Latest / United Baptist Church / The Ruler, the Remnant, and the Rebellious
Transcript
- My name's Rob Morang, and I've been asked to fill in this morning. I thank you all for this opportunity to spend time under his word this morning. So with that being said, a major arguments against Christianity is the evil that we all see each and every day. How can there be a good and gracious God when all this evil and ugliness seems to have so much power in our world? And I'll be honest, before I became a Christian and put my faith in that king that we just sang about, that was a major problem I had as well. How could that be? How could these atrocities happen? How can these a good God let that happen? There's an underpinning in that argument that you know better. It's kind of arrogant. I was kind of arrogant myself, thinking, I've got the answers. I know what good is. I can define good better than God. Me the sins and sins and sins again. Last week we learned we cannot earn salvation. We will never live a life worthy of heaven. Our text today shows us an aspect of life from that point that we had from the New Testament last week. Our text today in the Old Testament teaches us that truth was true and all times past is true as we sit here was true. 800 years before Christ came, which is when this was written by Micah and will be true forever and always. The book of Micah. If it does one thing well, it gives us a description of the human leadership that was going on in those days. It shows what humans do to each other when they set God aside and they rule and they reign on their own. Now, not every leader outside of God's will looks as horrible maybe as these leaders in Micah that we've learned about last last time I preach, which was a while ago, but the whole book of Micah is a vivid, vivid description of what these leaders were doing to each other, tearing the flesh from each other, consuming each other, just looking to bolster themselves on the weak and the frail. And that's what we've learned up to this point. And Micah, if we've read it and you just take a few minutes, if you'd like to do that at some point this afternoon. My question to you folks is and my question to myself every day, but especially when I was didn't have what my faith in Christ, when I didn't trust in him, when I was seeking him is, are we better than those evil Israelite leaders? Are we better than the Assyrian leaders? Do we know in our sin? Do we know outside of God what is best? Do we have a good plan? Daughter Do you have the knowledge and experience to know a plan from all time passed to understand and have a good and gracious plan for the present and forevermore? Let's pray God humble us Humble as before. Your word this morning. Humble us under your word this morning, Lord, our sense of right and wrong is deeply rooted within us. For you put it there, Lord. Yet it is marred by sin and self-satisfaction and self-confidence as we see the truth of eternity, past and present and future. Lord, as we see that this morning, changes in the faithful believers that we would follow this mighty king that we're going to study this morning. Lord, And it's in his name, Jesus Christ. We pray. Amen. So a man named Micah, about 800 years before this king comes, declares what Cathy just read for us a few minutes ago. So what did that village Ephrata hear? Then? First thing they hear is they've been given an order, muster their troops as the order. I think this is simply rhetorical because we see what happens as they must have their troops, their judge, their leader. He gets hit on the cheek. So this little village that isn't even worth talking about isn't even worth being named. And the little nation of Judah has no power militarily. The few men that were of war age would not be able to do anything against all these all this evil. But then we learn that there is a kingdom come and where is he coming from? And he's actually coming from this small nation of Israel beyond that, he's coming from this clan of Judah, this little village of Ephrata, of Bethlehem, and I think of the Lord's plans and my plans. That wouldn't be our plan, I don't think. Come on, Judah. Small, Judah, sinful as we've read up to this point, as we studied last time I was here, what would we pick for a leader? We'd pick the biggest, baddest dude we could find. We're surrounded by nations that absolutely hate us inside of our nation are the leaders are trying to consume the weak and the frail. We don't want something small. We want something big and bold and mighty. We want power and we want this ruler to provide it. Next, we read something else. It's contrary to what our plans would probably be. Who's to come has already been at this point in Israel's history. I think we'd be tired of leaders that have already been. He is from of old. It says that in the text Israel's had ruler after ruler after ruler. In many ways they've gone from bad to worse, especially at this point in the history of the Old Testament. So we're over to one what we would expect out of this leader, that we're supposed to put our hope in. And those of you that have spent some time in your word, you know, this is just Micah. If you go through judges or any of those old Testament, the Testament books, the leaders in those books usually are evil and out for themselves. And while they're called by God, they turn from him over and over and over again. So I think Israel and us probably knows this prophet, Micah. He's not promising me anything. I'm looking forward to hear. And then we have another problem. What's his first action in our text? His first action is inaction. This is the last thing this village wants in Bethlehem. They want action. They've got issues. They've got issues without. They've got nations hating them, surrounding them, more powerful nations, bigger people, better people that are out to get them. They want that nation and they want to consume it. But the same is true for the leaders that are there. They want to consume each other. And the first action of this new ruler is in action. These men inside this nation want more money, more power, more influence. They just want to live and live for their own self-satisfied satisfaction. And then we have another thing that we're never going to ask for, especially the men in this room. We're going to wait for a woman. Worse yet, we have to wait for a pregnant woman. I'll leave the commentary alone. But that's what the tech says. So I spent that time on this to say to I mentioned the doubters at the beginning of this message. Now I ask the believers, I think what I've said to you thus far probably isn't that challenging. If you've put your faith in Christ and you're part of this remnant that we're going to discuss, your eternity is fine. You would know the plan that of God's salvation. You've accepted that and you've died your sins and you've been brought to life in Christ. So this is important and I want us to learn of that. But how about our Tuesday morning? Have you got a better plan than the Lord for your Tuesday mornings believer? How about your relationships? Have you got a better plan for your relationships than him? Do you always just do whatever comes to common sense? Because none of this that we state about this rule is going to look anything like what you or I will pick on our own strength. If you're humble enough to admit that it's dark, there is nothing there that you would go, Oh, yeah, that's what I do know. So be careful about our Tuesday mornings. Be careful about our finances, be wise. But then we say, as the king does come, this woman goes through labor and finally she gives birth. And this child brings people together. The child unites the family of Israel. That's dispersed far and wide because of their sin. They've been dispersed far and wide. And this king, this ruler, this baby, is a uniter. He's a uniter of God's family. Can you imagine if you're in that town with all those evil leaders and all that evil outside of that town of Bethlehem, and you hear that, Oh, my word, we have a king coming that's going to unite. That's going to unite the words brothers, family. Israelites are eating each other, eating their flesh, eating each other. I think physically, I think spiritually. But one day that evil will cease in the majesty of the Lord who delivered the four fathers from Egypt, from slavery in Egypt, will deliver them from evil leadership and from sin. And this baby, this king will stand strong. The king shall shepherd his flock. And in the very strength of the Lord is how He will do so. The King will not just reign in this village. So he'll be strong, standing strong, and he will not reign just in Bethlehem, just in Judah, just inside those walls. He'll be great throughout the nations and these nations, even the nations that are trying to destroy this nation, he will stand strong there, too. And this little clan, Bethlehem. That's not worth being named within the little nation of Judah will be the fruit. That's where the fruit of the king will come. That's where the soil is. That will sprout. This king, this baby ruler, and he'll deliver them from the Assyrian. Now, most likely when it says Assyrian in our text, he really means maker means you'll be delivered from your enemies, Bethlehem. You'll be delivered. Israel will be delivered from their enemies because Assyria was the closest in proximity and the largest enemy of Israel that there was. And Micah uses this to illuminate this for us. And we know Israel's not strong enough to defeat anybody. They're too small, they're too weak. And if you've ever read Micah or any of your Old Testament in order to sinful, they're really when anything on their own, but they will have a ruler that will unite brothers, sisters. And what happens when these brothers and sisters unite and come back to Israel? Chapter four We read this shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the House of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills and the people shall flow to it. And many nations shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. We will walk in his paths. The Lord, when this happens, will come and teach His word, his plan, and the path will be clear. Our plans will be clear. The word of life will be taught by the Lord. They come back and they receive the Lord. Then what? Then they'll go out with that word. The shepherd brings us back together. And the result is not merely defending the nation of Israel. Peoples go out into the nations with seven shepherds and eight princes of men. People go out with all the leadership they need that's walking in the paths of the Lord and they'll defend their village and they'll even shepherd nations that hate them. They'll want to consume them. And God's people have great success. And why would they have great success for their great deliverer has delivered them from this. They is giving them the success. They're doing it and the Lord is doing it. Though their strength on their own allows their ruler just to be struck on the cheek. Mere human strength is no strength at all. When we're outside of the Lord's will, our strength is not strength. It's interesting that Micah refers to the role of judge here and that this rod was the rod of a tool of punishment. Israel is judged by the rod. Even though these troops come together. But then we have this contrast. A ruler king will come forth and give Israel up. Then through labor and pain, he will come and unite this family and this this family that's been diverse, dispersed far and wide. And this remnant stands strong in the strongest entity there is. He stands in the strength of the Lord. We will strand strengthen the Lord. The remnant will stand in the strength of the Lord. You see this contrast that He's displaying for us here. We have no strength we can bring together, not just us in this room, unarmed and weak and frail as we are with sick bodies, we'll bring together young men with weapons of war. Come together. Do that on your own strength, Judah. And what's the result? Your leader just gets smacked around, is what he's saying. Or we can be ruled by the Lord. And these are the people that have just been ruled and been torn out and picked apart and eaten and consumed and taken advantage of over and over and over and over again. Now we see how closely the Lord is enmeshed with his remnant. And for us, when you're in your mess, when you're struggling with health problems, when you're doubting, you know, that you were enmeshed with the Lord, if you were in his son, the first verse, the 15 verses the Messiah is the actor, and then this chapter of Micah God acts and we learn how He acts. We learn by what means He acts. We also learn the fruit of his actions. The Messiah will come and his people will dwell secure. Friends have no lasting security in Africa or the United States or anywhere else on their own. But security's promised in our passage. There's no peace in Africa as this is read. When Micah was prophesied. But there shall be peace and he will unify and give peace to this nation. Even evil nations will come into this village, into this little Africa, and everything will raise up leaders and deliver them from these evil nations. Do you catch that in verse five or six as Kathy read, Take a look. Now, if you have your Bible opens, we raise up leaders and he delivers. It doesn't just say he does this, he does. He does this. He is a master with this. I want you to see this, folks. When you hear somebody say flippantly, The Lord is with you, you're never left alone outside of the Bible, it's hard to even imagine that God is with you. But these texts say that God does get all the glory, but we are His treasured inheritance. What He does with us and through us. I just pray someday I'll understand 1% of that. Because as I sit here and preach, I love to tell you, Oh, I got that down. But God is in me. God is in you believer. And when you're caring for the less fortunate, He's caring for the less fortunate. When you stand up here and share with 100 people or more your struggles, he's with you. He didn't leave you in your struggle and he's not going to leave you when you confess them to your brothers and sisters. God is so good. We act and he gets the credit. He grants success. He grants great success. Yes, he takes the glory. But we are in him and he is in us. We need not be alone. Don't rely on human hands. Don't be alone. God will be present and He'll enable and he'll direct. And he'll provide his word for us. Listen, the present is not as good as it gets for his sheep. Nowhere near. He's going to shepherd us. He does shepherd us. And this Messiah will provide a promise of peace, security and success to those sheep to his children. Now on to the rebellious and the remnant. In verses 17 seven through 15, the remnant will be in the midst of this. People, many people. And then we see these two metaphors in our text. It's interesting. The remnant will be like water and like lions. I don't have the experience of Pastor Scott, so I spent some time on this because I was like, Say what? And I'm like, So I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it now. But the remnant will shower and cover the nations and provide life giving water to many. And for those of us that have studied our new Testament, we know that's exactly what Jesus did. He was the living water. And guess what? US, His church, his remnant will take that water to all nations. It will cover. Due is an image of abundance in the Bible. The remnant will also be like lions. In the last days, the enemies of the Lord's people will be the enemy of the Lord's, and he'll use that remnant to tread down, to tear, and to cut off the remnants. Adversaries. His adversaries, the adversaries of the Lord do not have a future to open. They may be having great success now, but that success is short term and short sighted. God, by using this, people will see to it that people, ultimately, his people ultimately have success over the rebellious. Now, our last section of the test, the text this morning, while the rebellious are taken care of as we see in the text, not such a great way the remnant are taken care of. How will the Lord take care of the remnant? He'll remove the things not of him. Their military might will be stripped away. The sorceress will be taken out of that nation, out from those people. The Handmaid's images that they're bowing down to gone Their idols, our idols taken away, rooted out. This Ashur is the goddess of fertility among the Canaanites and the Canaanites and their worship linked this Ashura goddess to the one true God. And she'll be rooted out in the cities where people had such signs of power. God will destroy those cities. Now, here we are in Elsworth in 2023. What can we know to make the most of this word this morning? Think briefly. We don't know best God knows better us than our sin mastering anything on our own, absolutely futile, let alone coming up with a bridge to get to a better life. After this life ends, we're fighting a battle we can't even see. Folks we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Are you going to live and figure this out because of what it looks like walking down Main Street or driving on High Street or going to the doctors? You don't have to have those plans be your source of hope because they are not a source of hope. At least they're not a source of hope for a long term. We need to trust and obey. But why? Why would we put our faith in this ruler of old that we said, boy, that doesn't make any sense at the beginning of this message that we read those verses and we don't think about it. We don't study them at all and just read those verses like these. This guy, I don't think I want that ruler. He's from small beginnings, this ruler that's promised, that's exactly what we need. Jesus didn't come as a conquering superhero by any means. He came as a baby. He did not come from huge beginnings. He's born in a dirty trough. His parents were no Israelites that we would have picked this ruler to come from. They were common lowly, a carpenter and a young child. A young girl. Guess what? It's exactly what we need. Jesus. No small. You ever felt small? Jesus knows weak. You ever been weak? Jesus knows poor and frail and sick. Then those things. We never reach the blessed status of remnant unless we become weak. We must died or ourselves. That's weak. That's how weak we need to become. We must die. Dawson's be humbled enough to confess our son and repent of it. To truly be in this ruler that's promised the Christ. Now, Israel, in our texts, is left alone in their rebellion and sin. And the Scriptures tell us when the fullness of time had come. God sent forth his son, born of woman, born of the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so they we might receive adoptions and sons. This is the first advent, the coming of the Messiah. And in James we read the second Be patient therefore brothers until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early in the late reigns. You also be patient. Establish your heart for the coming of the Lord is at hand. God is on time. Even when your plans say He is not God is coming, even when you doubt, even if you're convinced He's not going to show up. He showed up 2000 years ago. He's been here ever since. He's never leading and one day leaving and one day he will come back in honor, in glory for all to see. And there will be zero doubt. There will be zero faith. We will see him. We will be delivered by him. We will have the peace promised in our text. Perfectly. Praise God. This Messiah is from the old. He was not created. He is the Creator. The only savior of this world is not of this world. He made this world and he saved this world. The world saves us. Jesus saves us the Messiah saves us. God is perfect and the perfect sacrifice necessary to save us sinners. Be humbled by this church. God's plan is always better than our plan. Whatever we think we ought to have, whatever we think we need, whatever we think, turn to this. And if you have this, you have the plan. You are in here. I am in here today. Is it here? Right. Eternity is in here. We don't have to wonder. We don't need sorcerers. We don't need fortunetellers. He's their creator of time and he tells us what we need. And we have this Holy Spirit that the Lord desires to use in our lives to sanctify us. I just wish we would let Him come into our lives and we would participate with him. As we see in our text, the participation to take our sinful idolatry away and then rely on nothing but the word nothing but the word to inform us of what our tomorrow shall bring in. Rest in that church. When we look at the verses ten through 14 of Micah, we know this king has come right? Church How is this? KING Come and what will he do? He'll throw down strongholds. He'll review them. His his rid is remnant of sorcerers and fortune tellers. They're not needed. They're not of him. He's going to get rid of them. You guys are studying the book of Acts right now at this church, and you've been months on it. I think you have some more months to go. And Luke records that the spirit of the Lord came on this remnant. He came on, the church came, and people in his son in just last Sunday morning, I was sitting here with you folks and I listened to a teaching of how the church taught and exhorted these chosen remnant to turn from their false worship and to turn to the true Savior Jesus. And guess what? This church, all churches, all true churches, will be one of the means the Lord uses to do exactly what we read about in Chapter five of Micah removing sin from his people. We are to be about doing that for each other with each other in love. We after church last week, we went downstairs and learned about church church discipline, that very thing about how that we are going to do exactly what the Lord does is we are enmeshed with the Lord. We see it right here in Acts and in Micah that we will be sanctified and we'll help each other do that. That's one of the means the Lord uses to do that. That gives us great hope for the present. And the day of the Lord gives great hope for a perfect future in which we are completely purified and holy and with the Lord, the rooting off and the cutting off and the throwing down will be done. And what remains will be fellowship and praise and worship to the one who did it. Anyone that thinks they know best. If you're sitting there and saying, This is hogwash, I know best come to the word and learn his path and walk with him in your new family. Listen, we don't look like much, but we are the family of the one true God. And we are unified by a spirit and by this ruler, King that did come. And we're a set apart remnant. And listen, we don't just have to have faith in this. What we read in Micah five, we can see this. We have people here that have experienced strongholds destroyed in their lives. We are testimony about one just the other day from a dear brother here, from the same pulpit. We have reliable records that the savior did come exactly like Micah promised. He came from Bethlehem. He was lowly. He came from a pregnant woman. And he did all of those things. And he was of old. So we have those scriptures that verify the truth. America five and we have the experience that the Lord is at work, sanctifying His church. And if you're sitting here and you've been part of the church a long time and you're like, What's he talking about? I don't see that in other people. I don't see that in myself. I if you talk to three people here this morning, you will hear stories about what the Lord has done in their lives. I promise you, the Lord is at work in his church and that work is good and that work is mighty. And that work would never come about on my plan or your plan, friend. It would not. We have all the reason we need to believe this King not only is coming, but has come and will deliver. And we'll follow through on every one of his promises each and every time. God, Thank you. Thank you for your word. Thank you that I know me as a doubt that I didn't live 800 years before Christ called. You know my heart. You know, heart's in here today. And many of us, I believe, are here because you know how hard hearted we are. And stubborn. Yeah, we do have reliable evidence that we can look back on your son and see life in love and deliverance and salvation. God, thank you for that. God be with those here that still are holding on to their plans and their sin. I think the world that the government has got it under control. They just have blind faith in this future, hope that they'll have a better life someday without your son. God, I pray that this time would be used for someone like that. I pray that you would change hearts and minds. I pray that you would bring the dead to life today in this place and to many, many souls. Christ, we love you. A ruler. King. Amen.