In the fifth chapter of Micah's
prophecy, the Lord God promised that he would send his son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, into the world to save his people from their
sins. By smiting the judge of Israel, by smiting our substitute,
the Lord Jesus, to death, God's elect, the remnant of Jacob,
have been redeemed and shall be saved. having accomplished
everything that he came here to accomplish as Jehovah's righteous
servant, having fulfilled all his father's will by his obedience
unto death in his life, by fulfilling all righteousness and by satisfying
the law and justice of God in the sacrifice of himself. Our
Lord Jesus put away our sins and with his own blood entered
in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for
us. And now he sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high. There he sits and reigns over
all things with all power to give eternal life to as many
as the Lord God has given him from everlasting. so that his
name is great in all the earth and unto all generations. This
man, our Lord Jesus, is the peace of his people. That's the message
of Micah, chapter five. Micah said, Christ is coming.
Christ shall save his people from their sins. Christ shall
be exalted. Now, let's look at the sixth
chapter together. Here we see a prophetic picture
of God's method of grace, a picture of how it is that God in great
grace saves chosen redeemed centers by his omnipotent mercy. The
title of my message tonight is God's Controversy, God's Requirement,
and Blessed Sickness. God's whole purpose in all that
he does, God's whole purpose And all that he does, especially
in the saving of sinners, is that we may know the righteousness
of the Lord. You see that in chapter 6, verse
5, the very end of the verse. That ye may know the righteousness
of the Lord. It is God's intent. It is God's
purpose. in everything that has been,
is, or shall hereafter be, in every event of providence, in
all the works of grace, especially in the saving of his people,
to show all men, both the believing and the unbelieving, both the
righteous and the wicked, both the angels in heaven and the
devils of hell, to make all men know the righteousness the Lord. All right, first Micah declares
that God has a controversy with man. God has a controversy with
man, with all men. All men by nature are enemies
to God, God-hating creatures because of their sinful nature. All men live in rebellion to
God and God has a just Controversy with man if you're without Christ
if you live in rebellion to God God Almighty has a controversy
with you that you can never settle The only one who can end the
controversy is God himself God has a controversy with man Hear
ye now what the Lord saith? It is as though Micah By his
voice, by his peeing, by his personality, God speaks. Indeed, that is the case. It
is Micah's voice. It is Micah's peeing. It is Micah's
personality. But God speaks. And so it is
with every gospel preacher. As a man stands to preach the
gospel to you, be he who he may. If he is God's servant, comes
with God's truth, God speaks by his servant. Now no man these
days speaks or writes with infallibility. Not this man nor any other. God's prophets, God's apostles,
those writers of scripture themselves did not speak with infallibility
except as they wrote the word of God. But God spoke by those
men and God's servants are God's ambassadors. See that you treat
them as such and hear them as such. I've come to you with a
word from God. if God will be pleased to speak
by these lips. Hear God's word. Hear ye now what the Lord saith. Arise, contend thou before the
mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. Hear ye, O mountains,
the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth.
For the Lord hath a controversy with his people. He will plead
with Israel. Oh, what condescending language
this is. God calls for mountains to hear. God calls for the hills to hear. God calls for the very foundations
of the earth to hear. And he pleads with his people. God speaks for and to his chosen. And here he says he will plead
with his people. Can it be that God pleads with
me? Can it be that God in heaven
will call me himself and plead with me? Hear what he says. He
will plead with Israel, his chosen. Years ago, I read a story that
I remember well. I don't know why because I was
a young man when I read it. But there was an old man who
knew his days were numbered. His grandson was nearing maturity. And he took him out to an oak
tree that was very familiar to them both on his farm. And he
sat down with his grandson and chatted for a while and began
to reason with him from the word of God one more time. and to
plead with his grandson to believe God, to trust the Lord Jesus
Christ, to cast his soul upon Christ's merits, to surrender
to Christ's dominion as his Lord with this admonition. He that
believeth on the Son of God hath this witness that God is true. And he that believeth not has
made God a liar. And he said to his grandson,
son, this oak tree that has heard what I've spoken to you these
many times will bear witness to what I've said. This oak tree
will stand to speak and verify what I've said to you and you've
heard if you refuse to trust the Lord Jesus in the day of
judgment. This oak tree will condemn you. God speaks to the rocks and to
the hills. Do you remember how those in
the Day of Judgment speak? They call on the rocks and the
hills to hide them from the face of the Lamb and from the wrath
of God revealed in the face of the Lamb. God speaks to the hills,
to the mountains, to the very foundations of the earth as He
speaks His Word. Look at verse 3. God pleads with
his people. Oh, my people, what have I done
unto thee? Again, what condescension? What
mercy? What love, what tenderness this
speaks of? This is the Lord God Almighty,
the Holy One of Israel. The one against whom we sin,
the one we neglect, the one whose word we despise, the one whose
goodness and mercy we cast aside, the one whose worship and service
we grow weary of. Oh, my people, what have I done
unto thee? What but good? What but mercy? What but good? What but mercy? What's he done except goodness
and mercy? That you should choose anything
above his worship, his praise and his service. Wherein have
I wearied thee, he asked. The Lord God asked us to give
a reason for turning from him. A reason for neglecting Him.
A reason for our coldness, our indifference, our ingratitude.
Oh, my soul, be not as Israel was, but ask the Lord to speak
to you rather than the hills and the mountains and the foundations
of the world. What have I done unto thee? And
wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against me. Oh, Lord. I have nothing to testify against
you. Faithful and gracious, loving, kind and true, you've ever been
forgiving and merciful. I have to confess and I blush
with shame to confess. I have not done more faithfully. I have not loved more fully.
Oh, that I had been more faithful. Oh, that I had consecrated myself
more completely. Devoted myself more completely
to my Redeemer. Now, look at verse 4. Verse 5. The Lord calls us to remember.
To remember His mercy. His great mercy to us. Now read
these two verses in the context. The Lord is talking about his
controversy with us. He's chiding us for our sin,
for our neglect of him, for our turning aside from him. Verse four, for I brought thee
up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed thee out of the house
of servants. And I sent before thee Moses,
and Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what
Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor
answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the
righteousness of the Lord. How grievous it must be to our
Heavenly Father when we grow weary of Him and forget his mercy. No wonder Paul speaks like he
does when he says, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby
you're sealed unto the day of redemption. How quickly we forget
God's mercies. How easily we grow weary in serving
him, in worshiping him. I almost said what I know is
not true. Almost said I don't understand
how it is that men and women can have opportunity to hear
the gospel preached and neglected. I don't understand how you can
ever have opportunity to hear someone preach the gospel and
neglect that. I believe I'll do this, that,
or anything else. But I do understand. I do understand. Because I'm
just like you. I'm just like you. I don't miss worship services.
No, I can't do that. I'm a preacher. I can't do that. I don't neglect outward things. I can't do that. I can't do that.
There's a lot of pressure on me not to do that. But oh, my
soul, the neglect of my soul, the neglect of my heart, the
weariness of my heart, the weariness of my soul as I this very day,
seek to serve our God. I do understand. And there's no excuse for it.
Not with you and not with me. No excuse. The Lord God speaks
and reminds us that we are his people. Oh, my people, he is
by his own choice. In spite of how we behave, in
spite of the coldness and emptiness and weariness of our hearts,
in spite of the hardness of our hearts. Oh, my people, God says,
you're my people because I've chosen you. My people in covenant
relation with me still one with Christ, my darling son. Oh, my
people. And after reminding us of this
blessed, unbreakable covenant union with him, the Lord calls
for us to remember What he's done for us. Now, this mark is the best cure
for any difficulty in your life. Are you listening? This is the
best medicine for any circumstance in your soul. This is the best
remedy for any ill you face. Remember, I brought the up out
of the land of Egypt. There you were in darkness, he
made you a child of light. You were in bondage, he set you
free. You were dead, he gave you life.
You were in sin, he brought you into righteousness. You were
sin, he made you righteous. Remember, I'm the one who did
this for you. He would still be in Egypt if
I hadn't come to you. You would never have extricated
yourself and none other could have delivered you. I delivered
you. He says, remember, I redeemed
thee out of the house of servants. The great price by which we were
redeemed is the precious blood of his own dear son. He gave
himself a ransom for us. Darren read it. Back in the back,
we're redeemed, not with silver and gold, but with the precious
blood of Jesus Christ, a lamb who verily is foreordained before
the foundation of the world without spot and without blemish. Therefore,
the apostle reasons like this. You are not your own. You are not your own. You've
been bought with a price. So glorify God in your body and
in your spirits, which are God's. We've been redeemed by Christ's
precious blood, brought out from death into life by almighty,
omnipotent grace. Read on. I sent before thee Moses,
Aaron and Miriam. Now, how are you going to deal
with Miriam? You don't believe in female preachers. And there
she is with Moses, God's prophet, and Aaron, God's priest. Well,
Miriam was a prophetess. She was a prophetess. You know
what that means? It means she worshipped God.
That means she worshipped God. And she was a singer in Israel. We just had a singer here lead
us in praises unto God. So Miriam was gifted. God says,
I sent Moses before you with my word to show you my way. I sent Aaron before you, my priest,
to intercede for you and make sacrifice for you. I sent Miriam
before you to lead you in the praises of God in singing his
praise along the way. And so the Lord God gave Israel
his word by Moses and taught them to worship by blood sacrifice
with Aaron and taught them to sing his praise by Miriam. Has
he not done the same for us? He's given us his word when few
are so privileged. There's a famine these days,
not for bread, but for the word of God. Do you know how few there
are who are privileged to hear the Word of God proclaimed clearly
by the Gospel of His grace? Do you have any idea how few
there are, how blessed then we are that God's given us His Word
and calls us to hear it? He's given us liberty, liberty
of access to Him by the blood of Christ to draw near to Him,
confidently worshipping Him in faith. And He's given us songs. songs of confident victory and
triumph in our souls. Then the Lord reminds us of the
fact that he turned Balaam's curses,
his intended curses, into blessings upon his people. Look at verse
5. Three times Balak hired Balaam to curse Israel. Three times,
Balaam sought enchantments against Israel. You can read it in Numbers
22, 23, 24, and 25. Three times. Balak said, Balaam,
I'll pay you good money to curse Israel. And three times, Balaam
said, I'll go seek enchantments against Israel. And three times,
Balaam came out with a word from God that blessed Israel. He blessed them. God said, I
turn Balaam's efforts to ruin you into my blessing upon you. When did he do that? From Shittim
to Gilgal. I read that. I thought there's
got to be some significance to that. From Shittim to Gilgal,
the very last encampment of Israel, while they were in the wilderness
before they crossed Jordan, was Shittim. And the very first encampment
of Israel after they crossed Jordan into Canaan's land was
Gilgal. God said, I have taken Balaam's
curses and from the days of your wilderness unto the days of your
inheriting my promise, I turned everything a blessing to you. Now remember my goodness. Remember
my mercy. How is it that I wearied you?
How is it you grow weary of me? Remember these things. Soon our
God, the God of peace, shall bruise Satan under your heels
and mine, my brother, my sister. And we shall rejoice to see how
that God, our Father, in Jesus Christ, His Son, has graciously
turned everything we thought evil into good. Everything we thought was harmful
into a blessing. Everything we thought to be a
curse into God's blessing upon us. Most especially the curse
brought upon us by our sin through the sin and fall of our father
Adam and by our own transgression so that we are made a curse by
nature. But Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Being made a curse for us All
right. Look at the second thing verses
six seven and eight I'll run hurriedly now Here we learn what
it is that god requires of us First michael raises a question
a question that you would be wise to be asking yourself If
you were wise you'd say to yourself, how can I come to god? How can
I approach God? How can I find acceptance with
God? Here's the question, verse 6. Wherewith shall I come before
the Lord? How can I come to God? Are you
concerned about that? How can I come to God? How can
I approach the holy Lord God and find acceptance with Him?
And I'll guarantee you, any without Christ are perfectly willing
to bring God anything and everything except what God will accept.
Men will bring God anything. They'll bring God anything. Mr,
what's his name, running for president, Romney. Mr. Romney. That fellow's a wealthy,
rich man. Wealthy, rich man. He put off
marrying his wife to give two years of missionary service to
the Mormon church. And that's that sacrifice. That
sacrifice, that woman they called Mother Teresa. And she gave she
gave a lot. That's devotion to something. That's devotion. There were. Roman Catholic priests In years
gone by, who labored in leper colonies, bobbed dough in full
weather, went leprosy and died. Oh, that's devotion. That's devotion. Moravian missionaries in the
South sold themselves into slavery so they could preach to slaves.
That's sacrifice. Let's see what I can give to
God that God will accept me. Wherewith shall I come before
the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before
him with burnt offerings, with calves of the year old? Will
he be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands
of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for
my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? You said nobody would ever do
that. They lived and taught Israel too. And they did. They sacrificed their sons and
daughters in the fire to Moloch. How can I come to God? Now that
sacrifice. Rex, that's something to give.
But what does God require for the saving of my soul? Give me
your son and I'll accept him. Not hardly. Not hardly. Men will
offer God anything except that which God requires. Anything
that they can do Anything they can get hold of with their hands
and bring to God Anything that requires something of them. They'll
bring that to God just convince them What you do will make you
good before God and they'll do it what you sacrifice God will
accept and accept you for it and they'll sacrifice it except
what God requires Some of you are still trying to bring God
something to find acceptance with Him, to find peace with
Him. Well, how can I then come to
Him? Only the blood of Christ can
take away sin. Only the blood of Christ can
give sinners access with God. Only the blood of Christ can
satisfy the requirements of God. Now, let me ask you to do something.
You get on the phone tomorrow. You folks who fool with Facebook
stuff get on there go to iTunes or not thought I can whatever
one of this stuff is I'm all they are But you go wherever
you can I'll go around your neighborhood knock on your door and ask every
religious person You know if that's so only the blood of Christ
can put away sin Only the blood of Christ can make us accepted
with God. I'll guarantee you they'll say
yes That's exactly right. Bless God. We're all we're walking
the same road to heaven. Hallelujah. Thank God for that
But as they do, when you start to strip away every contribution
they make to add to the blood of Christ, you'll see them start
to boil. Oh, we believe in salvation by
grace alone, but that doesn't mean we don't have anything to
do. We believe in salvation by grace alone, but that doesn't
mean our works don't count for nothing. Let's see. I'll take
you back to chapter six and verse eight. They'll say, you've got
to do what God requires. You've got to lead a good life.
You've got to be holy. You've got to live right. Is
that really what Micah means in verse eight? Does Micah contradict
everything else taught in scripture in this statement of scripture?
Does he here give us a garment of linen and of wool of works
and of grace? No, sir. He has showed the old
man What is good? And what does the Lord require
of thee? This is what God requires. To
do justly. To love mercy. And to walk humbly
with thy God. To do justly, to love mercy and
to walk humbly with thy God. Now, sadly, You will search the
commentaries in vain, with few exceptions, to find anything
except an interpretation of this passage that says God requires
that you live a good moral life and treat people good. That is not what Micah said.
That is not what God requires. God requires that your religion
be more than the ceremonies described in the previous verses and be
real genuine Christian love and charity. That is not what Mike
is declaring. To do justly is to confess. Oh, my God. If you send me to
hell. Are you send my wife to hell?
Are you send my sons and daughters, my grandchildren to hell? You're
right. and most specifically it is to
identify yourself as one justly condemned before God and you
will never find mercy until you have caused to fall before God
acknowledging the justice of God in your everlasting damnation. Won't happen. You must take sides
with God against yourself or you will always be at odds with
God. Do justly. To do justly is to offer God
a just and righteous reason for acceptance with him. I wonder if I can find one. I
wonder if I can find a reason why God should accept me and
smile on me. I can indeed. His name is Jehovah
Sidkenia, the Lord, my righteousness. The righteousness and blood of
Jesus Christ, my Lord, is reason for God to accept me. God cannot
turn away the presence of his son. He can't do it. He says
love mercy. To love mercy is to love Christ. He is specifically called the
mercy of God. He is the performer of mercy
and all who are born of God. Love mercy. He says you must
walk humbly with God. Walk humbly with God. What does
that mean? Walk humbly with God. Humility
is never what men imagine it is. I've said this to you many
times. Anything a man naturally presumes to be true spiritually,
you can bake on it. It's wrong. It's wrong. Anything those fellas across
the road, down the road, beside here, anything men without God
presume is true spiritual is wrong. It's wrong. Natural man
thinks humility is Mahatma Gandhi walking around barefooted and
kindly dirty in a white sheet, shuffling his feet. No, that's
not humility. That's not humility. Humility
is to walk before God knowing who he is and who you are, trusting
Christ alone to give you acceptance with him, not your works. It's it's it's taking your filthy
rags off and burning them in the fire before God Almighty
and standing before him in naked helplessness, calling upon Christ
for mercy. Let me show you. Colossians chapter
two, Colossians chapter two, verse six. Colossians 2 verse 6. As ye have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Lindsay Campbell's
been walking with God for a long time. How did you first receive
Christ Jesus the Lord? What did you have to offer him?
What could you bring to God? Your goodness, your good feelings,
Your works, your prayers, your devotion, your sacrifice, your
giving, your Bible reading, your your consecration to God, your
good feelings. No. No, you had nothing to offer
him. You come to God as a naked, empty
handed, poor, wretched beggar seeking mercy through Christ
Jesus, the Lord. Now live the rest of your days
just like that. Bob Duff, if you ever grow above
that, you've grown out of grace. If you ever grow above that,
you've grown out of grace. Reno, rooted and built up in him and
established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein
with thanksgiving. Beware, lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after
the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. How much
dwells in him? How much? All the fullness of
the Godhead dwells in him. Now look at Paul's next word.
Look at God's next word to you and you, you who trust him. You who believe, you who are
born of God, you who are taught of the Spirit, you are complete
in Him. Walk in God, walk with God, walk
before God as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord in the beginning,
humbly with your God. Verses 9 through 12 verify everything
I've said about verse 8. In verse nine, the prophet says,
hear God's voice. Listen to what God speaks. Oh,
hear God speak. Hear God speak. God speaks by
his word. And God speaks to you by your
conscience. God speaks by every event of
providence. I recall. Some years ago, I was
helping fellas slaughter cattle on Thanksgiving Day, and one
of the fellas had a fairly young bull, but it had never been cut. We had slaughtered several steers
before this and a couple of heifers, and that bull came out smelling
blood and was, oh, it was angry. It was obviously angry. It was
looking for a way to hit something. And the fellas shot at him, and
as they did, they missed. I was standing right here, and
that bull hit a 12-foot gate and went through it like it was
a piece of feather. And we had to chase him down and get him.
And we chased him down. We finally caught him out in
the field, and there were a whole herd of cattle around him. And by this time, they were all
stirred up. And we slaughtered the bull right there in the midst
of the herd. And then all of a sudden, those same cattle just
turned and walked away, started grazing again. They were alarmed
for about that long, about that long. And then everything's over. You heard the news, tornadoes
this weekend, folks get alarmed. In your house, a tornado comes
through and you hear the rattling, everything's shaking. Oh, what'll
I do? Start to cry out to God. Oh, God saved me. Everything
will be all right. God, keep me from dying now. And I'll serve
you. I know how you talk. You might
not say it out loud. I know exactly how it goes on
inside you. I've been there. And then the tornado goes through
and you, well, that wasn't so bad. We've been through that
before. Maybe next time. You go about
your business. Hear God's voice. hear God when he speaks. Then
in verse 10, Micah tells us that everything found in the house
of wickedness, anything you and I bring to God from within ourselves,
any works we perform, anything we bring to God, even our most
righteous deeds are an abomination to God. And in verse 11, we have
a declaration from God's own mouth that he will never save
a sinner except in a way that magnifies his righteousness,
justice, and truth. Remember now, God's purpose in
everything is that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord,
that he is both a just God and a savior. Look at verse 11. Shall
I count them pure with wicked balances and with a bag of deceitful
ways? Is God going to just sweep your
sin under the rugs? I'll forgive that. Like you forgive
your sons and daughters? No. Not going to happen. We forgive
one another. We forgive our sons and daughters
by pretending the thing they did, they didn't do. God will
never do that. He will by no means clear the
guilty. God will not forgive sin except in a way that shows
His justice, His righteousness and truth. How does God then
forgive sin? He made His Son to be sin for
us. And when he made his son to be
sin for us, he imputed all our transgressions to him. For he
who was made sin for us was made to be our guiltiness before God. And God punished him to the full
satisfaction of justice. And now God in justice forgives
every sinner who comes to him, bringing the blood of his darling
son. And then Michael speaks of this
third thing. A blessed sickness. God's prophet. Tells about God's
method of grace in this sixth chapter. The way he saves sinners
by his grace. God saves in a way that shows
salvation to be his work alone. A work showing his righteousness.
God saves all who come to him by faith in Christ. And God saves
poor, needy sinners, sinners made needy by his own grace. That needs described in verses
13 through 16. Therefore also will I make thee
sick by smiting thee. Oh, God come and make sick the
whale. smite the conscience and make
sinners guilty. And making thee desolate because
of thy sins. Thou shalt eat and not be satisfied. And thy casting down shall be
in the midst of thee. And thou shalt take whole, but
shalt not deliver. And that which thou deliverest
will I give up to the sword. Thou shalt sow, but shalt not
reap. Thou shalt tread with the olive,
but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil. And the sweet wine,
but thou shalt not drink wine. For the statutes of Omri are
kept. In all the works of the house
of Ahab, Omri was a wicked king in Israel. Ahab his son followed
the steps and they made statutes that Israel should chase after
idols and they willingly obeyed the statutes of wickedness But
God's Word they would not hear and you walk in their councils
That I should make thee a desolation and the inhabitants thereof a
hissing Therefore shall you bear the reproach of my people? And
this is what he's saying. When God comes in mercy, he will
make you sick. He'll create a swelling of your
tongue that you know is going to cause sickness. He'll cause
you to drop from within. He'll cause you to be desolate
and empty. Eat all you wish to eat, and
there'll still be a famine in your soul. Drink all you want
to drink, and there'll still be a thirst in your soul. Engage
in all the satisfying of the lust of your flesh You can engage
it and you'll still be hungry and desolate and empty and find
no satisfaction. Oh Now, that's a blessing blessing
sickness A blessed fasting god creates in the soul That can
never be satisfied until it's satisfied with christ the bread
of life until God creates in you a well of living water springing
up unto eternal life. When God graciously forces you
to bear your own sin before him, when God graciously forces you
to quit making excuse for what you are, When God graciously,
sweetly makes you sick of yourself. Come to Christ, oh come today. The Father, Son and Spirit say,
come to Christ. Because He still heals as many
as have need of healing. Amen.