The title of my message this
morning is, A Message for the Times. A Message for the Times. Holding your place there at Micah,
I want you to turn with me to Isaiah chapter 3. Recently a preacher friend of
mine called me asked me where that portion of Scripture was.
It described what's going on in this world like it was a newspaper
reading, and I told them it was Isaiah chapter 3. Isaiah chapter
3. It says, For behold the LORD,
the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from
Judah the stay and the staff, that's the basics of life, the whole stay of bread and the
whole stay of water, so that men are hungry and thirsty. He takes away from them the mighty
man, the man of valor and of courage, the man of war The judge,
that is the judge who judges right, is passed off the scene. The prophet and the prudent,
the person who acts wisely and makes rational and reasonable
decisions. He's taken away the ancient. He's taken away the captain of
50 and the honorable man. and the counselor, and the cunning
artificer, and the eloquent orator. And I will give children, he
says, to be their princes." That doesn't mean actual children,
little babies. It means grown-ups who act like
children. To be their princes, to be their
rulers, to be their governors. Babes shall rule over them. Those whose interest is totally
self-interest shall rule over them. That's what a baby is.
A baby is called egocentric. That means it thinks everything
is about itself. Nothing registers except what
it wants and what it needs and that's what it is. And that's
the kind of person God says He'll give to rule over His people. And the people shall be oppressed,
every one by another, every one by his neighbor. And a child
shall behave himself proudly against the ancient. A lot of
that going on today. Isn't that right, teachers? And you can't do anything about
it, can you? They did something about it when I was a kid. I
actually got my mouth mashed by a teacher one time. She smacked
me in the mouth. Well, I deserved it. I got my
rear end paddled a whole lot by teachers and principals when
I was growing up, and I deserved every one I got. But I learned some lessons early
on, and I taught them to my children. If they're ever disrespectful
to adults, they can count on getting a whipping. Just going
to be that way. He said this was going to be
commonplace. Commonplace. The base that is the crooked
and the wicked and the vile is going to be against the honorable. And when a man shall take hold
of his brother, of his house, of his father, saying, Thou hast
clothing, be thou our ruler, The person who has means, the
person who dresses nice, the person who has a good appearance.
You rule us because you look good. You look good. And they'll say, let this ruin
be under thy hand. You rule and you take responsibility. And in that day shall he swear,
the one who's been asked to rule, I will not be a healer, for in
my house is neither bread nor clothing. Make me not a ruler
of the people. For Jerusalem is ruined, and
Judah is fallen, because their tongue and their doings against
the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His glory, to show of their
countenance, the show of their countenance as witness against
them. And they declare their sin as Sodom, and hide it not. Woe unto their soul, for they
have rewarded evil unto themselves. That sounds so familiar, doesn't
it? The next words are very pleasant
to me. For it says, in the face of all
that, say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with them.
It shall be well with them, and they shall eat of the fruit of
their doings. But say to the wicked, It shall
not be well with thee, for the word of thy hands shall be given
him." As describes a horrible state of political affairs and
state affairs in the nation of Israel and every nation that
God has judged. We come again to Micah. Israel
is again in captivity for their sins. And he watches as everything
seems to be fading away. Benjamin Keech wrote a book called
The Types and Pictures of the Bible. And it's a great work,
it really is. If you could get a hold of it,
I don't even know if it's in print anymore. But one of the things
he said when he talked about today being the day of our salvation,
He said, you know a day is ending when it's suddenly more dark
than light, when the heat leaves and the cool takes over, when
the ravening wolves come out to devour the flock, and when
the laborers are called home from the field. All those things
are happening in the day in which we live. And so Micah looks at this state and he says, Woe is me! Woe is
me! And he gives a metaphorical description
of what's taking place or what he talks about in verse 2. Actually, verse 2 all the way
through down to verse 6. He says, Woe is me, for I am
as when they have gathered the summer fruits. As the grape gleanings
of the vintage, there is no cluster to eat. My soul desires the first
ripe fruit." Now, he's not talking about eating fruit. He's talking
about something down to the last bit. Like it's spoken of in Exodus,
don't shake the olive tree anymore if there's only three or four
olives left on the tree. Just don't bother. He's talking
about the time that's past harvest when the few grape clusters that
have been missed or the few apples or pomegranates that have been
missed have now fallen to the ground and are of no use to anyone
because they're rotting and dying. There's a few left, but there's
nothing to them. They amount to nothing. He's
talking about losing people of God to have fellowship with. That's what he's talking about.
Look over at Hosea chapter 9. That's a few books back, right after Daniel. Hosea 9 and verse 10, I found
Israel like grapes in the wilderness, I saw your fathers as the first
ripe in the fig tree at her first time, but they went to Baal Peor
and separated themselves into shame, and their abominations
was according as they loved." And he said, before they did
that, they were like grapes in the wilderness. The fellowship
was sweet and there was plenty to eat and there was plenty to
do. And now he goes on to say in the explanation back in our
text, the good man, that's the many grapes that were there,
the many apples and the many figs that were there before they
went to Belpeo, the good man is perished out of the earth.
And there is none upright among men. They all lie in wait for
blood. They are murderers at heart.
They all lie in wait for blood. They hunt every man, his brother,
with a net. They intend to ensnare their
brethren. Isn't that what Paul said about
the Judaizers who came down to Galatia? He said they spy out
our liberty so they can ensnare us. so they can ensnare us. He goes on to say in description
of these who would ensnare men, he said, that they may do evil
with both hands earnestly. The prince asketh and the judge
asketh for reward. Justice and honor have a price. And if you pay the price, you
get the kind of justice you want. The great man, The man who is
held in high esteem, he uttereth his message of his desire so
they can just encase everyone and envelop everyone in their
horrible plots, their horrible play. The best of them is as
a briar. It means you get near them, you're
going to get stuck. We used to have a pyracantha
bush. And if you ever want to keep robbers from coming in your
windows, get a pyracantha bush and plant it under your window.
Nobody makes it through a pyracantha bush. Nobody. Horriblest thorns
you've ever seen. They start out real tiny and
sharp like the end of a needle. Then they get about half the
size of a pencil down at the bottom. And they got little burrs
that go the other way. You can't get them out. They're
hard to get out. I stuck one in my eye one time. You get near that bush, I'd be
mowing. There's that bush. I was always
looking at that bush, making sure I didn't get too close.
But occasionally I took my eyes off the bush. Sure enough, I'd
get stuck with one of them big briars. He said, this is what
men are like. Don't trust them. You can't get
close to them. They'll stick you. They're like briars. They're like briars. He said,
and that's the best of them, not the worst of them, that's
the best of them. The most upright are sharper than a thorn hedge.
If you try to go through there, you're going to get pricked. And he says, there's a day coming
when this is going to change. And things are going to happen.
The day of the watchman. And the divisitation cometh.
And now then shall be their perplexity. And he says this, We all, I love my friends. Don't
you? I don't have that many. I consider
everybody in this congregation my friend. I have several preachers
who are my friends. And I cherish my friends. And
the Lord said, friends are a good thing to have. And you must show
yourself to be friendly in order to have friends. But they're
good things to have. But here He says, trust not in
a friend. Trust not in a friend. put no
confidence in someone who says they know the way, the guide. And he says, keep
the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. We live in a day where people
just like to spill everything. I want to be honest, Preacher.
I want to tell you what I've been doing. Don't tell me what
you've been doing. You can be genuine without being honest.
I'm serious. I'm tired of people being honest.
I really have, because their honesty is really bragging on
the rebellion. That's what it is. It says here,
don't tell even your loved one, your spouse, everything. Don't do it. But that's where
men and women are today, aren't they? They just blatantly blurt
out every vile thing they can think of. He said, ìThe son dishonoreth
the father, and the daughter rises up against her mother,
and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a manís
enemies are the men of his own household.î This was quoted by
our Lord in Matthew chapter 10, when He says, ìI came to bring
not peace, but a sword.î And the result of My coming will
be that the son will dishonor his father, and a daughter will
dishonor her mother. And these things take place. And after a while we stop paying
attention to them because it gets so bad that we don't want
to even acknowledge that it's taking place. But it's taking
place all over. It's a dark place. What do you
do? I mean, you read the papers,
you see it in your own families. You see children disrespecting
their parents. You see mothers and fathers disrespecting
each other. You see those things going on.
You see a world around you where people, you can't count on anybody.
I remember a day, and most of the people here, especially those
with a few hoary hairs upon their heads, can remember the day that
many a deal was signed, even between banks and people, with
the shake of a hand. My dad, 85 years old, and I can
remember him going to a bank and sitting down and saying,
I've got to buy a car, I need a couple, three, four hundred
dollars. And the guy went over there and wrote him a check,
didn't have no contract, nothing there, shake his hand, see you
Mr. James, because he knew Mr. James
said, I'll pay it, he's going to get paid on time, he's going
to get paid back. Those days are gone. Aren't they? I mean really. Who can you trust? Don't trust in a guide. Don't
trust in a friend. Not that your friends aren't
trustworthy. That's what it's saying. These things and these
people are not who you're really to trust. You trust someone else. And it's
the only answer for these dire situations that we face in this
world today is to trust someone else and certainly don't trust
yourself. after setting forth all that
is wrong, kind of shutting himself up to
an utter, dire situation that he can find no hope in on any
hand, and nobody to turn to because the first fruits that he desires,
they're all gone, nothing left but a few rotten apples laying
on the ground. What do you do? Our Lord said
to his preachers, comfort my people, and this prophet is doing
just that. He said, therefore, based on the fact of what I've
just said, therefore, I will look unto the Lord. I will look unto the Lord. I don't have anywhere else to
look, so I'll look to the Lord. That's kind of a sad statement,
isn't it? But that's the condition of us. It's a good thing. But
usually we have to be brought to that place before we do. Because
I know this about me and I know this about you. If you've got
something else to hold on to, you will. You will. I talked with a friend
yesterday who had been putting money in an IRA every year. He put $6,000. He saved all year
long to put money into it. He said, you know, one day I
put $6,000 in recently, and the next day it was gone. It was gone. I mean, seriously,
the thing changed. The thing changed. I bought a couple of IRAs for
my kids. They're half of what they were worth at one time.
I'm glad I don't trust in those things. If you trust in anything other
than God, if you look to anyone other than Christ, I'm telling
you, sooner or later, they're going to fail you. They will
fail you. That's just the truth. To look
to Christ is really the answer to everything. The more I study
Scripture, the more I see that that's the plainest truth that
is anywhere in Scripture. Simply and plainly look to Christ.
Because when you're looking to Him, you're not looking to anyone
else. You're not looking to anything else. He is singular. He is absolute. He is enthroned at the right
hand of the Father. And if you look to Him, you're
not looking at anywhere else. Now we know that our problems
exist in this world because we take our eyes off of Christ.
Because we also know that when Christ is lifted up before us
and we see Him in His beauty and in His glory, we don't have
a problem. We could be laying in a hospital
with tubes running in and out of us as sick as dogs. And look
to Christ and see Him, and I'm telling you, we know, I ain't
got no problems. Everything is alright. So the
first words that are out of the prophet's mouth are the words
that are the foundation for all of the words he speaks. Look
to Christ. Look to Him. I will look unto
the Lord, and I will wait. That doesn't seem much of an
answer for folks. You've got to get out and straighten these
things out. No, I'm going to look, and I'm going to wait. I'm going to look to the Lord,
and I'm going to wait for my salvation. I'm going to wait
for my deliverance, because I know, looking to Him, it's coming.
My deliverance is nigh. So I'll look for my deliverance.
No! Wait for your deliverance! Look to Christ! Look to Christ! He says, when I sit in darkness,
like I see all around me, the Lord, He'll be my light.
He'll reveal and disclose all these things for what they are
and give me the confidence to lay it all upon Him. He said, I will bear the indignation
of the Lord because I've sinned against Him. He doesn't say,
you know, these horrible briars and thorns, these horrible judges,
these horrible people that just seem to be controlling all the
money and the wealth of the world. These people in high offices
can be bought off and brined. He doesn't say that. He doesn't
say, I will bear the indignation of the Lord because the best
of men are briars. He said, I will bear the indignation
of the Lord because the problem is always in me. Always in me. All this stuff
going around us, that ain't our problem. Our problem is what
we're looking at. And we can look at those things.
We can look at the terrorists and just get so mad. I'm serious, you know. I had
these magnificent heroic dreams and daydreams where I'm sitting
on some hill and I see Bin Laden walking by and I take a .30-06
and cap him right on the chest. I'm serious. I have those kind
of thoughts. I have those kind of thoughts about sometimes when
some people pull out in front of me on the road, you know,
and make me have to slam on my brakes. And they ain't been lying. They've just been careless is
what they've been. You know what? It's impossible to look to God
except by grace. God, give me grace. Lord, I need
your grace constantly to fix my eyes and my heart upon Jesus
Christ. The problem is not outside me,
the problem is in me. So if this has come upon me,
I know the problem is in me, so I'll bear the indignation
of it, the judgment of it, the pain of it, because I'm the problem. I'm the problem. And I'll do
that until He plead my cause, until He stands for me. Because
I know if He stands for me, His judgment is a righteous judgment,
and He will deal righteously and in love and mercy and grace
toward me if He plead my cause. I can't plead my cause. My cause
is because I've sinned. What kind of cause is that? What am I going to offer to God?
My sin? I better not. That's what I've got. I need
for Jesus Christ, whom I'm looking to and whom I'm waiting for,
for my deliverance, to plead my cause, to plead His blood
for me, to show His wounded hands inside,
to plead my cause, and to execute judgment For me. It doesn't say on me. It says for me. I forget where
it's at now. I think it's in Psalm 89. That I was amazed to see when
I read it, because I read it one way all my life. And our
Lord says, I will lay stripes upon their iniquity. doesn't say He'll
lay stripes upon them. He has not dealt with us after
our iniquity, nor rewarded us according to our sins. Thank
God! But He has punished our sin.
He has laid the rod upon our iniquity. But you know what?
We didn't feel no pain, because our iniquity was laid upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. And there's where the rod landed. He executed judgment for me. He said, that's what I'm waiting
on. That's what I'm waiting on. And when He does that, He says,
He will bring me forth to light. To light. What is light? Light's
a lot of things in Scripture. They all point in some aspect
one way or another to the Lord Jesus Christ because He is the
Light of the world. He is the Light that lighteth
all men that comes into the world. He is the Light. He is the Light
of the world. He is our understanding. The
word Light means understanding. The word Light means disclosure. Light is pure. There's light in this room. It's
artificial light, but nonetheless it is light. But you can't grab
it. You can't hold it. You can't
touch it. You can't move it. It's inviolable.
You can't taint it. You could spit in the air and
it wouldn't hurt the light. It wouldn't affect the light. That light is shining down on
this sinner. It's all over me, isn't it? If I look on my back, the light
is on my back, it's on my head, it's on my feet from paint to
petal digit. It's completely covering me and
yet it's not tainted. And when God Almighty by His
grace brings me to light, to disclosure, that light embraces
me That light covers me, that light exposes me and discloses
me from head to foot, and that light is never tainted. Never tainted, because that light
is Jesus Christ. He was never tainted by me. He
took my taint voluntarily and bore it on His body. He shall
bring me forth the light. What will happen when He brings
me forth the light? What will I see? They say, well, you'll
see your sin. Yeah, but I'll see it somewhere. I'll see it on Him. And I'll
see His righteousness. Not mine. My righteousness is
sin. Just another form of sin, but
it's sin. But He bring me forth to light.
I shall see His righteousness. What righteousness shall you
see? You shall see Jesus Christ. He is the Lord, our righteousness. He is the Lord. God has made
Him to be unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
I know there's a popular notion, and I don't discount it, and
I have friends who believe it, so I'm not saying anything against
them. We've talked about it, and we've discussed it, and we're
still good friends. There's a general notion that
Christ worked out a righteousness as a human being that was applied
to us. No, I don't believe that's the case. Christ is our righteousness. He himself is our righteousness.
He always was righteous. He was the righteous God before
he came down here and became the only righteous man who ever
lived upon the earth. He is righteous and He is our
righteousness. And that righteousness is only
revealed in one place. It's not revealed by looking
at other sinners and seeing how much they've let go of or how
high they've risen in some ethereal plane of spirituality. It's looking
at Christ. You look at me, you're not going
to see righteousness unless you see me in Christ. But if you see me in Christ,
and I see you in Christ, and I can say, there's my righteous
brother. There's my righteous sister. I see her righteousness. How? She's in Christ. She believes
Christ. That righteousness is revealed
in the Gospel. Nowhere else. Paul said, I'm
not ashamed of the Gospel. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. I'm not ashamed of it. The righteousness of God is revealed
in the Gospel. Nowhere else. I can preach all
day long about personal righteousness, and it ain't going to help you,
and you ain't never going to achieve it. And as far as humanity
is concerned, it doesn't exist. I know men talk about it, but
it doesn't exist. I want to show you righteousness.
If you want to see righteousness, you know what's got to happen?
You've got to look to Christ. You've got to wait for your salvation.
You've got to wait for your salvation. Not only that, you're going to
have to bear the indignation of your shame because it's you
who did it. And you've got to wait until
He pleads your cause and executes judgment for you and brings you
to the light and shows you Himself. That's something worth waiting
for. You say, well, hasn't that already
taken place? Yes, and every day. Every day. How many of you, I'll
include myself, how many of us have been made troubled by what's
going on in the world today? You can't help it, can you? Can't
help it. About the only thing we got to
look forward to is March Madness, really. That's about it. The world's a sad place. A lot going
on. A lot of people are sad. A lot
of people out of work. Who want to work? I read an article
yesterday that said for a janitor's job, 5,000 people stood in line. for one job. Our president went
to Ohio, and because it's the best he can do, he bragged on
the fact that Ohio, one of the state's hardest hit, he's actually
going to provide 25 new jobs. I mean, it's a speech he gave
yesterday, and I think 25 new jobs, when there's millions out
of work. And he's bragging, because that's
the best he can do. I mean, really. They're not there. That's distressing. I see among preachers in my day
an unwillingness to forgive, a willingness to hold grudges, seemingly no longer needing each
other like they once did. And that saddens my heart. But
you know what? I look to Christ. It's okay. It's okay. The next verses down to verse
15 are a description of what God is going to do against the
enemies of His people. You can read them at your leisure, down through verse 17. But I
want to get to verse 18, because this is worship. The prophet
here suddenly considers all that God has done, and suddenly is
reminded of who he is, and he begins to worship God.
to praise Him and to thank Him and to be in awe of Him. The
God that's being preached today in this world, you can't be in
awe of Him. He's just like you. Can't do nothing. Can't do nothing. Won't do nothing. Won't infringe. Won't overpower. Won't overcome.
Can't overcome. But not our God. Our God. Who's like Him? Who, in verse
18, is a God like unto Thee? That's a statement of awe and
worship. Who is a God like unto Thee? There is no God like unto Him. That is one of the things, one
of the ways in which he describes himself all the way through Scripture.
I am God. There is none else. I am God. There is none beside me. I am God. Who will you compare
to me? Who is like unto me? And so when
we see Him as He is, in the glory and majesty of His person, and
the greatness of His power and grace toward us poor sinners.
Who is a God like unto thee? Now, he could describe God in
a thousand ways and speak of His glory well. He created the
heavens and the earth simply by saying, heavens and earth
be, and they were. How much effort did that take?
It didn't take no effort for Him. He's God. He's the God who rules the universe,
who plugged the stars into their sockets and made the moon circle
the earth to reflect the light of the sun at night. He's the
one who put people on this speck of dust in the middle of nowhere
in this vast universe. And had His Son to come and die
for these specks of dust. It is Him who makes the raindrops
fall. It is Him who controls the circuit
of the winds. He is in the whirlwind. The clouds
are the dust of His feet. He created all things and made
all things. He made human beings by taking
a lump of dirt and spitting on it and molding it into a human
being. We can't even make good mud pies.
He made a human being out of dirt. and breathed into it the
breath of life, and it became a living soul. And he said, I
made that in the image of me. Who has entered into the storehouse
of the snow? What does that mean? I don't
know, but it sure sounds fantastic, doesn't it? Who is a God like unto thee?
He could have talked about so many things, about His providence,
about how He controls all things and moves and manipulates all
human beings and all events and all times and all circumstances
for the good and welfare of His people. But He didn't. He talked about the things that
is closest to the sinner's heart. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth and The Old Testament word, pardon.
Our New Testament word is propitiation. Who is a God like unto Thee that
satisfies His own demands for my sin? Who is a God like unto Thee that
passeth by our transgressions? Now, He don't. That doesn't mean
He doesn't punish our transgressions. He punished them in Christ. What
does it mean? He don't see our transgressions.
Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Who
is a God like unto Thee? He retaineth not His anger forever,
because He delights in mercy. He delights to show mercy. He
delights to show it. Now, if He is a God like that,
you reckon mercy is going to be shown? You reckon somebody
is going to be mercied? I reckon they are, because He
delights. He always does what He loves. He always does what
He likes. Now our enemies have said, Where
is your God? They said that back up there in about verse 11 or
verse 12. Where is your God? David said, Our God is in the
heaven. He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. He retaineth not His anger. He
delights to show mercy. I'll tell you what, if nothing
else, we ought to be thankful for that. Because we are sinners
and only sinners get mercy. Only sinners need mercy. And
He gives it abundantly. He is long-suffering and plenteous
in mercy, it says in another place. Because He delights to
show it. And it ought to make us delight
to show it to you. It really should. Old John Brown,
he wrote a wonderful commentary on Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
when asked one time in a council session, when someone had asked
him about a certain situation, what they should do, he said, choose the most merciful
way out. What a grand thing to say. Can
you imagine what our life would be like if we did that every
time somebody gets in our face and we just choose the most merciful
way out? instead of balling up our fists
and clocking them one. One of our brothers falls into
some sin, some horrible thing, and they're embarrassed and ashamed,
and society knows about it, and we choose the most merciful way
out. We ought to delight in mercy,
because our Lord A God like no other delights in mercy. And He says this, He will turn
again. I know I'm in captivity now.
I know things around me look awfully bad, but God will turn
again. He will come to me again. He
will have compassion on us. And compassion was described
by one little ten-year-old girl, one of the best definitions I
ever heard of it. She said, compassion is your pain in my heart. That's what it is. He is touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. And He will cast all our sins
into the bottom of the sea. That'd make the sea a nasty place.
That's metaphorical language to say that your sins are gone. Just roll that over in your head
just for a second. Ponder that. Say it in your heart. sins are gone. Kind of makes the hair stand
up on the back of your neck, don't it? And He'll do it all because before
the world began, this God who pardons sin and
passes by iniquity, who delights in mercy and will not keep his
anger forever, who will turn again and show compassion on
us, show mercy on us. This God purposed all of this for His
people before the world began, promised it to His Son, promised it in a covenant called
the covenant of grace. and describes it in verse 20
as, Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob. Now, he didn't say
Israel. He said Jacob. Thou wilt perform
the truth to the supplanter, the thief, the snake in the grass,
the mama's boy, the liar, and the cheat. to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham,
whom he made a covenant with, that pictured the covenant of
grace. Abraham was a fine man. Yes,
he was. He was. He lied twice to two
different kings, almost got his wife killed. He was a good man. He took in a handmaid and got
her pregnant at his wife's request. And then wanted that boy to be
the heir to promise when God had said, no, I'm going to give
Sarah a baby. And then put a bottle of water
on Hagar's back and sent her and the 15-year-old boy out in
the desert. He was a good man. No, he was
a graced man. He was a man whom God showed
grace and pictured by that covenant the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will do what He says He will
do. He said, ìLook unto Me and be
ye saved, all the ends of the earth.î Can you count on that? He swore it to our fathers from
the days of old. from those days, not like these
days, those days when there was plenty of fruit on the trees,
when days of fellowship and sweet walk with Christ, not like these
dark days. But these dark days mean nothing,
because He will perform the truth to Jacob. He will. and mercy to Abraham. He will. Just like He did when He promised
it to the fathers in days of old. Look around you. It's alright
to get for clumped. It's alright to get down. It's normal and natural. But
the remedy is right there with you at all times. Draw nigh unto
the Lord, and He'll draw nigh unto you. Look unto the Lord. Father, bless
us. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.