Micah chapter seven, starting in verse one. This is God's holy, inspired, and errant word. Let's give our full attention now to its reading. Woe is me, for I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, and when the grapes have been gleaned, there is no cluster to eat, no first ripe fig that my soul desires. The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind. They all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. Their hands are on what is evil to do it well. The prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desires of his soul. Thus they weave it together. The best of them is like a briar. The most upright of them is a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come. Now their confusion is at hand. Put no trust in a neighbor. Have no confidence in a friend. Guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms. For the son treats the father with contempt. The daughter rises up against her mother. The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own house. But as for me, I will look to the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me." Rejoice not over me, O my enemy. When I fall, I shall rise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out of the light. out to the light, I shall look upon his vindication. Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, where is the Lord your God? My eyes will look upon her. Now she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets." Thus far, the reading of God's holy word, praying now, trusting that he'll bless it to our hearts. Well, beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we hear these words of Micah and we hear about the situation that Micah had found himself in, that he was receiving opposition from both the world, these foreign armies, but also opposition within the house of God, it causes us, we can't help but think, well, how does this apply to us today? How is the world around us in similar ways as we find with the prophet Micah? And it doesn't take us long as we look out at the world that we can often be filled with hopeless despair. As we look to the world and we see that there is no desire for godliness, there is a rejection of God's word, there is a disregard almost entirely for morality, just basic love for one another has been thrown out the window in some ways. Not only that, but we recognize that there is corruption in leadership, There is those who seek dishonest gain. There is a hunger and thirst we could say for wickedness. Micah was familiar with this, but not only outside of the church, not only outside of the people of God, but within the walls, within the gates of Israel. Remember Micah says, this wickedness had reached the gates of Jerusalem. It was within us. There was a problem in the house of God. And so we fix our eyes off the world then, and we say, well, what's the matter with the church today? And we can go on and on, and we'll do some of that this morning, but we can look at the ways in which the church has gone wrong, in which the church has compromised, the things in which the church has not been faithful in upholding. In other words, we could say that there's a general decline of godliness and a care for the Lord's Word to prevail. In other words, people are rejecting, in some ways, Christians, the supreme authority of God's Word and what the Word of God says. The supernatural is rejected, the pure preaching of God's Word is rejected, and therefore, mechanics are employed that we might just gather the masses and entertain. These things are certainly true, and we can go on and on, like I mentioned, about what exactly is wrong in the world, but the question is, do we do with these things? How do we deal with these things that we know are true outside of our walls? How do we deal with those things in a way that brings glory to our faithful God? Has He told us how it is that we should deal with these things? And I think what we find in chapter 7 of the book of Micah, we're reminded that what we're facing today is a You can draw some similarities to what Micah was facing then, that facing, again, opposition from the world and also opposition within the people of God, or you could say within the church. At a deeper level, the problem was within their own gates. It was a problem of worship, which we've tried to make that case throughout the book of Micah, that the temple of God, that was the place where God had said he would meet his people, and they had defiled it. And we can see that happening today. God still desires that we worship Him in reverence and awe, because He is a consuming fire, as Hebrews chapter 12 tells us. And if we look around, that isn't necessarily the case as we look at the way in which the church is worshiping God. But I want to be clear, though we're told here how to maybe deal with these things, this is not a sermon about how to be a Micah. We're not saying this morning, we just gotta be more like Micah. Instead, what we're finding is we're finding an inspired situation whereby God shows us how we might respond rightly to opposition from the world and also opposition from the church. So as you know, Micah was a prophet, that's big P, prophet. He spoke on behalf of the Lord. He said, thus saith the Lord, none of us say thus saith the Lord, We know that Micah was a covenant lawyer. He was bringing a lawsuit against the nation of Israel. We don't bring a lawsuit against our nation or against even the church, but rather we look to what Micah does. And again, the inspired word of God tells us how we ought to deal with the opposition that we face. In other words, Micah shows us that there is an appropriate response to the wickedness and the darkness and the spiritual decline that all of us are familiar of, we're familiar with. So what I want us to see is that Micah shows us that because we have an unmovable foundation, we can trust God in any and all circumstances. Hear me. because our foundation is unmovable. The one to whom we look does not move. He does not change. And therefore we can trust God even in the midst of spiritual decline, even in the midst of darkness, even the midst of hostility and opposition towards the gospel. That's what I want us to see. That's what Micah is doing. Not only Micah, but also the remnants. We can trust God so much that we do not doubt that he'll provide. all that we need for body and soul and in this life, so much that we don't doubt that He'll provide these things for us. Why? Well, because He is able, because He is the almighty God. He created all things, He sustains all things, and He's also our heavenly Father. He could be able and not willing, but rather we see that He is both able and willing because He is almighty and because He is our Father. That's what we can trust about God. That's what Micah trusts. He trusts in his Lord. And what he does in this passage in Micah chapter seven is he moves from suffering lament to steady trust. So those are the two points. I noticed that I didn't actually print those in the bulletin for you. Must've forgot this week, but those are the two points. That is suffering lament and steady trust. And we're gonna see that these two are interwoven so much that they should not be separated. And when they do get separated, when we are lamenting without a steady trust, it turns into self-righteous complaining. We're going to see how that is the case as we go forward. So first, suffering lament on the heels of God's contention with his people. Remember, God contended with his people last week, and he was saying, What have I done to you? Was it my fault that you had wandered from my ways? Was it my fault that did I weary you when I brought you out of the land of Egypt, when I carried you by the hand into the wilderness, when I kept you there and brought you into the promised land? Is it my fault? In other words, God is innocent and the people still rejected him. And so Micah cries out, look at verse one of chapter seven, woe is me. For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered." Woe is me, he's communicating his suffering at the hands of Israel's wickedness, but at a deeper level though, he's communicating his suffering, his mourning, as he looks out at the spiritual decline of the nation of Israel, that is the house of God. He's not talking necessarily here in this passage about a pagan nation, rather, he's talking about the decline in the house. That is the house of the Lord. And so we would do well to understand Micah. He's speaking for himself, woe is me, but he's also giving voice to this remnant. You remember that the idea of remnant has been tracked through, traced through the book of Micah. We see the remnant is preserved. The remnant is going to continue. So Micah is speaking on behalf of that remnant. dried out from the heat of summer with no harvest to glean from. You see, it was part of Israel law or Jewish law, you should say, or I should say that when people were going to harvest their fields, they were supposed to leave some fruit on the vine for the sojourners to come and pick, that even the poor might have some sort of fruit to glean from, that they would still be cared for and provided for. And Micah says here, it's all gone. There's no ripe grape. There is no fig that I can sink my teeth into and find my soul's delight. There is nothing that I can look to and find satisfaction. The remnant laments because, why are they lamenting? Because they see no godliness, because godlessness is wrought in the nation of Israel. And they're suffering at the hands of this spiritual decline because as the religion is on the decline, neighbor is hating neighbor. They are feasting off one another. And as we think about this fruit imagery, we are familiar with how the fruit imagery is strung through the scriptures. And so what is Micah really saying here? Is he really talking about fruit? Well, yeah, he's using fruit imagery, but think of John 15 when Jesus says, I am the vine and you are my branches. Abide in me and you will what? bare fruit, grapes or figs, and that your neighbor might be able to sink their teeth into that fruit and be blessed by the ways in which you are loving them, caring for them, upholding the ways in which God has told us how we ought to live according to his law. Micah is saying that there's no one who does righteousness. There is no one among me that is bearing this fruit of righteousness, as Paul says in Philippians 1. In other words, there is no one who is walking after the Lord. They have all gone astray. There is no good fruit here. Therefore, I'm suffering. And as we saw last week towards the end of chapter six, we see that the ax is laid to the root of the tree. God is cutting down the nation of Israel because they had broken covenant. He is kicking them out of the land because they had broken covenant. And what that kicking out of the land is picturing is it's showing them their need for another to come. And we've already traced that out as well. You can see how it's hard not to summarize the things that we've already said, but that the remnant is gonna be preserved that one might come bring full preservation." This isn't the first time that Micah laments. If you look back quickly at Micah chapter 1, turn over a few pages to Micah chapter 1, the way that he begins his prophecy, in fact, remember in verse 8 of chapter 1 he says, "'For this I will lament.'" I will wail. I will go stripped naked. I will make lamentation like the jackals and mourning like ostriches." These are suffering cries because godliness was on the decline. The godly had perished from the earth. There is no one upright, he says. Well, he's talking in a bit of hyperbolic language. That means that he is we could say exaggerating a bit to make a point, because we know that there is a remnant there. We know that God is preserving a remnant that is walking in uprightness, who is walking in holiness, and Micah belongs to that group. So it's like Elijah when he says, who is righteous among me? And then God says, there are these that have not bowed the knee to Baal. In that same way, we see that the remnant is still walking in holiness. But Micah says, there's no one upright. They all lie in wait for blood and they hunt each other. Their hands are on what is evil to do it well. The leaders rule through bribery and unjust dealings. You see the state of the nation. Their hands are on what is evil to do it well. That means they've taken mastery in doing what was evil. Should have been doing good, yet they are walking in wickedness. The rulers are leading through bribery. They're taking unjust deals. They are suppressing the weak. They are exploiting the poor. What I think we need to see here is that there's a fitting response to the wickedness that is around us. And that fitting response is lament. The fitting response to the godlessness that we see is sorrowful lament, that we would be sorrowful, that we would mourn the ways in which our God's holy name is defiled. That's what Micah is doing. He is mourning. He is sorrowful. And so it's important to note here that scripture provides a space for the people of God to lament. Lamenting is not wrong, it is not less spiritual, it is not characteristic of one who is weak in their faith, but rather we have cries throughout the scriptures of people of God crying out to the Lord saying, how long, oh Lord, must this go on? And the space that's provided here in the scriptures is that we don't just push off our suffering, our mourning, our lament, acting like it isn't happening. But rather the scriptures are in our face saying, we ought to deal with these things. We ought to recognize that the world hates us. We ought to recognize that even in the church, there's hostility. It's not just getting over these things by having more faith. it's certainly not always a result of our lack of faith that the church is facing such wickedness for from the beginning of time to the end there has always been opposition between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent where God says I will put enmity between the two and we see that worked out on the stage of history and even now we are facing that and instead with Micah and the remnant we can reckon with the darkness that is around us, we can reckon with the sin that is committed against us in this side of glory. On this side of glory, we know that we are those who sin against others, and we are also those who are sinned against. What Micah is saying is this sin had reached a heightened level in the nation of Israel. And what I think that we're taught here, as in the Psalms of Lament, were you familiar with that? Well, there's an entire genre within the book of Psalms that are Psalms of Lament. So if you don't believe me that there is space in the scriptures that we might lament, we ought to go just read those Psalms and see that the Psalmist is crying out in deep sorrow and mourning because of the wickedness that they're facing. In other words, lament is appropriate. It was appropriate for the remnant then that was facing godlessness. And it's appropriate for us now, as we also are facing godlessness. Instead of thirsting for the word, the people of Israel were seeking blood. drinking the blood of their own neighbors. That's very vivid language. And I think that it's fitting. Very often we can tie this to, okay, well, let's look at our nation and see how things have just gone on to the decline for the nation. But we got to remember that the nation of Israel was what's called a theocratic nation where God was ruling over them as their king. They were a holy, a spiritual nation. And so if we're going to draw parallels, we ought to draw parallels between the nation of Israel and the church. So that's what we're going to do for a moment, because the application is in the church, in the house of God. So let's talk about the things that are happening in the house of God and reckon with how we can lament. We can lament when worship for the Creator is exchanged for worship of the creature. when people are more concerned about being worshiped themselves than they are about worshiping the Creator. We can lament when the people of God, they gather, but no longer hunger and thirst for His Word, but rather they hunger and thirst to have their ears tickled and to have their emotions stimulated. We ought to lament, be sorrowful that that is the case. We ought to lament as the church gets wrapped up in fame, gets wrapped up in prosperity, gets wrapped up in exploitation, that they might gain more fame and prosperity. We know of famous preachers, for example. We can lament as the gospel is hijacked, for the unqualified statement that Jesus loves you and has a plan for your life. Though that's true if we aren't giving the full message of the scriptures that God is holy and that he desires perfection and that he provides perfection in and through Jesus Christ, the statement of Jesus loves you means nothing. And we lament because the reason why that's happened is because the attributes of God have all been squeezed through the tight funnel of love and then redefined. And so we say what love is based on what we feel. We can lament when the church gobbles up the ideologies of the world and then compromises on what scripture clearly says about gender and about sexual identity and about who we are as those made in the image of God. There's been a departure even in the church of true biblical image of God for conflating sexual identity and who we are or sexual preference with our identity. And we can talk about that all day long, but rather we should be on our knees lamenting and sorrowful that that's actually the case in the church. Lamenting that the church departs from the gospel in the name of social reform. The gospel goes that we might transform culture, for example. And we should especially lament that church leaders exploit the poor, or exploit the weak, I should say, and the vulnerable, and abuse those who are subject to their exploitation. These are all things that are happening in the church. We could go through each one of them and we can show examples of what's happening in the church today. And I think that with Micah, again, we can find great camaraderie among one another as we think about, woe is them. How bad are those things that are happening out there? But does it drive us to our knees in prayer? Does it drive us to a sorrowful state that people made in the image of God are rejecting His clearly revealed word, His clearly revealed scripture? So the situation in Israel had reached a point that the people no longer trusted their neighbor. The text tells us that they can no longer have confidence in a friend. They had to guard the doors of their mouth, the text says, even with their loved ones. Families had imploded. They had turned against one another. Well, there we see this parallel, right? We see a parallel with what the Lord Jesus said about his own ministry. What did he say in Matthew 10? He tells his disciples, I am sending you as sheep among wolves. You are going to proclaim my scriptures and the world is going to hate you. You are gonna stand on the truth of the word and you are going to be hated for my name's sake. Brother is going to hand over brother. Father is going to hand over son. Daughter is gonna be turned against mother. In fact, that's what was happening in Micah's day. The remnant, they were sheep among wolves. And we people of God are sheep among wolves. And so we ought to reckon with the fact that when we stand upon what the scriptures actually say and actually teach, it is not popular. Yet we let the light of Scripture expose the darkness and know that we serve a God who changes things, who changes the hearts of His people, who takes us from darkness to light, that we might see the truth of the Word. That's why it's proclaimed. Micah and the remnant here are hated for the sake of the Lord. The religious leaders, if you remember back in, we're kind of tying and weaving things together, but back in chapter two, Micah is preaching judgment and the leaders say, don't preach judgment. The Lord is with us. Don't tell us about how God is going to rain down His wrath on us because we had departed from Him. Isn't God with us? He will always be with us. They say, peace, peace, when there was no peace. They cry out, peace, Micah says, no, repent and believe. And they say, no, no, the Lord is on our side. And so Micah laments. But we need to see that his lament is grounded in the steady trust that he has for the Lord. He laments with a steady trust in who God is, what he has said, and what he will do. But as for me, Micah says, verse seven, I will look to the Lord. But as for me, I will wait for the God of my salvation and my God will hear. So as I go on and on about what's wrong in the world and specifically what's wrong in the church, that might make us feel a bit uncomfortable or it might rile us up. Yeah, let's go get them. It's quite easy to get wrapped up in what's wrong in the church as we look around, even in the corners of. God's people, we see compromise, we see false teaching, we see abuse. And to be sure, we should identify these things. We should be willing to open up the scriptures and say, this is what God's word says. But the question is, how do we rightly think about, how do we rightly talk about these things with one another? How do we rightly encourage and spur one another on in a godly response? Do we lament in trust? Do we have a steady trust that drives our suffering lament? If we're honest with ourselves, think about it for a moment. Think about the ways in which you have taken these compromises on your own lips. Because you and I, we, are not often driven by suffering lament, but rather we're driven by self-righteous complaining. We would rather take upon our lips and complain about these things to one another as if we had already arrived, as if we are the chosen ones of God in our particular circles and think, wow, I can't believe they missed that. That's my typical response initially. That's our typical response initially, is that we just have self-righteousness in our hearts, that we find camaraderie with one another in our own things that we agree upon. This is what I'd like to call self-indulgent complaining, because as we do this, as we talk about the unrighteousness that is around us, it feels good, let's be honest. Right? We indulge ourselves with talking about how they are doing it wrong. I don't think Micah is doing that here. I think Micah is weeping for their souls. I think Micah is full of mourning that God had been defiled and that his people were facing judgment. He had a steady trust in the Lord. He had a steady trust that God could change these people. He had a steady trust that God was going to bring deliverance, that the Lord would prevail, that he was the one that was able. It was grounded in a steady trust. And here we're reminded of the theme that's interwoven throughout the prophecy, that God keeps his promises. God said he would do this, he would deliver his people, and we have seen him do it in the past. Remember last week we said that God is calling the nation to remember, this is the God that I am, this is what I'm going to do. And so Micah says, but as for me, So as we think about the two options, self-righteous complaining or suffering lament, how ought we as the people of God think about the unrighteousness that we see in the church? How should we encourage one another? Well, that is we need to identify these things, and we ought to be ready and willing to open the scriptures and speak against them, but we also ought to be ready and willing to correct one another when we slip into the self-righteous complaining and say, have you prayed for that? Are we on our knees begging the Lord that He would change His people? Begging the Lord that He would be glorified, that He would be exalted in His church. Micah knows, let's just take a moment to see that Micah knows that the darkness was not going to last forever, that God will prevail. He recognizes that God would hear, that He would deal with the godlessness, that He would ultimately deliver. though the remnant would fall for a time. Micah says, we will rise. God would be a light to us. This light language is fascinating. God would be a light to us. What does the gospel of John tell us about the Lord Jesus Christ? That it is Jesus Christ who is the light of the world, that the light shines in the darkness, that he is the true light who gives life to everyone who believe. Those who receive him, he has given the right to become children God and so Micah is saying we sit in the darkness, but God shines his light People of God we might sit among the darkness, but God has shined his light and the light of God can never be overcome by the darkness in this world. Do we trust that? Do we believe that our God sustains his people? Do we believe that the Lord is still at work in his church? Yeah, though it may seem small, that the church is a small corner of the world, well, the Lord preserves his people. He has built his church on the rock and the gates of hell will not prevail. And that promise has shown to be the case all throughout history. There are times where it is veiled. There are times where it is more clear. And certainly in this time with the book of Micah, it is veiled in some ways. But Micah has a steady trust in the Lord to deliver. And I think that we can learn a great deal by Micah's move from suffering lament to steady trust. There are a few things here that we need to consider how he moves from suffering lament to steady trust. If we notice here that his lament is driven by God's name, his exaltation. not self-righteousness, but rather that the Lord Himself would prevail. Micah is also expressing that he has sinned before the Lord. Look at verse 9. Micah says, I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against Him. Do we recognize that we too are sinners before the face of God? Do we recognize that we too have failed, that we have compromised, that we also have not done the things that God has called us to do, that our worship is also not accepted unless the Lord sanctifies it, which He does. But do we recognize that we are in need of the Lord Jesus Christ to cover our sins? This is, we could say, the gospel according to Micah. Micah deals with the reality of his own sin. He is humbled by it. Look again at verse nine, because I have sinned until he pleads my case. Look at what Micah's doing. He's not self-reflecting on the ways in which woe is me that I have sinned, but rather he looks outside of himself. He fixes his eyes on the God who is going to provide judgment. And what we know is that judgment took place on the cross of Calvary, which is what Micah was looking forward to, that the Lord Jesus took upon himself Micah's sin, the remnant's sin, your sin. So when Micah says, I have sinned against the Lord, I might receive his indignation. We say we don't have to receive the judgment of the Lord because someone else took it upon himself. It's fascinating as we look at passages like this and we see the gospel so clear that Micah recognizes his sin and he sees that God would do what he couldn't do. And so he looks forward to the light that was going to shine in the darkness. Well, people of God, that light has come and it is in and through Jesus Christ who has opened our hearts that we might believe. He has opened our minds that we might trust him in all things and that we might not waver when things look dark around us. He says, I shall look upon His, the SV says, vindication, but that word there is righteousness. I will look upon His righteousness. I will look outside of myself. People of God, are you looking outside of yourself to the one who did what you couldn't do and earned your way back before God? It's on the final day of judgment that the people of God are going to be vindicated, which means that the people of God are going to be shown to be innocent because of what Christ has done. That's why Micah can say, those who said, where is the Lord your God? They are going to be put to shame. In other words, the enemies of God are gonna be put to shame on the day of judgment. And we can take great hope in the fact that we are purified because of him and that we are not going to be put to shame. So how do we offer suffering lament with a steady trust? Quickly, four things. I say four things, but I promise they're going to be quick. We should identify the darkness. We don't want to just pretend like sin isn't there. We see that there is mass wickedness in the church, there is abuse, there is suffering, there is exploitation. We need to reckon with it. And we need to open up the scriptures and let the light shine in the darkness. That's the first thing, that it's there. Identify that it's there. Second, though, we need to see ourselves in that category, that we have sinned against the Lord. We need to see ourselves as no better than those who are in compromise, but rather, but for the grace of God, we may be in their same position. Rather, we look to the perfect life, the perfect death, the conquering resurrection, and the almighty exalting ascension for our hope. Recognizing that it's there, seeing ourselves in that category that we too have sinned against God, and when we truly see ourselves as those who have sinned against the Lord, I think that that guards us against self-righteousness. because we see that we too need the hope of the gospel. And third, I think this is one of the most important things is that we pray. We gather together and pray. We pray on our own. We pray as a family. that the Lord would prevail, trusting that he has said, I'm gonna deliver my people, but also trusting that God's work is so powerful that even the compromise that we see in the church can be changed. So we pray. We pray with expectation. We pray with trust. We pray with confidence, knowing that God changes hearts. And finally, I told you they'd be quick. Finally, we fix our eyes heavenward. We fix our eyes to the glory of God in the future, knowing with eager anticipation that the Lord is coming. He says it himself, I'm coming soon. We say it. Do we believe that the Lord Jesus is coming soon and He is the one that's coming to judge the living and the dead? And that for us who are found in Him, we are going to be innocent. We are innocent now. He has perfected us. We will wait for the God of our salvation. We join with Micah and say, but as for me, I will wait upon my God. We trust in the Lord who cares for His own namesake. He will get the glory. He will be exalted. So do not despair, brothers and sisters, because the Lord is coming soon. And as we wait, may the Lord renew our strength. May He mount us on wings like eagles. May we run and not grow weary. May we walk and not faint. Why? Because it is the Lord our God who is from everlasting to everlasting, who never grows weary and who never grows faint. And so we cling to him. Let's pray.