Trust not in Pseudo-Prophets (Micah 3)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:06.320 You may be seated, and let's turn our attention to MICA chapter three. 2 00:00:18.429 --> 00:00:26.300 Mica chapter three is passage of God's word in which he condemns those who have 3 00:00:26.859 --> 00:00:32.619 power, who have strength, who have my and are called to exercise it 4 00:00:32.820 --> 00:00:38.009 in his name and to exercise it for good and according to justice, but 5 00:00:38.250 --> 00:00:45.770 have not. These these evil servants, these people with power who use it 6 00:00:46.490 --> 00:00:52.920 wrongly, are coming under God's judgment and, Praise be to God, he 7 00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:57.479 does not look away, does not turn a blind eye to justice, as 8 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:06.629 false kings and leaders and prophets do. This is God's word of judgment and 9 00:01:07.430 --> 00:01:12.629 it is also God's word of salvation. I'm going to read from the beginning 10 00:01:12.670 --> 00:01:18.980 of Mica three through chapter four, verse five. Let's hear God's word. 11 00:01:19.060 --> 00:01:26.780 And I said here, you, heads of Jacob and rulers of the House 12 00:01:26.819 --> 00:01:30.180 of Israel, is it not for you to know justice? You who hate 13 00:01:30.219 --> 00:01:36.090 the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people 14 00:01:36.409 --> 00:01:40.530 and their flesh from off their bones, who eat the flesh of my people 15 00:01:40.609 --> 00:01:45.290 and flay their skin from off them and break their bones in pieces and chop 16 00:01:45.409 --> 00:01:49.640 them up like me in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron, then 17 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:53.439 they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them. He 18 00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:57.560 will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their 19 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:05.829 deeds evil. Thus says the Lord concerning the Prophets who lead my people astray, 20 00:02:06.590 --> 00:02:12.310 who cry peace when they have something to eat, but declare war against 21 00:02:12.349 --> 00:02:15.500 him, who puts nothing into their mouths. Therefore, it shall be night 22 00:02:15.659 --> 00:02:21.979 to you without vision and darkness to you without divination. The Sun shall go 23 00:02:22.259 --> 00:02:27.219 down on the prophets and the day shall be black over them. The seers 24 00:02:27.460 --> 00:02:30.930 shall be disgraced and the diviners put to shame. They shall all cover their 25 00:02:31.009 --> 00:02:37.370 lips, for there is no answer from God. But as for me, 26 00:02:38.610 --> 00:02:43.129 I'm filled with power, with the spirit of the Lord, and with justice 27 00:02:43.250 --> 00:02:51.159 and might to declare to Jacob he's transgression and to Israel his sin. Hear 28 00:02:51.360 --> 00:02:53.560 this, you heads of the House of Jacob and you rulers of the House 29 00:02:53.599 --> 00:02:59.710 of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight, who 30 00:02:59.870 --> 00:03:06.110 build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. It's heads give judgment for a 31 00:03:06.229 --> 00:03:12.270 bribe, it's priests teach for a price, it's prophets practiced divination for money. 32 00:03:12.310 --> 00:03:15.659 Yet they lean on the Lord and say, is not the Lord in 33 00:03:15.740 --> 00:03:20.099 the midst of us, no disaster shall come upon us. Therefore, because 34 00:03:20.139 --> 00:03:24.020 of you, Zion shall be plowed as a field, Jerusalem shall become a 35 00:03:24.300 --> 00:03:31.610 heap of ruins and the mountain of the House a wooded height. It shall 36 00:03:31.729 --> 00:03:37.169 come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the House of the 37 00:03:37.289 --> 00:03:42.560 Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be 38 00:03:42.759 --> 00:03:46.680 lifted up above the hills, and people's shall flow to it, and many 39 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:52.599 nations shall come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain 40 00:03:52.680 --> 00:03:54.949 of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob, that he 41 00:03:55.030 --> 00:04:00.349 may teach us his ways, that we may walk in his paths. For 42 00:04:00.469 --> 00:04:03.509 Out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from 43 00:04:03.509 --> 00:04:10.620 Jerusalem, for he shall judge between many peoples, he's and and shall decide. 44 00:04:12.300 --> 00:04:15.860 Excuse me, my page turned here. And shall decide for strong nations 45 00:04:15.899 --> 00:04:21.660 far away, and they shall beat their sore words into plowshares and their spears 46 00:04:21.779 --> 00:04:28.529 into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up Sword Against Nation, neither shall 47 00:04:28.569 --> 00:04:32.050 they learn war anymore, but they shall sit every man under his vine and 48 00:04:32.129 --> 00:04:36.410 under his fig tree and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth 49 00:04:36.449 --> 00:04:41.800 of the Lord of hosts has spoken for all the People's walk, each in 50 00:04:41.839 --> 00:04:45.920 the name of its God, but we will walk in the name of the 51 00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:56.470 Lord, our God, forever and ever. Man. This is a truly 52 00:04:57.870 --> 00:05:00.550 amazing passage. It is one of the many places in scripture in which we 53 00:05:00.670 --> 00:05:08.779 are reminded, as C s Lewis writes, of the lion as land. 54 00:05:08.819 --> 00:05:13.540 He is not a safe lion. Right here our God is not tame, 55 00:05:14.500 --> 00:05:18.459 he is not mild, he is not to be played with, to be 56 00:05:18.660 --> 00:05:25.769 toyed with, to pretend as though he doesn't see his eyelid see and judge 57 00:05:25.889 --> 00:05:29.850 the children of Man. And as he sees and he looks down on his 58 00:05:30.009 --> 00:05:39.000 house, on the people of Israel, he sees disaster, disaster for them 59 00:05:39.160 --> 00:05:43.759 because of the disaster that is in them. He sees that the heads and 60 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:47.079 the rulers, the people that are called to leave, need the people oversee 61 00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:51.189 them, care for them, feed them, protect them, are devouring the 62 00:05:51.310 --> 00:05:57.310 people. We looked at that last time and tonight we look at the section 63 00:05:57.790 --> 00:06:01.029 after that in which he describes the prophets, these people that are called to 64 00:06:01.430 --> 00:06:08.579 reveal the word of God to God's people to say, as Micah is doing. 65 00:06:09.019 --> 00:06:12.699 Thus saith the Lord. This is his word, this is his will, 66 00:06:12.899 --> 00:06:17.259 this is his way. But these are not true prophets. Their false 67 00:06:17.379 --> 00:06:24.850 prophets. What are they doing? God tells them. He makes he exposes 68 00:06:24.889 --> 00:06:30.449 their sin in Verse Eleven, when he says it's prophets practiced divination for money. 69 00:06:31.009 --> 00:06:38.560 That's also described in verse five, when he says the prophets are leading 70 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:43.439 the people astray. They cry peace when they have something to eat, but 71 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:48.750 declare war when no one's put anything in their mouths. Will consider that more. 72 00:06:49.990 --> 00:06:55.790 I want to look at these this passage in three parts tonight, first 73 00:06:55.870 --> 00:07:01.579 considering the sins of the prophets, then considering the just judgment that God gives 74 00:07:01.699 --> 00:07:06.500 that we might properly fear him, and then finally, consider God's salvation as 75 00:07:06.500 --> 00:07:13.660 it comes to us in Jesus, the Prophet of God, the one who 76 00:07:13.819 --> 00:07:17.649 speaks the will and word of the Lord, rightly to us to establish not 77 00:07:17.889 --> 00:07:27.610 desion in blood and iniquity, but in righteousness, in truth. So what 78 00:07:27.730 --> 00:07:31.920 are the sins of the Prophets? What are these servants of the Lord doing 79 00:07:32.879 --> 00:07:38.759 that is caused brought about God's wrath. As I read to you. They 80 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:43.120 cry peace when they have something to eat, but they declare war against him 81 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:48.629 who puts nothing into their mouths. You see what's going on here. Their 82 00:07:48.829 --> 00:07:55.550 message, which begins thus, Saith the Lord. This is what God says. 83 00:07:56.550 --> 00:08:01.699 It's not really dependent on what God says. It's dependent on whether they 84 00:08:01.740 --> 00:08:07.620 got paid or not. It's dependent on whether their bellies are full. God's 85 00:08:07.660 --> 00:08:09.779 of course, not saying that his servants should go hungry, but he is 86 00:08:09.939 --> 00:08:13.970 saying that, whether or not they're paid, whether or not they're hungry, 87 00:08:15.050 --> 00:08:18.170 they have a duty to declare the word of the Lord, and that the 88 00:08:18.250 --> 00:08:22.449 word of the Lord has nothing to do with their bellies. They are called 89 00:08:22.490 --> 00:08:28.600 to be his servants and servants of the people. Imagine, for example, 90 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:31.960 if you had to go to the emergency room and you met a doctor, 91 00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:35.320 there, only doctor who is there, who is very happy to give you 92 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:39.000 good news as long as you paid him, and that's what he would give 93 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:41.269 you, but if you didn't pay him in full off front, it would 94 00:08:41.269 --> 00:08:46.230 be very, very bad news for you, having nothing to do with whether 95 00:08:46.429 --> 00:08:50.190 you were actually sick or not, or your arm was falling off or not, 96 00:08:50.429 --> 00:08:54.750 or no matter what the situation was good news if you pay, bad 97 00:08:54.870 --> 00:09:00.340 news if you don't pay. Is this good for the well person? No. 98 00:09:01.580 --> 00:09:05.259 Is it good for the sick person? No. It's only good for 99 00:09:05.419 --> 00:09:13.129 one person, the liar, and that's what these people were doing. It's 100 00:09:13.129 --> 00:09:20.210 a disservice to everyone and it makes them their own gods. It's a reminder 101 00:09:20.289 --> 00:09:26.799 to us that greed and consumerism are not uqually uniquely American sins. As it 102 00:09:26.919 --> 00:09:31.840 turns out, these are things that are in all of us, temptations to 103 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:35.080 be people pleasers, to give people what they want and what they need, 104 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:39.710 not really according to what the right thing to do is, but according to 105 00:09:41.230 --> 00:09:46.789 what's easiest for us. Well, this is just about the worst kind of 106 00:09:46.870 --> 00:09:52.429 people pleaser you could ever meet, because they're tying the truth not just to 107 00:09:52.629 --> 00:09:56.899 what they want, but to the very word of God, and improperly so. 108 00:09:58.580 --> 00:10:03.340 The example of the emergency room, the evil emergency room physician. In 109 00:10:05.220 --> 00:10:07.250 that case, you might might lose an arm or a leg or an organ. 110 00:10:09.210 --> 00:10:13.409 With people that are proclaiming thus saith the Lord in regard to your soul, 111 00:10:13.450 --> 00:10:22.799 the stakes are even higher, and that's why God exposes them. God 112 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:30.879 will not tolerate them anymore and he brings about a judgment on them. Will 113 00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:33.320 come to that in a moment, but let this be a moment for us 114 00:10:33.320 --> 00:10:37.830 to pause and remember that there are people who do this. There were then 115 00:10:37.950 --> 00:10:43.190 and there were are now. People who do this, especially as it concerns 116 00:10:43.269 --> 00:10:48.350 God's word. There are people who are happy to give you a good message 117 00:10:48.669 --> 00:10:54.820 and soothe your conscience as long as you give them what they want, money, 118 00:10:54.779 --> 00:11:00.940 power or celebrity or attention. As long as they get what they're seeking, 119 00:11:00.980 --> 00:11:03.419 you're going to get all kinds of good news and you're going to be 120 00:11:03.500 --> 00:11:07.129 assured that everything's just fine, whether or not has anything to do with what 121 00:11:07.330 --> 00:11:13.289 God is actually said. They will prop up your idols, they will tickle 122 00:11:13.409 --> 00:11:18.919 your ears, they will make you proud to know them. But this is 123 00:11:20.039 --> 00:11:24.039 not what a true prophet does, because a true prophet of the Lord serves 124 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:31.279 not himself but the Lord, and that is whether or not the people who 125 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:35.269 are also being served by the word of the Lord like it. Notice what 126 00:11:37.269 --> 00:11:41.629 Micah says in this great confidence in Verse Eight. As for me, I 127 00:11:41.750 --> 00:11:45.070 am filled with power, with the spirit of the Lord and with justice and 128 00:11:45.149 --> 00:11:54.299 with might to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. Do 129 00:11:54.340 --> 00:11:58.460 you think this might create some conflict, especially with people that are very established 130 00:11:58.500 --> 00:12:03.850 in their sin and love their sin and want nothing other than to coddle it 131 00:12:03.049 --> 00:12:09.409 and cradle it and keep it and maintain it? It will create conflict and 132 00:12:09.529 --> 00:12:13.929 we have all kinds of stories of the prophets of the Lord who have done 133 00:12:13.090 --> 00:12:18.480 the right thing and we're persecuted as a result of it. Stephen and axe 134 00:12:18.559 --> 00:12:24.200 makes this point. He says you've killed them all and then you killed Jesus. 135 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:28.000 You remember John The baptist, for example, being the last one, 136 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:37.509 perhaps before Jesus, who lost his head for the sake of Speaking Truth and 137 00:12:37.750 --> 00:12:43.620 righteousness to people that are in power, to people that claim that their law 138 00:12:43.899 --> 00:12:50.500 is the ultimate law. and John the Baptist was willing to die for it. 139 00:12:50.779 --> 00:12:56.340 And John the Baptist did die for it. And of course, Jesus 140 00:12:56.379 --> 00:13:00.409 himself, the greatest prophet of all, when he stood up, as we 141 00:13:00.490 --> 00:13:05.529 read this morning, I'm in the temple and the Treasury people around him wanting 142 00:13:05.570 --> 00:13:11.129 to kill him. Why? Because of the things he was saying, things 143 00:13:11.330 --> 00:13:18.840 that were a coulte in accord with the word of God. Jesus was revealing 144 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:24.600 to them their sins. Remember, he says, you cannot follow me because 145 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:26.789 you don't know me. You don't Know Me, you Wi won't believe in 146 00:13:26.950 --> 00:13:31.429 me. You will die in your sins. Ah, how we hate you, 147 00:13:31.549 --> 00:13:37.470 Jesus. They hated him for this. It was a hard message. 148 00:13:37.830 --> 00:13:41.659 It's always a hard message when God confronts us with our idolatry, when God 149 00:13:41.820 --> 00:13:46.019 confronts us within our sin, when God says you cannot stand on yourself, 150 00:13:46.500 --> 00:13:52.580 you cannot stand on your righteousness. But to those who accept that word and 151 00:13:52.700 --> 00:13:56.370 say I want nothing to do with my righteousness anymore, it's all filthy rags. 152 00:13:56.450 --> 00:14:01.250 To me, I only want one and one alone, the one true 153 00:14:01.330 --> 00:14:05.809 God. He wraps those sinners up in his arms and he carries them all 154 00:14:05.850 --> 00:14:11.399 the way to heaven. He Establishes Zion in his name. He creates for 155 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:20.320 us a place of peace. This is what God does for us, and 156 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:24.200 that's why Mica can speak with that kind of confidence. In Verse Eight. 157 00:14:24.950 --> 00:14:31.070 Do what you will, this is my job, he says. Praise be 158 00:14:31.190 --> 00:14:37.629 to God that he did it. We all have an opportunity as Christians to 159 00:14:37.870 --> 00:14:41.299 also speak and teach the word of God. Not In the same way Mica 160 00:14:41.379 --> 00:14:46.580 did, perhaps not in the same way John the Baptist did or others, 161 00:14:46.659 --> 00:14:50.820 but all of us have been given, as Christians, the word of God 162 00:14:52.620 --> 00:14:56.809 that we might teach it to people, encourage people with it, sing it 163 00:14:56.009 --> 00:15:05.610 even we likewise have a responsibility to treat that well, to speak only what 164 00:15:05.809 --> 00:15:09.200 has been spoken and to say it with boldness, to say it with courage. 165 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:16.720 When you sit with your children around a dinner table, are you sit 166 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:22.190 with your friend in a coffee shop during a hard situation, let this confidence 167 00:15:22.269 --> 00:15:24.950 be yours, because that spirit that Mica has is a spirit that you have. 168 00:15:26.830 --> 00:15:30.190 It's a power you have as well, because you stand in Christ's name, 169 00:15:30.230 --> 00:15:33.509 and that's why ordinary Christians all over the world are willing to, and 170 00:15:33.710 --> 00:15:39.820 even do regularly die for the word of the Lord, because they know they 171 00:15:39.940 --> 00:15:46.259 serve something greater than the powers and authorities that are around them, someone that 172 00:15:46.419 --> 00:15:54.929 is greater and can actually give true life. When you have an opportunity to 173 00:15:56.090 --> 00:16:00.970 know the Lord and know his word, learn it, know it, study 174 00:16:02.049 --> 00:16:04.720 it, dwell in it and you went out of you have an opportunity to 175 00:16:04.919 --> 00:16:11.919 speak it, be confident and courageous, trusting in Him who strengthens us. 176 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:21.590 Well, this brings us to God's judgment. Then we see God's judgments in 177 00:16:21.629 --> 00:16:26.950 these evil prophets. Is Fair and it's just. He is going to make 178 00:16:27.029 --> 00:16:30.269 it so that when they go to the well, so to speak, it's 179 00:16:30.389 --> 00:16:36.220 going to be dry. He's going to take he uses this, this excellent 180 00:16:36.340 --> 00:16:40.139 metaphor of vision. Right, they are able to see things that other people 181 00:16:40.139 --> 00:16:45.940 are not, not anymore. The lights are going off. Remember what he 182 00:16:45.980 --> 00:16:51.210 says in verse, Verse Six. Therefore, it shall be night to you 183 00:16:52.370 --> 00:16:56.769 without vision and darkness to you without divination. The Sun shall go down on 184 00:16:56.889 --> 00:17:02.120 the prophets and the day shall be black over them, and this is going 185 00:17:02.200 --> 00:17:04.920 to result in shame and disgrace. And Verse Seven, the seers shall be 186 00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:10.440 disgraced and the diviners put the shame. They shall cover their lips, for 187 00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:17.710 there is no answer from God. This reminds me of one example. You 188 00:17:17.789 --> 00:17:23.630 remember when the Lord first brought the plagues on Egypt. Remember who did those 189 00:17:25.509 --> 00:17:30.779 who brought about those plagues? Moses of course, but also the Egyptian magicians, 190 00:17:32.859 --> 00:17:34.900 turning the Nile to blood and so on. I think there was two 191 00:17:34.900 --> 00:17:40.299 or three miracles that they were able to do, and then suddenly the lights 192 00:17:40.339 --> 00:17:45.410 went off and they had no power, and they say, surely this is 193 00:17:45.730 --> 00:17:49.529 the I think they say finger of God or hand of God. They can't 194 00:17:49.529 --> 00:17:53.369 do anything anymore. It's all up to them, though they had all this 195 00:17:53.529 --> 00:17:57.799 power in themselves, though they served themselves, so they thought. Ultimately they 196 00:17:57.839 --> 00:18:03.440 came to realize that God is the one who supplies all things. And they 197 00:18:03.480 --> 00:18:12.630 were done and they were disgraced and in taking away their abilities, they will 198 00:18:12.670 --> 00:18:18.390 be ashamed and embarrassed because the thing that gave them power, the thing that 199 00:18:18.670 --> 00:18:25.190 was there, God, will be taken away, the power that they abused 200 00:18:26.029 --> 00:18:30.500 will be removed and instead of celebrity and money and whatever it else it is 201 00:18:30.579 --> 00:18:33.859 that they wanted, the people will turn away from them. They will be 202 00:18:33.980 --> 00:18:41.970 objects of shame and disgrace, and this is good news. It's good news 203 00:18:42.049 --> 00:18:49.930 because it reminds to us that God's judgment is fair and it's protective. God 204 00:18:51.049 --> 00:18:56.759 Judges Fairly these prophets who are sinning against him and against the people, and 205 00:18:56.920 --> 00:19:02.640 inclosing their mouths and closing their eyes, he protects those who are being hurt 206 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:07.559 by by them. So in all this we see how good our God is, 207 00:19:08.359 --> 00:19:11.990 in the terror of his might and in the terror of his wrath, 208 00:19:12.549 --> 00:19:19.869 we see exactly how much he loves justice, how important it is to him 209 00:19:21.309 --> 00:19:26.660 that righteousness is upheld, that the law is upheld, that humanity is found, 210 00:19:26.779 --> 00:19:33.180 that that his people, that this humanity of his people is founded up 211 00:19:33.259 --> 00:19:40.210 not upon blood and iniquity and power grabs and false prophecy and all of this, 212 00:19:41.809 --> 00:19:48.009 but it's founded on him, on goodness, on righteousness that the people 213 00:19:48.329 --> 00:19:55.640 are founded on. Are Not Loving Evil and hating good, but loving good 214 00:19:56.920 --> 00:20:02.640 and hating evil. This is also a good reminder to us because we have, 215 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:07.630 if you've read any bit of history or had any experience living in your 216 00:20:07.670 --> 00:20:12.710 own body, though, know by now that this kind of of life that 217 00:20:12.829 --> 00:20:19.789 God wants for us is something we cannot bring about. You can read. 218 00:20:19.829 --> 00:20:25.819 I took a class in college one time about Utopia and we read five or 219 00:20:25.940 --> 00:20:30.900 six different books, all different philosophers and people's these stories about people wanting for 220 00:20:32.059 --> 00:20:37.970 and dreaming for and promising Utopia. Right this land, this kingdom, this 221 00:20:37.170 --> 00:20:42.930 people, this place, a history and age in which everything is finally fine. 222 00:20:45.690 --> 00:20:49.920 If you do this things, if you follow this plan, everything will 223 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:56.200 be okay, all people will be at peace, the rule of law will 224 00:20:56.200 --> 00:21:00.799 be established for freedom and not for tyranny. There will be bounty and goods, 225 00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:07.750 friendship, fellowship, Brotherhood, wealth. And yet what have we always 226 00:21:07.750 --> 00:21:14.309 seen? Over and over and over again, this promise is always way out 227 00:21:14.349 --> 00:21:19.779 of reach. We never get off the ground. They're people that keep promising 228 00:21:19.900 --> 00:21:26.099 it, people that will promise you anything. Will promise you that if you 229 00:21:26.259 --> 00:21:30.819 follow their things and you do their steps and you adhere to their philosophy, 230 00:21:30.819 --> 00:21:33.690 everything's going to come out right. It's all going to be perfect. But 231 00:21:33.809 --> 00:21:44.890 these people are always without qualification, confused or crazy or liars, maybe all 232 00:21:44.970 --> 00:21:48.400 the above. And the reason is is because, as long as the curse 233 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:56.720 is in us, this is what we do. You can't remove sin and 234 00:21:56.960 --> 00:22:03.869 greed and lust for power assembly by trying harder, by establishing more good rules. 235 00:22:03.910 --> 00:22:10.109 Here is the Kingdom of Israel under God. Right they have God's own 236 00:22:10.269 --> 00:22:14.950 law, delivered from Mount Sin I, after being rescued out of Egypt. 237 00:22:15.900 --> 00:22:18.180 Right, hopefully, at this point the fear of God was in them, 238 00:22:18.259 --> 00:22:23.339 after seeing what just happened to Pharaoh. There's this mountain booming and thundering and 239 00:22:23.539 --> 00:22:30.210 shaking. They're so afraid that they're like Moses. You Go. They're all 240 00:22:30.250 --> 00:22:34.569 afraid they're going to die just being there receiving this law. And then they 241 00:22:34.609 --> 00:22:41.930 make a golden calf. Again and again and again, here they are, 242 00:22:41.289 --> 00:22:45.400 the Prophets of the Lord coming to them again and again and again. Repent, 243 00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:51.400 repent, repent nothing. We're fine. You hear it? Listen, 244 00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:57.630 it's right here the verse eleven. It's heads give judgment for a bribe. 245 00:22:57.710 --> 00:23:02.710 It's priests teach for a price, it's prophets practiced divination for money. Yet 246 00:23:02.710 --> 00:23:06.029 they lean on the Lord and say, is not the Lord in the midst 247 00:23:06.069 --> 00:23:10.750 of us? No disaster shall come upon us, we're protected, we're children 248 00:23:10.789 --> 00:23:15.059 of Abraham. Isn't God in our midst? We can do whatever we want. 249 00:23:17.099 --> 00:23:23.579 That's the kingdom that man establishes, when man establishes it in his supposed 250 00:23:25.220 --> 00:23:32.329 strength. But what is God promising here? He is undoing this tower of 251 00:23:32.450 --> 00:23:36.809 Babel, he's undoing this kingdom. He says in verse twelve that because of 252 00:23:36.970 --> 00:23:40.809 You, Zion shall be plowed as a field, Jerusalem shall become a heap 253 00:23:40.890 --> 00:23:48.359 of ruins and the mountain of the House of Lord a wooded height. The 254 00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:52.480 land is going to return. Instead of from this civilized kingdom, it's going 255 00:23:52.519 --> 00:24:00.829 to just turn back into earth. But then, immediately after that, Chapter 256 00:24:00.990 --> 00:24:06.950 Four, the very next word say it shall come to pass in the latter 257 00:24:07.029 --> 00:24:11.579 days that the mountain of the House of the Lord shall be established as the 258 00:24:11.740 --> 00:24:15.859 highest of the mountains. It shall be lifted up among the hills and the 259 00:24:15.980 --> 00:24:19.900 people shall flow to it and the nation shall come and say let's go, 260 00:24:21.779 --> 00:24:23.769 come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, the House 261 00:24:23.849 --> 00:24:26.529 of God, of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, that 262 00:24:26.650 --> 00:24:30.490 we may walk in his paths. For Out of Zion shall go forth the 263 00:24:30.490 --> 00:24:34.329 law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. You see what God is 264 00:24:34.410 --> 00:24:41.759 going to do. He's going to not depend on us and our sinfulness to 265 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:47.480 establish his kingdom. Instead, he's going to do it himself. And because 266 00:24:47.599 --> 00:24:52.759 God does it, you know that it's going to be done perfectly. And 267 00:24:52.910 --> 00:24:59.430 that's why God sends Jesus, God the Son, into the world to establish, 268 00:25:00.190 --> 00:25:04.390 through the words of the Prophet, Jesus, Our prophet, also priest 269 00:25:04.470 --> 00:25:10.619 and also king, these three here mentioned in Mica. Three, Jesus being 270 00:25:10.660 --> 00:25:15.019 all of these things, holding all of these offices, does all the opposite 271 00:25:15.460 --> 00:25:18.460 of what mankind has always been doing and of what the people were doing at 272 00:25:18.539 --> 00:25:23.730 this moment, and instead of being a for all for himself, he submits 273 00:25:23.769 --> 00:25:30.369 himself to the will of the father. He dies for US unworthy sinners and 274 00:25:30.569 --> 00:25:37.160 establishes this very kingdom that God is talking about in Micah for to see these 275 00:25:37.240 --> 00:25:41.839 things kind of coming together. You can get this from many, many places, 276 00:25:41.960 --> 00:25:47.799 but one wonderful places Luke for, where Jesus goes into the synagogue and 277 00:25:48.119 --> 00:25:53.950 he opens the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah. He enrolls the scroll, he 278 00:25:55.109 --> 00:25:57.710 finds the place where it's written. This, this is verse eighteen of Chapter 279 00:25:57.750 --> 00:26:03.339 Four. Here the similar language to the words in maca. This is from 280 00:26:03.380 --> 00:26:10.579 Isaiah. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me 281 00:26:11.180 --> 00:26:15.460 to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty 282 00:26:15.539 --> 00:26:19.049 to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty 283 00:26:19.170 --> 00:26:25.690 those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And 284 00:26:25.849 --> 00:26:29.930 he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down 285 00:26:30.650 --> 00:26:36.240 and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began 286 00:26:36.319 --> 00:26:41.200 to say to them. Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, 287 00:26:41.240 --> 00:26:45.960 and all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming 288 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:51.630 from his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph Sun? And 289 00:26:51.750 --> 00:26:55.549 he said to them, doubtless you will quote to me this proverb. Physician, 290 00:26:55.670 --> 00:26:59.549 heal yourself. What we have heard you did at Copernham, do here 291 00:26:59.589 --> 00:27:03.859 in your hometown as well. Truly, I say to you, no profit 292 00:27:03.980 --> 00:27:07.380 is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there 293 00:27:07.420 --> 00:27:10.700 will be many widows in Israel. In the days of Elijah, when the 294 00:27:10.779 --> 00:27:14.980 heavens were shut up three years and six months and a great famine came over 295 00:27:15.099 --> 00:27:18.730 all the land, and Elijah was sent to none but them only, but 296 00:27:18.849 --> 00:27:22.890 to only, but to Zarafif in the land of Sidon, to a woman 297 00:27:22.930 --> 00:27:27.089 who was a widow. He goes on to describe the basically the going out 298 00:27:27.170 --> 00:27:33.559 of the prophets and the word of the Lord to the gentiles. This they 299 00:27:33.640 --> 00:27:36.759 could not tolerate, and we read in Verse Twenty Nine that they rose up 300 00:27:36.799 --> 00:27:40.160 and drove him out of town and brought him to the brow of the hill 301 00:27:40.319 --> 00:27:44.000 on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the 302 00:27:44.119 --> 00:27:49.150 cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away, as John put 303 00:27:49.190 --> 00:27:57.740 it in another situation. His hour had not yet come. Nevertheless, you 304 00:27:57.900 --> 00:28:03.140 see the the rumblings of the work of the Lord and the Kingdom of God 305 00:28:03.700 --> 00:28:10.779 being established the mountain, the sort of getting ready to burst forth into this 306 00:28:11.019 --> 00:28:17.049 world when Jesus reads these words and say today in your hearing, this is 307 00:28:17.170 --> 00:28:25.289 fulfilled, and it's true. It's true for anyone who longs for the thing 308 00:28:25.450 --> 00:28:30.880 that we all long for, peace and brotherhood and safety and security and wealth 309 00:28:32.039 --> 00:28:38.359 and and riches and belongingness and all of these things. There's nothing wrong with 310 00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:45.990 this utopia that we want, although our visions of it are not often very 311 00:28:45.069 --> 00:28:49.069 good, but they'll the good parts of that. The desire for these things 312 00:28:49.230 --> 00:28:53.670 like peace and safety and beauty and Truth and righteousness, nothing wrong with that. 313 00:28:56.339 --> 00:28:59.299 The problem that we have is the way that we always get there, 314 00:29:00.180 --> 00:29:06.819 in our own strength, in our ways, making ourselves God. God will 315 00:29:06.940 --> 00:29:11.369 judge all who do that. But he's also promising us, and Mica three 316 00:29:11.609 --> 00:29:17.970 and four and throughout all the scriptures, a different kingdom, one that's not 317 00:29:18.250 --> 00:29:25.599 established on blood and iniquity, blood of murder, but one that's established in 318 00:29:25.599 --> 00:29:29.960 the blood of his son. A murder, yes, but one that often 319 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.279 all, ultimately, is a sacrifice in which our sins are atoned for, 320 00:29:36.079 --> 00:29:41.349 in which forgiveness is given, in which now we have peace with God and 321 00:29:41.470 --> 00:29:48.190 with man. When you have those longings in your heart for something better, 322 00:29:49.589 --> 00:29:55.259 don't strive in the strength of your power, don't strive according to your own 323 00:29:55.299 --> 00:30:00.339 will and your own ways. Rest in the kingdom that God gives to you 324 00:30:03.059 --> 00:30:08.569 through his prophet and even son, the Lord and our God, Jesus Christ. 325 00:30:11.170 --> 00:30:15.170 In Him we have all the things that he promises to us. Let's 326 00:30:15.210 --> pray