The prophet Micah was providentially
named Micah. His name means who is like God. Micah lived contemporary with
Isaiah and Hosea during the reigns of Ahaz, Jotham, and Hezekiah,
kings of Judah. The children of Israel represented
by the two cities of Samaria and Jerusalem, Samaria representing
the northern tribes of Judah or of Israel and Jerusalem, the
southern tribes of Judah, had by their religious and political
leaders been led into idolatry. by their religious and political
leaders. They had degenerated into the
religious practices and the moral decadence of the idol worshippers
of the nations around them. These people were the only people
on the earth, the children of Israel, of Israel and of Judah. The only people on the earth.
who claimed distinctly to be the sons and daughters of God
Almighty, who by profession represented Jehovah, the true and living
God, and claimed still to worship God. But their worship had degenerated
into nothing but base idolatry for which God here declares,
I will disinherit you. I will cast you off. Micah chapter
1. The word of the Lord that came
to Micah, to Moreshite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah,
kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Hear, all ye people, hearken,
O earth, and all that therein is. And let the Lord God be witness
against you, the Lord from his holy temple. For behold, the
Lord cometh forth out of his place and will come down and
tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains
shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft Wax
before the fire and as the waters that are poured down a steep
place For the transgression of Jacob is all this and for the
sins of the house of Israel What is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria and what are the high places of Judah? Are
they not Jerusalem? Now understand the question and
the answer What is the transgression of Jacob? It is the idolatry
seen throughout Samaria, the chief city of Jacob. What are the high places of Judah? These high places that I'm determined
to destroy. Is it not Jerusalem? The very
idols set up in the city of God, where men claim to worship God
in the temple of God. Read on. Verse six. Therefore, I will make Samaria
as an heap of the field and as the plantings of a vineyard,
and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and
I will discover the foundations thereof. And all the graven images
thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall
be burnt with fire. And all the idols thereof will
I lay desolate. For she gathered it of the hire
of an harlot. And they shall return to the
hire of an harlot. Therefore, I will wall, I will
wail and howl. I will go stripped and naked.
I will make a wailing like the dragons and mourning as the owl. For her wound is incurable. For it is coming to Judah. He
is coming to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. Declare it
not in Gath. Weep ye not at all. In the house of Aphra, roll thyself
in the dust. Micah's name, as I said, means
who is like God. And he was raised up distinctly
by the Lord God in a time of horrible idolatry when the people
who profess to be the people of God and those among them who
truly were the people of God were passing through a time of
great painful trial and temptation. The nation of Israel was plagued
with an incurable wound a world of empty, meaningless religious
ritualism and idolatry. The political leaders of the
people were men who devised iniquity and worked evil. The priests
were men of hire. The prophets prophesied for money. Yet all that they did was done
in the name of the Lord. All that they did was done in
the name of the Lord. Everything they did, they did
in the name of Jesus, as we would put it in our day. They talked
a great deal about Jesus and serving Jesus and worshiping
Jesus. They would speak as politicians
today speak, God bless you, God bless America. The religious
leaders, the priest and the prophets would speak in great glowing
terms of religious devotion But the political leaders were men
who devised iniquity and worked evil in the name of God. The priests were all men of higher. They did what they did in the
name of God with the religious guard dripping on them. They
did it for just what they could get from it. And the prophets
prophesied for money. Religious hucksters in that day,
as in ours, were in the majority. And the people followed them
eagerly, with confidence. We read in chapter 3, verse 11,
they said, is not the Lord among us? None evil can come upon us. The word of God in Micah's day,
as in our day, was precious. There were only a few who truly
spoke for God, and there were only a few who heard them. When
the Lord did send a faithful prophet to them, the vast majority
of the people would say to the prophet, prophesy ye not. We don't want to hear you. We're
not interested in what you've got to say. We have our prophets,
and they prophesy to us smooth things. All this caused Micah
great pain and much sorrow. But he was a man who knew God, a man who walked with God, a
man through whom God spoke. He had a vision of God's majesty
and mercy, distinctly separating himself from all the imaginary
gods the people followed. He had received a word from the
Lord and with confident joy he spoke of the latter day glory
of this gospel age when the majesty of God's mercy would be clearly
seen in the revelation of Jesus Christ and the establishing of
his kingdom and the saving of his elect. Our translators have
given us an excellent outline of the book of Micah in the seven
chapter divisions. Let me give you the highlights
as we move through these seven chapters, and then I'll conclude
the message by calling your attention to several precious things here. In chapter one, the Lord God
gives his witness against the nations. particularly against
Samaria, the capital of Israel, the 10 northern tribes, and against
Jerusalem, the people of Judah. Because of the sins of the house
of Israel, the doom was a matter of certainty. The Lord declared
that he would disinherit the nation because her wound was
incurable. Let us be warned. Let us be warned. Oh God, let us be warned. For
if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest he
also spare not thee. We've been grafted by the grace of God into Christ
Jesus. We who are of the Gentiles, grafted
in by his grace according to his purpose. And those people
to whom alone God once revealed his word, his gospel, himself
and his truth. To those people to whom alone
God revealed himself, they've been cast off. Israel and Judah
cast off, blindness and darkness has been their lot for 2,000
years. Take heed now, for if God spared
not the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not
thee. Behold, therefore, the goodness
and the severity of God on them that fail severity, but toward
thee goodness. Oh, what goodness. Oh, what goodness! God Almighty
has revealed His Son in you. God Almighty has sent His Word
among you. God Almighty has revealed His
Gospel to you. Oh, what goodness! If thou continue
in His goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. I'm at the age that I often think
what the future of this assembly may be and pray earnestly concerning
it for our sons and daughters who will be here when I'm gone.
I've read enough history, both ancient and current, and I've
experienced enough in the history of my life to tell you not often
Does a local church succeed more than one generation walking in
the gospel? Not often. There are a few exceptions,
but they are few, not many. Take heed that you continue in
God's goodness. In chapter two, God's prophet
tells the people plainly that the cause of his wrath coming
upon them. The reason why he would disinherit
them was their own sin. God's judgment is always just. Now understand the scriptures.
Understand the scriptures. Yes, God's judgment is according
to his eternal purpose. God determined before ever Abraham
was born that he would give his word to the nation of Israel
alone up until the time of the coming of Christ. And when Christ
came, it was God's purpose, as we read right here in Habakkuk
or Micah chapter one, to disinherit the nation, to cast them off.
That was according to God's purpose. But the casting off of the nation
was their fault and judgment was a just retribution upon them. Let no one be mistaken. If you
find yourself at last under the everlasting wrath of God Almighty,
the purpose of God stands firm and your eternal damnation is
your fault. your responsibility. You have
reaped what you sowed if you perish under the wrath of God.
The Lord says here in verse 3 of chapter 2, therefore, therefore,
thus saith the Lord, behold, against this family do I devise
an evil from which you shall not remove your necks. You mean God devised the evil?
by which Jerusalem and Samaria, Judah and Israel were destroyed. He said, I make peace and I create
evil. Our God is absolutely sovereign,
but the evil he brought upon them, he brought upon them because
they fully deserved his wrath. Why does God calls men to be
deceived with a strong delusion that they should believe a lie?
The apostle tells us because they receive not the love of
the truth. In chapter three, the Lord God
exposes the self-serving princes, the harling prophets and the
covetous peace priest of Israel as men who had led Israel into
apostasy and doom. They abhorred righteousness. And perverted equity. in the
name of God. They brought the people they
claimed to serve under the sentence of divine judgment. Oh, what
a word of warning. Would to God I had the ear of
this generation. I have no idea who shall or shall
not hear this message as it's broadcast over the internet and
television. But hear this preacher. Oh, God
help you to hear this preacher. Hear this preacher. If you follow
false prophets, you will follow them to hell. If you follow false
prophets, you will follow them to hell. You cannot follow those
who oppose God in the name of God and not suffer the wrath
of God as the consequence. Look at verse 12, chapter 3.
Therefore, because of these priests and these prophets, therefore
shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall
become heaps. But Micah was a faithful man. Caring as he did for the souls
of many he moves rapidly from announcing God's wrath upon his
enemies Those enemies who wore his name those enemies who profess
to worship him He moves rapidly from declaring God's certain
wrath upon them to proclaiming God's grace and salvation to
chosen sinners in chapter 4 He speaks of the coming of Christ
and the establishment of our Lord's spiritual kingdom, Mount
Zion, the church of the living God, and the gathering together
of sinners out of every nation into his kingdom. Look at verse
seven. The Lord shall reign over them
in Mount Zion from henceforth and forever. He tells us in the
latter part of this fourth chapter that this kingdom, the kingdom
of Christ, that is the church of the living God, God's true
Israel, God's holy nation, God's true covenant people, those who
are God's elect. He tells us that they shall prevail
over all their enemies and the gates of hell shall never prevail
against God's church. The gates of hell with all the
opposition of hell can never stop the witness of God's church
and kingdom. Chapter five begins with a declaration,
an announcement of our Redeemer's death at the hands of his enemies,
as if to indicate that this kingdom I've been describing in chapter
four will come to its fruition. by means of the death of Him
who is the Messiah, the King, the Son of David, the Redeemer.
It's to indicate that this is the means of Israel's deliverance
and the cause of His exaltation and glory as the King. He who
was to be born at Bethlehem, the house of bread, who must
be smitten by his enemies shall stand in glory. Look at verse
five. And this man shall be the peace. He will both gather and save
his sheep who have been scattered among the flocks of the goats.
And then chapter six describes the Lord God pleading with us
to remember his goodness. Remember his goodness. Remember
his goodness, his wonders, his works of grace. Look at verse
five, that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord, thereby teaching
us that God looks on the hearts and calls us to repentance. And
in the seventh chapter, in the midst of God's rebuke and indignation,
Micah cries in verse one, woe is me. But the hope of Christ's
coming shines like a bright star in this dark sky. And Micah seems
to rise with anticipation, with expectation and hope as he anticipates
the fulfillment of that which God's revealed to him. The day
when God will cast Israel's sins into the depths of the sea. Look
at verse 15. According to the days of thy
coming out of the land of Egypt, will I show unto him marvelous
things. The nation shall see and be confounded
at their might. They shall lay their hand upon
their mouth. Their ears shall be deaf. They
shall lick the dust like a serpent. They shall move out of their
holes like worms of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord
our God. and shall fear because of thee. The nations shall fear because
of this remnant of people God has chosen. Look at verse 18.
Micah concludes his prophecy with this rapturous portion. Who is a God likened to thee
that pardoneth iniquity, that passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever,
because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again. He will have
compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities,
and thou will cast their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou
wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, which thou
hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. Now Micah in
these short seven chapters gives us more clear, precise prophecies
concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, His coming and His salvation
than any of the other prophets. Micah speaks in chapter 2 and
verse 13 and describes our Savior as the breaker. Look at it. The
breaker has come up before them. They have broken up, and have
passed through the gate, and have gone out by it, and their
king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them."
Now without question, the passage refers historically to the nation
of Israel. If you read the chapters 1 and
2, you'll see that the Lord threatens severe but just punishment upon
the people. because of their relentless ungodliness,
idolatry, and eagerness to follow false prophets, rather than the
men sent of God who spoke for God. And yet, in wrath, God remembers
mercy. He promised those disobedient
Jews deliverance that they did not deserve. Merciful deliverance,
miraculous deliverance, deliverance which had the unmistakable stamp
of divinity upon it. So he tells us, I'm going to
destroy this place. You're going into Babylon, and
there you shall remain for 70 years. And I will raise up a
man who doesn't even know my name. His name shall be Cyrus,
and he will bring you back to this place. And thus portrays
in type our Lord Jesus Christ. The entire story is a clear picture
of him and of our salvation by him. You see, like the Jews of
old, you and I have turned aside from
our God, his word, his way, and his worship, each one walking
after the lust of his own flesh by nature. That's how all men
and women live by nature. your sons and daughters and mine,
your grandchildren and mine, your parents and mine, you and
me. We all live by nature after the
lust of our flesh and will not bow to God, will not worship
God, but rather will choose to follow anything but God. Yet
the Lord God in his word having threatened severe but just everlasting
punishment to be executed upon us for our sin. In his wrath,
he remembers mercy and he promised that he will save some of Adam's
fallen race by his almighty free grace. You read through this
book. Read through this book. I challenge
you, read it. I dare you pick up this book
and read it. I dare you, pick it up and read it and find out
what God says. On every page of this book, beginning
in Genesis, going through Revelation, always the Lord God declares
He has a remnant. A remnant. In Noah's day, eight
souls. In the land of Ur of Chaldees,
two men. Abraham and Lot, his nephew. A remnant, according to the election
of grace. whom he will save, whom he will
cause to inherit his glory and his grace, whom he will call
out and make them his people by his grace, a remnant. All
deserve his wrath, but God says, I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. Now, you, my brothers and sisters
in Christ, believing the Son of God, Find yourselves among
that remnant. I hear many women cuss God for
his electing mercy, for his sovereign grace. I hear preachers blaspheme
God because of his sovereignty and his mercy. That's not fair. God would choose some and not
choose others. Everybody's going to hell. Everybody
deserves to go to hell. It's pure mercy that he would
choose you. Pure mercy that he would call
any. You have no claim on God. You
have no rights before God. You have nothing that you could
stand before God and say, God, you must give and you must do
this. God Almighty has you in his hands
and you deserve his wrath. And if he has mercy on you, it
is purely according to his sovereign will. That one who is our savior
and deliverer, God's dear son, our all-glorious Christ, is here
called the breaker. He's the breaker because all
who are saved by him are the broken up. The Lord God dwells with the
brokenhearted and the contrite. Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are they that mourn.
Oh, what a blessing when God breaks you by his grace. When he breaks you by his grace. I don't know of a better way
to illustrate what I want to say in this regard. And what
I've said to you many times, I recall talking to Brother Bob
Blips many years ago, right after I moved here. They raised walking
horses and they had some nice horses. And they didn't break
them. They didn't break them. They
gentled them. They would just gentle them because
they didn't want to break their spirits. They didn't want to
break the spirits. They were still feisty, feisty
horses. But that's not how God deals
with sinners. Religion gentles rebels, subdues
the rebellion. God breaks the rebel. He throws
his saddle on the wild ash's coat and sticks his bridle in
his mouth and rides him until he's in the dust, broken. Oh,
bless it, break it. Causing you to fall on him and
be broken lest he fall on you and crush you into hell. The
fourth chapter of Micah describes the kingdom of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The denunciation of Israel does not mean that God's cast
off his people whom he foreordained unto everlasting salvation. Oh,
no. Oh, no. In fact, the destruction
of the physical nation of Israel and the physical kingdom of Israel
made way for Christ's more glorious, spiritual, everlasting kingdom,
his church. Look at verse one. The kingdom
of grace is established in the top of the mountains, exalted
above all hills in heaven itself. You come unto Mount Zion, the
city of the living God. Verse two, this kingdom is made
up of God's elect from all the nations of the earth in this
place, Mount Zion, where God teaches us and guides us. This is his kingdom. Verses 3
through 5, the church of God is a kingdom of peace and security. Here and here alone, in the house
of God, in the church of God, men and women live and walk together
in peace. The middle wall of partition
that separates men from one another in this world. race, and face,
and place is broken down in Christ Jesus. And in Christ, neither
male nor female, bond nor free, barbarian or Scythian, Jew or
Gentile has any distinction. No superiority, no lower class
and upper class, no sinner saved by grace. In this congregation
here, if we knew one another's histories, and I perhaps know
more than most of you do about one another's histories, where
we've come from, the backgrounds, the experiences, the failures
and the successes that are found in this congregation. Folks look
at this, there's no way those folks ever get along. There's
no way they could ever get along. Look at those people from different
places in the world. Different different face different
race. Oh, they can't possibly get along in Christ. They do
In Christ they do this is a kingdom of peace this kingdom is a kingdom
of poor halting sinners gathered by Christ healed by Christ and
ruled by Christ a tower for sheep and A stronghold for the daughter
of Zion, the place built by our God and Savior for his redeemed
ones, whom he's delivered. And that he describes in verses
6 through 10. Though all the nations of the earth are perpetually
gathered against his church. The next section, verses 11 through
13. Our great God declares here by his prophet that his church
His elect, His kingdom shall prevail over Babylon. In fact, not only shall we prevail
over that which is false, prevail over all our enemies. prevail
over the political and the religious world around us. The Lord God
has consecrated all the substance of Babylon, all the substance
of the world for our everlasting happiness and our good and the
glory of Christ our King. Then in chapter five, Micah speaks
of our Lord's humiliation and suffering. Look at verse one. Now gather thyself in troops,
O daughter of troops. He hath laid sage against us.
They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. We've been reading about it last
few weeks in John chapter 19. They take a scepter, put it in
his hand, say, hey, O king, And then they take the scepter from
his hand and beat him with the scepter they put in his hand.
Our Lord Jesus smitten of God and smitten by the hands of men.
In verse 2, Micah declares the place of our Savior's incarnation.
Bethlehem of Ephrathah. Though thou be little among the
thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto
me That is to be the ruler in Israel, whose goings forth had
been from old, even from everlasting. Here is a exact place, an exact
place. There was another Bethlehem in
the nation of Israel, in the tribe of Zebulun. We find it
named in Joshua chapter 19. And so the Lord speaks by his
prophet and says, Bethlehem, Ephrata. This is the place where
Messiah the King shall be born. This specific place. You find
prophets these days, men who call themselves prophets, they
have a vision. And this is sort of like what's going to happen.
And folks look back to things like, who's that fellow, Nostradamus,
that's what I call him. Look at all the clues. We put
it all together. And it looks like maybe he foresaw
that something bad was going to happen 3,000 years down the
road. And folks put credibility with
that and laughed at the inspired word of God, where God, by his
prophet, hundreds of years before it ever came to pass, said the
Son of God, the Messiah, the Redeemer, will be born in Bethlehem,
Ephrata. and gave us the time frame in
which it would take place. Here, in His eternal pre-existence,
our Lord has said to come forth. Here is the deity of this man.
Micah has been describing the man of peace, our savior and
our redeemer, whose goings forth had been from old from everlasting
before the world began. He stood forth in covenant mercy
as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world as our surety, assuming
all responsibility for us. And then in verse four, Micah
speaks of the majesty of Christ in his glorious exaltation. Look
at the last line, for now shall he be great unto the ends of
the earth. And the angel came to Mary and
said, uh, the Messiah could be born of you. That Holy one that
God's promised. He shall be great. The Lord God has given him a
name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow of things in heaven and things in the earth
and things under the earth. And every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father. And then
Micah tells us that though the people were turned aside to that,
his heart was fixed upon God's promised deliverer of the chapter
seven and verse seven. Chapter 7, verse 7. Therefore,
I will look unto the Lord. I will wait for the God of my
salvation. My God will hear me. His heart's fixed upon Christ.
His heart's fixed upon Christ. Oh, God, teach me. Teach me to
have my heart fixed upon my Savior. Force me, Lord, in the midst
of difficulty, ever to look away from time and experience and
circumstances to the word of God and the promise of God concerning
his son. Unable to contain himself, God's
prophet raises his voice in exultation, closing his prophecy with a declaration
of our God's distinctive greatness as God. His name, I told you
in the beginning, means who is God. Who is God? Who is it? Who is God after all? Everybody has an idea about God. Every Tom, Dick and Harry has
got some idol he's carved out of his mind, or carved out of
the woods, or carved out of the bones of chickens. And he sets
it up and says, this is God. And they cry to a God they cannot
save. They pray to a God who they move
around as they will. that call upon a God who's worthless,
more worthless than a rabbit's foot. He can't do anything without
the aid of his worshipers. Well, who is God? Micah here
tells us, look at verse 18. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth iniquity? Go back and pick up you folks
who are younger than us, old codgers. I suspect you didn't
study these things much in school. Early on in school, I remember
at least by the time we got to junior high school, what we call
middle school now, we had studied a good bit about ancient mythology
and the gods of our fathers. You've heard about them, Thor
and Zeus and all that nonsense. Isn't it amazing that all the
gods invented by men are gods to be dreaded and feared? Gods who were anxious to pour
out wrath and judgments because men make gods like themselves. All the gods of men are gods
made like themselves. The religions of the world, the
great movements of religion, find me one. Find me one, anyone,
anywhere, whose founder, who established it, made his death
the foundation of the whole thing. None but Christ our God. No one else, just him. Oh, who
is a God likened to thee, that pardoneth iniquity. Listen up. Listen up. He picks the burden
up and takes it away, casting it upon a substitute, even himself,
and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage.
He retaineth not his anger forever. Isaiah said, the devil's angry
with me, but thine anger is turned away. God poured out the fear
of his wrath against Bob Duff on his son, and he retains no
anger against you forever. Forever. That means, child of
God, there is nothing you have done, are doing, or shall hereafter
do that can cause God to be angry with you ever again. He retaineth
not his anger forever, read on, because he delighteth in mercy. Our God delights in mercy. Oh,
sinner, did you hear that? God delights in mercy. The triune Jehovah delights in
mercy. Behold, the judge of Israel himself
slain in the room of his people, raised up again in glory to give
life to whom he will because God delights in mercy. Read on. He will turn again. He will have compassion on us.
He will subdue our iniquities. He comes to every chosen sinner,
subdues him by his grace, and thou wilt cast all their sins
into the depths of the sea. You remember the story. A fellow riding along the train,
Many years ago he always carried him a little book just like this.
This black, red, white paper. Nothing on it. And he'd sit in
the tray and he'd read this book. And he'd just laugh and praise
God. He'd go back and start all over
again. And he'd laugh. Oh, thank God. Thank God. The fellow sitting
beside me, Curiosity finally got the best of him. He said,
Mr. What are you doing? He's all I said, see this book,
see that black page. That's me in all my sin. You
see that? That's the blood of Christ that
washes away my sin. See that? That's me in Christ
Jesus, washed in the blood, white as snow. He cast our sins into
the depths of the sea and remembers them not again forever. Forever. Forever. Mr. Spurgeon said, we shall suffer
no loss because of our transgression. and Spurgeon was right. We shall
suffer no loss. Christ is our redemption and
our righteousness. And we are better off in Christ
redeemed than we could ever have been had we stood forever upon
the earth in Adam unfallen. We shall suffer no loss the cause
of our transgressions. Read on. will perform the truth to Jacob. The Lord has sworn and will not
lie. Brother Bob read back in the
office in Hebrews chapter seven of our God, confirming his oath
by covenant, chapter six, confirming his oath by covenant. Now for
two or three witnesses, his immutability and his faithfulness, he will
perform the truth to Jacob. Jacob, his chosen. and the mercy
to Abraham, Abraham, the covenant representative, portraying our
savior, which now has sworn unto our fathers from the days of
old. What does that mean? He will
perform his covenant. He will save all his people to
the praise of the glory of his grace and everything that is
has been and shall hereafter be shall redound to his glory
for the saving of his people in Christ Jesus. Amen.