with a missionary. When you're
thinking about special gifts like some of you do, I know the
need, I know where it's needed, I know what's being done with
it. I've visited every single missionary we have except the
one in France, and he visited us. So I know them and I stay
constantly in touch. I'm going to look at Micah 7,
the scripture that I thought I was going to say, when you
have something you like to send, let me visit with you on it.
And I know some things that are needed. I know where they're
needed. Micah the prophet. If you turn
to Jeremiah 26, we see them talk about Micah the prophet. Let's look at that just a moment.
Jeremiah 26, verse 18 and 19. Jeremiah 26, 18, 19. Here is
Jeremiah talking about it. He prophesied about 750 B.C. Micah, the Moresphite, prophesied
in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, spake to all the people
of Judah, saying, Thus said the Lord of hosts, Zion shall be
plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountains
of the house as the high places of the forest. So there's the
Old Testament prophet Jeremiah giving notice to this man Micah. And
then in Matthew chapter 2, now Micah prophesied of the incarnation
of Christ. Look at Matthew chapter 2. Micah
prophesied of Christ. He has a lot to say about the
Messiah. But Micah prophesied more clearly than any other prophet
where the Messiah would be born, where the Messiah would be born.
Now listen to Matthew 2 verse 1. Now when Jesus was born in
Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there
came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he
that is born king of the Jews? We have seen his star in the
east, and come to worship him. Well, when Herod the king heard
these things, he was troubling all Jerusalem with him. And when
he gathered the chief priests and scribes of the people together,
he demanded of them where Christ would be born. Now, I'm going
to read the verse. Let me say something before I
read it. Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, the weeping
prophet, testified of Micah. Now, in the New Testament, the
scribes and Pharisees point back to Micah. So we listen to Micah. So here, look at the next verse.
And they said, In Bethlehem of Judea, for this it is written
by the prophet, And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not
the least among the princes of Judah. For out of thee shall
come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. Now let's turn
to Micah. In chapter 5 of Micah, that's
the prophecy. in Micah 5, verse 2. This is what they are quoting,
Thou bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands
of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth, that is to be
ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old,
from everlasting. Therefore will he give them up,
until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth,
then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children
of Israel." Micah, 750 B.C., prophesying that Christ would
be born of the tribe of Judah, of the house and lineage of David
in Bethlehem. Now, we were reading this Micah,
and I read chapter 7, and I thought, this is today. You listen to
our Bible reading, this is not only 750 B.C., this is today. So let's look at it for a few
moments. He says, Woe is me, woe is me, unhappy man that I
am, to live in such an ungodly age among people who do not know
God. Woe is me, for I am as when they
had gathered the summer fruits. In other words, he's saying harvest
is ended, summer's ended. And there's not but one apple
left on the tree, the rest of them are gone. Not but one pear left at the
top of the tree, the rest of them are gone. They're gathered
with summer fruits. And as the great greenings of
the vintage. There's a few simple grapes here
and there, but there's not many. There's no cluster to eat. It's no big cluster, it has a
great layout. Summer's over, harvest is over.
It's just one apple, one pear, two or three grapes. And no large number of godly
men and women today. No large number of men proclaiming
the gospel of God's grace. No large great congregations
meeting here and there and lifting up praise to a sovereign God.
But there's one here, and one there, and one yonder. Seems
like the summer's over. Harvest has passed. He said,
My soul desired the first ripe fruit, the days of the first
fruits. He said, I look back, I look
back when godly men and women ruled in Israel. When there were
men like Moses, Joshua, and Abraham, and David, and all of his men,
they were plentiful. Godly men, godly kingdom, the
first ripe fruits, the days of the first fruits. The days of
the apostles we think about, the days of the great reformers,
the Newtons, and Watts, and Whitefield, and Spurgeon, and Gill, and Knox,
and Baxter, and just keep naming them. Big congregations of people
all over Europe. France, Germany, Scotland, Knox,
England. Company of the redeemed. The
days of the apostles and reformers and great churches is gone. And
he says in verse 2, the good man is perished out of the earth.
Good men. Now the Lord always has here
and there yonder a few good men. Faithful servants, faithful pastors,
faithful preachers, faithful brethren, faithful elders, faithful
deacons, believers. There's some. The Lord always
has his witness. He never leaves himself without
a witness. But today, a large number of good men are
hard to find. Men who have a great work of
grace in their hearts, men who know and love and worship and
praise the living God. Good men, good men, strong men,
men of principle, men of honesty and integrity who do their duty
to God and to their families and to others, motivated by love
and godly principles. That's what he's saying, the
good man's perished out of the earth. More upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood.
They're all greedy and covetous and selfish. They hire every
man his brother with a net. Is that not today? Is that not
our country? I'm saying there's some. But
he described it just like the days when the harvest is over.
There's one here and an apple there and a few grapes here and
there. You're good men. You men who
work out in the public. You folks who teach school. People
you deal with. Are there very many good men?
Are there very many godly women? Are there very many godly young
people? People walk in the streets and do them. Is this not true?
They lie in wait for blood. They hunt every man that's a
neighbor with a net, his brother. Look at verse 3. That they may
do evil with both hands earnestly. The prince asketh. Who's the
prince? He's the king. In Mexico, the mayor of Mexico,
I was down there, who just got put him out of office, embezzled
40 million dollars. They've got him up in trial now.
Chief of police, 75 million dollars. Yes, embezzlers. The kings, embezzlers,
crooks, the kings, they ask you, what are they asking? Asking
under the table for, that's what they're asking, their bribes.
Everybody's got their price. And the judge, the judge, the
man on the bench, who's supposed to enforce the law, he asks you
for a bribe, a reward. I'll do this for you if you pay
me. And the great man, the senators
and congressmen, that's all three of our branches
of government. The executive, the prince. The
judicial, the judge. The great man, the senators. And all of them utter their mischievous
desires. And you know what he says here?
So they wrap it up. What's that mean, they wrap it up? They wrap
it up together. They're in cahoots. They wrap it up. They're working
together. The king and the judges and the
priest and the religious man. And the legislators, they wrap
it up together. In Mexico, there's the very,
very, very wealthy and the very, very, very poor. And these people
up here in political power keep it that way. Because they are
all bribed. The best of them is a briar. The most upright is sharper than
a farm hedge. The day of thy watchman and thy
visitation cometh, now shall be their perplexity. So, he says
in verse 5, you can't trust. Not many folks. Not many can
you trust. He says trust you not in a friend. Friends betray friends. They
betray friends. They betray them. And Micah does
not say this, trust you not in a friend. Listen to me. Michael
doesn't say this to lessen the value of friendship. Friendship
is valuable among true friends. Trusted friends. A friend that,
like Christ, sticketh closer than a brother. And he's not
discouraging the cultivation of friendship among believers.
But you bear in mind, true friends are the gift of God. And true
friendship is one of the greatest blessings of life. But just because
a man says I'm your friend doesn't mean he's your friend. That's
what he's saying. Prove them. Prove them. Trust. Don't just put your eggs in a
basket and turn it over to somebody you don't know. That's what he's
saying. Because you can't trust them. Don't trust. Put not ye confidence in a guide. Who is this? This guide. These
are princes and judges. Those folks we talked about in
verse 3. Great people. Sometime they're awful small
people. Counselors, they seek their own. Now watch this, keep
the doors of your mouth from hermit life in your bosom. Even
wives and husbands betray one another. They leave their first love.
Their love turns to hate and they hurt one another. They expose and spite and vengeance
What do you say? What are the possibilities of
the world out there married to somebody in you? He says here,
keep the doors of your mouth from having life in your bosom.
What about 50%? That's how many divorced them
now. And it gets ugly, doesn't it? Some of you been there. It gets ugly. For the son dishonors his father,
this is his day and this is how the son dishonors his father. Very little respect now between boys and their fathers. They
speak rudely to them. They show no respect to their
fathers. They make them the object of
ridicule, laugh at their fathers. Fathers ought to be honored.
The old Jews called the father the patriarch. He was always
honored. Always the grandfather and the
father were always honored, held in high esteem. But that's not
true today. Fathers ought to be not only
honored, but they ought to be obeyed by those they brought
up and fed and clothed and provided for. This is base ingratitude. that God will deal with someday.
Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long on
the land which the Lord thy God giveth you. You don't honor them,
God will deal with you. That's right. And he should. Son dishonors fathers. That's
unnatural. That's ungodly. But look at the
next, the daughter rises up against her mother. Daughters rising
up against their mothers? They're mothers who bore them.
They're mothers who gave them life. They're mothers who through
pain brought them into the world. They're mothers who nursed them
and clothed them and fed them and sacrificed and protected
them and taught them in the most tender fashion. A girl, a girl
rising up against her mother. John Gill said this. If any girl
in this congregation this evening is guilty of this, I want you
to hear what Mr. Gill said. Because the Lord made
girls and women to be the most tender, compassionate, and loving
of his creatures. That's what he made you all.
Girls and women are God's tender and most loving and most compassionate
among human beings. for a female rebel to turn against
her own mother, who, and scold her, and disobey her, and wrangle
her, and curse her, and use harsh language, Gil says, is the most
unnatural creature of all. That which God made to be the
most tender becomes the most abusive. And he said, that's
the most unnatural. Isn't that so? Fathers dishonor,
sons dishonor fathers. Daughters rise up against their
mother. Daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law. These tender
girls and tender mothers rise up against them. And a man's
enemies of his own house? Man ought not have any enemies
in his house. A man's enemies among his sons?
Among his servants whom he pays? and provides for those who work
for him? I've seen a crew at the steel
mill rebel against a foreman. I've seen in the service a platoon
rebel against a sergeant or a petty officer. Rebellious! Because
they have the authority, they've just got to hate them. They hate
God, that's the reason. They hate all authority. And all office staff, here's
an office staff, here's people working, here's a man who hired
and they hate him. People who should be honored,
their property defended, their cause promoted, their interest
promoted, instead those very people who have to promote them,
persecute them. You know something? That's the
study of it. You know, you work in public
works. You move among folks. Well, verse 7. Here comes some sunshine. Therefore, this being the case,
this being the condition of my world, I look to the Lord. Here the prophet speaks for himself
and speaks for the church and speaks for the people of God
and declares what we will do in these evil days, what we will
do under these conditions and circumstances. We are going to
look to the Lord. We're not going to look to men, we're going to
look to him. The Son of God as our shepherd, who's the true
God in eternal life. We're going to look to him. We're
going to look to him who's the lamb, our redeemer, who takes
away our sins. We're going to look to him, our
mediator, our advocate, our high priest in his precious blood.
We're going to look to him as the Lord, our righteousness,
sanctification and holiness. We're going to look to Him, the
Lord, our Redeemer, our forerunner who has entered within the veil,
I'll look to Him. When? When in darkness, He's
my light. When I'm weak, He's my strength. When I'm sick, He's my physician. When I'm hungry, He's my bread. When in trial, He's my comfort. But I'm not only look to him,
but look at the next line, and I call this the language of faith.
This is the title of this message, the language of faith. I look
to him, I look to the Lord, from whom I receive all things. I
lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help. My
help cometh from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. But I'm
not only look to him, I'm going to wait for him. I'm going to
wait for the God of my salvation. That's the one for whom I wait,
the God of my salvation, the sovereign God of my salvation.
When he seems to hide himself, and I've experienced that, haven't
you? Where is the Lord? I'm still going to wait. I'll
wait for the light of his countenance. When he doesn't seem to hear
my prayers, I'll still wait until he does. When the days and the
months and the years pass and the promise is not fulfilled,
I wait till it is. When others attempt to turn aside,
I'm going to wait on him. When others change their message
and adopt means and weapons of the flesh, I wait on the God
of my salvation. Why? He'll hear me. That's the language of faith. In all of this around me, the
corruption, the cesspool of iniquity in human flesh, I'm going to
look to him and I'm going to wait on him because he'll hear
me. He'll hear me. Old brother A.D. Mews who preached here in 1954,
some of you remember brother Mews. preached in our first conference,
you remember, in 1954. He died in 1954, a few months
after he preached here. He was 64 years old. But in 1926
he pastored in shallow Mississippi and he had one son, Ralph. He
told me this, told me this story. He said he was going away in
a meeting and Ralph was going to celebrate his 13th or 14th
birthday. And he was going to miss his
boy's birthday, he was going to be gone two weeks. And he said, now Ralph,
it's 1926. He said, I'm going to get you
a hunting rifle. He loved to hunt. Get you a new
hunting rifle and I'll mail it to you. I'll send it to you by
mail. And so, he left. And Ralph waited. And he went
down to the post office every day after his dad left. Every
day. Looking for that gun. But it didn't come. He went Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, didn't come. His mother, his mother tried
to prepare him for disappointment. She said, now your dad might
have gotten busy and a whole lot of things going on and she
kind of got him ready, but she couldn't budge him. He said,
my dad promised that rifle, it'll be here. That's the way he said
it. It'll be here. Well, the birthday
day came. And instead of going to the post
office, he went to the train station. When the mail came in
on the morning train, the afternoon train, he went down and met the
train and the postman was there to get the mail back. And Ralph
was standing there by him when he got the mail back. He said,
see if my Ralph was in there. And the man opened up and he
said, Ralph is not here. Didn't faze him. He went home.
There was another train coming in. He went down that afternoon,
met that afternoon train. There was the mailman waiting
on the mail. Got the bag. He said, sit my
rifles in there. He opened it up, pulled it out.
I told you, he said. I told you, went over his mouth.
I told you my daddy sent my rifle. And that's what he's saying right
here. I'm going to look to him. I'm going to wait on him. Till the last train comes in.
Cause he'll hear me. He'll hear me. His promise is
sure as his throne. So verse 8, don't rejoice against
me, my enemy. Don't rejoice against me. No
matter how little you see me, don't rejoice against me. No
matter how weak you find me, don't rejoice against me. When
I fall, I'll rise. I'll rise when I fall. And I
will. I'll fumble. I'll fail. I'll
stumble. But by his grace, I'll rise.
When I sit in darkness, discouraged and weary, He'll be a light to
me. Whither shall I flee from thy
presence? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there. If I make my
bed in the grave, thou art there. If I take the wings in the morning,
dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, thou art there. Even
the night will be light about me. I say, surely the darkness
will cover me. The darkness is light unto him. Think about that. The darkness
is light. And listen to this next verse,
verse 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord. because I've sinned
against him. Who's talking here? Micah, the
believer, the prophet, the child of God. If God doesn't hear me,
if God chastens me, if God afflicts me, if God deals with me in indignation,
like my father did many times, I'm going to bury him, because
I deserve it. Don't you wish our kids would
say that? You have to spank them. I deserve it. But we do. I'm going to bow down to the
nation of the Lord because I've sinned against him. I've sinned
against him. So all believers do. Sin is the
cause and reason for all our distress. Sin is the cause and
reason for all our troubles, spiritual or temporal. So what
we ought to do is submit humbly and patiently to all the chastening
of the Heavenly Father. I'll bear the indignation of
the Lord because of sin against him, and I'll bear it until he
pleads my cause, until he executes judgment from me, and he's going
to bring me forth to the light, and I'm going to behold his righteousness." Turn over there just a moment. Job 23.10. Brother Scott Richardson
had cancer. The doctor told him he had to
be operated on. He said, don't want to. He said, well, if you
want to live, you have to be, because you're going to die.
And it was a painful, painful, painful situation. And he said,
the Lord led me to this verse of scripture, Job 23.10. He knoweth
the way I take. He knoweth the way I take, that
I take. And when he hath tried me, I'll
come forth as gold. And that's what that verse is
saying right there in verse 9, I will bear the indignation of
my Lord because I've sinned against him. And I'll bear till he pleads
my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me to the
light and I shall behold his likeness. I shall awake with
his likeness. Then she that's my enemy will see it. Our enemies
are going to see God's people vindicated. God's going to vindicate
his people. And their enemies are going to see it. And shame
is going to cover her who has said to me, Where's your God?
Where's the Lord your God? He said, That's what they say
to me, but God's going to vindicate me and they're going to see who
my God is. Mine eyes will behold them, her. Now shall she be trodden down
as the mire in the streets. In the day that thy walls are
to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed. In
that day Also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from
the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river,
and from the sea to the sea, from mountain to mountain. Notwithstanding,
the land shall be desolate, because of them that dwell therein for
thee, for the fruit of their doings." God is going to deal
with this well. because of the fruit of their
doings. Now, the prophet prays to God. Listen to verse 14, I'll
let you go in a moment. This is the prophet praying to
God. The word, feed thy people with thy rod, is rule thy people
with thy rod. You don't feed them with a rod,
you rule them with a rod. Rule your people with your rod.
The flock of your heritage, the sheep, shepherd and his sheep,
which dwell solitarily in the wood in the midst of Carmel,
let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old." You know
what he's referring to here? He says, Lord, rule your people
with your rod and feed them like you did when Joshua took them
down into Canaan, down into Gilead and Bashan. You remember reading
about that land of milk and honey? Oh my goodness alive. They came
out of the wilderness right into the land of milk and honey. He
said, now feed them today like you did then. Feed your people
today like you did in days of old, when Joshua was leading
them into the promised land. So God speaks, verse 15, the
Lord speaks. According to the days of thy
coming out of the land of Egypt, will I show unto him marvelous
The Lord says this in verse 15. He says, as the deliverance out
of Egypt into the land of promise was the work of God, so shall
the redemption of his people in Christ be the work of God,
and it will be marvelously greater. Far more wonderful. The deliverance from Egypt to the land of milk and honey
was nothing. The prosperity of the kingdom
of Israel, nothing compared to what God's going to do for you
and me every day. Nothing. You ain't seen nothing
yet. That's what the Lord's saying. You talk about Israel and redemption
from Egypt and the land of milk, you ain't seen nothing. I'm going
to do marvelous things. And my enemies, listen, verse
16, the nations are going to see it. And they're going to
be confounded, ashamed of all their might. Verse 16. They'll
lay their hands on their mouths. They'll be speechless. Their
ears will be deaf. They're going to lick the dust.
Their enemies are going to lick the dust like a serpent. They're
going to move out of their holes like worms of their creeping
things. They're going to be afraid of
the Lord our God and in fear because of these. They're going
to cry out to the rocks and mountains that fall on them. hide them
from the face of him that sitteth on the throne." Then he closes the chapter and
the book with praise and adoration of our merciful God. Who is a
God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage, retaineth not his anger? Aren't
you glad? forever, because he delights
in mercy. He will turn again, he will have
compassion on us, he will subdue our iniquities, and he will cast
all our sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform
the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn
to our fathers from the days of old. Who is a God like unto
our God? I pray that's a blessing to you.