Turning the page from Jonah, we've tarried a little with Jonah because we feel so much of that prophet's book is for us, as well as just record of predictions or sermons and pronouncements against others, but what's our heart in the middle of such perplexing things? I want to read tonight from chapter 1, and then we're going to turn and read a couple of other portions from the book, but we'll read from the opening verse, so Micah chapter 1 and verse 1. The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Moreshite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Hear, all ye people. Hearken, O earth, and all that therein is. And let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple. For behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under Him, and the valleys shall be cleft as wax before the fire. and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. I'll turn over, if you would, to the fourth chapter. Chapter 4 and verse 1. 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 out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid. For the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. For all people will walk, every one in the name of his God. And we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. Now over to chapter 5. Begin reading in verse 2 of the chapter. But thou, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Therefore will He give them up until the time that which she travaileth hath brought forth. Then the remnant of His brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. And He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. And they shall abide. For now shall He be great unto the ends of the earth. And this man shall be the peace when the Assyrians shall come into our land. and we shall tread in our palaces. Then shall we raise against him seven shepherds and eight principal men. They shall waste the land of Assyria with a sword and the land of Nimrod and the entrances thereof. Thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian when he cometh into our land and when he treadeth within our borders. And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as due from the Lord. as the showers upon the grass that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men. And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, in the midst of many peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he go through, both treadeth down and tarrieth in pieces, and none can deliver. Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots. I will cut off thy cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strongholds, and will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand, and thou shalt have no more soothsayers. Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee. Thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands. I will pluck up by groves out of the midst of thee. So will I destroy thy cities and I will execute vengeance and anger upon the fury and fury upon the heathen such as they have not heard." Well, in the reading, trust the Lord again will bless and prosper the public reading of his inspired word. Just ask you to join with me and let's bow our heads and hearts once again together. Our Heavenly Father, we come tonight rejoicing at the opportunity of singing corporate praise. And we ask even now that as we turn again the pages of Your Word, Lord, there are so many distractions, so many things perhaps of the week already pressing upon the mind. Lord, we pray that we might again the help of your Spirit, give pause in this Lord's Day. And give us grace in considering something of the words of this prophet. We ask these things in Jesus' precious and worthy name. Amen. As we resume our journey and brief survey of the minor prophets, we come obviously tonight to the prophecy of Micah. Micah, an abbreviated form whose name means, who is like God, who is like the Lord. We sing that, it's echoed through the scriptures. Micah was a contemporary with Isaiah. He was a contemporary with Amos. You read in the Chronicle at the beginning of his book the kings that he served and ministered under. It's really almost an echo of the opening pages or verses of Isaiah. And so we learn a little bit, we've already been there, if you will, in our study of the minor prophets. What Amos was to the northern kingdom, in many ways Micah was to the southern. Now Micah mentions the northern kingdom, he mentions Samaria in the opening verse of his prophecy, but as you gather through the book, most of his ministry was given to the south. He, like Amos, was not from Jerusalem, so he wasn't an urbanite. He was in the fertile land south of Judah. He was about 24 miles southwest of Jerusalem, where he's from, as he mentions his place of birth here. But I say what Amos was to the north, Micah was to the south. What Amos predicted for the northern tribes was fulfilled very shortly after his prophecy. What Micah predicted for the south was fulfilled in a later generation. The Assyrians that sacked Samaria and took captive the northern tribes came and approached Jerusalem, and well, we know the story under Hezekiah, that mighty prayer, and God gave mercy. gave Jerusalem and Judea a respite as it were. It wasn't until the Babylonians came that they were carried captive. But I say Micah then echoes Amos in so many ways. If we were to go through the prophecy in detail, we find in many ways some of the social sins that Amos preached against in the north, Micah preaches against in the south. I may have mentioned this in going through Amos, but when I was a teenager and was taken captive, as it were, by Amos, I remember being a little troubled at first that he was preaching so much against the social ills of the day. I grew up hearing about the rise of liberalism, the social gospel of those that were leaving the fundamentals of the faith. And I thought, well, it's the unbelievers that are worried about all the social, temporal stuff. But yet that's not true. It's just they were pursuing temporal good, temporal ministries as it were, without the needs of the soul. That was the problem with the social gospel of the liberals. But when the gospel is denied, when truth is abandoned, when truth is fallen in the streets as we read the phrase, social ills become prominent. Society begins really to crumble. You read in this prophecy of something the Lord echoes in the Gospels. People from their own households receive dangers. There's no safety there. What an awful characteristic of our age. I remember as a child hearing preachers often talk about the concerted assault upon the home the basic institution of society. And really, how many solid, stable homes are represented in our culture today? In many ways we have a mass of selfish, self-centered individuals seeking to avenge all the sins that have been meted out upon them, and perhaps they've been many. But the Gospel doesn't answer sin with sin. Yet we see our culture, as in the days of Amos and Micah, crumbling before our eyes. But Micah has an interesting distinction among the Old Testament prophets. And that, of course, you would perhaps have noticed and taken thought of as we read from chapter 5. Micah is given the distinction of being the only prophet in the Old Testament that gives the birthplace of Israel's Messiah. Chapter 5 and verse 2, But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel. We'll come back and finish that verse here in a moment. Here I say is the only place in the Old Testament where the birthplace of the Messiah is named, and yet it is known. You go to the Gospels. When the wise men approach Herod, they've seen the star from the east and they want to come and worship one that is born King of the Jews. What does Herod do? He calls in the chief priests. Where is the Messiah supposed to be born? Bethlehem. They give him the answer. They know the prophecy. And you find in John's gospel some of Jesus' detractors, knowing that he was from Galilee or lived there, say he can't be the Messiah. Out of Galilee arises no prophet. The Messiah is supposed to come from Bethlehem. Of course, that these only cared to look. In the remarkable providence of God, this Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem of Judea. Because his parents were of the house and lineage of David. And you think even the testimony that that is to unbelieving Israel. Joseph of the lineage of David. And yet what does it mean? He is virtually a pauper, a poor man from a poor village. Truly, there's no hope, it seems. But yet that's the Old Testament prophecy, various other places of the branch. That shoot that arises from a root, from that which has been cut down and left for dead and presumed to be dead, The branch arises from it. And of course, there's one of the many and wonderful pictures of our Christ. I want tonight just to focus on this fifth chapter. We're going to turn a couple of the portions, which is why we read from the others, but just to look from Micah's prophecy of his words with regard to Israel's king. His prophecy is one that is filled with challenges against sin. As Amos, his contemporary in the North, the theme of judgment is prominent. It is fierce, if you will. We noted that even in some of our reading. But there's also a theme of a remnant. Really, there is a theology of the remnant as you go through the Scriptures. And Micah also has a message of hope. And that hope springs from this fifth chapter that we've read together. I want to focus, as we read, with regard to this king. And if you think with me firstly of the origin of this king. Thou Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me. that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting." I think it's interesting that the revelation of Israel's king in many ways parallels the revelation of Israel's kingdom. God gave promises to Abraham. We speak in our Old Testament studies of the Abrahamic covenant. Different aspects of that covenant bring us to some of our debates with regard to the future and to the millennium, those promises with regard to the land coming up, and all millennialists and premillennialists and postmillennialists wrestling with those promises to be sure. Well, if you understand, you've heard me undertake looking at this in the past, I think Abraham's knowledge of that kingdom that was promised to him, as Christ said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day, he saw it and was glad. The day in which Christ lived and ministered and that first coming and humiliation. But I just wonder if it wasn't more of the second advent that Christ spoke. As Abraham would have known that the promise that his seed would be more numerous than the stars of heaven. that he would inherit that land wherein he was a stranger, that none of that would happen on this side of the grave. What Abraham expected was subsequent to the resurrection. And he looked forward to that day of Christ, which of course, ushers in the resurrection and that kingdom. But here I say the revelation about the king, in some ways parallels that revelation about the kingdom. Christ here is promised. His birthplace is announced. And yet, when will it be? What will it be? And I say the origins of this king. We read here about Bethlehem. Out of thee, out of this place shall he come forth. And yet, His goings forth have been of old." From everlasting. I think in many ways this is quite parallel to what our Lord spoke to the Sadducees in that last season of His ministry in Jerusalem. He asked them about the Messiah. Whose son is He? And they said, He's the son of David. Scripture tells us plainly. And then what does the Lord do? He takes them to the 110th Psalm. He says, how then can David, by the Spirit, interesting footnote on our doctrine of inspiration there, how can he by the Spirit call him Lord? How can he at the same time be David's son and David's Lord? And of course, our Lord calling upon these Bible scholars to work through their theology. To have a doctrine of the true humanity and yet the eternity and deity. Son of David. Well, here is a very similar, can we say, dilemma. He's going to be born here. He's going to come out of Bethlehem. And yet, His goings forth have been of old, from everlasting. I was reading one commentator that wrestled with this and suggested the multiple pre-incarnate appearances of Christ that are in view here. I'm happy to understand and find them here, but to me it reaches even further than just those appearances in time before the Incarnation. Here's the eternity of the One that is yet to be born. Here's Micah's promise of Israel's Messiah. We come also to consider something of the nature of His rule. Various portions of the prophecies of Israel's abandonment. If you go back to chapter 4, the Lord speaks here of this people. We read here words that echo. Well, do they echo? Do they parallel? It's virtually the same as the second chapter of Isaiah. But given that the Lord was the same God inspiring both of the prophets, interestingly, inspiring both of them at the same time and season of ministry in Jerusalem, the fact that they spoke the same message should not surprise us. I guess it gives scholars something to do to wrestle with the question of who quoted whom. But that, of course, is irrelevant. There are interesting aspects of our understanding of prophecy and of our expectations. Both Isaiah and Micah here speak of a season, those famous words in which men shall change their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. Well, what is the characteristic of this age in which we live? We spoke this morning of the last days, that period between the advents of Christ. In the Olivet Discourse, one of the key descriptions of that period, the Lord says, there will be wars and rumors of wars. The end though is not yet. So we don't become paralyzed with fear Well, we watch the news, wonder which war will be the next one to break out and where, and who we know or who among us will be touched by it. Here's a season where nations will not study war anymore. Here is a day, I believe, yet to come. But the Lord speaks here of His mercy on Israel. If you go back to chapter 4 and verse 6, And that day saith the Lord, I will assemble her that halteth, I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted, and I will make her that halted a remnant, her that was cast off, or cast far off, a strong nation. and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth even forever." The blessing of this people. Again, we're not going through some of the details and the pointed sermons that Micah has in here as we did with Amos. But as he's spoken against the evils, the gross evils and sins of Judah and Jerusalem, he speaks of a day of forgiveness. He speaks of a remnant inheriting these promised blessings. If you go back to chapter 5 and see something then of the reign of this one. Verse 4 we read in the 5th chapter now. and he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall abide, for now he shall be great unto the ends of the earth." Think of the nature of this King's rule. He shall stand and feed. A word here with reference to shepherding His reign is shepherd-like. And you think of all that the shepherd was and did for his sheep. The good shepherd, as our Lord reflects, even giving His life for the sheep. This King's reign is shepherd-like. And of course, we have that perhaps most famous of all the Psalms. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I won't lack anything, because the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable God is shepherding me. He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord. You know, we can consider this with prophetic application and understanding of a day that's yet to be. But David spoke those words of the familiar psalm with reference to life now. He is a shepherd to us now. We think of one of those refrains that was given to Handel to place in his great piece, Messiah. His yoke is easy, His burden is light. He shall gather the lambs in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young." What a comforting description of the rule of this shepherd. The flesh and the world would tell us to submit to Christ, is to surrender your freedom, Surrender your individuality to be put in complete and utter bondage. Never is there a better illustration of the blindness and the bondage of the unredeemed heart. To be bound to one whose purpose is your good, your protection, your provision, your happiness, your eternal joy. That's a precious bondage. It's one that issues in life. The bondage of the world is that that is filled with sin and misery. His yoke is easy. His burden is light. His rule is shepherd-like. It's also constant. Just in that phrase, He shall stand. There's no delay. There's no lack. There's no absence. Where is He? An earthly shepherd certainly could be overcome with numerous wild animals, I'm sure. David, we saw, with remarkable strength and help from the Lord, rescued his flock from a lion and a bear. But how infinitely greater is our Shepherd that stands to shepherd us. And then it said, it's done in the strength of the Lord. The strength of Jehovah. Here's how this king, this shepherd of his people rules. And then we read, they shall abide. Here's the security of his people. In chapter 4 we read of those who were lame, those who were outcast, Those that He, as Jeremiah phrases it, had for a season forsaken to their sins, but yet not entirely. It even speaks of that season as a moment. But with everlasting love, He gathers. And here, Micah, I say here and throughout his prophecy, makes much of that theology of the remnant. even in God's seasons of chastening as Israel in the age in which we live. We've studied in Romans. But yet, He's not cut them all completely off. There is a remnant according to the election of grace. And so it is even now with the Lord's dealings with the Gentile nations. He has in this age blessed these nations, sent the Gospel to these nations throughout the nations of the earth. These nations, these wild olive trees, He is gathering a people unto Himself. But we see even the church itself as Israel of old. It's one of the things I wrestle with in some of the prophetic debates. Some people want to paint with a broad brush that all premillennialists are pessimists. You can pull a lot of stuff out of the Dispensationalists and find pessimism there and it's worse and worse. But the Scripture speaks about a great apostasy in the last days. It's not just a philosophically backward view of Christianity. No, it's the prediction of God's Word. And I think if this view and this criticism of a premillennial view holds true in the New Testament, well, what about the Old Testament? Was that a pessimistic testament and we have an optimistic testament now? How about we have an optimism through the whole? That even in seasons when God has sovereignly allowed them to pursue their sins, to the point of apostasy and ultimately chastening, that He doesn't abandon the remnant of His heritage. He preserves a remnant. He preserves a testimony in the earth until that later day in which He will move with revival blessing. Micah looks forward to that day. Jesus, and speaking of that good shepherd, other sheep have I, He said, that are not of this fold. I'm going to gather them, bring them in, so they'll be one fold and one shepherd. And I say Micah, who was given to preach to Judah as Amos to the north, a harbinger of captivity, Centuries of captivity now we know, and yet here is a message of hope. A king is going to come out of Bethlehem. Not just any king. Not just any son of David. One whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. One whose kingdom One whose redeemed people will know no end. That's a prophet that has a good word to bring when he can preach hard message in hard times, and yet ultimately point to that day. And we have the same message. In some ways, we have the same apostasies surrounding us today. We have the same Gospel to share. The same Christ to proclaim. Let us as sheep under this Chief Shepherd rejoice and proclaim the Good News until that day. Let's bow our heads together. Our Heavenly Father, we ask tonight, Lord, we could turn in this prophecy as we've turned in Amos and find descriptions of particular blatant sins. Lord, we don't have to look far at all to find the same sins in our nation, in our age, But Lord, we're grateful that there's still the same remedy and ultimately the same victorious Savior that is yet to come. So Lord, undertake for us tonight. Help us as we part from each other and go to our homes. Let us know in our homes something of those days of heaven upon the earth. Lord, let us in our places of employment, our interactions with this world, shine as lights in the midst of this corrupt generation. So bless us now, Lord, we ask. Take up the Word we have considered this Sabbath. Strengthen us by it. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.