Dennis Tuuri

or we’re handling over a series of three messages because I think that there’s an easy three-fold division to Micah chapter 4. We talked about Micah 4 follows the first three chapters which are almost exclusively chapters of God’s judgment describing his judgment upon the sinning people. And after the judgment of chapters 1 through 3, Micah moves on now to offer hope and assurance of the future exaltation that God’s residence on earth and his people will experience.

And so Micah 4 moves from judgment to hope. Moves from the judgment to the purpose of the judgment as it were. That’s the context of Micah 4. Micah 4 itself I think is divided or can be seen as divided into three very easy parts. The first one through five that we discussed last week where we have God’s sovereign establishment of his kingdom in the Messiah to come in Jesus Christ. And so the sovereignty of God in establishing that kingdom and also the future growth of that kingdom and the expansion of that kingdom in the gospel age is clearly taught there in the first five verses.

The next three verses, the ones we’ll deal with this morning, are assurance that the chastised daughter as it were of that is God’s people shall be restored and more than restored for she becomes part of that great kingdom brought in by the Messiah that verses 1-5 talk about. Verses 9 through 13 then the last of these three sections of chapter 4 that we’re going to be dealing with then talks about the progress and the process by which all this is brought to pass.

God is to establish his mountain verses 1-5 Christ being the cornerstone in which all nations will eventually flow. He assures his chastised daughter as it were that she will be part of that kingdom in the verses we’re going to be talking about this morning that her suffering leads to success by him. And then he moves on the last five verses of the chapter which we’ll address next week to state that not only will she be returned to God’s sovereign mountain but she will also then be a conqueror of the nations roundabout.

She will arise and thresh and that’ll be our topic for next week. And so there’s this progression. God’s sovereignty in establishing the holy mount and the end result of it. Secondly, the people that have been chastised by him are brought back and restored to dominion and to being a nation and brought back into his graces as it were as a result of his grace. And then third, they’re brought back for a purpose that they might arise and thresh the nations in his judgment.

The ones that have been used by him to judge his people, he now turns in judgment against. And the vehicle for that is his people. Okay, this morning then we’re going to talk about this movement of God’s daughter that he refers to her at in the last verse of our passage in verse 8. He calls her the daughter of Jerusalem, the daughter of Zion. The other two verses talk about she will do this, she will this will happen to her.

And so we have a picture here of God’s daughter and God’s daughter has moved from being a limping outcast to being a dominion nation. And that’s our subject this morning. Now, it’s important we recognize again, I know we touched on this briefly last week, but I want to touch on a little bit more in depth this morning. Verse 6 of chapter 4 begins with saying, “In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her.” So, the verses we’re going to be looking at, these three verses will occur what will happen, what is described there will happen in that day.

Now, that’s an obvious reference back to the first verse. But in the last days, it shall come to pass. And we talked about that a little bit last week, but I want to talk about just a little bit again the idea of the last days because it’s something that we all have probably received quite a bit of errant teaching on first of all the witness of the Old Testament of the last days and I won’t look up the references now you can look them up yourself later Isaiah 2:2 which of course is a parallel account to the verses in Micah Numbers 24:14 with Balaam’s prophecy is other few other references in the Old Testament primarily in the prophets to the last days of the latter days and what’ll happen therein and most Bible commentators are agreed that these things refer to Messiah’s coming Messiah’s reign and so the last days of the days of Messiah that God will bring to completion what covenant history is pointing toward which is the coming of the Messiah and then the establishment of his kingdom.

That’s the Old Testament witness. So what does the New Testament witness tell us about those last days? Well, first we have that expression used in 2 Timothy 3:1 and 2 Peter 3:3 to speak of a warning about scoffers appearing in the last days. 2 Timothy 3:1 reads the following. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.

2 Peter 3:3. This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and unto the rest of the passage.

Point I want to make here is that these two references are warnings to the people that they were written to. Now they have application for us as well. But to say that this talked about someday 3,000 years in the future, 2,000 years or 1,988 years as some misguided people talked about last week in our state. It’s kind of missing the point. He warns them here, both Peter and Paul give the warning here that these things will happen to the people that he’s writing them to.

And so, the context of the last days are the times that they’re going to be facing as they see these things developing historically around them. In Acts 2:17, we have another element of the New Testament witness of the last days. Acts 2:14-17, well, actually, we’ll start in verse 14. But Peter standing up with the 11 lifted up his voice. And of course the context of this is the day of Pentecost. Lifted up his voice and said unto them, “Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my words.

For these are not drunken as you suppose, seeing that it is about the third hour of the day. But this is that which is spoken of by the prophet Joel.” So he’s saying this is fulfilled prophecy what you see here. And I’m going to tell you specifically. I’m not just going to say by the prophet Joel. I’m going to tell you the specific verse that are fulfilled. He says, he goes on to quote from the book of Joel, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.” You see, it’s so clear here that Acts 2:17, Peter says that these are the last days, and the prophecies about the last days given in the book of Joel are being fulfilled now, today, not in some distant future.

Hebrews 1:2, God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds. So the writer of the book of Hebrews, Paul or whoever it was, says again, these are the last days and in these last days Messiah has come. He’s completed his holy word and he speaks now through his son Jesus Christ and through his word. So he says, “This has come to pass and his son hath now been appointed heir of all things.” And then finally 1 Corinthians 10:11 that we referred to last week and we should be real familiar with this passage since we read it frequently during our communion service. Now all these things happen unto them for examples and they are written for our admonitions. Our admonition to whom? What about that day?

He says upon whom the ends of the ages are come. The ends of the ages are come unto us. He says, and so the New Testament witness is quite clear that the last days refer to the days of the church, not some period after a mysterious church age, which is not mentioned in the Old Testament. We’re told by some, yeah, okay, the Old Testament witness is clear, but there’s a gap then between these two comings of Messiah.

The first coming to affect salvation for the Gentiles and the second coming to inaugurate his kingdom with Israel. And see what actually what these really these messianic prophecies particular ones in Micah for instance the establishment of the holy mountain and his kingdom and everything those refer to God coming in power and doing something tremendous something physically powerful they say so it can’t possibly be by reason of the evidence that we see in history for the last 2,000 years Jesus all he did 2,000 years ago was to come and die on a cross he didn’t have any big bazookas or guns he didn’t call the angels down and lightning bolts so that can’t be what it’s talking about because this is talking about a big deal here.

Well, you see, we want to agree with the scriptures. We want to define what a big deal is in light of the scriptures. And the scriptures, as we’ve said consistently here in this church, and I’m sure you’re all aware of this, say that the power of God is the gospel, the dynamite of God. Romans 1 is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, we want to line up our understanding what a big deal is with God’s understanding. And what God instructs us to understand is that the coming of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago, to die on the cross and his resurrection and ascension to the throne and the giving of his holy spirit was the big deal that these things pointed to and that there will be a consummation Christ will return and all sin will cease to no longer be allowed in the land but the point is that doesn’t mean that the kingdom doesn’t happen until then Jesus Christ gave the apostles the keys to the kingdom see it was a present thing as Dennis Peacock pointed out in a seminar we were at a couple weeks ago with him if God takes the kingdom away from the Jews and gives it to the Gentiles.

What does that mean? Historically, God’s taking something away that is there and he gives it to the Gentiles who are there. You see, it can’t refer to something yet future. Okay. Point is that we don’t want to be like the apostate rebellious Jews at the time of our Lord’s death who said, “We don’t want this kind of Messiah. We don’t want a spiritual kingdom. We want you to come and kick some butt with the Romans.”

That’s what the Jews wanted. Okay? We don’t want to be like those Jews, though. They were apostate. They were rebellious. They had rejected the word of God. And for us to say, “We don’t want this kind of kingdom. We’re going to wait till you come back and really clean things up before we get to work on the kingdom of God” is to mimic the sin of the rebellious Jews. And remember, their sin was not intellectual.

Their sin was not that God’s word wasn’t clear. His word was clear. They just didn’t like what it said. They didn’t like that it said that as a result of the kingdom will spread at the teaching of Messiah that it’s the sword that comes out of the mouth that produces the obedience of the nations. It’s interesting. I’ll make this point later too, but it’s interesting how important the tongue is in scripture. Keith gave a real good talk on this, of course, but remember that the things we talked about last week, the failure of the mountain men and the success of God all had to do with three things.

Remember, teaching, judging, rebuking. Well, you see, teaching is a function of the lips. Judging, rendering decisions is a function of the lips. No, execution of course is a different thing. The execution of the penalty, but the judging part itself is a thing done with the mouth and rebuking is done with the mouth. And so, it’s God’s word that is the primary element that produces the society of his law and order that we talked about last week.

Okay? Not in other words, God says his arm of strength is his holy word preached faithfully according to what the scriptures tell us. Make no mistake about it then that the days in which we live today are part of those days which Jesus Christ initiated and the scriptures gave us a clear New Testament witness to the fact that there were the days of the Messiah, the last days in which these prophecies are coming to pass.

So they have relevance to us. Okay. One other thing you’ll notice there in that first verse in that day saith the Lord. And again we pointed this out before but this is a covenant word from Jehovah God or Yahweh God. that says this will surely come to pass. This isn’t a maybe here. You can bank this. You can go to the bank with it. Okay. What is that sure word from Yahweh? What is the sure word from the God of the covenant with us who is to us all that he is?

That sure word is first of all that the daughter is afflicted. She’s afflicted. The description of her the daughter that is that she’s halted. Her that halteth. So she’s halted. That’s repeated both in verses 6 and verse 7 for emphasis. That word means to limp. Okay, that’s the same word used in Genesis 32 when Jacob met God at Peniel and named the place Peniel cuz he’d seen the face of God, wrestled with God all night and then got up and God had touched his hip during the wrestling at the end of it God had touched his hip and so Jacob then walked away limping.

He halted. Same exact Hebrew word used here. So, it refers to a disabling limp. Okay, you can’t walk correctly. You can still walk, but you walk with a limp. And the people of God here are described as being hamstrung to a certain extent. Okay, the wicked are viewed here as having hamstrung the people and they no longer have capability of full strength. They’re limping. They’re halting. They are limping away into the sunset, so to speak, is the picture here.

They’ve been judged. These other nations have come upon them and they’re limping off into the sunset. defeated and discouraged almost to the point of not being able to walk and of course to walk is to live. Secondly though, she’s also described as being a cursed outcast with the curse of being an outcast. Verse 6 says she has been driven out. Verse 7 says she has been cast far off. And here the picture is one of the people or the daughter being driven physically out of their homeland, driven into a nation of men with strange languages, strange habits and customs, and even worse strange gods that they worship.

Now, in today’s secular society, it’s a little tough to really get the impact of this because we have essentially the great religion of secularism out there. And then right now, until it fully establishes itself in some sort of new age spiritualism, which it surely will, by the way, it’s playing this game of pluralism. And so, it’s awful tough to get the picture.

If we go off to another country, doesn’t seem to be any big deal. You know, I was watching a little bit of the opening ceremonies the other day of the Olympics. I don’t know if you noticed or not, but each nation marches into the thing and they each have their flag up and in front of the flag bearer for the nation, they have a Korean person, I guess it was, who carries a picket sign announcing the name of the country.

And all those picket sign carriers were women except for one who was a man and he was in front of the Iranian delegation. And the reason for that was the Iranians said it is a dishonor. It is it would be you know a dishonor to us and a shame to us to allow woman to march us in and be at our head as we go into this assembly. Kind of interesting. Now, the reason I bring that up is that Iran is perhaps one country, maybe the only countries left that have at least some form of a state religion or a unified system of religion there in their country that is not secularist in nature.

And so maybe to help us get the picture of what this is talking about her being driven far off, first of all, of course, there’s distance away from God and his dwelling place of the people. So, it’s being removed. It’s like hell, you know, far away from God. But, they’re going to be taken into captivity, of course, in the direct reference that it’s talked about here into Assyria and into other lands that the Assyrians will plant them into.

And maybe with us, it would be a good thing to try to picture us being taken off, being hamstrung. Maybe they break one of our legs. We limp along and they take us off on boats. They take us to Iran. A people of very zealousness apart, but for the wrong god, and who will kill you for various sins. Now I know you know I recognize that Iran has a good mixture of communism in there as well but in any event it is externally a religious state and so that’s part of the picture here.

So the picture here of the daughter is that this is a people who are limping halting homeless people driven to the ends of the world. One that we should be quite familiar with by now of course having gone through the first three chapters of Micah talking about God’s judgment upon them. Now this is not a nice picture. This is not pleasant thing to try to consider for the church, which is what it’s talking about, of course, the daughter of God.

But the real kicker to this verse is at the end of verse six. The end of verse six, it says that he’ll do these things to her that I have afflicted. God says all these things didn’t come about by the hand of man. Ultimately, they were his secondary means, but they came about primarily at the hand of God. Now, it’s interesting. The Chalcedon report in its latest issue has a little blurb in there on David Chilton’s description of how the world works according to Power in the Blood and about how angels are the immediate messengers of God’s purposes many times.

And it’s a good article in that it reminds us that we don’t have a secular world. Well, I guess here we’d have to say that the ungodly nations, the Assyrians and those terribly wicked people were God’s immediate messengers of his wrath against his people. See, it wasn’t ultimately the Assyrians that the Israelites were suffering at the hands of, it was at the hands of God himself for breaking his covenant.

They were limping because of their sin. Psalm 38:16, David said, “I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me, and my foot slippeth and magnify themselves against me, for I am ready to halt.” Same word there, halt. “I’m ready to limp and actually to stop walking because my legs are broken. I can’t move on. And my sorrow is continually before me.” And why? Verse 18 of Psalm 38 says, “For I will declare mine iniquity. I’ll be sorry for my sins.” God halts. He gives limps to those who sin against him. He drives out those also who walk in disobedience to his covenant. What happens that Micah is talking about here is simply the working out of Deuteronomy 30, God’s covenantal blessings and cursings. Deuteronomy 30:1 says, “It shall come to pass when all these things have come upon thee, the blessing of the curse which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whether the Lord thy God hath driven thee.” And he goes on to say some things.

Point is, Deuteronomy 30 says, “When these cursings come upon you, you’ll call upon me from a land, and you’ll be in that foreign land, away from my presence because I have driven you there as the result of my curses against you for violating my covenant.” Daniel understood this. Remember that Daniel was part of the captivity really described here in the first application of these verses in Micah 1-3 that was to happen about a hundred years after Micah and the deportation and the exile.

Daniel in chapter 9 recognized 70 years that had been prophesied as affecting the restoration then were about up. You know there was a prophecy that at the end of 70 years they would be restored to the land. Now that was a partial restoration and the true restoration was to come in Jesus Christ 70 weeks later 7 times 70 or 490 years. later. But any event, Daniel knew the 70 years was coming up for at least a partial restoration.

And it’s interesting that Daniel didn’t just sit on his hands. He then prayed that God would fulfill his word and that he would restore the people. And Daniel in his prayer acknowledged that they had been driven out by God. He says in verse 7, “Oh Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces is at this day to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all Israel that are near and are far off through all the countries whether thou hast driven them because of their trespasses that they have trespassed against thee.”

Daniel recognized that they were in exile because God had taken them there not because sinful men had come and rounded them up in their own good time because in God’s time that occurred as a result of God’s judgment against the people. And notice also that Daniel recognizes the nature of their sin. He says this has happened because of their trespasses that they have trespassed not against their fellow man but against thee.

He recognized the ultimate sin is against God. And so he recognized their captivity as a result of that. 2 Kings 17:23 says the same thing in terms of this driving out that God is accomplishing. Verse 21, for he tore Israel from the house of David and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king and Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord and made them sin a great sin. For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, which he did, they departed not from them until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants, the prophets.

So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. Second Kings, remember we’ve talked about this passage before. It talks about Jeroboam. Rehoboam followed Solomon, the breakup of the United Kingdom came a divided kingdom. Then Jeroboam took over for Rehoboam took over in the north. That is Jeroboam then instituted false religion. Remember he made those idols and altars that they would come and worship at cuz he was afraid if his people kept going down to Jerusalem to worship they would he would lose their allegiance.

Remember Jeroboam had been graciously given kingdom the kingship rather of the northern kingdom. But he forfeits it almost immediately by creating what? Sin great sins against their fellow man and all this sort of thing. No, by instituting false religion, false worship. That was Jeroboam’s sin. And the reason eventually because people followed that sin of false worship why God eventually takes them out of the land.

Again, in Isaiah 2:6-22, remember Isaiah 2:1-4 is the parallel passage to Micah 4:1-4. And so, if we’re going to understand what’s happening here in these verses of Micah, we ought to look at that passage a little bit. Verses 1-4 talks about continuity with Micah. Verse 5, of Isaiah 2 is the same sort of liturgical response called for that Micah 4:1-4 ended with Micah 4 verse 5 Micah let’s see the first four verses of Micah 4 where the declaration the same declaration found in Isaiah 2 and then Micah ended that section with verse 5 which is a liturgical response to the part of the people that said yeah we’re going to obey you God no matter what happens we’ll obey you on the basis of our understanding of who you are and Isaiah 2:5 is that same liturgical response is called for.

He says, you know, obey God, you sons of Judah, sons of God. That is verses 6-8, the sins of Jerusalem are recounted. And then verses 9-19 in Isaiah 2 talks about their debasement and humbling. And we won’t look at those passages now, but the point is that in those verses, you have a clear picture that their sins are pride before God. Pride in their own status as a people, able to work out their own way, to be their own tower, their own defense, and that verses 9-19.

The judgments from God that come upon them are judgments of abasement and humility. And that is why they are driven away to be abased and humbled. Okay. Why do I go to all these verses? Well, there’s several things that these verses tell us when people are driven out of the land why that happens. The Daniel passage and the Deuteronomy passage that we cited tells us that when you violate God’s covenant law, he kicks you out of the land, out of his presence.

That is out of a position of being a dominion nation into being subject to somebody else. Isaiah 2 tells us that when you have pride, God will humble you and will bring his judgments against you often times in the form of ungodly people to humble you and that you have a right understanding of yourself and relationship to God. As Robert Jones said a couple weeks ago, that C word, you know, that you’re a creature.

I thought that was great in his sermon talking about the C word. That is a, you know, if you listen to much supposed Christian radio these days they avoid the C-word like it was a terrible sin. Okay. Second Kings the passage we read there and also Daniel stressed that improper worship is another reason why God drives his people out from his presence and from being in charge of the nation and makes them subject to other nations.

This has application for us doesn’t it? We live in a nation that seems to be driven out. The Christians are no longer in control. We’re now subject to people who have worship other gods. Astrology, secular humanism, new age spiritualism, whatever it is, they’re the head now and we’re the tail. And why? Well, it’s pretty obvious if you look at these passages we’ve just read. Violations of his covenant law.

Why? We don’t even attempt to obey the covenant law anymore in most churches. Antinomianism, the rejection of God’s law as the standard for our lives is the mode of the day of most Christian churches. The professing church of Jesus Christ has rejected God’s law. God says, “You do that, I’ll drive you into subjection to other nations.” Pride. Well, that’s an American virtue, isn’t it? Our pride, our ability to stand up on our own two feet and get things done and self-reliance and independence.

And you know, under the context of a God who calls us to self-government, that can be good. But frequently in America, the sin is that we don’t subject that to God. We see ourselves as having accomplished it. The same way that Israel said, “We built this great city and we did all these great things when in fact they were the result of God’s gracious blessings and so we as a nation have suffered also because of that second Kings and Daniel in proper worship.

Well, again the concept that God would instruct us from the first two commandments of the ten commandments that we have to worship him in the way he’s told us to worship him and something foreign in most churches today and churches are full of entertainment as we talked about last week. Christians regularly desecrate the Sabbath, the Lord’s day, the day that we’re to commemorate Jesus’s victory and reign and our rest in him.

And we treat it just like any other day increasingly in this country. And God has called us to obey that fourth commandment. And see, when you break God’s laws of worship, everything else flows out of that. The nation slides down into chaos and into great sin against your fellow man as well. You know, Dennis Peacock was talking about the idea of no fault divorce and the importance that has to our country in terms of the slide.

One of the reasons for that is that the marriage was always seen as a covenant that God oversaw and bound people to. And then they cut that linkage to God off. It was just a relationship one to another. Marriage was no longer a contract anymore. No covenant. We’ve sinned against God with antinomianism. We’ve sinned against God with false worship. You know, this is a hard thing to hear. Maybe it’s a difficult thing for me to say, but the professing church, take one issue.

And it asserts that people can accept Jesus Christ as savior but not as lord and still be Christians and still go to heaven and still be accepted in God’s presence. That’s a that’s a sin against God. You see Christ salvation, his saviorness and his lordship are connected. And God says that if you don’t obey him, you’re not really believing in him as savior either. Well, the church in America has preached for a long time now that lordship is not required for salvation.

And I believe, and these are harsh words, I know, but I’m convinced of it, that the theology that throws God’s law out the window and throws God’s sovereignty out the window and throws Jesus Christ’s lordship makes it optional somehow for his chosen people that bear his name as Christians. People that put out that kind of theology are just like Jeroboam in his time, putting out false gods to worship.

Not the God of the scriptures anymore, but a different God, one who is weak, who can’t do what he wants to do. One who has no law and has no concern for his own standards and one who doesn’t claim that he has crown rights over everything that we say and do. That’s false worship. And the same way that Jeroboam ruined the kingdom of the north. So these people are ruining the kingdom of America. And as a result, God has hamstrung, halted her church, his church rather.

She is now a limping daughter, outcast and driven out. But it doesn’t end there. The passage goes on in the context of this entire passage isn’t really that fact which we’ve known about from Micah the first three chapters. But the passage here that we’re talking about is that God graciously restores her to a position of favor and grace and obedience to him. She is gathered. It goes on to say in verse 6, I will assemble her that halted and I will gather her that is driven out and her that I have afflicted.

She is gathered together. Secondly, she becomes a strong nation. I will make her that halted a remnant and her that was cast off a strong nation. She’s a remnant now. She’s the beginning of the process again of building this big nation, a mountain of God that we talked about in Micah 4:1-4. And so she’s a remnant in that sense. And he makes her that remnant, the beginning of a new loaf as it were, the leaven as it were, the new loaf spreading and the kingdom of God spreads into the rest of the world.

So God’s grace here is demonstrated in that she has been driven out and limped by him and she’s now gathered back and made a strong nation by the grace of God. And all this happens at his hands. Psalm 38 when we talked about David’s repentance for his sins against God for which he was made lame by God. It goes on to say, David goes on to end that psalm by saying, “Take haste to help me, oh God, my salvation.” You see, we don’t end with God just our judge and kicking us out when we sinned against him.

But if we’re his people and called by his name, God brings us to salvation. If we’re truly the elect community, as David of course was a member of, we can pray to God that he is our salvation. And David looked to his deliverance, his restoration, having confessed his sin. Then God, he knew, as Micah knew, that his halting would be turned into a gathering and his salvation. Daniel 9:19, when Daniel confesses his sins, he confesses that they’re the reason why God drove them out, he goes on to say, “Oh Lord, hear, oh Lord, forgive.” Now, of course, Daniel recognized that he didn’t believe in cheap grace here.

He recognized his people were repentant at this point. And so, he called for God to forgive them, “Oh Lord. Hear, oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, hearken and do. Defer not for thine own sake, oh my God. For thy city and thy people are called by thy name.” Just as Daniel had recognized that their sins were primarily against God. So he recognized that their restoration while helping the people of course was ultimately for the glory of God’s name to show his grace to demonstrate his compassion and love for his covenant people who are called by his name.

Deuteronomy 30 says, “After you’re driven off into these nations,” what we’ve just talked about, it goes on to say in verse two, “And you shall return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children with all thine heart and with all thy soul, that when the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity,” and that’s what Micah is talking about, turning their captivity here, and he’ll have compassion upon thee, and Daniel says, “Your name is the reason for this, and that name is a name of compassion, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whether the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.

If any of thine be driven out into the utmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee, and the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it restoration. And he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. Above thy fathers. History is not cyclical. The history of the covenant people is a moving from glory to glory.

It’s a growth in grace not just for us individually for the covenant community as well. We don’t want to return to the days of the Puritans in this country. We want to see God’s restoration to the end that we are glorious we are done good by God and then he multiplies us above our fathers in material blessings certainly but more than that of course in the understanding of the scriptures and how to apply it to the complex and technological world that God has created for the purpose brought to pass for the purpose of demonstrating the relevancy of his word throughout time and history. Okay? We don’t want to return to the days of the fathers. We recognize that God’s restoration will be a moving on of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, an increasing scope. That mountain is built. It doesn’t always stay a mountain. We don’t just go back to the mountain. It is built up then into a higher and higher and more obvious mountain from God.

Micah ends his prophecies in chapter 7:18-20 by citing all this. “Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again. He will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.” You see, God’s purpose in all this is to restore those whom he causes to limp, that he has driven out, that his grace, his excellency of compassion and love might be known amongst the nations.

And so, when we’re halted by God, we should recognize that is for the purpose of demonstrating God’s righteousness. Yes. but God’s grace and compassion as well. And so we move forward into the blessings of God responding correctly to him. What should our response be? It’s interesting. Zephaniah 3, we’ll read it fully as we conclude our service today. But Zephaniah 3, the last 10 or so verses of it are a parallel passage in a way to Micah 4.

Zephaniah 3:14 says, “Sing, O daughter of Zion, and shout, O Israel, be glad and rejoice with all the heart, oh daughter of Jerusalem. And why? Because verse 15 says, “The Lord hath taken away thy judgments. The Lord thy God is in the midst of thee is mighty, and he will save. He will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing.” Incredible verse. God rejoices over his covenant people.

That’s you. That’s you. As you’ve been restored individually, your family in this church, God rejoices over us with singing. That’s what the script says in Zephaniah 3, what’s our response to be? If God so joys in us that have been restored penitently back to his honor and his grace and his glory, what’s our response? We should sing forth, oh daughter of Zion, and shout, “Oh Israel.” There’s a reason we have that funny little thing we do at the end of our communion service when we sing Psalm 117 and we sing it through a couple of times because we should recognize that what we have remembered that in that communion service is our reconciliation to God and the victory that accompanies that and the demonstration of God’s grace and compassion.

He sings over us and we should sing before him and shout for the joy that he has given to us and that’s why we clap and sing heartily at the end of our communion service at the end of our Lord’s day together. That’s the purpose of that to demonstrate that to us. So Micah 4:6-8 are a picture of going from pain to power to being dominion nation from suffering to success from tribulation to triumph. She doesn’t just get restored.

She becomes then a dominion nation with God’s defense and not man’s. We’ll go through all the references. I’ve listed them there for you. But those references demonstrate that there are two ways of defense. Proverbs 18:10-12 says that God’s name is a strong tower. But it goes on to say that man’s tower is destroyed and judged by God. Says specifically, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it and is safe.

The rich man’s wealth is his strong city and as a high wall in his own conceit. Before destruction, the heart of man is haughty and before honor is humility. Before destruction, the heart is haughty. The rich man’s defense, man’s defense, doesn’t stand up in the day of judgment. We need God’s defense, his strong tower, which is the Messiah, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. He is our strong tower. And then the proverb goes on to say that before honor is humility.

If we’ve been humbled by God and brought low by him, it’s to the end that we’d be honored by him and made into a dominion nation once more with his defense as our strong defense. Isaiah 32:13 uses the same two words, stronghold and tower used in verse 8 of Micah 4. Those two words in Isaiah 32 are judgment words because they’ve relied upon their own strongholds and their own towers. Isaiah 32 says the judgments of Deuteronomy 28 come upon that sort of city because the wild beasts and the ass live in those forts and towers that were man’s forts and towers.

You see, so there’s a movement here to demonstrating that it’s God’s defense that we need. We can’t defend ourselves no matter how hard we try. God is a strong tower to us as we read earlier in Psalm 61. It’s God’s kingdom, not ours as well. Not man’s kingdom that he has built and he sustains, but God’s kingdom says that we’re restored to the first dominion. Unto thee shall come even the first dominion.

And I think that this has a twofold implication. One, it certainly looks back to the United Kingdom under David and Solomon. It’s interesting that the Song of Solomon 4:4 says, “Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armory whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.” See, there was a tower of David there. See, and the use of the term tower in verse 8, the stronghold and then describing then the restoration of the first dominion.

is a clear indication that part of what’s being talked about here is the Davidic reign and Israel to God’s people were restored to that kind of reign. But more than that, I think it’s also talking about the first dominion. Not just looking at the first dominion of the United Kingdom, but looking forward to the first dominion in terms of preeminence. And that of course was the kingdom Messiah would establish.

That David’s kingdom was but as glorious as it was under itself and Solomon was but a mere shadow pointing forward to Christ’s kingdom that he would build when he came after the 70 times 7 years that Daniel spoke of. And so Christ has established that kingdom and it is his kingdom, not man’s kingdom. He is the cornerstone. He’s the foundation. You build it. Anything else, you build man’s kingdom and it comes tumbling down.

You build upon the Lord Jesus Christ and it’s a sure kingdom. It’s God’s city then that we want and desire and build, not man’s city. Jerusalem then the people of God, the people where God takes up his residence today, the church then becomes the defended kingdom and city of her adoptive father. All of this is contingent upon the fact that she is the daughter of Jerusalem. Jerusalem and Zion being God’s place of dwelling with his people.

She’s the daughter of God as it were. And we’re told in the scriptures and Hebrews, of course, that every son that God loves, he chastens and disciplines and brings to maturity in him through this corrective process. And so, the daughter of God here, the adoptive daughter of God, of course, we’re not of one essence with him. We’re adopted. And that’s what that whole thing pictures to us that we’re adopted into his family.

The adoptive father we have obtained through his sovereign grace brings us to a kingdom that is his kingdom and we live in that kingdom now being established by Jesus Christ. Part of that process as we said is this discipline and chastisement that all sons and daughters of God must go through to bring them to maturity. Now I was listening to Robert’s sermon on the way in listened to Richard’s sermon last week also and I’ve listened to some of their sermons and you know it’s just a real pleasure to be able to be in the context of a group of men that half of you fellas I know would if given the same opportunity maybe more maybe all of you get up here and say the same kind of excellent exposition of the scriptures that these men gave you that was good stuff and we live in the context of a covenant community here that is a blessing from God you see we’ve recognized we’ve come to verse five of Micah 4 okay and this passage then is written for people that understand verse 5 the liturgical response to God’s establishment of his kingdom and his law.

The response being one of obedience to God. These passages follow that response and so are written to those kind of people. These passages are written for us like the people that Micah here addressed. We acknowledge that the judgment that we see growing daily in this country is not a result of secular humanism, not the result of external foes or an invasion coming ultimately. But that the ultimate problem is not the Russians, not the communists, not the economic woes that we look at.

And by the way, what a difference we have then with the conservatives in our nation. We’re frequently aligned with them politically, but what a difference we have. They think all the problems begin and end with economic decisions, with, you know, international decisions and creeping communism and this sort of stuff. We recognize those problems. But we recognize that the greater problem that these things are merely God’s immediate messengers of is a nation that’s rebelled against him.

We recognize that almighty God chastises his people and he’s doing it now in this nation. We’ve responded penitently in line with the liturgical response to congregation in verse 5 that we will walk in the name of our God no matter what happens as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, we’ll worship him and him alone. We have come to love the law word spoken of in Micah 4:2, that law word that flows out of his church.

And we believe the report that Jesus has been laid as the chief cornerstone that the building is even now being fitly formed and assembled for his purposes. And we recognize that as Debor wrote in one of the Christianity and Civilization books as he wrote the fundamental tactic of Christian resistance is a contrite repentance towards God for our sinful ways and our abominable worship before him.

Our problem is not secular humanism or new age spiritualism or communism. Our problem is a church that has been in rebellion against Almighty God, the one that she goes by the name of when she calls herself a Christian. We recognize, of course, that the answer then, the ultimate answer isn’t food storage. It’s not trying to figure out what’s wrong with our bodies and make them right. Ultimately, it’s not a bombshell against the attack of the Russians. It’s not the assembling of guns and gold in our basement. Some of those things may be fit and proper as good secondary means and providing for our family. But the ultimate thing that will turn us as the people in Micah was turned from a position of cursing to blessing is the liturgical response of Micah 4:5 that says we’ll obey our God. And that’s the sort of church that I had the great privilege of ministering in the context of And you should feel tremendous to be part of a church that recognizes that because we recognize that we’re being restored by God.

You know, I hate to use this example. You know, you’ve heard that commercial, this Bud’s for you. And I guess Neil Young is going to take off this tunes for you. Well, this verse is for you, I guess, is what I’m saying. These verses 6 through 8. And now that indication that we use those sorts of examples, that’s part of where we’re at today, isn’t it? America 1988. We can’t change that. Whitaker Chambers again in his book said that, you know, at a particular point in history, God gives us certain materials to work with.

And that’s what we have in this church and we shouldn’t feel bad about that. That’s we should certainly want more for our children to use better examples than this Bud’s for you. But that’s what gets across to us today, isn’t it? It’s indication of the curse that’s come upon this nation. But in any event, this verse is for you because you recognize all these things. We’ve seen them in our confessional statement.

We affirm them when we become members of this church. All these things that Micah 1-5 is Micah 4:1-5 is talking about. You are the limping conquerors then whose heels are bruised like our savior and we crush heads like him also. He was bruised for our transgressions and identification with us. He took our sin upon himself so he was bruised. We’re bruised that we might learn to rely upon him and him alone.