The Prophecy of Micah #1 | Douglas Wilson

the text this morning is from the prophet micah chapter 6 verse 8 these are the words of god he has showed the o man what is good and what does the lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy god our gracious god and father we thank you that your holy spirit has gathered us together like this some of us here to worship you we thank you for his presence in our midst we thank you that we have been given the opportunity to sit under the authority of your word i pray that your spirit would apply that word to our hearts to our lives to our situations we pray this in the name of jesus and amen uh for those of you who are uh relatively new here it's our custom our pattern to preach through uh books of the bible i preach basically through an old testament book and then a new testament book alternating and then in between i touch on elements of the church here you know christmas sermons pentecost that sort of thing and then topical sermons so old testament topical new testament church year old testament and so on and so we've come to the next old testament book we're going to work through which is the book of micah it is a relatively short book in your reading if you're in your private devotions if you want to pay special attention to the book of micah it might profit us in the weeks to come so micah was a younger a younger contemporary of the prophet isaiah which would place him about 700 years before christ so relative to us that would be the 13th 1400s a.d that's 700 years ago christ was 700 years roughly after the prophet micah micah ministered across the reigns of jotham who was around 740 bc and hezekiah of judah who died in 687 bc other contemporaries would be amos and hoseas would be i uh isaiah uh micah amos hosea and this accounts for the similar sorts of themes in their prophecies they're all confronting the same basic set of cultural problems they're all confronting roughly the same situation the two great issues of their day were idolatry and social injustice idolatry and social injustice now by injustice i i want to be careful to i want to hasten to add we're talking about injustice as defined by biblical law and not injustice as defined by our contemporary grievance industry we want to call anything we don't like injustice and that's simply not the way it works but injustice is a real thing injustice is something that is offensive to god but the definition of injustice has to be biblically grounded the name micah is a shortened form of a name that means who is like yahweh who is like yahweh and the answer answer to that rhetorical question is no one no one is like yahweh now in our text in micah 6 8 we find a succinct statement of what true religion is supposed to look like what is true religion supposed to look like is god impressed with high pomp is god impressed with pretentious sacrifices the answer is obviously no what could i give that would earn god's favor how could i bribe my way into god's favor how could i bribe my way into his courts there's there's no conceivable way the answer is nothing nothing whatever and men of understanding have understood this since the beginning of the world i cannot behave in such a way as to earn my way into god's good graces if salvation is not all of grace then there's no such thing as salvation if salvation is not all of grace a hundred percent grace then there's no such thing as salvation and even such an understanding of grace that salvation is all of grace even that is a gift of god lest anyone should boast we like to seize on anything that we can give ourselves credit for and god wants us to understand the glory for our salvation goes entirely to him so the book of micah is a wonderful place for showcasing god's display of grace the way god's grace comes to us the book is not a long one and it's a collection of oracles three of them bundled loosely to this recurring pattern there's a general recurring pattern that runs through all three of these um oracles that together constitute the book of micah each of the three sections begins with the call to listen to hear listen up god says i want you to come i want you to hear me i want you to hear the words i'm about to speak to you the first of those comes in micah 1 2 the second in micah 3 1 and the third in micah 6 1. god says to his people listen god says to his people hear me now these are the words i'm going to speak to you the first cycle begins with a warning and this is the the pattern warning judgment hope warning judgment hope the first cycle begins with a warning that's chapter 1 2-16 it moves on to judgment chapter 2 1-11 and concludes with the first word of hope which is in chapter 2 12-13 the second cycle begins with warning and declared judgment those two sort of mingled together in chapter 3 1-12 but then turns to hope in chapter 4 1 through 5 15. the third cycle begins with warning chapter 6 1-16 it moves to a lament over judgment that's 7 1-7 and concludes with the promise of hope that's chapter 7 8-20 so here's the pattern three oracles three general oracles that begin with a warning well they all begin with here listen up then a warning then a prophetic judgment a vision of judgment and then a message of hope so as it turns now this is really striking because what you have here is a law gospel pattern it's a law grace pattern the warning the judgment it shows that god is playing hardball god god is not does he doesn't mess around with sin god really judges but nevertheless as we're going to see god's judgment all when god judges when god chastises when god steps into human history with this kind of judgment he has salvation in mind as it turns out this is just an incidental comment as it turns out micah can be credited with saving jeremiah's life later on this is because micah lived about a century before jeremiah and jeremiah later was accused because he had prophesied destruction for jerusalem which had been considered treason by some of the holdouts in inside the city they were standing against the babylonians and jeremiah was saying you need to surrender to the babylonians this is god's judgment you need to not be fighting the babylonians and some defenders of the city said jeremiah is being treasonous but certain elders of the land defended jeremiah by pointing out that micah had done the same thing in micah 3 12 prophesied judgment on the city and hezekiah had not put him to death so that that story is found in jeremiah 26 17 and 18. so micah saves jeremiah's life because micah prophesies judgment the king didn't put him to death for treason hezekiah didn't put him to death for treason so when jeremiah does the same thing he's not being treasonous and just in passing we should say that jeremiah loved his country dearly he loved his nation dearly and loving your nation is not inconsistent with pointing out that your nation deserves the judgment of god so i can love my country as i do i can love america as i do and know that if god were to visit fierce judgment on our nation it would not be unjust it would not be wronging us we deserve judgment we deserve to be wiped off this continent we deserve it but we love our we love our people and because we love our people we ask god to stay his hand we we look to micah for the messages of hope that he does deliver but judgment prophecies of judgment that jeremiah gives are not inconsistent with loving your people jeremiah loved jerusalem and jeremiah wanted the best for jerusalem but jeremiah was not willing to lie for jerusalem he was not willing to tell lies for the sake of his country preachers must not lie to the people that they are charged with preaching the gospel to the gospel is the message of jesus and jesus is the truth so when we fan out talking about preaching the gospel to people when we fan out across the land we must bring the truth and the truth has to be truth about sin and truth about salvation what is the truth about our sin and the judgment of god and what is the truth about gospel and this is the pattern we find in micah warning judgment hope warning judgment hope now when this prophecy is given the better days of usa uh uzziah are in there are now in the rearview mirror and the shabbiness of decadence and decay are definitely starting to show the the glory days are over they're over the they're over the top of the you know the solomonic days are behind them uh the glory days are behind them and things are starting to look pretty shabby things are starting to look pretty bad false teachers are willing to start showing their true colors false teachers are willing to come out of the woodwork and start saying just out loud things that would have been intolerable five or ten years before so if a man what's it micah here's an example micah 2 11 if a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie saying i will prophesy unto thee of wine and strong drink he shall even be the prophet of this people if a man comes to you and prophesies to you smooth things if a man comes to you in the name of the lord and tells you you know you know what i want you to do i want you to keep doing exactly what you're doing you're doing great keep going i'm going to prophesy to you concerning wine and beer he'd be just the spokesman for this people i'm going to i'm going to prophesy for you a party i'm going to prophesy for you good times are here again thank and false prophets love to do that sort of thing and politicians love false prophets who will support them because politicians love to promise those sorts of things politicians want to say the bright days are right around the corner things are going to turn we're going to fix all the problems that we created last year and and we promised that we we made the mess that's true but we want you to re-elect us so we can make the mess again and promise another round of reforms again and then the prophets are off to the side saying it'll be totally great there's going to be a wine strong drink it's going to be uh we're going to restore we're going to restore the american dream the prophet says and as things get worse and worse the fulfillment of earlier dire warnings is entirely missed and this is one of the indications that false prophecy is in play what do i mean whenever judicial stupor is visited upon a people the more manifest the problem is and the more the previous prophets are vindicated not false prophets the the more the previous true prophets are vindicated the harder it is to see it said micah says this in chapter 3 therefore night shall be unto you that ye shall not have a vision and it shall be dark unto you that you shall not divine and the sun shall go down over the prophets and the days shall be dark over them i want you to imagine some let's say we lived in the age of prophecy and let's say a prophet arose in 1950 and in 1950 he said the day is coming 70 years hence when you will not be able to tell a boy from a girl you will not in your legal in your legal structures you will not be able to distinguish a boy from a girl you're not going to be able to tell the difference and anybody who claims to be able to tell the difference and who believes that it's part of the creation order and this is just your nature that person will be accused of being guilty of a hate crime that person is going to be you're going to run people out of their jobs for saying boys or boys girls or girls you're going to run people out out of their position you're going to wreck their careers you're going to wreck their lives and it's going to be everywhere it's going to be in the military it's going to be in higher education it's going to be in corporate america it's going to be everywhere if you believe that a boy is a boy and a girl is a girl you are a dangerous lunatic and this is a guy talking in 1950 about the way it's going to be in 2021 71 years in the future what what are people going to say to that prophet in 1950 you're the lunatic that could never happen are you out of your mind are you out of your mind that's the come on be real try to imagine what it would be like to try to persuade people in that year what's going to be going on this year they'd lock that guy up but here's the worst thing this is why you know that judicial stupor is uh in play if that guy were still he's a very old man locked up we locked him up for his own good when all his prophecies started coming to pass do you think we're going to go back and apologize and let them out no the worse it gets the harder it is to see what's going on our culture is standing on the lip of an abyss and we don't know where we are we don't know how we got here we don't know what's going on everything is fine and we want to believe the false prophets we want we want to believe the people who prophesy things smooth as butter we want to believe the people who who come to us and prophesy wine and beer that's what a judicial stupor does and it's god's action visited upon us we are not successfully rebelling against him he is judging us his judgment has fallen on us in romans 1 this is how the wrath of god works this is what the wrath of god looks like what what phrase is repeated over and over again in romans 1 therefore god gave them up therefore god let go of the reigns man pushes and pushes and tries to get away tries to get away tries to get away and what is the wrath of god the wrath of god is god saying to rebellious man thy will be done salvation is when we say to god thy will be done damnation is when god says to man thy will be done have it your way god gave them up therefore the wrath of god is visited from heaven on unrighteous men how is it visited god gave them up god lets go and when god lets go we run headlong and when someone had prophesied that this is exactly what we were going to do and we called them crazy then when we do exactly what they said all their prophecies all their predictions come true what happens well we say it doesn't matter it doesn't matter it doesn't matter because that's what judicial blindness that's what judicial stupor looks like so there's a tension in the book of micah there's a tension in the book of micah it's the tension that you find throughout scripture micah alternates between fierce deuteronomic denunciations remember in deuteronomy there there are the blessings and the curses there are fierce curses for disobedience if you disobey if you get swollen and conceited if you if jeshuan waxes fat and kicks if you if you look at your wealth and you say my hand has gotten me this wealth my hand has done all these things and like nebuchadnezzar is this not great babylon that i've built when we get full of ourselves what happens well curses the curses come down on us you should be the tail and not the head but the bible is also full of hope the bible is full of fierce denunciations and it's also full of hope so you have micah alternating in these oracles between fierce deuteronomic like denunciations fierce deuteronomic-like denunciations and then glorious kingdom promises this gospel is going to conquer the world but an essential part of the gospel message is found in the key word repent repent and believe before we ask what we are to believe we must first ask what we are to repent of we are to repent of great wickedness as defined by scripture and our views of how high salvation goes will be shaped by how deep we believe the sin went in the book of micah he calls the mountains to witness micah 6 2 may we learn to do the same as the lord taught us the one who loves much is the one who is forgiven much that's in luke 7 47. now here's the thing when we repent we must repent and believe if sin is that wall and christ is that wall then turning from that wall to this one is all the same motion so if i'm turning away from sin what do i call that i call that repentance but that same motion of turning is turning toward christ i can't turn away from that wall and turn completely around and be facing that wall again when i'm done it's a 180 not a 360. the word convert the latin word means i turn around so a person who turns around is doing a 180. they're pursuing sin they do a 180 they're going that way they don't do a 360 where they're going back again now this is this is a a real problem that many people have their sin is self their sin is me me me they worship at the shrine of me and it gets them in trouble every time every time they turn to me every time they rely on me every time they trust in themselves and in their own wisdom it all comes crashing down and i made a mess by worshiping me i made another mess by worshiping me i made a third mess by worshiping me i'm going i need salvation i'm going to turn to me i need to be better i need to be better you can't be better you can't do it you don't have the wisdom you don't have the power you don't have the authority you don't you don't know what you're doing so when you turn from worshipping me and trying to try to fix it all by yourself you're doing a 360. it has the motion of repentance because you're spinning true repentance means you're going north and now you're going south you you were going this way and now you're going that way and it's all the same motion sin you turn away from sin you turn away from reliance on self and you turn to christ and this is why god judges god's judgments are hard when we're worshiping self and god's deliverances are glorious when we're going the other way it's glorious this tension between judgment and hope this tension stretches from genesis to revelation here's the tension god is not mocked god is not mocked as it says in galatians 6 a man reaps what he sows a man reaps whatever he sows god because god is not mocked if you plant thistle you're going to reap thistle if you plant weeds you're going to grow weeds if this is what you plant this is what you're going to get a man reaps what he sows but there's another half of it and through the death of jesus christ a man does not reap what he sows at all or rather you reap what you sow in christ you you sow death and you reap death in christ you die in christ so when you're united with christ you die in him you're buried in him and you're raised again in him the curse runs through it all and yet the grace of god runs as bedrock underneath all of it so what do you have a man reaps what he sews outside of christ it's an iron law outside of christ if you wrote if you sow self you're going to reap self if you sow out of darkness you're going to reap the outer darkness if you sow the lake of fire you're going to reap the lake of fire you can't plant hellish crops and not have a hellish harvest you can't do it outside of christ that's the way it is in christ what christ has done what the gospel does is it offers you a way of dying in him so that when he dies you die when he is buried you are buried when he rises you rise we're united with him in his death it says in romans 6 we're united with him in his death buried in baptism we're buried with him in baptism into death we're buried and we rise again christ comes and he gathers up all your selfishness all your petty sins all your big sins the horrendous things you've done the nitpicky little petty stupid things you do all the things that are wicked everything you've done absolutely everything you've done christ gathers it all up he gathers it up in his arms together with you the sin and the sinner the sin the sin and the sin are both he gathers it all up and then he sinks down into death and then three days later he comes back from the dead and he left all of that sin behind it's gone it is there no more it's gone you can't you can't retrieve it as far as the east is from the west it's gone it's buried at the depths of the sea it's gone jesus descended into hades and he came back and he left your sin where it belongs but he brought you back you're united with him and so that's the glory of the gospel that's that's how it's possible for me to reap what i've sown in christ i sow death and i reap death but i died in christ if i died in christ i'm buried in christ i rise in christ so that's how warning judgment hope can work together that's why we can have gospel hope and that's why so in if you have a carnal man a carnal man can sometimes be severe with people he's generally severe with other people's sins but he can be severe with sin a carnal man who's being severe with sin is being severe with other people's sins and there is no hope there is no forgiveness all right that's the woke gospel is like that there's no forgiveness there there's no forgiveness there's no there's no uh possibility of redemption it's just condemnation it's just nothing but condemnation then there are people who want to have boys will be boys sort of a powder puff gospel ever we'll just let it all go but that that's not morally serious only the christian faith only the christian faith is morally serious takes the law of god with utmost seriousness and at the same time saves us save sinners to the uttermost so we should turn to the promise the judgments in the mouth of micah were judgments that applied to samaria and jerusalem to israel and to judah now sometimes people get confused in the old testament samaria was a city in the new testament samaria is a province or a region so the samaritans lived in samaria in the new testament in the old testament samaria is the capital city of the northern kingdom of israel jerusalem is the capital city of the southern kingdom of judah so in micah's day israel has been divided in two there's the ten tribes to the north the two tribes to the south jerusalem is the capital city of the southern kingdom of judah samaria is the capital city of the northern kingdom so the judgments in the mouth of micah were judgments that were promised that came down on samaria and jerusalem they applied to israel and to judah but the promises the promises are for the whole world the promises are for you here in idaho the promises are for the entire world jew and gentile alike here's one of them but thou bethlehem ephrathah though thou be little among the thousands of judah yet out of these shall shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in israel whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting that's micah chapter five verse two micah is the one who told us where the christ was going to be born micah is the one who anticipates the christ anticipates the messiah so when the wise men come to herod and say where's where's the king this coming king going to be born he's able to consult with the scribes excuse me he consults with the scribes and they say oh the messiah is going to be born in bethlehem because micah told us what will the messiah accomplish what will the messiah do in micah 4 1 and 2 we have this glorious promise but in the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the lord shall be established in the top of the mountains and it shall be exalted above the hills and people shall flow unto it and many nations shall come and say come and let us go up to the mountain of the lord and to the house of the god of jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths for the law shall go forth of zion and the word of the lord from jerusalem a day is coming when the nations of the world will stream to the messiah they will say let it let us go to the mountains of the lord let us go to the house of the lord and and if we if we assemble before him he will teach us how to live he will teach us how we might live as nations that are living before him rejoicing in his presence jesus did not come in order to get a tiny handful of people out of every nation he did not come to get a tiny remnant from brazil and a tiny remnant from iran and a tiny remnant from china and a tiny remnant from america he purposes the salvation of the world jesus tells his disciples in the great commission all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me given to me therefore go disciple the nations ethnoi disciple the ethnic groups disciple the nations he doesn't say get a get a small group out of every nation disciple the nation disciple china disciple thailand just disciple australia disciple america disciple candidate disciple i want them all he purchased them all with his blood and because he purchased them all with his blood he was born in bethlehem in order to purchase them all with his blood what happens micah tells us he's going to be born in bethlehem and it's going to come about as a result of that that the mountain of the house of the lord shall be established and all that and then many nations shall come let's go to the mountain of the lord and he will teach us he will teach us how to be people he will teach us how to be human beings he will teach us how to be restored in our humanity in christ so how does that work that returns us to our text 6 8 in this world what is the consequence of having our sins washed away what does it look like when god comes down and the mountains of our religiosity melt under his feet chapter 1 3 and 4. what happens when our legalism melts what happens when our pharisaism melts what happens when our self-righteousness evaporates why because the messiah has come what does that look like when god interferes with us when he saves us when he fixes us up what does that look like well what we could not do with burnt offerings what we could not do with rivers of oil what we could not accomplish by giving the firstborn for our transgression god did by sending his son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering what we could not do through our legalistic efforts at improving ourselves polishing ourselves up trying to get ourselves right what we couldn't do god did god does it god god is the only one who does it but god does do it so what we say is well i need to try harder i need to turn over a new leaf you don't need to turn over new you need a new life you don't need a new leaf how many times how many times have you said i'm going to do better next time how many times are you and how many times are you going to believe that line you can't do better next time you need christ you need gospel so what does it look like when god intervenes what does it look like when god answers that prayer what you could not do through tithing what you could not do through singing in the choir what you could not do through your allegiance to traditional values what you could not do by joining the church what you could not do by pursuing a life of external conformity to general biblical christian standards and by that i mean middle class christianity christian standards god did and god did by sending his son to die on a cross when he did all of this the result in our lives tastes this way it tastes this way he's shown us what tastes good he's show he's shown us what is good he's taught us what he requires he says three things here first do justly second love mercy and third walk humbly with your god now we can only do this when we come to the cross we can only do this in christ it is entirely out of our reach otherwise wherever wherever someone puts you know do justice love mercy walk with humility but where whatever shelf that's put on your arms are too short you can't reach it you cannot do it you cannot get there it's it's hopeless it's absolutely hopeless and yet micah is a book that alternates between judgment and hope you might say well this is for people who are already part way there no nobody's part way there everyone is everyone's a miserable sinner everyone is shut out from the presence of god you say but i've done i've done wicked things well then you qualify i can't apply i can't apply to be a citizen in the kingdom of god because i'm an awful person well you qualify you fit god's advertising in the paper are you a hot mess then come are you the worst person that ever lived then you better come are you a person who is bright and shiny on the outside but inside you're a sewage lagoon then come you need to come and this is the invitation and you can't say oh uh i can't come because i'm too bad the per the saul of tarsus was pretty bad he's caught describes himself as an insolent man and a blasphemer he persecuted the church whenever people christians were put to death he voted against them the saul of tarsus was one bad man he was a he was a haughty proud man and god used him to write the majority of the new testament do you think god can save that man and not say any and yet somehow mysteriously he can't save you no so only in the cross can we love what is just only in the cross can we love the mercy of god only in the cross can we behold the humility of god and own it for ourselves only there that's the only possibility in jesus christ we can do justly in jesus christ we can love mercy and in jesus christ we can walk with humility but only there only there so all of you so this is the message to everyone here christian and non-christian alike christians i'm telling you to come to christ it says in colossians as you receive christ jesus as lord so walk in him christians are supposed to come to christ all the time christians are you you're you in your sanctification you come to christ and if you're not a christian if you're a professing christian but you know you're unregenerate or you're just an outsider you must come to christ because your salvation is only here so all of you lift up your heads your redemption draws near christ is approaching christ is approaching look to him you might say i but i'm stuck here i can't i can't move he's coming to you you know how he's come to you he's come to you through the gospel the bible teaches that when the gospel is preached when when the death burial and resurrection of christ is pub as paul says in galatians is billboarded placarded in front of you when the death burial resurrection of christ is placarded in front of you that is christ approaching you and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god and the word of god comes by the preacher so you've not seen jesus of nazareth with your physical eyes but christ is present here now christ is offered to you here now christ is present now every sunday we prepare ourselves to come and partake of christ in the table but the thing that makes it accessible is evangelical faith and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god there's no ritual that we can do that some that whistles god up we don't whistle them up with baptism or the lord's supper we're not superstitious we're christians and because we're christians it's by faith from first to last beginning to end only faith so look to christ look to christ look to christ our father and god we thank you we praise you that you have been kind to us we thank you for this gospel i pray that we would understand what you have offered i pray that your holy spirit would be working in us and on us now i pray that as we come to your table we would do so in sincere repentance and faith i pray that we would be your genuine people made genuine by your grace father as we lift our voices up to you we would repeat what jesus taught us to pray saying throughout the scripture people went up to jerusalem and the temple moses was invited up sinai under the law the most holy place was off limits only the high priest was permitted to go in the lord commanded israel to follow joshua as he led them to go in and possess the land the old testament revealed that fallen mankind wasn't allowed up or in without a mediator yet in order to meet with god one must go up and in adam was driven out of eden cain too was driven out the korah rebels went down to shale alive downward and cast out was the lot of fallen man christ's coming up ended everything he went out from the father and came down to us and now by him we are brought up and enter in you aren't left far off you aren't cast down to hell you who are in christ are assured of your welcome indeed in christ we ascend to this banqueting table without a shade of shyness not only are we brought up and in but now a river flows from the holy of holies outward and downward to bring healing waters to the lowest and furthest off places the gospel brings us up and in only to send us out and down we've been redeemed in order to be rendered fit for service in god's kingdom he saves us then sends us and so as ambassadors of christ we're first raised up and welcomed in then sent out to descend down to the lowest hovel with the declaration of these glad tidings the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off even as many as the lord our god shall call so come up come in and then go out to the ends of the earth so come in faith and welcome to jesus christ let us pray father we are grateful that in these signs of bread and wine is your assurance that we are in christ and christ is in us by his spirit in this meal you encourage us and equip us to go out and down because we have first been brought up and in we give thanks for all this in jesus name and amen the charge is twofold i would just draw on something i said in the message if you're a christian if you know you're redeemed if you know you're forgiven if you know you're regenerate come to christ we we walk in christ the same way we came to him initially always come to christ any that's the constant invitation if you're outside of christ then the spirit and the bride say come come and welcome to jesus christ there is no problem well there's no problem that can't be made worse outside of christ and there is no problem that cannot be resolved by coming to him in true evangelical faith now receive the benediction of the lord now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to god our savior who alone is wise be glory and majesty dominion and power both now and forever amen

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Length: 40min 10sec (2410 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 14 2021