This is Christ the King Sunday. I'm going to ask that you take your Bibles and turn to a prophecy you may not have been reading lately in the Old Testament. And I believe in your few Bibles. It's page 899 or something like that. It's the prophecy of Micah. Seven chapters which were authored in the 8th century BC. There are four 8th century prophets. Hosea and Amos, Isaiah and Micah. And Micah is one who is preaching primarily to the southern kingdom of Israel. You know that by now in the 8th century BC Israel had been divided with the kingdom in the north of the kingdom in the south. They had their three kings, Saul and David and Solomon under whom the monarchy was united. Now they're divided. Samaria is the capital in the north and Jerusalem in the south. And the reason that it is important for us to look at this text is not only because in the 5th chapter does it house one of the greatest messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. But rather because it tells us something that is vital not only for Micah's day but for our day. It's very tempting especially in this modern era to think that the answers to our problems are to be found in politics or economics or especially technology. It's interesting to me how if you just read between the lines in most analyses that are done as technology grows and grows we all seem to have this unhealthy confidence that all we need is just one massive computer. Everything over the run just fine including the election a few weeks ago that we just had good technology this wouldn't happen and that seems to be the answer to everything every need every want we could ever have. Well Micah faced a culture that believed somewhat similarly. Israel was not in its period of greatest strength. There were two kingdoms who were very strong however a Syria to the north and Egypt to the south. These were the two mighty powers in the Near East and Israel was caught in between. And because of that there were some political parties that leaned a little bit toward the Assyrians and there were some political parties that leaned a little bit toward the Egyptians. And in one way or another some kings would either pay tribute to Egypt or pay tribute to Assyria and there was much political intrigue and corruption and all the rest. And they thought that their problems would be solved by the proper political alignments and by a strong economy and the defense and military and all the rest. But Micah comes to them and says that your real problem is much deeper than that is the problem that God sees. As a matter of fact isn't the true definition of the problem what God defines as the problem and Micah comes as the one who states not only the problem but God's response to it in both judgment and in grace. And what we had before is in Micah are some very very strong words from the king who speaks through his mouthpiece the prophet. And before we look at these strong words I simply want to say that there are two dangers that I would like for you to watch out for. The first one is in trying to listen to strong words of judgment from God without knowing that you belong to him. If you'll turn for just a moment to the seventh chapter of Micah I don't want any of us to read any part of Micah without the seventh chapter in our minds. In chapter 7 verse 8 the Micah says do not gloat over me my enemy though I have fallen I will rise. So yes children are disciplined by their parents that may fall in the moment but they're going to rise and then look at verse 18 who is a God like you who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance. You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy you will again have compassion on us you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl our inequities into the depths of the sea. You see God loves his people and it is those that he loves that he chastises so severely. What was their primary problem we're going to see that the very name Micah tells us what their problem was because the name Micah means who is a God like you. Who is a God like you and the biggest problem for the nation of Israel the biggest problem for the United States of America the biggest problem for the people of God the biggest problem for second press hearing church and all of the churches represented today the biggest problem is that we do not know our God as we ought. Now the problem with seeking to learn God and who he is is that we end up with these inevitable surprises and we read one of them just a few moments ago as Ron read to us from Luke chapter 19 and we read about our Lord Jesus Christ. He is Christ, meek and mild who is meek but he is not mild and he tells this parable of a nobleman who is sent off to receive his kingdom and he comes back to claim it and those there don't want him as king and he says bring them in front of me and kill them right in front of me. That doesn't sound like Jesus does it. The reason it doesn't sound like Jesus is we haven't read Luke 19 in a while and each one of us tends to shape who Jesus is and what he does by own personalities. And you know what we tend to do we tend to make a Christ who can get along with a person like me and the sins that really make Jesus matter the ones I don't commit and other people do. And what really delights him or the things I like to do for him that everybody's tendency we must come back to the scriptures to have our views corrected and to repent as we ought. So Micah chapter 1 and to the end that we might hear this word and believe it and obey it let us pray. Gracious and almighty king of the universe who has made all that is or was or ever shall be, who rules over governs and sustains all that is, who saves your people from the desert which is ours by justice, who has made us sons and daughters of the living God, we gather around your exalted throne, the throne of the king, our father's throne and pray speak O Lord for your servants listen. Micah chapter 1 hear the word of God. The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Azakaya, kings of Judah, the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Hero peoples all of you listen to earth and all who are in it that the sovereign Lord may witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. Look, the Lord is coming from his dwelling place. He comes down and treads the high places of the earth. The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart like wax before the fire, like water rushing down the slope. All of this is because of Jacob's transgression, because of the sins of the house of Israel. What is Jacob's transgression? Is it not Samaria? What is Judah's high place? Is it not Jerusalem? Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble, a place for planting vineyards. I will pour her stones into the valley and lay bare her foundations. All her idols will be broken to pieces. All her temple gifts will be burned with fire. I will destroy all her images. Since she gathered her gifts from the wages of prostitutes, as the wages of prostitutes they will again be used. Because of this I will weep and will. I will go about barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and moan like an owl. For her wound is incurable. It has come to Judah. It has reached the very gate of my people even to Jerusalem itself. Tell it not in gaff, weep not at all. In Beth ofra roll in the dust. Path on in nakedness and shame you who live in shaffer. Those who live in Zanin will not come out. Beth Ezell is in mourning. Its protection is taken from you. Those who live in Meroth, rye in pain waiting for relief because disaster has come from the Lord even to the gate of Jerusalem. You who live in Lakeish, harness the team to the chariot. You were the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zanin for the transgressions of Israel were found in you. Therefore you will give parting gifts to Moresheth gaff. The town of Axib will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel. I will bring a conqueror against you who live in Mauritia. He who is the glory of Israel will come to Adolam. Shave your heads in mourning for the children in whom you delight. Make yourselves as bold as the vulture for they will go from you into exile. All men are like grass and all their glorious like the flowers of the field, the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.
This past week we have given thanks for many things including our country and her heritage and our mothers and fathers have gone before us and for all the possibilities that are ahead of us. It is good from time to time as Micah does with the people of Israel here to look at our nation from a more critical perspective, perhaps from the perspective of God's laws and God's judgments. You may know that in the year 1870, which was just four years after the founding of our Declaration of Independence, England itself was in a moral crisis. It was called one vast casino as people made and lost estates at gaming tables night after night after night. It was a place where 12 year old children would work 18 hour days in coal mines and other places. It was a day in which every fifth house was a producer of gin. It was a day when in the social classes, the higher classes during the social season so to speak, you would not be found with your spouse at any party because it was very unfashionable to romance your own spouse. London over throughout all the neighborhoods were involved in adultery and unfaithfulness. It was a season when the gospel had seemingly lost all of its power on the culture and a day when one perhaps overestimated that two thirds of the British economy was dependent upon slave trade. It was a day when Britain was leading the capture of Africans and selling them as slaves in England as well as in the states. It was a low day indeed and I want to suggest that although our day may not be quite as low as that, some of you may be discouraged by what you see in our own country or what trends you see. What you find when you go to the Bible is that God is constantly coming back to his people and sometimes speaking very clear and critical words during low days like that one. We have the same thing here when Micah was brought into his ministry. We are told the reigns of the kings during his ministry. The first one you'll see the word of the Lord came to Micah of Morosha. I want you to notice in this first verse there are really three things I want to emphasize this morning as we have a few minutes to look at this chapter. The first one is that if we are to be the people who know our God and who make a difference in our own country and in this world, we must be the people who let the word of God be our guide. Let the word of God be your guide. It's very interesting that you have here three very powerful people mentioned. People who reigned as kings who were sons of David and ruled in the dynasty in the city of Jerusalem, but we are not told that the word of God came to them. We're told that the word of God came to a little man and an otherwise unknown little village southwest of Jerusalem, a man who lived out in the sticks out in the rural area, if you will. That's where the word of God came. Some of you may remember from Luke chapter 3 when we were told about the beginning of John the Baptist ministry. Do you remember how it began? Luke says in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor. When Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, when his brother Philip was tetrarch of Antirria and Trachonitis, and when Lusannius was tetrarch of Abelene during the high priesthood of Anus and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, son of Zachariah, in the desert. Realize that no matter who you are, how small you are, how little the town you come from, how little influence you seem to have, you probably then qualify to be a messenger of the very word of God because the word of God came to Micah in the little town of Moresha. He was a humble man, and we shall find throughout history it seems that God uses the little women, the little men, the little boys and the little girls who simply humbled themselves as T.S. Eliot once said, most of the trouble in this world is caused by people wanting to be important and as true as it not. Well, notice not only is it a lonely prophet but a lonely prophet. Not only were these men powerful, but especially in the case of Ahaz, they were very wicked. You can turn to 2 Chronicles 28 sometime if you want, and you'll see a litany of sins that Ahaz committed, and he ruled in Jerusalem for over two decades, and we are told that he set up bales to worship them. He said, we're not going to get rid of Jehovah, but we want to make the other people happy too. We want to have several gods so that people can go to their gods like they go to the shopping center, and they can pick whenever God they want. So I'm going to provide all these bales, and besides that their worship is a lot more fun because they have temple prostitutes, and you can have fun in their worship services, you know, just sit and listen to the word of God. And furthermore, we are told that he made sacrifices himself personally to these false gods in the valley of Ben Hennum, and worse than that, he followed the practices of the Moabites who sacrificed their sons to the God chemist, seeking to appease him by the blood of their own children. Ahaz did this, and many other wicked things. These were the days in which Micah was ministering the word of God. No one was in agreement with him. The people in power didn't agree with him. The entire culture seemed to be going to hell in a handbasket, but the word had come to him. He had seen it in a vision, and he was faithful to it. In 1780 during the time when England was in its lowest morath, morally, there was a little man, hardly five feet tall, who became a member of parliament from the District of Hall, and this little man eventually went on a trip to the continent of England. And he met there, a soul there, one of his professors at Cambridge, from which he had graduated, and this professor happened to be a Christian. His name was Isaac Milner, and he ministered to that young man who had just been elected member of parliament, ministered to him, the gospel, all throughout their trip in Europe. By the time that young man came home, he was a Christian. His name was William Wilberforce, and he became one of the youngest members of parliament ever, and after becoming a Christian, he realized that some of these ills that were in Britain society must be dealt with, including the slave trade. And in a young man, here probably only 24 years old, he rises up to give his first speech to parliament. He said, when I consider the magnitude of the subject that is the slave trade, which I'm to bring before the House, a House who wanted nothing to do with abolition, I assure you, a subject in which the interest not of this country nor of Europe alone, but of the whole world and of posterity are involved. It is impossible for me not to feel both terrified and concerned at my own inadequacy to such a task, but I march forward with firmer step in the full assurance that my cause will bear me out the total abolition of the slave trade. I mean not to accuse anyone, but to take the shame upon myself in common indeed with the whole parliament of Great Britain, for having suffered this horrid trade to be carried on under their authority. We are all guilty. We owe it all to plead guilty, and not to ex-copate ourselves by throwing the blame on others. Well, from that speech, every year, for the next seven years there was a bill introduced to abolish the slave trade and every year the bill was put down by the House of Commons. And then, in 1792, the bill came forward again, and they negotiated to allow the bill to pass with the word gradually put in, which the slave traders knew would mean nothing would ever happen, and so they passed it. And then they went on and on seeking to pass a bill to abolish it by 1796. Finally, Wilberforce now added, for over 15 years, finally believed he had a majority, and on the third reading of the bill when it was to be finally passed, there was a very famous opera that was in town, and those who were in favor of abolition went to the opera instead of the House of Commons, and the bill failed. But Wilberforce continued on, continued on and on throughout his years in the House of Commons for one reason. It doesn't matter whether people vote for it or not, it doesn't matter whether it's the majority opinion or not, it doesn't matter whether it makes people happy or not, it doesn't matter whether it's politically correct or not, there's one thing that matters, and that is the word of God. And Micah says the word of the Lord came to Micah. What choice did Micah have, and I say to you who hear the word of God, what choice do you have, but to hear the word of God and put it into practice? The first principle of knowing our God is to let the word of God be your guide. There are many voices out there, but come back to the word of God in your daily devotions and in your worship. And in the development of your theology, that is who you believe God is, you must keep coming back to the Bible, and you know what, in the end, it doesn't matter to you who agrees with you or who doesn't agree with you. It doesn't matter whether your opinion is the right opinion. As Lincoln once said, it's better to lose in a righteous cause and to win in an unrighteous one. It doesn't matter. You don't have to defend it because the word of God is true, and one day it will be defended very visibly and very publicly by the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. One time, CF Lewis was asked how he would defend the Bible. He said, I just assumed to defend a lion. And so dear friends, whether the smart people and the educated people agree with you or not, it doesn't matter. All that matters is whether you agree with God. Let the word of God be your guide. Secondly, you'll look in verses two through four, and you'll see that if we are to know God, we must not only let the word of God be our guide, but let God's rule into every realm. You might expect, since God is speaking to the church, he would say now Jerusalem or now Israel or now Jacob or now Judah, but look at verse two, he says, hear all peoples, all of you. He says, listen on earth. Those are the people to whom he addresses himself, all the peoples of the earth. Now of course we're going to see a special word for his own people, but you realize that Christ is the King of every Muslim country, every secular country, every Hindu country, every animus country, a Jewish country, a Christian country, all countries, he is Lord. And he speaks to all of them and thus the need for a world evangelization because God is the judge of all the earth, and he has made his will clear, and those who do not obey him will be found under his judgment. This is not just for the Christians, God is no travel deity, is for the entire world. Not only is it universal in verse two, but if you look in verse three and four, it is also awesome. Mike is saying, my God is the God of the universe and he is great and glorious and infinitely powerful. Look at him when he comes in verse three, he's coming from his dwelling place, he comes down and threads the high places of the earth. It doesn't matter whether it's Mount Kilimanjaro, if Mount McKinley doesn't matter whether it's the White House, or the palaces of the world, all the high places they simply come under his feet. There's a double entendre here because it was the high places in Jerusalem where false worship was being offered, and Mike is saying, those places will be under the feet, under the judgment of the King when he comes. In verse four, look at this cataclysmic description of this very graphic description of God's judgment, the mountains will melt like wax before him and pour down into the valleys. Mike is saying, this is no small thing and dear friends, we all need to have our view of God recalibrated. He is a king and he is a judge and he is coming back and those who don't believe it are described in the Bible as the ones who are foolish. One time a pastor was talking to a little boy after Sunday school just kind of finding out what he learned at Sunday school and he said to a little boy, he said, son, if you can tell me something that God can do, I'll give you an apple. A little boy said, pastor, if you can tell me something God can't do, I'll give you a box of apples. There's nothing that our God can't do. That's what Micah is saying. And then thirdly, and lastly, you look at verses five through sixteen, here's the massive part of his prophecy. And what we learn here, not only must we let the word of God be our guide and let God's rule into every realm. But here we see that we must let God be our judge. We must accept his judgments. If you look in verse five, he says that the king is coming, he doesn't say because of all the wickedness in the world, he says because of Jacob's transgression, because of my church, because of the sins of the house of Israel. And then he says, here's the primary place where you find it. Because of Jacob's transgression, the capital Samaria. That's the northern kingdom. What is the sin of Judah? It's their high place Jerusalem in the south. These urban areas, these capitals, are epitomizing the evil that is going on in Micah's day. And Micah is saying, first of all, in verses six and seven, let us look at Samaria. Now you know Samaria was more evil in many ways than was the southern kingdom. The southern kingdom had the temple and had Jerusalem, the northern kingdom was separate from them. And the northern kingdom was had more heavily influenced by the Assyrians and by false worship. So God starts off with the Samaritans and he says to them, I'm going to make Samaria a heap of rubble. Now he's going to bring in the Assyrians, but you notice he says, I will do it. God uses other evil nations to judges and discipline his own people. And why does he do this? Well, it gives you the answer in verse seven. You see here two of the great evils that prophets regularly spoke against. There were the big three. You know, you have the big 10, the big 10 commandments. But if you read the major and the minor prophets, you will find there are three big sins that are regularly denounced. First of all is idolatry. And that's the first commandment, isn't it? There was no other God before them. Secondly is the sin of sexual immorality, the seventh commandment. There was no other commandment adultery. And often sexual sins went right along with idolatry. And the reason that our sexual practice is so important is because it reflects what we believe of God that he has made covenant with his people. And therefore sexual practice is for covenant relationship with man and woman only. To reflect God's love for his people. And therefore when we practice sexual license, we are simply saying I have another God. I reject that one. I reject the covenant God. I want a God of licentiousness like the Assyrians. And then the third big one that was attacked by the prophets was social injustice. The rich taking advantage of the poor. And you are going to see in chapter 2 how Mike excoriates the judahites for their oppression of the poor. But here in verse 7 he deals with idolatry and with the wages of prostitutes. And he is saying your gifts that are in your temple came through temple prostitution. And I am going to bring the Assyrians and they will take that money out and take it to their temples where they also exercise temple prostitution. So the very money you raised by prostitutes it will go to prostitutes. I am going to judge you with the same evil you have been committing. Isn't that the way it often is in our own day? And dear friends what does this mean for us? Here God is judging the Samaritans who were one step removed from the core of the church if you will. You can say these are the people who may be are in Christendom but don't take the whole thing very seriously. Who tend to synchronize with everything around them. And you can hear the judahites almost say yeah Mike, go get them. There is a good southern preacher up there preaching in the northern people. You go get them, Micah. Because those people are materialistic. They are syncretistic. They don't worship God the way they are supposed to worship. Go out from Micah. That is just a dinner of an equity up there in Samaria. Until verse 8. And Micah says here is my real concern. He says this is what makes me weep and wail and howl and moan. The cause of the judgment that is coming to my own people in the south where I live he says just southwest of Jerusalem in Mauritius. This is what causes me grief. And in verses 10 through 15 he goes through a litany of 10 cities and makes puns on every one of their names. Look at these in verse 10. First of all he says tell it not in gaff which was what David said when Saul died and Jonathan died. Tell it not in gaff. Don't let the Philistines hear it. They will just rejoice and make fun of us. Tell it not in gaff. And then he starts with this list Beth Ophra. Ophra comes from the word dust. And it means house of dust. And he says house of dust roll in the dust. And then he says you who live in shaffer a word that comes from the Hebrew word meaning beautiful. And he says you're going to be naked and shameful. The word Zan and comes from the word exits. And he says yes indeed you'll exit just like an exile. Beth Ezel means nearby house. And he says no longer will they be there for comfort. They won't be nearby. And verse 12. Mayroth is a word which means bitterness. And he says you're going to ride in your mayroth in your bitterness. And verse 13. Lakersh is a word which means team. And there it was a military city. Teams of horses prepare for chariots. And he says those horses will not be drawing chariots. They'll be taking you in exile out of the country. And then in verse 14, therefore you will give parting gifts or those are betrothal gifts. It's the word for betrothal gifts more a shift. You'll be getting betrothal gifts to the one who will bind you as you go into exile. The town of exit the word which means deceitful. They will no longer be loyal to their kings. They will be deceptive toward them. And then in verse 15, I will bring a conqueror or a possessor against you who live in Mauritia a word which means possessor or conqueror. So you think you're the possessor or conqueror. I'm going to bring a possessor or conqueror to Mauritia. And he was the glory of Israel will come to a dolem which is the very place that David hid out when he was in exile from from Saul. And the glory of Israel, all her leaders will be found in a cave. It's kind of like he comes to the mid-South and he says, Tunica, you'll be singing another tune. Memphis, you'll be miserable. Hope, Presbyteria, you'll be hopeless. Second Presbyteria, you'll be second-rate. He uses these puns to excoriate the people and he says to Jerusalem the very center of this power, the very epicenter of political and military economic power. He says, these are your children from whom you are responsible all these little towns in the Delta. They're all yours and what you do will jeopardize all of their welfare. And so shave your heads like vultures no longer looking like an eagle but shave it like a vulture because of the misery and groaning and moaning among the people. Dear friends, you wonder, what good does this do? What good did this do for the people of God? Well, of course there are many times when the people simply fell under the judgments that were pronounced. And I suppose that God has a very clear opinion about our society and our city and our lifestyles. And I suppose that if we were to go on the way that many Israelites did and not listening to the prophets, we too will face the same judgments. There's no question about it. As Billy Graham said, God will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah if he doesn't judge America. But here what actually happened, we know from the records of history, especially in Jeremiah 26, we are told that the preaching of Micah brought about a revival and repentance in King Hezekiah, the third one under whose ministry Micah served 25 years after he had started ministering. Finally, somebody listened, somebody repented and they enjoyed 100 years of God's peace in the southern kingdom. And so it was with William Wilberforce in 1996, the people who were supposed to be voting were away. But in 1997 it came up again and was defeated, 1998, 1999. Or rather 1799, 1801, 1802, 1803. Finally, 1804, it was passed. In 1805, it was reversed. 1806. On February 22, 1807, Wilberforce now was a veteran. And he was in those days an older man, almost 50 years old. And it passed in the middle of the night. And he walked out of the house of commons with his wrinkled face, walking next to his friend, Henry Thornton, who had helped him for all these decades to reverse the slave trade. Wilberforce said to Henry Thornton, well Henry, what shall we abolish next? Well dear friends, you could take that same parallel today. We don't have a slave trade doing. But you know what Edmund Burke said? He said, all this necessary for the propagation of evil is for good men to do nothing. And all this necessary for the propagation of continuing racism and classism and genderism is for people to do nothing. All this necessary for white folks to have an easier time getting a job than black folks is just don't do anything because it's already easier for you. You didn't have anything to do with the slave trade. You didn't own any slaves. You aren't plantation owners, the slaves on your quarters. But you say you are benefiting illicitly from what happened five years ago. So to do nothing had to become under the judgment of God. To have pornography shots in your city, even though they're not in your neighborhood and your children may not be attending them, to say it doesn't have anything to do with you, you see would be would be to invite the judgment of one who's coming makes the mountains melt like wax. To say that the educational system has nothing to do with you because your kids go to private school is to ignore the fact that God cares about the people in the community in which you live. And therefore you see what Micah would say to us? I wonder what God would say to us in our own day about the concerns of the people. Do you think Micah is a Republican or is he a Democrat? You say an independent. Your friends, I don't believe you could categorize him either way because he has a lot to say about the democratic issues of dealing with the poor and the underclass and redistributing economic opportunities. He has a lot to say about the Republican agenda, which seems on the more positive side to be concerned about some public moral issues. Why can't the Christian people embrace broke with the expense of not being embraced by either the little man and a little town and they repent? Not because of him, but because of the power of the word of God. Let us exalt Jesus Christ as keen. Let us bow before him as his subjects by hearing his word, making every realm come under his feet and letting his judgments be our personal judgments, all because we know that he loves his children and will never let them go. And because he loves us, he gives us words about which we are strengthened and directed for his service. Let us pray. Gracious God, we thank you for your word and pray that it may dwell richly in our hearts. We thank you for the kingship of Jesus Christ and pray that his realm may indeed shine radially in every sector of society. And may we be the Micahs in the little places of this world that speak forth and live out the gracious word of our king in whose name we pray.