Well, we're in Micah chapter 6 we began last week of Micah chapter 6 verse 1 Which is the beginning of the third cycle of sermons that are found in this prophecy And I think it's page 932 or something around there if that's not exactly it that you can fish around a little bit and find it Micah chapter 6 last week We saw that if we were to try to figure out how to face temptations in our lives Successfully we could probably do no better than look at these first eight verses in Micah We saw that first of all we must get in mind God's justice He is just he will respond to everything in this world including our own behavior and attitudes and speech And then we saw that we should remember his mercies to us so that our hearts would be broken and Grateful and with tears follow him out of gratitude for all that he's done for us when we've been loved as we have been by God It just simply doesn't make sense for us not to love him back And then we saw thirdly that we should respond appropriately as in verse 8 that we might act justly and love mercy And we'll humbly with our God. It is a response to his character and his work and his love for us Well, we come to chapter 6 verse 9 this morning, and we're gonna see not only how to face temptation, but now how to face sin Sin before we commit it and even how to face sin after we commit it in verses 9 through 16 You will see here that it is God who is speaking to us And we're gonna see something about his character that will help us on this side of sin to be where and then in chapter 7 We'll see that Micah is speaking in first person singular and also first person plural to some extent But he really is speaking it seems to me on behalf of the nation of Israel and how they respond to their own sin and God's consequences that come upon them. So we'll hear him speak to his people and then his people speak to him and in the midst of it I think we will see very clearly how it is that we are to respond to our own failures and sin against God. Let us pray Gracious God who continues to come to us and to love us and to reassure us and to direct us and guide us We assemble as your people who truly want to know your will and in those ways in which we resist your will We pray that even in these minutes together you will break our hearts so that we will desire to do what you want for us Speak O Lord for your servants. Listen Amen Micah chapter 6 verse 9 here the word of God Listen the Lord is calling to the city and to fear your name is wisdom He the rod and the one who appointed it and I still to forget O wicked house your ill-gotten treasures and the short ifa which is accursed Shall I acquit a man with dishonest scales with a bag of false weights? Her rich men are violent her people are liars and they their tongues speak deceitfully Therefore I have begun to destroy you to ruin you because of your sins You will eat but not be satisfied your stomach will still be empty you will store up but save nothing because what you save I will give to the sword you will plant but not harvest you will press olives, but not use the oil on yourselves You will crush grapes, but not drink the wine You have observed the statutes of omri and all the practices of a heath's house and you have followed their traditions Therefore I will give you over to ruin and you are people to derision and You will bear the scorn of the nations What misery is mine? I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard. There is no cluster of grapes to eat None of the early figs that I crave The godly have been swept from the land not one upright man remains all Men lie in weight to shed blood each hunts his brother with a net Both hands are skilled in doing evil the ruler demands gifts the judge accepts bribes the powerful Dictate what they desire they all conspire together the best of them is like a briar the most upright Worst in a thorn hedge The day of your watchman has come the day God visits you Now is the time of their confusion Do not trust a neighbor put no confidence in a friend even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words For a son dishonors his father a daughter rises up against her mother a daughter-in-law a guest or mother-in-law A man's enemies are the members of his own household But as for me I watch in hope for the Lord I Wait for God my Savior My God will hear me All men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field the grass withers and the flowers fall But the word of our God stands forever I'm in I was five years old and my little sister Julia was three years old and she Had and has pretty blonde hair at the age of three was starting to come out and get a little body You know, I still kind of wiring thin and and not quite has the body that'll have here in a couple years hard to curl And so I'm they're just beautiful blonde hair My parents made the mistake one day of taking a little trip out and leaving us with a babysitter who was not particularly watchful And I look at those blonde little things that were gathered in the back of the rubber band and I I noticed the unnecessary Bangs that were coming down over the forehead. I don't know what they were for the team that they served any purpose to me And so my sister and I gleefully agreed that I should be her barber that afternoon And so I just clipped off the back of her head something to be nice and smooth you see and equal on both sides I call off the other one too and then we decided to give her a little bit freer Vision so this hair wouldn't be right. I just cut it about right there And of course you can understand of course a five-year-old can't cut particularly straight So I didn't look the best press, but I was rather proud of my handiwork Until my father came home And my father unfortunately was listening to the whaling of his wife my mother and it was not a very very happy scene Now I wish that at five years of age. I had been a wise person and And in fact Mike is saying to the people that wise people here He says in verse nine wise people fear fear his name, and I wish I had been a little more fearful of the name of my father And it says in fact listen. He's calling to you. He's the rod And I wish I had I wish I had heated the potential rod that was coming my way very briefly now I would have been wiser had I had two traits That I had realized that my parents were going to notice that the hair was shorter than it was before If I had known they were gonna see it then I probably would have behaved a little different I thought it just wasn't that big a deal probably nobody would notice how silly of a five-year-old I also probably would have behaved a bit differently If I had known that they were going to react to what I did It was a it was a sad day in the Wilson household and in the backside of my body It was particularly sad and I wish I had been wiser and there are many people facing all kinds of sins like the one that I committed that day That it wasn't just a sin of ignorance It was probably there were other things mixed in there who are just as silly Just a silly that they don't really know their father very well They don't know how he responds to the whalings of the one that he loves his church and they probably don't think that he sees Happened what they do or think or say and they probably don't expect him really to respond because after all He's like their a vunketer a uncle who just you know He not only is so nice, but if you just wait about three days He can't even remember what you did anyway, and we see here that God says am I still to forget verse 10 You think I'm just a forgetful old man Do you think that my standards just change every day? Do you think that I don't see stuff? I see it all and I react to it all The first thing that we learn on this side of sin Look out Look out Before you sin look out. I wish my little sister had told me Look out for what first of all he sees it. He says in verse 10 Am I still to forget a wicked house? You're ill-gotten treasures? The short ifa so the poor buy from you and you give them you give them a short a bushel basket back Your false weights that you're weighing out the meat at the market and you don't weigh it properly You have you have light weights that you put over here so that the light weight of meat will equal it And you can sell and short people do not think that I know that you gained your income and your beautiful house and car Vacation home because you didn't pay your taxes You think that I don't realize that you You you held the wages of your people down so that you could increase the income of your company You think I don't see these things he says am I to forget that? Of course with us his people he does Forget in a sense, but it's only because he remembered all of those sins and laid them on the shoulders of Jesus Christ and poured out completely the wrath that justly was deserved by those sins on his son Jesus Christ That's the reason he forgets our sins not because he's an old god who can't remember But because he's put it on somebody else don't think for a minute that he doesn't see it and we're only foolish to think so and and it will not be for our welfare I'll show you don't think that that he doesn't see how we're trying to increase the prosperity of our state or our country or our city Don't think that he doesn't see our schemes that all we'll just I find in the paper Either yesterday or this morning and that the state the Senate Tennessee State Senate says and we probably have enough votes Two-thirds of the Senate to get the rear for in them before the people of this state for a lottery Don't think that God doesn't know what you're doing if you vote for such a thing That's a great tax Because it doesn't tax most of you what it does it taxes the poor the compulsive and the stupid it does and Don't think that God doesn't see what you're doing you're raising all kinds of money on the backs of the poor through their greed And they're like a self-control and they're hopelessness in life hoping they can just get a quick fix to it all and go by lottery tickets I've seen it over and over again in state to have lotters people lined up there buying their tickets They just got their paycheck and before they go home They're stopping and buying their tickets wasting their money Not even able to count odds. They don't know what odds are probably and that's how they spend their money Don't think says God that I I'm stupid and that I don't know what you're doing So he sees it all and then he says therefore you see a two therefore is one in verse 13 and one in 16 B The other cause the other thing that he sees in verse 16 is he says you have observed the Statutes of Armory He says I've observed that you're observing their statues. What were those statues to worship another God? To wreck another God a false God in Northern the Northern Kingdom and he said don't think I didn't notice that the people stopped worshiping me I started worshiping these trees And you know hugging trees and glorifying whales or whatever they want to do Don't think I haven't noticed you switch gods on me And he has a therefore after that too. What is the therefore? But therefore is not only the gate God sees but therefore God acts he sees any acts and here's what he does in his action therefore I have begun to destroy you Now this is around 700 BC We know that from the Kings that are listed at the very beginning of chapter one. We know what the date is or the approximate date They were completely destroyed in Jerusalem and the Southern Kingdom in 586 BC So we're talking 120 years later or so that they're completely destroyed Well, you notice what God says here. I have begun to destroy you It sounds a lot like Romans one doesn't it where we have Exchange the glory of the internal God for images of reptiles and beasts and human beings and Then God says therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts In fact, you find that phrase three times in Romans one when he's speaking about the wickedness of the Gentiles They did this therefore God gave them over to their own desires It's an act of his judgment We start this thing out with for our own sin and God sees it and one of his actions is what we call judicial hardening He even hardens our hearts. He hardens the culture and he sends us right down the slippery slope and he said I've begun the process It's not that it's irreversible If we repent God Repents toward us. Does that mean he changes his eternal decree? No, it means that he responds to us and it was decree from all eternity But we're responsible for our response and he responds to us and he begins the process here I have begun to destroy you to ruin you because of your sins And look how he does this you're gonna have plenty of food, but it's gonna be absolutely tasteless You've stored up all these things that you think we're gonna bring you physical pleasure and it's gonna be empty and futile and sip it Don't suggest that you watch too many Woody Allen movies But I did watch one of his really old ones one time and you know how he loves to make certain references to religion Well, he had two Jewish women on a vacation resort up in the Up in the Adirondacks, I think it was and they're at this little resort and one of the older ladies said to the other You know this food is tasteless And the other one said yes and the portions are so small You guys kind of a picture of the futility of life When you leave God's way it's insipid and empty It's futile and you know that it doesn't taste good You know that from relationships that are built on the wrong foundation you know it from a business It's greedy and lustful. You know it from your own activity when you've spoken an ill word to someone it just doesn't sit well And you will be miserable and that's from God by the way and then he says in verse 14 You'll store up to save nothing you build these barns. You build these huge bank accounts You have this retirement program that's good enough for an army and you've got all these places all the world You want to go to and you forgot something very important God is more powerful than bank walls or vaults And he can destroy it in a moment and you've wasted your time Because it wasn't built on the character or the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ And he says verse 15 you can plant yet is you can work really hard and Nothing really good comes out of it. Why because you're focused on yourself You're abusing other people you haven't really given attention to what he wants So he says once again at the end of verse 16 I will give you over to doing and your people to derision you'll bear the scorn of the nation There's nothing worse than Having that R.S. calling you when you know you cheated and There's nothing worse than having the R.S. calling you and you know you cheated and you know that he knows your Christian There's your testimony. It's right there in black and white and he says here I'll give you over to total derision in scorn. These are the Lord's people. These are the people of Jehovah Some God he must be and they scorn us and him now These are things that are good to keep in mind before you put your hereto across the line to sin Don't cut the ponytails off. Don't cut the bangs off until you know what your daddy is like You otherwise you're gonna be pretty miserable and that's exactly what is said in verse 1 of chapter 7 Here is the person who has sinned here is the person who God said was gonna be miserable and now they admit they are miserable Here's a person who's coming to him for her sins after having heard what God has to say Seeing it played out in life and now is responding and I think Malik of Micah gives us a good model for how to deal with this first of all after you sin You were told to look out and you didn't Then you might think about looking down and Unfortunately Christians and Americans are less and less gifted at looking down We think to look down is a denial of our humanity. It is not a denial of your humanity if you happen to be a sinful human It's actually an affirmation of humanity when you've sinned and you know how to acknowledge it and to grieve over it And here look what Micah is saying what misery I Am miserable and I admit it Everybody else is trying to put spin on this thing to say that they didn't do anything wrong and everything's rosy and dandy and and Whatever they want to do to see the silver lining in every cloud and all the rest is eternal optimist But the fact of the matter is we're miserable. He says we are suffering Judicial hardening we are suffering some things at God's hand because we have sinned and Dear friends, I really believe it's important for us in the church of Jesus Christ to be the first ones to bow our heads When we've participated in things in our culture our society when we have Bought all the products that the sponsors are are selling and they're also sponsoring trash on TV and movies We buy it all just they were there with everybody. We may know distinctions whatsoever We we don't be able to make no effort to preserve life in our community. We make no effort effort to preserve social justice We are the ones who ought to be quick to our heads and to look down Now that's not the last word the first word. It's the first word. It's not the last way you look It's the first way you look when you come to grips with you cut off the pony tail And that was a dumb thing to do not only was it dumb it was bad and it hurts somebody else So bow your head and he says I am miserable what misery is mine I'm like one who's trying to gather up some summer fruit and all the fruits going Everybody's already picked it. I can't find anything to eat. That's how miserable I am. There's nothing here for me But didn't notice let secondly not only do you look down but you look in versus two through six look in look at yourself the problem is we We is the problem and We can blame it on everybody else But we are the problems of the misery that we ourselves are suffering more often than not And it's so amazing isn't it that when you face break up at a marriage One thing I don't see much of is this I see that and that and that I don't see this I don't see this When people have relationships break up of friendships. I don't see much of this People looking to themselves when people are a really hooked on alcohol or drugs. I don't see much of this I blame it on your mother blame it on your father blame it on your sisters blame it on your wife blame it on your children blame it on your business blame it on that bad chemistry that you've got your body Blame it on everything else and you're the poor victim I will do this. I mean I do it and not the only one you're looking at me like you don't disagree What's the first rule of AA first of the 12 steps first of all you realize you're powerless By yourself now they get step four that says you began to take a serious moral inventory of your life A serious moral inventory And that's exactly what what do you think they got that The daughter of the Bible and that's what Micah is doing right here He says the godly have been swept from the land Why have they been swept from the land because you wanted them swept from the land As John Householder said a few minutes ago John Ashcroft and this is not a Republican or a democratic statement We got both in this room and both are perfectly legitimate political parties for Christians to participate in You both need to be self-critical by the way before you start criticizing the other party If we'd do that I think Christians would have a whole lot more influence with your own party than with the opposite party however This is simply a pastoral statement. There may be reasons I don't know. I don't know the whole story. I haven't seen any yet which makes me think that Ashcroft should not be Affirmed confirmed But there may be some reasons and if indeed if he is a racist then he should not be confirmed I've not seen anything yet that says that he is but if he is he should not be confirmed But what I want you to notice Is the language that the special interest groups opposed to him are using You'll see it on the front page of the New York Times he'll see it in yesterday's commercial appeal His religion is being described in detail And there's actually a fairly accurate description of it in New York Times this morning And that is supposed to be the reason That we should be inflamed with passion against him Why are they not godly people because every time they come up we're cooperating with this rubbish And suggesting that someone who affirms Jesus Christ as king Couldn't possibly be a good attorney general because his religion will interfere with his civic policy What Micah is begging for Is that people who administer justice as civil magistrates will first of all be committed to Jehovah Here's what Ashcroft said is in yesterday's paper. This is awful isn't it just terrible? Ashcroft said this publicly And he got they dug it up out of the archives and said this is the reason we ought to be afraid of this guy Here's what he said unique among the nations America recognized the source of our character as being godly and eternal not being civic and temporal There's a difference as croft said between a culture that has no king but Caesar no standard but the civil authority And a culture that has no king but Jesus no standard but the eternal authority I certainly couldn't be eternal How does this compare to our first president? If you had a diary he wrote some of his prayers in it And when he was 20 years old, this is the prayer that George Washington wrote almost glorious god Remember that I am but dust and remit my transgressions negligences and ignorance And cover them all with the absolute obedience of thy dear son That those sacrifices which I have offered Maybe accepted by thee in and for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ offered upon the cross for me Direct my thoughts words and work Wash away my sin in the immaculate blood of the lamb And purge my heart by thy holy spirit towards Washington should also not be eternally 30 general According to what some people are saying. But you see what's happening. God says I'm giving you over You're already in the midst of destruction and you better turn because where it leads is there will be no godly in the land They'll just sweep them out of here and he says then secondly People are looking out for number one. Look at this. He says they take bribes. They demand gifts Do you not see this you think this this event in our city This past week or two with a high school coach who allegedly received two hundred thousand dollars bribed to get one of his graduates into the university play football do you think it's first time this ever happened you think he dreamed that up You think you didn't learn that somewhere folks We are the people of God who know that God sees everything in a reaction to everything We we look down, but then we look in and we acknowledge that what we're doing is wrong Here you have he says there's also going to be complete this trust verse five No one will be able to trust their neighbor. Don't put any confidence in a friend Did you hear the hymn that the choir sang a moment ago? for the joy of human love Brother sister parent child and yet here you see when wickedness gets its way Even brothers and sisters are at each other's throats in laws kind of have to expect that or at each other But here you have even fathers and sons mothers and daughters who are at each other's throats You can't even trust them don't say anything to them that you don't want quoted out of school Total break down in the family complete breakdown you not see that we're encouraged to think this way Have you noticed how fathers are caricatured on television? They're all weak and stupid and impotent have you noticed how parents in general are are Completely mindless and out of it have no idea what's going on and what's best for their children and the children who are The cute and neat and cool and funny ones are the ones who overthrow everything that parents say you ever noticed that Do you not think that has an influence? Do you not think that's part of the damage slope? What does the christian church do we look in and acknowledge it and say lord forgive me for thinking this way And we become part of the solution lastly not only do we look down and look in but we look up look up The solution is not to be found in yourself your solution is not even to be found in your repentance The solution is to be found in Christ And that's what he is coming is all about and the people who make a difference in their world Very practically or the people who know he's the only answer and who are watchfully waiting for his return They're the ones who make all the difference why because they do not allow the crud and the corruption around them to pull them down And to cause them to lose heart because they know this thing's gonna work out in the end And so they keep looking up and they keep pilgrimageing towards Jerusalem and they're walking that way And they're taking some people with them and transforming the culture around them What happens to God's people when we get caught up in a wicked babbling is that we forget the future We give up hope and we just copy everybody else But you'll notice this man says God's gonna hear me I know God will hear my prayer I'll call it to him for salvation and he will come So dear friends if you've already cut off the pigtails
And if you've already gotten the whipping for it and I've got a bunch of them If you're if you're back size just a little sore and your sister's wearing a bonnet Every day They go ahead look down Acknowledge the misery Look in take responsibility for what you've done and who you are But don't forget to look up Your father still loves you he restores you And unlike my father who left this life five years ago went on to be with the Lord My father in heaven lives forever and ever and ever and he's promised the happy conclusion to the entire matter So don't fear sin Martin Luther said sin boldly And what he meant was live boldly Because you have a God whose power has crushed sin And the one who leads us into it so that he might preserve you Glory be to his name now and forever more Amen Gracious God we pray that we may look not only down and in But look up and be saved through Jesus Christ our Lord