his sin and deliver him
from it. There was one coming for him
who would take his sins as his own and upon whom the judgment
of God would be executed. There is one coming for him who
would fall and yet arise. Abel looked for a saviour to
come because Abel knew that he was just like Cain. but that
his salvation would come through the blood of a lamb shed for
him, the Lamb of God. What a picture these opening
verses of chapter seven present to us, summarising very much
what we see in the first few chapters in this book. But how
we see the desire of the writer here for first ripe fruit. Woe is me, he says, for I am
as when they have gathered the summer fruits, my soul desired
the first ripe fruit. He longed for fruit, he longed
for the grapes, he longed for the wine, his soul longed for
it. And he could not find this amongst
men. His soul was hungering and thirsting
after righteousness. And he found no righteousness
in man. He found no righteousness in
others and he found no righteousness in himself. He desired the fruit,
the fruit that pictured the righteousness of God in Christ, but he found
none in himself. but he found it all in that Saviour,
slain, who fell, and who arose as the firstborn among many sons. That Saviour who was slain, who
was crushed as the grapes are crushed, who was crushed as the
fruit is crushed, and who was brought forth as the first fruit,
the first fruits from the dead, He rose for Him. He rose as Micah's
Saviour, as Micah's fruit, as Micah's salvation, as Micah's
righteousness. That's who Micah's soul desired. What of yours? What does your
soul desire? Does it desire the passing pleasures
of this world which will end in death? Or does it hunger and
thirst after a righteousness which only God can provide? Will
you in time by faith be brought forth to the light and behold
the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ for you? Will you be given
that first ripe fruit, that first fruit from the dead in Christ?
Will he be yours? Do you care? Do you long for
it? Or do you just lie and wait for
blood? from those that cross your path. God looked upon those that lie
in wait for blood. He looked upon the evil. He looked
upon those that took his name and professed to follow him as
Israel did. And yet whose hearts were cold
and dead towards God and who mixed their religion with the
religion of the world around him and went astray. He looked
upon them in judgment. and he would send, as chapter
2 tells us, a breaker to his people. Because if that people
so lost in sin should ever be brought to salvation, then their
pride and their depravity and their hard hearts must be broken. So he says in chapter 2, 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 foe. 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. If
you're to come to the King, if you're to come to His Kingdom,
if you're to know His salvation and deliverance from sin, then
a breaker, the breaker, the Lord Jesus Christ must come unto you
to break your hard heart. to break your stony solid ground,
to break up the ground of your soul, of your heart, that his
gospel might be sown and bring forth fruit. He will break you
and you won't stand in his way. And that breaking is not something
to be feared, it's sent for your good. Oh what a blessing that
the breaker should come to us. For he doesn't go to all men.
He hasn't come upon all. But there is a people, a people
called Jacob. called Israel chosen of God,
chosen from amongst the sons of men, chosen before the foundations
of this world, chosen in Christ, a people names who God has chosen
and said that one, this one shall be mine. And though they are
children of wrath as others, though they are dead in sin as
others, I will send my Son unto them, and I will send him as
a breaker unto them, to break up their stony hearts, and to
bring forth fruit through my gospel. I will bless them, I will be
merciful unto them, and I will bring forth for them the first
ripe fruit because i loved them though they hate me i loved them
though they hate me has he come unto you in his gospel first
as a breaker then as your savior saying unto you who hates him
Nevertheless, I love you who first hated me. You hate me,
but I've come for you. You've despised me and rejected
me, yet I have suffered long with you. For my purpose towards
you is not to destroy you, but to save you. Though you would
destroy me, yet I will save you. Has God come unto you with that?
and have you responded by rejecting and rejecting? God sent the breaker to bless
his people and that blessing is sent by
his gospel. In chapter 3 of Micah we read
of those prophets who caused God's people to err who led them
astray, who claimed to speak for God when they spoke for themselves,
who claimed to speak the oracles of God, the truth of God, the
gospel of God, when they spoke lies, all they knew of the things
of God they had gleaned by their own understanding. and God never
sent them and God never spake by them and because of their
natural understanding applied to the things of God which are
spiritually revealed which they had never had revealed unto them
because of their natural understanding they erred and they led the people
to err they were blind leading the blind and God's judgment
upon these prophets was that they had no vision They had no
sight, they had no understanding, they spake many words, they had
the doctrine all sewn up, but they knew not what they described. They'd never seen it. They'd
never seen the light, they'd never been led by God forth to
the light and they had never beheld the righteousness of God
in Christ. They'd never seen clearly what
God had done in Christ at the cross. They didn't know it. They could speak of Christ's
death but they could not understand or comprehend it. So they caused
the people to err and they had no vision because they were given
no light it tells us but darkness. Well it's a tremendous blessing
when there are so many prophets like these. who come, even unto
God's people, causing them to err. Prophets with no vision. Prophets with no light. Prophets
who know not the righteousness of God by the faith of Jesus
Christ. Prophets who know not Christ.
It's a tremendous blessing when we could be led astray by every
one of them that God should come in the midst of them with a prophet
with his true gospel. It was a tremendous blessing
for Israel that God raised up Micah and sent Micah with this
prophecy because they didn't deserve it. They'd followed teachers
after their own hearts. They were in rebellion against
God. They had his word but they knew
him not. They loved this world so much
and they wanted that religion which could offer them salvation
and this world. And they rejected God and his
grace and yet God had mercy and sent them Micah. He sent them
his gospel. As he sent a Micah and his gospel
and his truth unto you. Because we live in days where
all around us are prophets like these. Prophets who have no light,
no vision, who dwell in darkness and lead the people after them
into the darkness. Full of words, full of doctrine,
full of theology, but dark and dead. and your only hope, and
my only hope, is that in the midst of such darkness, religious
darkness, darkness in the churches, that God should send a Micah
with his gospel to lead us out from the darkness unto that one
whom he has sent as the breaker, as the saviour, that one who
fell and who arose from the dead. Chapter 4 gives us something
of a picture of this rising. This rising. A description of
a prince, a prophet, a priest and a kingdom which he would
bring in. A promise of a saviour to come
who would deliver the daughters of Zion a saviour. One who would come to redeem
a people who were afar off, redeem them in Babylon, in the world
in which they lived. God does not bring his gospel
and say come over here and you may be saved. come out of the
world, cleanse yourself, make yourself righteous, reach a certain
standard and then you may enter in. Because you will never come
out, and you will never cleanse yourself, and you will never
reach the standard. If that were the Gospel it would
be sent unto your condemnation. But God sends his Gospel into
the world, into this Babylon, where we are, in our filth and
in our sin, to deliver us from it. Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. And Micah's gospel went into
the world, into the Babylon in which this people dwelt, to find
them and to lead them out. Only God can save us and only
God can deliver us. Only God can take those fallen
in sin and cause them to rise. Without his grace, without his
strength, we're dead. Chapter 5 gives us a wonderful
picture of the incarnation of Christ. But thou Bethlehem Ephrata,
though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of
thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel,
whose going forth have been from of old, from everlasting. He
tells this people afar off that He's sending to them His Son
and His Son will come unto them and He will be born in Bethlehem. He who will rule. He who will
be the ruler in Israel. Their Saviour. God Incarnate. That One who should be their
peace. And this man, verse 5, shall
be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land, and
when he shall tread in our palaces. Then shall we raise against him
seven shepherds and eight principal men. This man, this Saviour,
will bring you who were at war with God under peace with him. He shall fall but he shall arise
and when he arises he will rise with grace with healing in his
wings the sixth chapter shows us some of the consequences of
his coming of the salvation of his people by grace in contrast
to works he shows us that God does not want our sacrifices
for they're nothing but he will deliver us by his own hand through
that one who fell and arose for sinners. Oh how this book reaches
its crescendo, reaches its summit, its glory, its heights when it
comes to chapter 7. This Saviour comes into this
world, born in Bethlehem, born to bring in the grace of God,
to deliver men from their works, from their dead works in religion,
to deliver us from our desperate efforts to save ourselves, to
deliver us from all that condemns us. and He comes and He comes
for us as a Saviour who would be slain. 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. Why? Because this God who sent him
is a God who though just, who though righteous, who though
he cannot but look upon thy sin but in judgment and anger, he's
a God who is not desirous. of our death. He's a God who
has not come to destroy all mankind but he has chosen a people in
Christ whom he will save. He's a God of grace, a God of
life, a God of light, a God of righteousness, a God of mercy,
a God of love. and his gospel is not a ministry
of condemnation but a ministry of righteousness, of light and
of salvation. Christ came to save sinners,
sinners like you, sinners like me, sinners as bad as you and
sinners as bad as me. Who is a God like unto thee,
Micah cries, 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. This God delights in mercy,
He delights in it, He loves to show mercy to those who hate
Him. To those who have no strength,
to those who have no will, to those who have hated Him and
despised Him and gone astray. To such as you and I, He delights
in showing mercy. Mercy. pardon, he pardons iniquity,
he pardons sin, he's not come to destroy but to save. Christ
says of himself in John 3 that he's not come to condemn, for
the condemnation is there already, we've already brought it upon
our own heads by our own sin, but he came to deliver, to save, He's a God of mercy. Do you know
this God? Do you know the character of
this God? That he delights in mercy. If we did, if we knew a little
more of it, we'd show a little more of it in our lives, in our
attitude to the Brethren. We'd be a little less swift to
put them in the grave under condemnation and a little more ready to show
them mercy and forgiveness as God has first shown mercy and
forgiveness unto us. Rejoice not against me, O mine
enemy. Rejoice not. Because when I fall, I shall
arise. and when I sit in darkness and
this world is a world of darkness and we're called out of the darkness
we walk in the midst of darkness but when we sit in darkness the
darkness of this world when we behold the darkness of our natural
flesh of what we are by nature and see the filth and iniquity
within when we walk through this darkness The Lord shall be a
light unto us. The Lord shall be a light unto
us. These words were true of Christ
who could say it, but they're true of His people in Him. When
we're called to follow Him, when we are in darkness, He's our
light. And He alone is our light, and
He alone is our hope. Where are you looking for hope? Where are you looking for peace?
Where are you looking for salvation? Where are you looking in this
world for joy or happiness? Where are your ambitions and
hopes placed? You put them in men and they
will let you down. You put them in friends, whoever
they be, and they will let you down. But if your hope, your
faith, your trust is in Christ and Christ alone, then the Lord
shall be a light unto you. He will be your light. In Him
you will see. In Him you will have life. In
Him you will have salvation. For He and He alone will, as
He did with Micah, lead you forth to the light. And you, as Micah
did, shall behold his righteousness, because in the light you will
behold the Saviour who fell and who arose for your salvation,
who went into the darkness, into the abyss, and who took your
sin and spake of it as though it was his. and took it away,
and arose with you from the grave, to behold the light, to be brought
forth to the light, to behold the righteousness of God in him,
and to live in him forevermore. For you with him will say, when
I fall, I shall, I shall, I shall in Him arise. Praise God. Amen.