We are admonished in this book
to do all things for the glory of God. Whatsoever you do, do
all for the glory of God. It is our joy as believers, our
joy, our joy to seek God's honor in everything. We want to know God's will. We
really want God's will to be done. We want to know what God's
will is for us at every given step in our lives, and we want
grace to do that which God sets before us by the direction of
his spirit and by his word as his will. We want to obey God
in all things. I want this book. to have absolute
dominion in the ordering of my life, in everything, everything. We want in all things for Christ
our Redeemer to rule us, to govern us, to guide us, and to graciously
make us honor Him. We want to glorify our great
God led by his spirit to the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we want to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things,
living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Now, I've said all of that, and
this must be said. I know some of you here do not
know God. You have no life before God,
no faith in Christ Jesus. You are lost without God, without
Christ, without hope in the world. And the religious world and neighbors
and friends and moms and dads and husbands and wives will try
to get you to start serving the Lord and living for the Lord.
You can forget that. It ain't going to happen. You
can't honor God in your life if you don't know him. You can't
live under the Lord if you don't believe him. You can't serve
him except you trust him. This is where everything begins.
I urge you. Oh, God, give you grace. God teach you now. Trust the
Lord Jesus. Believe on the son of God. Bow to him and worship him. That's where this business of
living for God and honoring God begins. Without faith, the apostle
says, it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God
must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them
that diligently seek him. You can't live for God if you
don't trust Christ. But for you who know him, if
God saved you by his grace, if you know in the experience
of his grace that friend Celestia sang about, If you've been washed in his
blood, pardoned of all sin, born of his spirit, given life and
faith in Jesus Christ, nothing in this world is so important
to you as the honor of God and the will of God. Nothing, nothing so important. You know that you're not your
own. You've been bought with a price. Therefore, you seek
to glorify him who is God our Savior in your body and in your
spirits, which are God's. Is that right? Do you want God's
honor? Do you want to live in this world
for the honor of God? Do you want to live here right
now in this present evil world soberly, righteously, and godly,
doing all things for the glory of God? I know you do if you're
God's. I don't have any question about
that. You can find my text in Micah chapter 7. If this is your
desire, I have a message from God for you, and it's given in
20 verses. Micah chapter 7. The title of
my message is living for God in the worst of times. Living for God in the worst of
times. Micah chapter 7. We will read the text section
by section and I'll make brief comments upon it. If we would
live for God in this world, In the worst of times, we must live
by faith, trusting Him, looking to Him alone for all things and
in all our circumstances. Let me show you six things clearly
revealed here in Micah chapter 7. First, God's word of instruction
for us here. It's given in verses one through
six. We need to understand that God's people live in a world
of wickedness. That was the way things were
yesterday. That's the way things are today.
And that's the way things will be tomorrow. God's people live
in a world of wickedness. We don't have any worse times
today than men had in prior days or better times than men had
in prior days as far as this world's concerned. We live in
a world of wickedness. Read what Micah says about his
day. The world around him as he beheld
it gave him trouble, pain, It grieved him to see what he saw,
to hear what he heard, like Lot in Sodom. He was vexed day by
day with the ungodliness around him in the world and in the church. In these first six verses, God's
prophet speaks of his day as we might speak of our day, lamenting
the horrid condition of the world around him. Look what it says.
He tells us that wickedness is everywhere. And you can be sure
of this, wherever idolatry rules, wickedness rules. Wherever will
worship rules, wickedness rules. Wherever men worship the work
of their hands, wickedness rules. Massiviousness, debauchery is
always the result of idolatrous religion. Lasciviousness, debauchery
is always the result of ungodly religion. Read the first chapter
of Romans and find out what the source of the evil around us
is. It is men being set in the house
of God and treated as though they were God. Is done in Baptist
churches universally throughout the world here now and yesterday
and tomorrow That's still the way it'll be look what he said
Michael chapter 1 chapter 7 verse 1 Woe is me Woe is me For I am
as when they have gathered the summer fruits as the great greetings
of the vintage and There is no cluster to eat. My soul desired
the first ripe fruit. He says I'm going out in the
field looking for something to eat and folks have got everything
and carried it away. There's nothing to eat. The good
man is perished out of the earth and there is none upright among
men. What a lamentation. Did you read the newspaper this
morning? Did you watch any of the news
over the weekend? Did you read the advertisements
for Sunday schools and churches in yesterday's Sunday's paper?
If you did, you ought to understand what Micah is saying. The good
man is perished out of the earth. There is none upright among men. Not in the state house and not
in the church house. What's he say? All lie in wait
for blood. They hunt every man, his brother
with a net, that they may do evil with both hands earnestly. It's not that men are going around
with guns, shooting folks in the head. No, that certainly
happens as well. But men live totally for themselves
and use other men for their own advantage so that they may do
evil with both hands greedily and earnestly. The prince asketh,
that's the ruler of the land, and the judge asketh for a reward. Everything's done by greed. And the great man, the great
man, he uttereth his mischievous desire so they wrap it up. What a day. What a day. What a commentary upon humanity. What a commentary upon society. So that's the way it is. In America,
yep, that's the way it is in Europe, that's the way it is
in Africa, that's the way it is in Australia, that's the way
it is wherever you find the sons of Adam living on this earth.
We don't. The best of them is as a briar. The most upright is sharper than
a thorn head. That's the best of them, Earl.
That's the best you're gonna find in this world, outside the
kingdom of God, outside the family of God, is a briar and a thorn. The best of them. Best of them. Snuggle up to them if you want
to. It's a briar and a thorn. But you don't. 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 dishonoreth 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. And that's just exactly what
our Savior said as he sent his disciples into the world hundreds
of years later. Exactly the same thing. What
sharp, strong expressions of gloom. And yet, they're the very
things we observe continually. The fact is, We cannot safely
trust anything. We cannot safely trust anything
except God's salvation. And we cannot safely, absolutely
trust anyone except God, our savior. That's just fact. We can commit to him all our
lives, all our ways, all our circumstances. and you can't
commit them to anyone else. Like Elijah, we often imagine
that true faith has vanished, that we alone walk with God and
that we alone worship God, that the prophets of God have ceased,
but that's not the case. That's the problem that Micah
had here, the problem Elijah had in his day, the problem we
have in our day. God has his witnesses in every
age. He will not leave himself without
a witness. Just because you don't know them doesn't mean they don't
exist. God has his prophets in every age, far more than you
and I know. I hear folks talk, well, if I
fell over there preaching the gospel, I'd know it. I don't
dare make that presumption. I don't dare make that presumption.
I've been here for 32 years, for 32 years. And I just found
out just a few weeks ago about Brother Matt Johnson down in
Rocky Ford. He'd been down there a good while. Just found out
about him just a few weeks ago. And we dare not make the presumption
that we know all of what God's doing. God does everything well,
and he rarely lets us know very much about it. He rarely lets
us know much about it. The prophets of God are always
more in number than we think. And the Church of God is always
larger than we imagine. All right, here's the second
thing. In the midst of these dark, dark times, in the worst
of times, as in the best of times, our only refuge is the Lord Jehovah,
the God of our salvation. Verse 7. Therefore, Had a good word Therefore in
the light of all this because the Goodman's perished out of
the land Because the prince and the judge live for bribery Because
the politicians and the preachers are all crooks Because we live
in this land of darkness where the best of men are a briar and
a thorn hedge therefore I will look unto the Lord I Will wait
for the God of my salvation My God will hear me. Oh, what a
blessing. Children of God, what a blessing.
What a blessing to be able in dark times, in affliction, in
adversity, in heartache and in trial, to trust God our Savior,
to look to Christ, to wait on the Lord. Blessed are the trials
and disappointments Blessed are the troubles and sorrows. Blessed
are the afflictions and adversities, whatever they may be, that sweetly
force me to the throne of grace, to look away from every creature
confidence and trust my Redeemer. Blessed is that which forces
me to look to Christ and wait on Him. Trials. Make the promise
sweet. Trials give new life to prayer. Trials bring me to his feet and
lay me low and keep me there. Therefore, I'll look to the Lord. All right, here's the third thing.
In the worst of times, We have every reason to expect our God
to undertake for us and do us good. In the very worst of times,
Bobby Estes, God will undertake for you and God will do you good. And we ought to expect it. We
ought to expect it. Look at verse 8. Rejoice not against me, O mine
enemy. Watch this. When I fall, I shall
arise. You watch me close enough, you'll
see me fall. You watch me close enough, you'll see me fall many
times. But I'm God's. And when I fall,
I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, and that
happens. When everything around me is
darkness and there is no light. When I sit in darkness, the Lord
shall be light unto me. I will bear the indignation of
the Lord because I've sinned against him. It's right. It's
right that I fall. It's right that I sit in darkness.
It's right that I experienced these terrible trials and difficulties
of life because I've sinned against him and I'll bear it. until He
plead my cause and execute judgment for me. I'll sit and wait until
God undertakes for me and He will. Read on. He will bring
me forth to the light and I shall behold His righteousness. Lord God will bring me out of
this darkness to his light and I will behold his righteousness
in all his being and in all his works and in all his grace and
in all his providence then She that is my enemy I Read this over and over and
over again Why does he refer to she that is my enemy Why? I can't imagine a man speaking
with any kind of fear of what a woman might do to him. I can't
imagine that. I know that's not politically
correct, but at 61 years old in the shape I'm in, I'm still
not afraid of any woman. I'm not going to back down from any
of them, not even big ugly ones. I'm not going to back down from
them. She might whip me, but I'm not
going to back off. I can't imagine, why did he say she? Because he's
talking about something spiritual. And she who is our enemy is the
great whore of Babylon. She who is our enemy is that
woman described in Proverbs chapter 7. She who is that our enemy
is that one who pretends to be the church of Christ though?
She's not she wears the name of God, but doesn't worship God
She wears the name of Christ, but doesn't worship him She works
in her own way and teaches men to walk after her ways working
their way to God choosing for themselves what they will do
Micah says then when God undertakes for me when God undertakes for
me Then she that is my enemy shall see it, and shame shall
cover her, which said unto me, where is the Lord thy God? You fellas say you serve God,
and you out there on that hillside in the country in the middle
of nowhere, a couple of dozen folks meet with you on Sunday
night or Tuesday night, have a few folks meeting in a motel
over here, a few folks meeting in a home over here, where is
your great God? Hang on, you'll find out. Hang
on, you'll find out. Mine eyes shall behold her. Now shall she be trodden down
as the mire of the streets. Oh, it is a truly blessed thing
to be able to look at every foe, spiritual and carnal, and every
adversity through the eyes of faith. It really doesn't matter what
our circumstances are that call faith into action, that call
us to believe God. Our safety is always the same. Our security is always the same. Let our peace be always the same. Let our confidence be always
the same. Here's a fourth thing. In the worst of times, we are
assured of deliverance. These are words of God by his
prophet to encourage and comfort his church, his kingdom, his
people in dark, dark times. Such as these of the verse 11
In the day that thy wall in the day that thy walls Thy walls
the walls of Jerusalem and the temple the walls of Zion The
walls of Christ Church. That's what it's all about done
in the days that thy walls are to be built In that day shall the decree
be removed. In the day that the kingdom's
to be expanded, in the day the walls of Zion are to be built,
in the day that the church is to be increased, God will take
away the decree that sent you into Babylon. God will take away
the decree that calls bondage and captivity, and God will set
you at liberty. Read on, verse 12. in that day also he shall come
now remember this is historically talking about Israel in the Babylonian
captivity in that day When God will build again the walls of
Zion, when God will increase his church, when God will make
increase in his kingdom, when the Lord God will come to set
the captive free, in that day he shall come, Cyrus shall come. And Cyrus came exactly as God
prophesied by Isaiah that he would come, exactly in the time
the very man he named would come. But that Cyrus is talking about
Christ. That Cyrus is talking about Christ Emmanuel, our Redeemer. He shall come even to thee from
Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress,
even to the river, and from the sea, and from mountain to mountain. What? A man is going to come
from Assyria, And it's going to come from this sea and from
that sea and from this mountain to the... One man? Can't possibly
be. That's not possible. That's not
possible. This is talking about another
man. This is talking about a man who's God, our Savior. And He
comes in that day from every circumstance, in all the works
of providence, in all the deeds of time. He comes from this sea
and that, from the north and from the south and from the east
and from the west. He comes across the mountains and the hills and
comes across every mountain and every hill, through every deep
valley, through every dark place. He shall come in that day. Read on. The Savior shall come
from everywhere in all things. Notwithstanding, notwithstanding,
the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein for
the fruit of their doings. What's that mean? What's that
mean? That means things aren't going
to get any better in this world for me. That means the world's
not going to improve. That's what it means. That means
culture is not going to improve. That's what it means. That means
society is not going to improve. That's exactly what it means.
That means the church is not going to improve. The professed
church. That's exactly what it means. The things you see now,
you will see tomorrow and the darkness will only increase.
It's not going to improve. And that's what men fully deserve. But God's elect in this dark
world are under God's care and sure of deliverance. And God
uses even the darkness and the bondage and the corruption and
the captivity to bring about the liberty and life and salvation
of his elect. Number five. In the worst of
times, let us remember that our God does marvelous things for
us. Verse 14, 14 through 17. Here is God's word to his son,
his righteous servant, our great shepherd, the shepherd of Israel.
God here speaks to his son, our shepherd, and tells him to take
care of his sheep, especially in trying times. And those are
in scattered solitary places. Feed thy people with thy rod. Who ever heard tell such thing?
Feed thy people with thy rod. Not the rod of chastisement upon
his people. Not a rod by which he would guide
and direct his people. He's talking about the rod of
judgment upon the wicked. Feed your people with that which
you do to the ungodly. Feed your people with your rod
upon these who live continually in rebellion against you. Your
people, who are they? They're the flock of thine heritage."
Imagine that. The Lord has chosen Jacob for
his portion. The flock of God's inheritance,
which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of karma,
let them feed in Basham and Gilead, as in the days of old. Verse
50. According to the days of thy coming out of the land of
Egypt, will I show unto him marvelous things. I'll show my people. I'll show my sheep. I'll show
my chosen. I'll show my redeemed. Marvelous
things, just as I did when I brought Israel out of Egypt. Verse 16,
the nation shall see and be confounded at their might. The nations look at these people
and say, how did they do that? How do they survive? How do they
continue? How do they perform this? They
shall lay their hand upon their mouth and their ears shall be
deaf. The nations 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 Be afraid of you. Come back to
Psalm 98 Hold your hands here Micah. Come back to Psalm 98 David understood what Mike was
talking about. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new
song, for he hath done marvelous things. His right hand and his
holy arm hath gotten him the victory. The Lord hath made known
his salvation. His righteousness hath he openly
showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered his mercy
and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the
earth have seen the salvation of our God. Hear me now, sons
and daughters of God Almighty. Amen. The sons of Jacob have every
reason to expect God's face. You and I, who are the sons and
daughters of God Almighty. Had the great privilege. Of claiming
before God what God has sworn to do. He says, put me in remembrance
that you may be justified. He said he said, come now, let's
reason together. When your heart's heavy. Darkness
seems to engulf you and you find no peace and nothing Visible
to encourage you come back to Genesis 32. Let me show you what
you can do Genesis 32 You can do what Jacob did God commanded
Jacob to go home. He said I'll be with you and
Jacob started home First thing he heard about David was the
Esau was coming to meet him First thing here, Esau's coming
to meet you. Do you remember the last thing
Esau said about his brother before he left home? As soon as daddy
dies, I'll kill you. Last thing he said. And so Jacob
is terrified of Esau. He's terrified of it. Look here
in verse 9, Genesis 32. Jacob bows to God and he says,
O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, The Lord
which sent unto me, return unto thy country, and to thy kindred,
and I will deal well with thee. Jacob goes on and acknowledges,
I'm not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the
truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. For with my
staff, I passed over this Jordan, and now I've become two bands. I've acted like a coward. I've
been trying to bribe Esau. I've been trying to make a way
to get Esau to be appeased. Look at verse 11. Deliver me,
I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of
Esau, for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me and the
mother with the children. Now watch this. And thou saidst,
I will surely do thee good. And make thy seed as the sand
of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. You can't go wrong to remind
God of what God promised. You can't go wrong to remind
God of what God has said. You can't go wrong to remind
God of His covenant, His mercy, His word, which He swore to His
Son before the world began. All right, here's the sixth thing. In the worst of times, let us
remember God's astonishing grace upon us and worship Him. In these last verses, Micah looks
upon the Lord God and says. You alone are God. You are alone
are God. And I, I admire the solitary
character of God. He sets himself himself apart
from all the gods that men have made in his in his sovereignty
and his holiness and his justice and his truth. But Micah seizes
this one great attribute. by which he speaks of God's astonishing
grace and mercy. And he says, this distinguishes
God from the gods of men. Who is a God like unto thee? Find me a God like this. Find
me a God like this, who pardoneth iniquity. who passeth by the
transgression of the remnant of his heritage. He retaineth
not his anger forever. What's this? Because he delighteth in mercy. God Almighty delights in mercy. He did like he delights to pardon
to forgive to pass by the transgression of his people. He delights in
mercy, you know Because he delights in mercy he will turn again He
will have compassion on us he will subdue our iniquities and
Thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea Thou
will perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham which
thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. He's talking about covenant mercy,
the truth that he swore in the covenant. Oh, may God give us
grace to live for him in the worst of times following the
example and instruction Michael left us in this chapter. Instead of lamenting, and God
forgive me, I'm the worst offender. Instead of lamenting that we're
constrained to dwell with Meshach and have to pitch our tents with
the tents of Keter, we ought to look upon our day and our
circumstances right now April 3rd, 2012, Danville, Kentucky,
United States of America, with Obama as president, and the judges
in the Supreme Court, and the congressmen, and the senators,
and the governors, and the legislatures, just as they are, and say, thank
God for putting me here. Thank God for putting me here.
This is my day and my opportunity. In this day of darkness, in this
day of darkness, hold forth the light of God's free grace. In this day of darkness, proclaim
the name of God our Savior. In this day of darkness, be witnesses
unto Him. In this day of darkness, look
to the Lord your refuge. Wait on Him. Wait on Him. They that wait on the Lord shall
run and not be weary. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk
and not wait. Teach me, Lord, to wait. Walk. Walk. A person who walks in darkness
is not afraid of it. Person who walks among enemies
isn't afraid of them. I've told you many times when
I, when I was a boy, when I was a boy, you young fellas,
y'all, you do y'all good to learn some of these things. When we
were boys, boys didn't show fear. If you showed it when you were
six years old, you didn't live it down to your 26 years old.
Boys just didn't show fear. Didn't mean that it had any,
they just didn't show it. I was eight, seven, eight years old,
up in the mountains of North Carolina. My grandparents, my
great aunt, and my aunts and uncles lived on a little old
winding dirt road, right up the mountain, what are called Pine
Branch. Just go up the road a good ways,
a mile or so, find their house. And there wasn't any houses there.
There wasn't any streetlights. And they'd talk about convicts
breaking out and hiding in the mountains. The girls, they didn't
have but one bedroom, mother and dad and my grandmother and
my great aunt, they all slept in that bedroom. And the girls, my sisters and
cousins, they'd all sleep in the pallet in the living room
in the den, our family room, whatever they called that thing.
This little, little British house right next to the road. And they
said, Don's a big boy. He don't want to sleep with those
girls. Man, I'd have given my right arm to have slept in there
with my sisters. They put me in a little old pantry room about
that far from the road. And I'd lay back there and shake
all night long. And then they'd send me to get
something from my aunt after dark. She lived another mile
up top of the mountain. And I had to go up there by myself
in the dark, in the dark. And I think they had a five watt
yellow bulb hanging in the porch. I'd get outside of that thing
and I'd just walk calm as I could be. And then I'd take off running
and run as fast as I could run all the way up to my head and
I stopped right when I got within sight of the house. Get my breath,
didn't realize they could see me drenched with sweat, but I'd
act like I'd just calmed, try to whistle, go along through
there. But they didn't understand I was petrified. I got a little
older. I really wasn't anything to worry
about. And I'd walk up there. And I'd
walk up there comfortably because I knew everything's all right. God teach me to walk with my
Savior comfortably, quietly, peacefully, understanding everything
is just right. Everything is just right. God is glorifying His name. God is saving His people. God
is building His kingdom. and it can't be done a better
way. You won't improve on it. God
does everything right. Amen.