Our blessed Savior indeed rules
the world with truth and grace, and he sweetly, graciously makes
the nations prove the wonders of his righteousness and his
love. Thank you. Thank you. The second
chapter of Micah's prophecy begins much like the first chapter throughout. It's a prophecy of stern warning,
a stern word of sure judgment coming upon a people who fully
deserve that judgment. It's a stern warning of judgment
upon the nation of Israel, the two houses of Israel, Israel
and Judah. Both those of the northern tribes
and those of the southern tribes. Those who were called by the
name, the House of Jacob. Those people who were reckoned
to be God's people. Who were thought to be God's
choice, God's chosen. Those who professed to be God's
people. Those to whom God gave his word. And those by whom God's name
was called. The children of Israel were in
that day, both by profession and by name, the Church of God. And they might well be taken
as representatives of the Church of God, the visible Church of
God, the outward Church of God, in any generation, particularly
in ours. What multitudes are called by
the name of Jacob. What multitudes are there who
call themselves the people of God and are reckoned to be God's
people? Among that multitude there is
a remnant who sure enough are God's people. There is a remnant
among that group who sure enough are God's elect. But the vast
majority who are named by the name of Jacob know nothing of
God or of His grace. Here in the book of Micah, In
the days of Israel's history, they had embraced, as the church
has in our day, the ungodliness of the pagan thought and the
pagan religion around them through the world. And so thoroughly
had they embraced the ungodliness of the pagan world and the pagan
religions of the world that they had abandoned the worship of
God altogether and turned it into nothing but idolatry. We
might be astonished. Indeed, we can hardly imagine
why we are not astonished to read of the judgment of God upon
the nation of Israel. How long it has been since the
last of God's prophets spoke to that nation. How blind their
eyes are yet. How hard their hearts how utterly
obstinate they stand in rebellion against God because God cast
them off. They cast off God and God cast
them off. And yet I think the astonishment,
the failure of astonishment, the lack of astonishment when
we behold the judgment of God on Israel here in Micah, and
as we behold it in our own day. The lack of astonishment perhaps
comes from the fact that we live in the midst of a people who
like Israel of old have been blessed providentially what nation
so rich as this nation. Both materially and spiritually
in history. What people so favored as this
people. And yet, we are a nation in obstinate rebellion against
God. So that the people here, God
describes them as a people who turn against Him as an enemy. Turn against Him as an enemy.
They're called by the name of Jacob. The houses of Israel and
Judah are covenant people. But they turned against God as
against an enemy. And so the Lord says, I'll turn
against them as against an enemy. And he cast them off. And so
it is in our day. The church of this age has turned
against our God as against an enemy while they pretend to worship
and serve him. We live in a reprobate age under
the judgment of God. And yet, though this generation
has taken their children, has taken away the very glory of
God from their children forever, taken away the gospel of God's
grace from their children while pretending to worship him, yet
our great glorious God, the God of all grace and mercy and truth,
has even in this reprobate age an elect remnant whom he will
call by his grace, who must and shall be saved, whom he will
preserve in the midst of great darkness. And the darkness itself
shall prove to be an instrument by which he calls out his own. He makes the nations prove the
glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love.
He makes the nations prove. Our God makes the nations prove
His goodness, mercy, His glory and grace to His own elect in
every age. We read our history books and
almost act as if those things that God has recorded in history
didn't really happen. We read the word of God and the
power of God turning nations at one time to himself as he
did in the preaching of Jonah and turning away nations at one
time as he did Israel. We read the book of God and act
as though they didn't really happen. God is still performing
his will everywhere and saving his people everywhere all the
time. gathering out his elect. The
book here speaks of those who are God's chosen covenant people,
those people to whom he sends his servants to proclaim his
word, reserved among the nations, chosen in everlasting love. people
of His covenant, people to whom He has sworn Himself a God of
grace, a people whom He has sworn to save by His grace, a people
redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and they must and shall
be called. For the saving of these people,
for the saving of this chosen remnant, please hear what God
says in His Word. For the saving of this chosen
remnant, God raises up nations, and treads them down. You didn't hear that, did you?
God raises up nations and treads them down for the saving of his
people. He gives Ethiopia and Cebu for
you, people for you, and nations for your life, for the saving
of his elect remnant. God raises up every nation, and
when he's done with it, treads it down in his wrath, calling
out his elect, making the nations prove the glories of his righteousness
and the wonders of his love. These chosen ones, God's elect
remnant, he calls to himself. All right, let's look at our
text tonight. Micah chapter 2 and verse 10. Arise ye and depart, for this
is not your rest, because it is polluted. It shall destroy
you, even with a sore destruction. Now this appears to be out of
context. It appears to be out of context
because the passage is talking about judgment. It's talking
about God carrying Israel out of their land into the land of
Babylon for 70 years of captivity. And surely the Lord God is not
here calling for his people to take the light and go willingly
to Babylon. Surely he is not speaking here
in a sneering jest, mocking his people as he sends them away
in the judgment. The call in verse 10 seems to
be totally out of place in this context, but this call is not
out of place at all. You see, this is God's call to
his own at every time of mercy, every time of grace, and in every
time of judgment, calling us to himself. Now hear me, hear me. Don Renari, whatever you experience
tomorrow morning when you wake up, whatever it is, or whatever
you have experienced all of the mornings previously, it is God
calling you to himself. Can you get hold of that? Can
you get hold of that? It is God calling you to himself. God calling you to himself. Arise ye and depart. This is God's final call to his
chosen. God's final call to his chosen. Arise ye and depart for this
is not your rest Because it is polluted, it shall destroy you,
even with a sore destruction. First, the Lord assures us, his
chosen, that his arm, the spirit of the Lord, is not straightened. It's not limited. It's not confined. It's not restricted. Thank God
his spirit is not straightened. When our hearts are straightened,
his spirit is not straightened. When we're weak, he's not weak.
When we're restrained, he's not restrained. When we're, when
we by our own depravity are held as it were in shackles, God is
not bound and his work is not bound. He's accomplishing his
will and his purpose. Arise ye, he says, and depart. For this is not your rest, because
it is polluted. It shall destroy you, even with
a sore destruction. This may be viewed as a call
of God to chosen sinners, calling them to life and faith in Christ. And let me not miss the opportunity
to use it as such. God, by the preaching of his
gospel, sends his word and his spirit to chosen sinners at the
time of love and calls chosen sinners to life and faith in
Jesus Christ. He calls with an effectual, irresistible
call. The Holy Spirit comes as Christ
himself to the center and says, come unto me, all you that labor
and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Arise ye and depart. Depart from everything here and
come to me. Depart from yourself and come
to me. Depart from the world and come
to me. Leave everything else behind. Cast off everything. Submit everything. Surrender
everything to me and to my rule and follow me. Come unto me all
you that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for my yoke is easy and
my burden is light and you shall find rest unto your souls. We certainly recognize this to
be a call of grace and use it as such. But this is God's call
to each of us. It is him calling us away to
himself, at last calling us away to heaven. Robert Hawker suggests
that this verse might be placed at the head and at the conclusion
of every chapter in the Old Testament and in the New. For it is by
God's grace that He continually calls us to Himself, calls us
away from the world and out of the world, alluring us continually
to heaven and to eternal glory. Soon, soon we shall take our
journey into eternity. And I like to think about it. Soon we shall be brought to be
with Christ our God and Savior forever in heaven. And I like
to think about it. We don't know much about the
journey and we don't know much about the country to which we
are bound. Yes, there is a black stormy
river called death, and we must cross it, but God promises that
he'll be with us. We must go through the dark valley
into that land of bliss, but our good shepherd leads us all
the way. And after death, what then? What then? No one has ever been
and come back to tell us about it. But Pastor Lazarus died and
came back to the earth for a brief time. He did and never said a
word about it, as far as we have any record. Never mentioned it
to anyone, as far as any records given in Scripture. And I suspect
if he had said something, we'd have had record of it. But Paul
was called up to the third heaven and came back to the earth for
a little while. He did. And when he came back, he said,
he said, I saw things and heard things that can't be described
in human language. Things that cannot be expressed
by the words of humanity. So we know little, very little,
or much is revealed. in the light of time and sense,
but in the light of that which awaits us in glory. How little we know. All we know
concerning it is it is a city which hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God, wherein nothing shall ever enter that
lies or makes a defilement or corrupts in any way, and everything
is pure and holy and righteous and good. There we shall dwell
forever in the bliss of perfection, without any sin, without any
sorrow, in the presence of our Redeemer, serving Him day and
night. Soon, I'll take this journey. It will be the longest I've ever
taken, and I'll take it in shorter time than anything. I'll close
these eyes and be with Christ in glory. To that, God continually
calls me. To that, my brother, my sister,
the Lord, God continually calls you. Look at our text again.
Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest. Because it
is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction. This world is not your rest. Oscar Bailey, anybody? who finds
it so will be destroyed with it. It shall defile you. It shall
defile you. It's polluted. It shall destroy
you. It shall be destroyed. The wise
man world speaks of people and says God has set the world in
their hearts. so that they cannot find him. I keep praying that God won't
set the world in your heart. If he does and you find your
rest and your satisfaction and your delight here in this world,
in anything in this world, in anybody in this world, you shall
perish with this world. It shall destroy you with a violent,
painful, sore destruction. Someone said, do not look for
that in the law, which can only be found in the gospel. Do not
look for that in yourself, which can only be found in Christ.
Do not look for that in the creature, which can only be found in the
creator. And do not look for that on earth. which can only
be found in heaven. If we're believers, if Christ
is our Lord, then we have relinquished this world and we continue to.
We relinquish this world as our rest and we have chosen another. And yet we need this admonition
continually from our God arise and depart. We need continually
to have this world broken from our hearts and our hands broken
from this world. If we're believers, our souls
are set upon heaven, our hearts set upon heaven, and yet at the
same time, our souls most naturally cleave to this world and all
that's in this world. We set our affection on things
above, and yet there's much here that holds our affection. And
so the Lord God graciously, sweetly, forcibly, and irresistibly calls
us to himself. Many, like Reuben and Gad, prefer
an inheritance on this side of the Jordan. And even the godly
struggle with the things of this world and too much attachment
to this world. Too much attachment. Too much attachment to the cares
and the people and the things of this world. And we must continually
have God by his grace to take the world out of our hearts.
Otherwise, it will continually pollute and defile and destroy
us. Now here are some messengers
by which God issues the call. His word, number one, number
one. We read the word of God and we're
continually called by God in his word to abandon the world,
to give it up, to forsake it, to cast off Everything here to
push aside everything that would divide our hearts from Christ
our Redeemer Turn to Colossians chapter 1. I'm not gonna have
you turn to many scriptures. I want you to look at this one
Colossians chapter 3. I'm sorry God meets us in his Word and Calls for us to come to him
continually to set our hearts upon him. Colossians chapter
three, verse one. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above. Where Christ said it on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead and your life
is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Now
watch this next line. Mortify, therefore, your members
which are upon the earth. Mortify. Slaughter. Kill your members which are upon
the earth. In this book, God's Word, The
Lord God leads us into all truth, ever placing us at the foot of
the cross, there to behold our Lord Jesus Christ, and there
the world to be crucified to us, and thus crucified to the
world. Mortify your members. Slaughter them. Kill them. Constantly say no to the flesh. Live not to the flesh, but to
the glory of God. Live not for your carnal pleasure,
but for your eternal good. Live not for your present comfort,
but for Christ's everlasting glory. Make it your business,
children of God. Set your heart on things above. But God, I can't do that. I can't do it. I just can't do
it. I've been trying. I've been trying
for the average of 16 years old, but I can't do it. I can't do it. But his spirit's not straightened.
He can set my heart on things above. And so we bow continually
before him as God commands. And we ask the Lord God to do
that which he's commanded. And this I promise you, this
I promise you, Allen Kibbe, everything God Almighty requires of you,
God Almighty does for you. Did you get that? Everything
God requires of his elect, he does for his elect. And by whatever
means he finds most for his glory and your good, he's going to
set your heart on things above. And whatever means he finds most
for his glory and my good, he's going to set my heart on Christ
Jesus and you too, if you're his. Here's another messenger
by which God says, Arise ye, depart. Come to me, come to me. It is the messenger of his rod,
his chastisements, his rod of affliction, of adversity, of
trial and heartache. The Lord speaks plainly. We've had fathers of our flesh
who chastened us for their own pleasure. That is, they got mad
and they were embarrassed so they'd beat you. That's not correcting
a child. But don't foolishly embrace the notions of this world
that somehow letting a child live to himself without a rod
of correction is loving a child. If you love your children, you
make them, mind you. You make them mind you. And the
way you make them mind you is that you take a rod and apply
it to their backside. Well, I've got a better way of
doing that. You don't have a better way than God's. Well, that's, nobody agrees with
that these days. You're out of step with the times.
I plan to stay out of step with the times. You make them mind
you. You do it because you love them.
Because you love them. And our heavenly father chastens
every son whom he loves. And by his chastisement secures
this end that we might be partakers of his righteousness forever. You see, affliction and adversity,
pain and sorrow, bitterness and bereavement are the things that
most likely make this world bitter to us. You're not likely to be allured
to another place when you're smelling the fragrance of sweet
flowers, and you taste nothing but the sweets of life, and you
enjoy everything, and you have no difficulties and no struggles.
When there's nothing to break your heart, nothing to make you
weep, nothing to lay you low, you're likely to be very happy
with things just as they are here. But God graciously mixes
bitterness with our sweets. and graciously chastens us, and
by the chastisement makes heaven and Christ more glorious than
they could otherwise be, both in the anticipation of them and
in the experience of them at last. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5, chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Verse 17, our light affliction, our light
affliction, which worketh for us, or which is, but for a moment,
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Our light affliction, our featherweight
trouble, continually work for us a far more eternal weight
of glory. God, what did you say? These
difficulties here, in comparison with so much, but just in comparison
with that which awaits us, are light afflictions. And we count
them light things. when we realize something of
that eternal weight of glory awaiting us in heaven. Turn to
first Peter, first Peter, chapter one. I started verse three. Blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that
fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you, for you who are kept
by the power of God through faith under salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. Verse six, wherein ye greatly
rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, year in heaviness
through manifold temptation, on what's the needs be, that
the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold
that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Whatever is required, my God,
to wean my soul from this world, wean it. I recall when Shelby was weaning
our daughter from the breast. You mamas had been there. And
he would have thought she was killing that baby. I mean, you'd
have thought she was killing her. But the only way to wean
her is to not give her what she wants or thinks she wants. And the Lord God weans us from
this world, making us experience bitter, painful things with adversity,
trial, heartache, sometimes even bereavement and sorrows of that
kind. the loss of friends and dearest
loved ones, that He may set our hearts upon our Redeemer Himself. Here's the third messenger the
Lord uses. Sometimes He uses worldly success
to call us to Himself. You see, we all have a tendency not to
pay any attention to folks who've been down the path before us.
You young people, your dad says to you now, son, I'm telling
you, there's not the happiness down that road you think there
is. Well, what does that old man know? What does he know? I'm telling you, you pursue that
and once you get it, you wish you hadn't. And God sometimes
gives you what you think you want and makes you live with
it for a while until you at last understand that those successes
that you chased, those things that you pursued, those dreams
that you followed, you find them and you get them and you say,
why? Why sacrifice so much? to get this. I gave up so much
to get this. Why? There's nothing here. There's nothing here, Bobby Estes,
in this world to satisfy your immortal soul. I don't care how
much of it you get. Nothing. Nothing. You have all
the riches of the world, your soul's still empty. You had the
best relationships in the world and your soul's still empty.
There's nothing here to satisfy. And sometimes God will give you
what you think you want and make you understand the utter uselessness
and vanity of all things here until your soul cries vanity
of vanities. All is vanity and vexation spirit. And you set your heart on Christ
and things above. a fourth messenger by which he
sweetly calls us to himself of what I will call foretaste
of heaven. Sometimes we speak of heaven
on earth. We gather with God's people and
God speaks by his word. God pours out his spirit. God
reveals his son and we are come to Mount Zion, the city of the
living God. What a foretaste. If if the worship
of Christ is this good here, what will it be there? Sometimes
he sends a little reviving to our souls and You read the word and he makes
himself known to you in a precious way. He shows something of his
glory and his goodness to you and your heart is drawn after
him earnestly. Sometimes he comes and fills
your emptiness, melts your hardness, gives you
a time of sweet communion with himself and draws you after him. Makes you long for heaven's bliss
and heaven's glory. And the last sweet messenger
by which the Lord calls us to himself is death itself. Back at our text. Arise ye and
depart for this is not your rest because
it is polluted. It shall destroy you even with
a sore destruction. Don't shy away from observing death. Don't shy away from observing
it as closely as you can. Don't shy away from thinking
about it. For the unbeliever, it ought
to be alarming to watch men die. For the believer, it ought to
be most charming. You see, for the believer, death
is the beginning of life. Death is the entrance into, at
last, the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Death is at
last the beginning of that blessed state, wherein all the traces
of sin are taken from us and gone forever. For the believer,
the Lord God calls us to himself. And yes, we must cross over the
dark, swelling Jordan. I understand that. But there's
no reason to be afraid. The ark of God is always in front. Christ has gone over before us
and he has taken his seat on the right hand of the majesty
on high and we are seated together with him in heavenly glory. And
soon as he has entered into his rest, we shall enter into rest
with him everlastingly. What shall that rest be like?
Let me wrap this up. Turn to Revelation 21. Revelation
21. I saw a new heaven and a new
earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away,
and there were no more seas. I take that to mean everything,
as we now know it, Lindsay, shall be gone forever. Everything. Everything. I wonder what it would matter
then. Everything, as we now know it, shall be gone forever. Read
on. And I, John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem. That's the church of God, the
bride of Christ. coming down from God out of heaven, prepared
as a bride, adorned for her husband. Girl gets married on her wedding
day. Man, she and family pull out all the stops, buy the nicest
gown they can get, doll up. I can picture Shelby when they
open those doors and that wedding march, I turn around and look
at her. What beauty! Christ will prepare His bride
for Himself, adorned with the perfection of His beauty in His
holiness. Read on. And I heard a great
voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men. And God will dwell with them,
and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with
them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. And there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, Neither shall there be any more pain
for the former things. Oh, bless his name. All the former
things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write,
for these words are true. and faithful. These words are true and faithful. Amen.