I want to start off by saying that
on behalf of myself and everybody at the Church in Lexington, we
are all excited for you all. It's hard to describe, especially
watching you go so many years, asking the Lord to give you a
pastor, and the prayer is answered. And he's given you a faithful
man, a man I hold in very high esteem. and a thank you to the
Lord for you, and to him that he would do such a thing for
you. So we're all excited, very excited. Micah chapter two, we'll
end up looking at the whole chapter, but I wanna begin in verse 12,
look down there. This is the Lord speaking, he
says, I will surely assemble, oh Jacob, all of thee, I will
surely, gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together
as the sheep of Basra, as the flock in the midst of their fold. They shall make great noise by
reason of the multitude of men." Now, this is a promise. This
is promise from the Lord to his typical people. On the surface,
this is a worldly promise, a promise of temporal things. He speaks
to Judah and Israel, the kingdom is divided, his typical people,
and he says, I'm going to assemble you. I'm going to bring you back
together. And so here's what happened.
Here's why this promise was given. If you ever get the opportunity
to read through 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, what
you'll find is Israel had their heyday under David. Under David,
there was no idolatry tolerated absolutely whatsoever. That would
have been the day where everybody on the face of the earth feared
David, the most feared man on the face of the earth, and Israel
was the most feared country, and they were the top dogs. They
were on top, and he passed it down to his son Solomon, and
Solomon begins, well, and he builds the temple. This place
is this absolute grandeur, beautiful. And after that, this kingdom
divides. Two kings, Judah and Israel, and what you find through
that division is they plummet rapidly. And the plummeting they
end up in is this, it's idolatry. They forget their God. They commit
the sin that their ancestors before them constantly fell into
when the children of Israel were in the wilderness during the
times of the judges, When every man did that which was right
in his own eyes, always the same thing, they would turn from their
God, this one who had seen them through all the way, and they'd
start worshiping idols. And their idolatry had become
so perverse, so repugnant to the Lord, he says, I'm gonna
sell you into the hands of your enemies. And Micah spends quite a bit
of this book foretelling them, hey, this is what's going to
happen, and here's the reason. The reason is your idolatry.
They're almost completely conquered by the Assyrians, and a little
while later, that Babylonians come in and completely conquer
all of Israel, all of Judah, carry them all away. But Micah
says here, not forever, not forever. This is the promise temporarily
to these people. I'm going to assemble you. I'm going to bring
you back. And that's exactly what happens.
The Lord moves the hearts of the kings of Babylon to be benevolent
toward the Jews. And so Cyrus comes up and he
says, the Lord has told me to build his house. And so he sends
them back, says, go back. of the temple. A little while
later, Artaxerxes comes along and he says, go back, rebuild
Jerusalem. And just like the Lord promised,
he always keeps his promises. They're reassembled back together. Now that is an interesting biblical
history lesson, but that is not the point. Not in the least. This is a promise to God's people
from the Lord himself, to his elect. to every sinner who can't
come up with the goods. Their only hope is Christ and
Him crucified. Take me as I am. I got one plea,
Christ died, that's it. For all those people, you have
this promise, the promise of assembly. And the scripture speaks
of that in a couple different ways. Speaks of an assembly of
the saints of God's elect on that last day when Christ returns. The trumpet is going to sound.
The Lord is going to come back in all his triumph and glory,
not in humiliation as the last time, but now as the conquering
king. And it says this, this is Mark's
account, Mark 13, 27. It says, and then shall he send
his angels and shall gather together his elect from the four winds
from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of
heaven, he's gonna reach down, the saints that have already
passed on, he's gonna gather them. Saints that are still here,
he's gonna gather them. He's going to present everyone,
gather us all together and bring us before his father, say, father,
here is your family. Here's your children. They're
all gorgeous. They're all beautiful. They are
just as you have commanded me to make them. Holy and unblameable
and unreprovable. This is my great glory. Now,
let the singing begin, let the worship begin, let the rejoicing
begin, and it will never end. Utopia that only gets better
forever without any rest. And what I would have you take
from that is that is a real day. This is not pie in the sky, this
is not a metaphor, this is a real day. It could be as soon as today
that that day takes place. That gathering is going to happen
because the Lord promised. I'll give you another gathering.
It says specifically in the scriptures that when our Lord died, he gathered
his people to himself. And it comes in an interesting
story. Turn over to John chapter 11. I think you'll like reading
this. John chapter 11, the fame of
our Lord had become so great during this time that the Pharisees
and the elders had decided to take counsel to put him out of
business. And we'll read some of the reasoning
here. Look at John 11, verse 47. It says, then gathered the chief
priests and the Pharisees of counsel and said, what do we? For this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all
men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away
both our place and our nation. Now, these are the blind leading
the blind. They have absolutely no idea
who they're talking about. They have no idea that this Jesus
of Nazareth is God. He is Messiah. They had no idea
that Messiah, who they spoke of and did not know, did not
come to set up an earthly kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom. And
here's what they think. They said, if we let this Jesus
of Nazareth continue on the way he is, people are gonna make
him king. He can't make him king. They'll make him king, and he'll
lead a rebellion against the Romans, our occupiers at this
time. And the Romans are gonna come
in, and they'll wipe us all out, right? We gotta do something
about this. He is to our detriment. Now Caiaphas, the high priest
of this time, wicked man. He's got something to say. Look
at verse 49. And one of them named Caiaphas,
being the high priest that same year, said unto them, ye know
nothing at all. Now, what's funny about this
is, is that Caiaphas, everything he says in this dialogue, it
is all true, but he doesn't know it's true. Everything he says,
he actually means something different, but the words themselves, they're
inspired and they're actually true. And here's the first correct
thing he said, they know nothing at all. And they didn't. They
didn't know anything at all. Go on reading. You know nothing
at all, nor consider that it's expedient. It is necessary for
us that one man should die for the people and that the whole
nation should perish not. In case you're saying this, he's
saying, here's what we need to do. We've got to kill this Jesus
of Nazareth. We got to wipe him out. And this
is not an unjust thing. There's nothing wrong with this.
Because by killing him, that'll keep the Romans from coming in
and destroying us. And so since he died, the whole nation will
be saved. It is for the greater good. There
is nothing wrong with this. And what happens next is in verse
51. And this he spake not of himself. These weren't his words.
They're inspired. But being high priest that year,
he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not for
that nation only, but that also he should gather together, assemble. In one, the children of God that
were scattered abroad. Caiaphas had no idea what he
was saying, but he was right. He would die for a nation, his
people that were scattered abroad. He would redeem them all back
to himself through his death. And through that death, there
would be a gathering of the elect of God, a gathering of the saints. And I ask you in what respect?
In what respect is that true? In respect of possession and
purchase. Now on that cross, a great purchase
was made. The commodity? The saints of
God. The elect. All the Father gave
Christ before the foundation of the world. What is the cost?
What is the currency of the day? The suffering of God. That is the currency of the day,
and he paid the currency in full. The sin debt was paid for everybody
he died for. Now, when you go to the grocery
store, and you put your items up on that belt, and they scan
them, and you put your card in the machine, and you hand them
cash, whatever it is, and they hand you the receipt back, the
transaction is finished. Are you sheepish about taking
those items with you after that? Do you say, well, may I take
them? Those are my things. I purchased them. I have rights
to them to be done with as I see fit. And we don't ask, we take.
This is mine. This is just, this is what I
have purchased. We're bought with a price. The
very price of God's death, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And because he made the purchase, we are now his possession. And
that means no one has rights to us. No one has possession
of us. Hell, you have no rights. Death,
you have no rights. Satan, you have no rights. Law,
you have no rights. I have paid the debt in full.
I have satisfied my father's demands. Therefore, they are
mine. I have gathered them together, and no man can pluck them out
of my hand. What a beautiful gathering today. That's a promise,
a promise to every sinner whose hope is in Christ. But there's
a gathering that took place even before this. Go back to your
text. Look at Micah chapter two again. Look back at verse 12. We will
be gathered on the last day. The gathering took place on the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, but there's one that took place
even before that. Look at this, look at verse 12
again. It says, I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee.
I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together,
may go to that word, as the sheep of Basra. You know what that
word together actually means? The literal translation? Union. You know what Basra means? One
time it's used in the scripture. A place of absolute safety and
security. Now, this is the eternal assembly
of the saints. The assembly that had no beginning
and will never have again an end. The assembly of us in union
in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the eternal union. And we have always been in union
in this one who is perfectly safe and secure. Now think about
that for a second. This is a promise to the Lord's
people. You have always been in this place of absolute safety
and security, Christ Jesus. You are there right now, and
you will always be there. How real is the union? It is
so real that everything Christ has done, we truly have done. And this is the answer to every
question. Why does God love the elect?
Because he loves his son. All the love of God is stored
up in one man in Christ Jesus. And because we are eternally
united to him, the love of God is upon us. Why did he choose
these particular people, the elect? Because we've always been
in Christ. He chose Christ. Christ will
be the preeminent member of the Godhead. Christ will glorify
the Godhead. And when he chose Christ, when
he elected him, he got everybody that was connected to him. We're
a package deal. You get him, you get us, too. Everything is because of this
union. You have to have kept the law perfectly. If you're
in Christ, you did. When he kept the law, we kept
the law. Everybody has to be punished.
Everybody has to die. You were punished in Christ when
he went to the cross. You were punished in him, and
as he was raised again because of justification, as he sits
at the right hand of the Father right now, while that is not
our experience, we're there in him right now. Here's my point
in saying all this. This is a promise. This is the
promise of eternal security. There's never been a time where
our souls hung in the balance. Not these people who this promise
is made to. There's never been any chance that any member of
the elect would not be safe because we have always been safe and
secure in Christ. And there's never any chance
that we will fall away. If Christ can't fall away, we can't fall
away because we are in him. And what a blessed promise, that
promise of eternal security and eternal assembly in Christ. What else I love about this promise
is the furniture of it. the other things it says. Verse
12, again, look at the first two words. It says, I will. This is a promise that was made
by one man, and a promise that is executed by one man. The Lord says, I will do this. The execution of this promise,
this assembling of the saints, this is not a cooperative effort
in any way. It is not, I will do my part,
and if they do their part, the promise will come to be. I will. I'm going to do this. I made
the promise. I keep the promise. Salvation
is not a cooperative effort. It is what Christ does. I will. And notice it's sure. He says
this twice. He says, I will surely assemble
Jacob, all the I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. Why is this promise so sure?
Because God cannot lie and God cannot fail. We love all his
attributes, his sovereignty, his holiness, his righteousness.
I love his mercy and his grace. I love every attribute of him.
Here's one we don't think about a whole lot. He is immutable.
He does not change. Everything he has purposed, everything
he has promised, he has always purposed and promised. Everything
he has ever done, he has always done. He is the immutable God
who does not change. You know what that means? That
means if he makes a promise, He not only has the power to
fulfill the promise, he must fulfill the promise. He has to. Why? What's at stake? Him being
gone. If he were to make a promise
and not fulfill it, he would have to unseat himself as God. And since God cannot be unseated,
and he must reign, therefore he cannot lie, therefore he must
keep his promises, therefore this promise is sure. Everybody
he's speaking to is absolutely sure. You can hang your hat on
this. And finally this, I think so beautiful, is who he makes
this promise to. Look again at verse 12. He says,
I will surely assemble, okay, There's a particular audience
to the promise. This promise is not made to every
man without exception. It is made to one group of people,
O Jacob, God's elect. And he will spend the preceding
verses going through. In the first few verses, he's
going to speak to lost men, and he's going to describe them.
And then a little while later, he transitions where he speaks
to Jacob, and he's going to describe them. Let's see what he has to
say about these two parties. Look again, go up to Micah 2,
verse one. He speaks to lost men. This is
also a description of every man by nature as we are born in this
world. Verse one, he says, woe to them that devise iniquity
and work evil upon their beds. When the morning is light, they
practice it because it is in the power of their hand. What
is man? He's evil. What does he do? He practices evil. Why does he
do that? Because that's what's in the
power of his hand. It's the only ability he has. He can only do
evil. But I think it's interesting
here, it says he devises evil. You know what that means? It
means he's doing what he wants to do. He devises it, he contemplates
it, he premeditates it. He decides, this is what I want
to do, and that's what he does. Our sin is our fault. There is
no excuse. It's not a matter of ignorance.
And the world likes to lean on that crutch. They say, well,
the reason people act out is they're just not educated well enough.
You know, we gotta teach them, teach them how to live and things
like that. The law is written on every man's heart. Everybody
from birth knows right from wrong, good from evil, but we devise
evil. We do what we wanna do, and it's
evil. Gets worse in verse two. And they covet fields, and take
them by violence, and houses, and take them away. So they oppress
a man in his house, even a man and his heritage. We're covetous. Coveting things that the Lord
didn't give us in this life. I covet a new car, a new house.
Yes, but that's not the covetousness that's really the issue. The
issue is this, we covet the glory that is reserved for God. I want
to tell you what got these people on this message is idolatry. They made a false god. They made
false gods. Little g with an s on the end
there, right? False gods. Why does a man make
an idol? Think about that for a second. Why does he make an
idol? If I make my god, then I'm the creator. If I can assign
my god his attributes, then I'm the one who makes the rules.
And he creates a God that is simply a tool for his own salvation.
Now, an idol takes on many forms. What we're mostly exposed to
is an idol who is called Jesus. He is not the Lord Jesus Christ
from the Bible, but they call him Jesus, but he's not sovereign.
He's not capable. He has a will, but unless you
allow him to have his way, he can't do anything. In that relationship,
who is the God? Who's calling the shots? Manets. That's why he makes an idol,
a false impression of God, because in that relationship, man is
the God. Why? Because if I make this tool,
and I can say, I did it, I made my God, I used him as my tool,
I fulfilled whatever I was supposed to, that means I received the
glory that is reserved for God. Covetous, covetous of the glory
of God, and the chief evil we have is the evil against God,
our natural hatred of him. Well, look at this, look at verse
three. Lord says, therefore, thus saith the Lord, behold,
against this family, this group, do I devise an evil. He said, you devised evil against
me. I'm gonna devise evil against you. An eye for an eye, a tooth
for a tooth, a life for a life, from which ye shall not remove
your necks. You won't be able to escape this.
You won't be able to do anything to save yourself. Neither shall
you go haughtily, for this time is evil. Verse four. In that day shall one take up
a parable against you. So what is the judgment against
these people? He says, they're gonna sing songs about you and mock you.
In that day shall one take up a parable against you and lament
with a doleful lamentation and say, we be utterly spoiled. He
hath changed the portion of my people. How hath he removed it
from me? Turning away. He hath divided our fields. And you know what? Every man
without exception will find that to be the case one day. I am
utterly spoiled. I have nothing. All my righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. I have no ability to make my
peace with God. I have no way of working off
my sin debt. I have no way of appeasing this
holy God. Everybody eventually is going
to find that out. For a lost man, he finds out
too late. After it's over, after his neck
is already stretched out, then he finds out, but it's too late.
What a blessing after Jacob, we find that out in this life
before it's too late. The Lord reveals Christ to us.
He reveals the Godhead to us. In all His holiness, in all His
righteousness, in His perfect sense of justice, in standing
the light of who He is, it shines on us and says, I'm utterly spoiled.
I don't have anything. There's nothing I can bring to
the table. I've got nothing. I need a Savior. I need a representative
to get my inheritance for me. What a blessing for Jacob. Go
on reading, verse five. Therefore, thou shall have none
that shall cast accord by lot in the congregation of the Lord. Still speaking to these lost
men, and this is a reference back to the time of Joshua. They
had just come into the land of Canaan. As many of their enemies
as the Lord was going to defeat were defeated, and now it was
time to divvy up the country, right? Each one of the heads
of the tribes would send a representative. portion was reserved for their
family. The head would go up, Josh would say, here's your portion.
It's from this coast to this coast, down to this edge, down
to that edge. The representative would go up,
he would get the inheritance, and then he would bring it back
down to his people. And he'd say, all right, here you go.
Smiths, you guys are over here. You get those 60 acres. And you
Johnsons, you go over here. This is your land right over
here. This is the land the Lord has given you. I, you, a representative,
went up there, and I got your inheritance for you. He's saying
to these people, these lost, you don't have a representative.
You don't have anybody to go up there and get your inheritance
for you. And he says this, in verse six, prophesy ye not, say to them
that prophesy, they shall not prophesy to them, that they shall
not take shame. Here's the last thing he has
to say about these lost folk right here. He says, and they
hate, my gospel and my son. If they're preached to of him
and of his gospel and his grace, they say, don't tell me that
anymore. I don't want to hear that anymore.
That speaks to my shame. And the gospel certainly does
shame men. It presents the Lord Jesus Christ
where he is on high, and it puts man where he is down in the dirt. It says, don't tell me this.
Don't tell me that I am so utterly depraved and unable that I have
sent away all my rights, that I am in the hand of a sovereign
God, and it is up to him what he will do with me, and my only
hope is that he sent his son to put away my sins and make
me perfect before that God. Don't tell me that. That speaks
to my shame. That means I'm not in control.
That means I'm a sinner. Do not tell me that. The Lord
says they don't want to hear that, so you know what? They're
not gonna hear it. I'm not gonna cause them to hear
it. Now, he's gonna transition. That's
every man. That's as we're born in this
world, this is particularly the lost man. But now he's gonna speak
to Jacob, God's elect. Go to verse seven. O thou that
art named the house of Jacob. He has three questions, listen
to these. Is the spirit of the Lord straightened? Are these
his doings? Do not my words do good to him
that walketh uprightly? You know what he's saying? He's
saying this, Jacob, Men are absolutely evil, completely
and utterly depraved. Is this outside my control? Does this warp my purpose in
any way? Does not my word do good to them
who walk uprightly? Jacob, for those that I have
purposed to uprightness in my son, even though they don't want
to hear it and they hate him and they hate his gospel, can
I not seek them out? and bring it to them, and make
them to love it, and make them to receive it, and make them
to love my son, and make them to believe upon my son. To take
these folks who utterly and absolutely hated me and my house, to go
to them where they're at, and make them to love the one they
formerly hated, and to believe upon that one they formerly would
not believe upon. Do I not have that power? And
Jacob answers, yea, Lord, you do. He's like, you're right.
because that's exactly what I had to do for you. Look at verse
eight. Even of late, as early as yesterday
is what that means. Even of late, my people is risen
up as an enemy. You pull off the robe with a
garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war.
Jacob, you were no different. I found you in the exact same
place you had made yourself my enemy. You hated me. You wanted
nothing to do with me. You wanted nothing to do with
my gospel. You wanted nothing to do with my son. You kicked against
the pricks the entire way. You were no different. Verse
nine. The women of my people have you
cast out from their pleasant houses. From their children have
you taken away my glory forever. Think about how wicked this is.
He's talking about widows and orphans. He says, you've done
this, Jacob. This is what your works amount
to. You went to widows, those who were defenseless, who were
impoverished, and because you wanted their house, you kicked
them out. And you took over because you could, because they were
vulnerable. Orphans who had no father, had no one to take care
of them. You displaced them because you wanted what little they had.
How evil is that? Jacob, you were no different
than anybody else. Your work's just as evil, just
as crooked. I wanna make a point of this
too, folks. It's not that I was evil, then the Lord saved me,
and I'm not, no. Paul said this, he said, oh,
wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? When the Lord visits us and he
reveals himself to us, you get a new man, a holy man, a perfect
man, that man who loves God, who loves Christ, who believes
the gospel. But folks, that old man is still there. What did
he say? He said, even of late, as early
as yesterday, how long-suffering is he to Jacob that he would
put up with us in that state? Jacob, you're no different than
anybody else. Look down here at verse 10. He
says, arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest. Because
it is polluted, it shall destroy you even with a sore destruction.
What is not our rest? Any hope in yourself. Jacob,
you were just like everybody else. You're just as wicked.
Don't look to yourself for anything. Don't find any comfort in yourself.
Don't for one second think there was something special about you
that attracted the grace of God, had nothing to do with you, and
had everything to do with who you always have been in. That's it, you're no different
than anybody else. What is our rest? Look in Christ. simply trusting him that he has
done everything that is necessary to make us perfect for his father.
He says that this is not to rest any hope in yourself. And he
puts what I'd probably call as a final dig at him. Look at verse
11. He says, if a man walking in
the spirit of falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto
thee of wine and strong drink, he shall even be the prophet
of this people. That's strange language, but here's what he's
saying. He's saying, Jacob, Don't even think for a second you get
any credit for faith, or for repentance, or for receiving
the gospel. Because if I would have left
you to yourself and not done something for you and intervened
on your behalf, let you pick your own prophet and your own
message, you know who you would have picked? A guy who lied. Somebody who prophesied to you
about wine and strong drink, wine, linen, and salt, health,
wealth, and prosperity, how to live a better life. And he would
never touch on the things of God. You don't get credit for
any of that, Jacob. The only reason you believe is
because I gave you faith. The only reason you repent is
because I brought you to repentance. The only reason you willingly
bowed the knee is because I conquered you and I made you to do what
you would not do before. The only reason you love God
is because I gave you that love and I first loved you. You get
no credit in this thing, Jacob, whatsoever. Now he's contrasting
these two bodies, a lost man and Jacob, the elect of God,
and what's his point? What's the difference, humanly? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Jacob is a heel. He is absolutely
nothing. But there are differences here.
Two are pointed out. He said two things to this lost
group that he did not say to Jacob. You know what they were?
To the lost man, he said this. You don't have a representative.
You don't have anybody to go up and get your inheritance for
you. And he said this to the lost man. You devise an evil
against me, so I devise an evil against you. He said neither
one of those things to Jacob. You want to know why? Because
Jacob has a representative. We have one to go up before us
and secure our inheritance for us. And while it's absolutely
true, we devised an evil against the Lord, he devises absolutely
no evil toward us. You wanna know why? Because the
evil we deserve, he poured out on our representative. What makes
the difference? Jacob, why you? Because you have
a representative. You wanna read about it? Verse
13 of the text. The breaker is come up before
them. That breaker, folks, that is
not a mechanical device, that is not a tool, that is a man,
that is a God-man. The breaker, Jacob, has come
up before you, and that is so important. He's always been before
us. He was before us in that covenant
of grace, before we had any knowledge that we even were. He was there
taking responsibility for us as our surety. He's before us
in justification, in sanctification, in regeneration, in preservation. He is before us right now, before
his father as our great high priest making intercession for
us. The breaker, Jacob, this is the reason. The breaker, this
is the only reason. He came up before you, before
you ever sinned. He was the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world for you. The breaker. Go on reading. The
breaker has come up before them. They have broken up and have
passed through the gate and are gone out by it. and their king
shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them." What's
he talking about? What's the illustration there?
Imagine a prison-like structure. Big, thick concrete walls, five
feet thick, go up for half a mile, smooth. Inside, people trapped,
diseased, famished, thirsty, besieged. Enemies on the outside,
fears on the inside. And you see people, they go,
and they kick at the wall. They're kicking at them concrete
walls. They're throwing rocks at it. They're clawing at it.
We've got to find a way out. There's no doors. It's just solid
concrete all the way around them. Some of them try to scale it.
They try to climb up. It's too high. They just slide back down,
fall down to the ground. Everybody is hopeless. Everyone
is helpless. We can't get out. Then all of
a sudden, the breaker emerges. The hero emerges, and everyone
else is hopeless and helpless, losing their minds. Calm, collected,
his face set like flint. Determined, the breaker, muscle-bound,
steps up. And he says to all the people,
come here. Gathers everybody together. Follow
me. And he busts through that wall
and runs straight through it. And everybody with him, they
run in right behind him. and everybody comes out the other
side. All those convicts, free, set
at liberty. Why? Because there was one man
who could break through. And when he broke through, everybody
who was with him, they broke through as well. That's Christ
our breaker. Now, turn to Ephesians chapter
two. We'll finish here. Ephesians has a great commentary
on this. It's exactly what it's talking about. Ephesians 2, look at verse 14. Paul begins with this. In verse
14, he says, for he is our peace. You know, you could say so much
about that. That's his purpose. Christ, our breaker, broke into
this world when God was made man. He came and he was born
of a woman, and God inhabited human flesh. He broke into this
physical world, being made a man. And this is what Paul says when
he prophesied of the Lord Jesus Christ, Isaiah 9, 6. I'm saying
Isaiah said this. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and a government shall be upon his shoulder, and
his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the
everlasting father, the prince of peace. It all begins here
with his purpose of making peace for somebody. Well, who is he
going to make peace for? For he is our peace, who hath
made both one. You know what I was talking about?
I was talking about his people, but it's worded in a very interesting
way. He's talking about Jews and Gentiles. He said, who are
my people? They're people who are scattered
abroad. Amongst every kindred, tongue, tribe, and nation, I
have come to make their peace with God. Why does peace need
to be made? Go on reading. For he is our
peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle
wall of partition between us. What's the wall? What is it that separated us
from our God? You're right, Mike. Next verse,
verse 15. Having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, the anger, and the appeased wrath of God, even the
law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in
himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and that he
might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby. Now, interesting language, but
he says that wall consists of two things. Your breaking of
God's holy law, and eat righteous and holy anger and wrath of God
for your sin, for the breaking of that law. That's what that
law consisted of. And he says this, he abolished
the law of commandments. What does he mean by that? How
did the law get put away? Because it says that, believer,
you're not under law, you're under grace. The law has been
put away. How did he abolish that law? Well, the law has two
demands concerning a man. Number one, You have to have
kept it. You have to have kept it perfectly. Every single time,
with every action, with every thought, both inside and outside,
your entire life, you have to have kept it. Being made a man
and being made in union with his people, he kept the law perfectly,
and folks, that's what we needed, too. But the law has another
man. If the law has been broken, the
man who broke it must be punished. Satisfaction has to be made for
sin. He was made the sins of his people.
He bore them in his body on the tree. He suffered and died, having
taken those sins away. What happened? If there is no
more sin, there is no more what? There's no more wall. There is
no more separation between the elect and their God. That wall of separation has been
removed. The law is put away. It is satisfied
on both ends. It has been kept. Punishment
has been meted out. It is over. The wrath of God
has been assuaged, and now Nothing separates us from the love of
God in the Lord Jesus Christ, absolutely nothing. And I love
this, what it says here. It doesn't just stop and say
the Lord did something for us. He does something in us too.
He goes, having made of twain one new man. Yes, he did something
for us and he does something in us. He gives us a new man,
a new nature. We would not be meet for fellowship
with God without it. And we're just waiting for the
day that we put off this flesh, and that new man is the only
thing that lives on, and we are completely meat for fellowship
with God, not having this old man to drag us down. Look at
this, verse 17. And came and preached peace to
you, which were far off, and the knower not. You know who
that is? That's Christ the breaker of
your heart. He came, came to you, Jacob,
and preached peace to you. Peace only found in Christ Jesus.
It is finished. There is complete peace. The
war is over. The battle has been fought. The
wall has been busted through, and you receive that as good
news. And you love that one who is your breaker, and you believed
on that one who is your breaker. Why? There's nothing natural
about that. Why? Because he broke your heart. He came in, and he broke in,
and he set up shop. He doesn't knock on the hard
store. He's not waiting for a man to let him in. It's all foolishness.
If he wants a man, he conquers it. He breaks that heart. And
that which you hated before, you now love. And that whom you
would not believe upon before, you now believe upon. And finally
this, verse 18. For through him, we both have
access by one spirit unto the Father. He is broken forth back
into heaven, and he sits there as our great high priest. And now we have full access to
God in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't think we get this. We don't enjoy it the way we
should. Right now, if you're a believer, God is not angry
at you in any way. The father holds nothing against
you. You are his child. You have free access to God in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are in him. Christ
goes before his father. His father is pleased with him. He is just as pleased with you
because you are in him. We have free access to God in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this intercession is an intercession
that will never end. that access will never end. He
will continually be Christ our breaker, that one who has broken
forth and sits as our advocate, even now this day. Now, how do you end this? How
do you end this? Jacob, evil, spoiled, having
nothing. This one who is so desperately
wicked, if that's you, Just a wicked man who can't come up with the
goods. Understand this, you have a representative. You have one
who has went and got your inheritance for you. His name's the breaker,
Christ Jesus, and he has already broken through. It is finished.
Now what? What do you do with the rest
of your days? Be grateful. Worship. Be thankful. Tell other people. But this,
rest. Rest. Don't look for anything
else. Don't look anywhere else. What
we're doing right now, looking to Christ and Him crucified alone,
continue right there and rest. And folks, if you're Jacob, you
are because you can't be lost.