Micah Part 3
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Transition to the Text: Turn with me in your Bibles to Micah 6.
As we learned in week one, the book of Micah is divided into 3 oracles marked by the call to hear.
1:2 - Hear o peoples, all of you
3:1 - Hear you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel
6:1 - Hear what the LORD says…
The last part of Micah opens again in a courtroom style of dialogue. The prophet essentially is serving as the prosecuting attorney on behalf of God. God commands Micah to plead God’s case to the people. God is demanding answers.
And as we remember, God’s primary purpose in these discourses is not to punish or just be angry, but God desires that His people will come to their senses and repent of their wicked ways and return to God in faith.
We’ve talked about how many people don’t like the wrath of God because it makes God angry. But there are also a lot of people that don’t like this idea of God pleading with His people in a way that seems almost like God is begging because to them it makes God seem weak and needy.
But when we see it in the idea that God is gracious and merciful, this is fully within the character of God.
He’s not a blood thirsty God. He wants people to repent and come to Him in faith. And He is incredibly patient and kind to even the most wicked of people.
God doesn’t hold grudges. He keeps no record of wrongs. And there is no limit to His grace when it comes to faith and repentance.
And that is God’s message:
Scripture: Micah 6:1-7:20
Big Idea: Pursue God with all your HEART, at any COST.
Big Idea: Pursue God with all your HEART, at any COST.
1. God is always APPEALING to His people to RETURN to Him. (Micah 6:1-5)
1. God is always APPEALING to His people to RETURN to Him. (Micah 6:1-5)
Explanation:
1 Hear what the Lord says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.
2 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel.
3 “O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me!
4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
5 O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”
There are few things that are as beautiful as seeing a new believer come to faith for the first. The realization of the truth of the gospel and their need to trust in Jesus.
No matter what you have done in your life, you are never beyond the grace of God. Trust in God and pursue him at any cost.
But it’s a special thing when you are raised in a Christian home by Christian parents who know and serve the Lord and model that for you. And you embrace Jesus at a young age and never swerve your whole life. That’s what I want for my kids and your kids.
Too many people think kids need to go and live life and learn out there that they need Jesus. And when they are older they will come back. I don’t think that’s ever what the Bible says.
Within the family of God, there is salvation and eternal life. Outside of the family of God, there is only death and judgement.
Micah is about people who grew up in Israel but have gone astray. God is now appealing for them to come home.
God begins by recounting all of the things that He has done for them. God is almost assuming the tone of the defendant.
I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of Slavery.
Delivered them from their enemies: Balak King of Moab, Shittim to Gilgal when God parted the Jordan River.
Over and over again, God delivers His people with a mighty hand. And they continued to turn their back on Him. It started all the way back in Egypt and how long did it take for the people to turn away from God?
After everything they saw in Egypt, they threw it all away and made the Golden Calf. God continued to provide for His people, yet they grumbled for food, water and meat. And when He did provide, they complained they wanted something else.
You can trace this through Israel’s history all the way up to the time of Micah. God has demonstrated His faithfull provision to this people over and over again, and yet they never learned. They continued to rebel against Him.
It is justified that God would demand answers. Look at all that I have done for you. How have I wearied you? Answer me.
The very fact that God is giving them an opportunity to respond show us that He is gracious and merciful. He doesn’t have to do that. But He does.
God is showing them the error of their ways and given them a chance to repent and acknowledge it.
Illustration:
Application: God uses Micah to make His appeal to the people. Today, God uses individual Christians. God has made us ambassadors in the same way that Micah was.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
People often ask why doesn’t God just come down and make the appeal Himself? Well if God appeared to you face to face, your face would melt. Instead God works through intermediaries to get His message across. Jesus came, but that was for the purpose of dying of the cross. He did call the nation of Israel to be reconciled to God and they killed Him for it.
On the other hand, people like to say, what has God ever done for me?
A lot if you take a step back and really think about it.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
He provides common grace for everyone.
And He has made a way for you to have a relationship with Him through the blood of His son Jesus.
God is always calling people to Himself. The question, is how will people respond?
2. God has told His PEOPLE what is GOOD. (Micah 6:6-16)
2. God has told His PEOPLE what is GOOD. (Micah 6:6-16)
Explanation:
6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
After the appeal to God, Micah provides the rhetorical questions that people should ask God. What should we do?
How should I worship the Lord in light of His faithfulness and my wickedness?
Should it be with offerings?
Shall I give up my children?
The answer is blunt.
God has already told you what is good!
8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
We talk about this a lot at North Hills.
We remember that we are saved by Grace through faith and not works. But there are still expectations that come with living light of our salvation.
So how should a person claims to be a Christian actually live?
Do justice?
Love kindness?
Walk humbly with your God?
This is a reverse of the great commandment.
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Do justice and loving kindness is about how you treat others.
Walking humbly with your God is about your relationship with God.
So why are they reversed?
In Micah 1, we already got a picture of their problem. They were claiming to worship God and loving God. This wasn’t the issue. The issue was that they treated and allowed people like garbage.
You can’t say you love God if you treat people like trash, especially other believers.
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
Humility goes hand in hand with justice and kindness. When we are humbly walking with God, it challenges us to see others the way God sees them either as beloved children of the king of lost people in need of a savior.
Illustration: Doing justice is first and foremost about God. God is the one who has been wronged by a sinful and fallen world. The way in which we put that back together is by warning people of the coming judgement and getting them to turn back to God. But we also work to eliminate barriers that get in the way of someone coming to God. Micah has already recounted in chapter 1 the injustices that have been allowed against the poor people and the outcasts. God demands that His laws be kept and that wrongs be made right.
And God was pretty strict about this. If you stole something, in order to make it right you had to pay it back and add a 5th to it’s value. It wasn’t just about making someone whole it was about making up for it. So repentance is more than just saying sorry to God, it’s about making it right with the people you have hurt.
Kindness is about just being kind to people. We need to stop waking up looking for a fight. We need to stop being waking up skeptical that everyone is out to get us.
So smile at people. Say good morning. Bring in your neighbor’s trash cans. Let that person merge on the highway. When someone steals your parking spot, be kind. And when there is a misunderstanding, assume positive intent.
But don’t let people mistake your kindness for weakness. If someone threatens your family or talks bad about a friend. Be kind to those you love most first. Stand up for them.
Micah 6:9-16 reads like verdict. Judgement is coming. There appears to be a lack of repentance on the people which as we remember strongly contrasts with Jonah which came right before Micah. The Ninevites repented at Jonah’s preaching. Yet Israel remains obstinate in the face of a God they know will judge them.
Application: When sharing the Gospel with people this is the approach we need to take. Wrath and grace.
We have to tell people that their sin angers God and separates them from a relationship with him. But in God’s grace He has made a way to restore and redeem us.
But His grace only lasts for this lifetime. We only have this life to get right with God. After that comes the judgement.
So if you need to trust in Jesus, do it while you still can.
And if you already have, plead for others to come to know Jesus.
3. When in DOUBT, look to God for HELP. (Micah 7:1-20).
3. When in DOUBT, look to God for HELP. (Micah 7:1-20).
Explanation: Micah was tortured by the loneliness of trying to lead a godly life with a people that godless.
Micah looked in vain for at least one righteous person.
This is remiscent of Abraham who lamented over the plight of Sodom and Gomorra. When God revealed He’d destroy the whole valley, Abraham appealed on behalf of just 5. And of course, there weren’t five. Just lot and his family who were ushered out of the city to safety.
Micah searches desperately for just 1, probably for the same reason.
Micah compares his search to entering a vineyard late in the season and finding no fruit.
Things are bad.
Jesus used Micah 7:6 when talking about what will happen to those who put their faith in Jesus. They become enemies not just of the world but within their own homes and families.
So what should you do in a situation like this?
7 But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.
No matter what happens in this life, keep your eyes fixed on God. Trust in God even when it’s not popular or even legal. Trust in God.
Micah 8-17 is a restatement of God’s promises concerning Israel. He will take care of them. He will restore them and their enemies again will be put to shame. God will fight for His people, even though they don’t deserve it.
Judgment is coming but so is rescue for those whose faith is in the Lord.
The book ends with a prophecy of God’s future blessing
18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.
19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
Illustration:
Application: Trust in the Lord always. When you mess up, turn back to the LORD. When times are good look to the LORD. When times are tough, look to the LORD.
Look to the Lord always.
Response: Do you LOOK to God in times of TROUBLE?
Response: Do you LOOK to God in times of TROUBLE?
It’s interesting that God is calling them to repentance and to come back to them not in a time of trouble. But in a time of prosperity.
From a worldly perspective, everything is good. Why would they need God.
Typically it’s only when things go south that people cry out to God. It’s in times of trouble that we say, “Let’s give God a try.”
And when we cry out to God in the midst of a storm, God answers. But how much better is it when you don’t need to cry out to God…its just another day. No matter what comes, you know God because you have trusted Him in the highs and in the lows.
And the truth is that sometime in the near future from Micah’s perspective, the people of Israel will face an invading army from the assyrians. And the people will repent and will turn back to God. And God will deliver them as He always does.
But the cycle will start again. In times of trouble, people call out to God. God delivers His people leading to peace. Peace leads to prosperity and religious laziness. Which leads to the toleration of sin. When sin abounds, God’s judgement is near.
What if we just stayed faithful to God? In our church and in our homes? And do our best to
8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
But no matter what happens in this life,
May this be our cry.
7 But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.
