Dennis Tuuri

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write, “These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. For thou hast a little strength, and has kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogues of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do I.

Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou has kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly. Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall no more go out.

And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Let’s pray. Almighty God, we thank you for calling us together into holy convocation this Lord’s day. We thank you, Father, for these words that we have just read from the book of Revelation from our Savior who stands in the midst of the seven churches, judging them, evaluating them, and calling them to repentance into further obedience.

We thank you, Lord God, that your judgment which came upon the world in AD 70, continues to be manifested against those men and nations that refuse to bow the knee to Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord God, for those judgments, but we quake before them as well. Help us, Lord God, to be encouraged by this call to worship to this day seek out ways in which our conformity to your holy will is falling short and to amend those ways to recome to repentance and submission and obedience to you.

We thank you Lord God that you promised us on the basis of that we become pillars then in your holy temple. We thank you Lord God that Jesus Christ is still building that temple and you brought us into it and you’ve called us forward to serve him in righteousness truth. We thank you Lord God for this. We thank you that though we have sinned his blood has made atonement and expiated your wrath, Lord God, and his righteousness provides us covenant peace in your presence and righteousness in your sight in him.

We thank you then, Lord God, for clothing us with his righteousness, for forgiving our sins through his blood, and calling us forward this day to worship you for all of this. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Bless ye God in the congregation, even the Lord from the foundation of Israel. Sing to God, ye kingdoms of the earth. Oh, sing praises unto the Lord, to him that rideth upon the heavens, even the heavens which were of old.

Lo, he does send out his voice and that a mighty voice. I will love thee, oh Lord, my strength, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust. I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. The sounds of death compass me. The sorrows of hell compassed me about my distress. I called upon the Lord. He heard my voice out of his temple. Then the earth shook and trembled. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils and fire out of his mouth devoured.

He bowed the heavens also and came down. And he rose upon a cherub and did fly. He made darkness his secret place. At the brightness that was before him, his thick clouds passed. The Lord also thundered in the heavens. Yea, he sent out his arrows and scattered them. Then the channels of waters were seen. At thy rebuke, oh Lord, at the blast from above he took me. He delivered me from my strong enemy and from them which hated me.

They prevented me in the day of my calamity. He brought me forth also into a large place.

Scripture is Micah 7, verses 8 through 10. Remember, we said before that this be a good time to be memorizing the minor prophets. I don’t know if you’ve done that in your household. It’s not too late to try. Micah is easy to find in the sequence there because you got Jonah, Micah, and Nahum. Jonah prepares the Assyrians through salvation and blessings from God to be a mighty force.

Micah talk about the Assyrian’s wrath upon Israel and Jerusalem in the southern kingdom. And Nahum then talks about God’s wrath upon Assyria once he is finished with using his whipping boy to scourge Israel. So Micah is between Jonah and Nahum.

Micah 7, verses 8-10. Rejoice not against me, oh mine enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me.

He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, “Where is the Lord thy God?” Mine eyes shall behold her. Now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

Last week we were talking about this Micah series. My wife said, you know, it’s been—it’s coming. It’s coming. In terms of judgment, it’s coming. It’s coming. And it can be kind of discouraging. I guess last week I think somebody commented at the end of the passage that now we’re all good and depressed about the judgment. And I guess this last chapter of the book of Micah, which sums up Micah, says it’s here instead of it’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming. Now it’s here. And Micah 7 tells us what judgment looks like. It tells us what God has planned in it.

And so it’s helpful to us because we see ourselves in the midst of a world in which judgment has been coming and it’s here increasingly. I could bore you with all the details of the many bills in Salem this month that have been introduced. I won’t do that yet. You’ll hear about them in due time. But believe me, the judgment continues to be manifested. The state requires more and more obedience. And it’s really kind of getting into a classic lordship controversy here.

As long as someone will assert the lordship of the state the way that they ask for the lordship of Caesar, then instead of the lordship of Jesus Christ, they’ll leave you alone. More details about those bills later. But we are in this—it’s a very important chapter because having warned about all this Micah says now it happens and we give a picture, we have a picture then a summation of the whole book of Micah really in these last—this last chapter Micah 7.

Now in the particular passage this morning what we’ve got is we had those first seven verses that describe what judgment looks like. In the midst of those verses their perplexity the day of the watchman has come now judgment’s at hand. Family betrayal, the breakdown of society. And then we have after that what some people refer to as a psalm and it’s sort of a liturgical device. There’s different people speaking and it’s very similar to some of the other psalms that we’ve been talking about the last couple weeks and we’ve been singing this morning for instance.

And in the midst this psalm is recomprised of—we’re going to deal with it in three parts. Other people break it up into four parts. The first part these first three verses talk about a realization on the part of the covenant community as to why the judgment has happened. And so then we move into the next section of six or seven verses next week that talk about the end result of judgment and victory through judgment.

And that’s comprised of several verses first that talk about that victory and then a response on the part of the people. It’s a prayer for that victory. We’ll talk about that next week. Some very important lessons there. And then the concluding several verses of Micah 7 and then the book declares who God is. There’s a play on Micah’s name. Remember we said that Micah means “who is like Jehovah.” And at the end of the chapter that question is asked and God is praised at the end of the whole book.

And so this is kind of a summation. Now Psalm 35 is a parallel passage to the one we’re going to be reading this morning. We won’t take the time to read it now. It is definitely one of those imprecatory psalms where the psalmist asked for God’s judgment against the wicked. And I just bring it up for a couple of small reasons here. One is that Psalm 35 describes the poor as those who are oppressed by the wicked.

And so it gives us a little different perspective. It’s not an economic definition of poor. The poor are those who cannot defend themselves. And that’s very important as we consider what the poor means throughout the scriptures. Just touch briefly there. Secondly, Psalm 35 combines battle scenes with law and court allusions. Law court allusions. And this morning we’ll see law court allusions in this particular section of scripture as well.

And then battle scenes also describes. So Psalm 35 is a parallel passage you might want to look at this afternoon.

The section we’re going to look at today, verses 8-10, is a transitional section. In this concluding chapter and really for the whole book, we move from judgment here and breakdown to victory. We go into verse 8 coming out of verses 1-7 with judgment and looking to God and a confession of sins happens then and that moves then into the promises of God’s victory.

So this is the center of Micah 7 and perhaps the center of the book theologically speaking. In other words, at this point in time, quite late in the chapter, we have the correct response on the part of the covenant community. We have the first confession of sin throughout the entire book on the part of the covenant community on the part of the church. And so this is quite important.

Now since this Micah 7, this postscript really we’re talking about for the next few weeks really sums up then the message of the book of Micah. Those messages have been alternating sections as we’ve described of judgment and then judgment and curse and then hope and blessings and victory. This section sums it up. And this section that is the key these three verses 8-10 is the key to this summary postscript. It’s a very important section of scripture is what I’m trying to say this morning. It’s transitional. It’s the center of this postscript.

The postscript really sums up the whole book. And so these verses this morning are quite important. If you don’t get what I’m going to talk about this morning, then the rest of all this stuff on Micah has been for naught. This is really our correct response. If you don’t get this, everything else has been for naught here.

Now, the problem I’m going to say this for you is really quite simple and quite elementary. Nothing really new here. Any problem you might have catching up with this or getting it, I suggest to you, will primarily be moral in nature, not intellectual. It’s good to repeat that to ourselves that our primary problems with living lives of holiness to God are not intellectual. It’s not a quest for hidden knowledge. It’s a quest for obedience in our part in submission. It’s quite important you get this morning.

Wesley Allen in his commentary on this section of scripture said that the whole that is this section formed from a form critical point of view is a community lament. And we talked about that last time. Allen says though that yet despite a lamentable situation, it shows no trace of coloring despair but faces the future with assurance and faith in God. And I guess that’s my goal for me for what I try to get across to you these next few weeks having going through this transitional section.

It’s important that we see that this judgment is given to us so that we might face the future with assurance and faith in God. And that’s my hope and prayer for you over these next few weeks as we hand out this Micah series.

Before we do that, there’s still some ripping out of the old timber of the rotting house as it were. There’s still some calls here for action on our part in terms of repentance that we’re going to deal with this morning. And from that we move then to looking at the future with hope and assurance.

Okay. Seven point outline all dealing with persecution: the prevalence, intensity, source, cause, cure, results, and lessons of persecution.

First, the prevalence of persecution. I guess it’s kind of obvious but I just wanted to make a couple of points here. The violence of persecution is shown in its entry into the family. Remember we said in Micah 7:5 and 6, we have a picture of family betrayal and persecution is entered into the family.

Now if you look at Micah 7:5 and 6, we’ve talked about this before. Overtly, it just looks like this betrayal thing going on. But if we let the scriptures interpret the scriptures for us, then we know that Jesus in Matthew 10 quoted from this passage of scripture about, you know, son rising up against father, mother against daughter, daughter-in-law against the mother. Etc. as being a sign of persecution. We won’t take the time now, but if you look at Micah or Matthew chapter 10 and look at the context of how Jesus quotes this scripture, it is a message.

Matthew 10 is where he sends out the twelve apostles on a preaching mission and he warns them throughout basically the whole thing that there’s going to be persecution. There are going to be those who persecute them for what they’re doing. And it’s in that context that Jesus quotes this passage from Micah 7:5 and 6 that we talked about a few weeks ago. So certainly it shows the breakdown of family, but it also shows the prevalence of persecution, the presence of persecution in a time of judgment, the persecution actually ends up in the family.

And I’m sure that a lot of people in this church have had practical experience with that. As you try to move in righteousness and holiness frequently, it will divide the family. Jesus said, “I didn’t come to bring peace. I came to bring a sword to set those who want to glorify me against those who don’t want to glorify me.” Even in the context of the family.

So the family is torn apart and God creates a new covenant family. However, if you also look at Matthew 10, you will see that the twelve were specifically commissioned to go to the lost tribes of Israel, go to the tribes of Israel, not to go to the Gentiles, to go to the professing covenant community. And so Jesus quotes this passage about family persecution in the context of the preaching mission of the apostles going out to the covenant community, he’s referencing that extended and spiritual family as well, the professing church.

And I think that what that means for us is that the presence of persecution will certainly be in our own individual blood families, but we’ll also suffer a great deal of persecution from the professing church of Jesus Christ in America. And indeed, we know that also is the truth. That also is the case today. The family really is the heart of all relationships. And so in Micah 7:6, he uses the family as the ultimate indicator, the presence and the prevalence of persecution.

Secondly, in the passage we just read in verses 8 and 10, we have twice the term used “my enemy” in verses 8 and 10. And so the prevalence of persecution is shown in the use of the term enemy. Kuyper and Kline in commenting on this says that the enemy indicates the heathen power of the world personified here by Assyria is indicated by this term enemy. And I guess today if we’re going to talk about the enemy, we’d say the heathen power of the world including the state in the different educational and child care arenas and all that other sort of stuff which we’ve talked about before but suffice it to say that there are plenty of enemies out there.

Kline also said that the church is here supposed to be praying out of the midst of the period when the judgment has fallen upon it for its sins and the power of the world is triumphing over it. And again that’s very similar to our times. We’ve talked about that a lot.

Okay. So persecution is definitely the context of this passage and the passage indicates that there is an intensity of persecution as well.

This intensity of persecution is shown by terms relating to betrayal in verses 5 and 6, which we talked about a couple of weeks ago. And we want to relate that betrayal to persecution because that’s what Jesus did. Secondly, the intensity of persecution is indicated by the rejoicing of the enemy in verse 8. The covenant community says, “Rejoice not against me, oh mine enemy.” The enemy actually rejoices in the problems of the covenant community that is under judgment from God.

I guess you know the old phrase, I’ll dance on your grave is kind of what they’re doing here. They’re kicking somebody when they’re down. They’re seeing people in distress and in judgment from God and then they laugh at them or rejoice at them.

Now, Proverbs 24:17 says specifically in verse 17 that—wait, let me get this right. Verse 16 says that a just man falls seven times and rises up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief. But then verse 17 says, “Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth.” So God doesn’t like it when you rejoice in this sense in the destruction of the enemy.

And when our enemies rejoice against us that raises God’s wrath against them. Psalm 100 verse 2 says, “Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing.” We’ve read that a lot in our communion service. And that word gladness is the same word that’s translated rejoice here. So what you’re supposed to be rejoicing in is God and in his righteous judgment certainly, but in God and his presence.

Instead, these men rejoice in the absence of God from the covenant community. And that shows an intensity of persecution.

Third, the intensity of persecution is shown in taunting. Verse 10 says, “She said unto me, ‘Where is the Lord thy God?’” Where is God? You know, things continue on as they always have. There’s no God who judges in the affairs of men. What are you guys talking about? Don’t come down here, you Christians, to the legislature and talk to us about God. Don’t come over here to the basketball arena and tell me how this should relate to God somehow. Don’t tell me that God somehow in the snowstorm—these things have always happened. It’s just crystalline pieces of water floating around in the atmosphere. Where is God?

The repentant church says that God is everywhere, that God’s the sovereign who rules all of creation. The enemies mock them and say, “Where is the Lord thy God?” And specifically, of course, in the context of deliverance, you say, “God’s going to deliver you. Where is he now?” And of course, they mocked Jesus that way, didn’t they? I won’t point this out too much this morning, but if you understand this whole process and again how we talked about the Old Testament speaks of Jesus, all this stuff is really fulfilled in Christ. Should go without saying, but just to remind you of all that.

Now, in Psalm 17:4 and 5, these last two—hunting and rejoicing are put together. Psalm 17:4 and 5 says that a wicked doer giveth heed to false lips and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. Who so mocketh the poor reproacheth his maker and he that is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished. And this is the enemies that are come against us in the intensity of their persecution is shown by the betrayal, by this taunting and by rejoicing in the troubles of the righteous.

But the source of the persecution is also pointed out to us. And this is quite important. There’s a real transition in verse 9 that should be quite obvious. Verses 5, 6, and 8 talk about the family betrayal as we’ve mentioned. Verse 8 talks about the enemy who is rejoicing in our calamity and whatnot. But verse 9 says, “I will bear the indignation not of the Assyrians, not of the enemies, not of the taunters. Verse 9 says, ‘I will bear the indignation of the Lord.’”

That means that the source of the persecution that comes upon the repentant covenant community as pictured in Micah 7 is not the heathen. It is God himself. And we know that. But it’s important that we remind ourselves that on a regular basis. We bear when we bear persecutions, we bear the indignation of the Lord. Indignation means wrath. It’s interesting that term indignation is only used twice in the Old Testament to refer to God.

One in the passage before us and the other in Isaiah 30:30. And won’t read the verse, but Isaiah 30:30 talks about God’s indignation against the ones that he has raised up to chastise his people. Okay? So there’s two occurrences of God’s wrath in this specific word, the indignation of the Lord in the Old Testament. One to the unrepentant and this one to those that come to repentance. And so God’s persecution and wrath is seen in both those areas.

But in this case, we’re talking about the indignation of the Lord against those who are coming to repentance in God. We said before, good to remind ourselves again that tyrants are sent by God. Now, this is denied by most churches today. Of course, they say that persecution doesn’t really come from God. God isn’t all that sovereign. Men make mistakes and so they just suffer these consequences of their mistakes or God has these natural cause and effect relationships built in and we end up with problems sometimes.

But they deny God’s personal intervention in terms of the persecution and the judgment of Christians and non-Christians alike. And what that means is they deny the source of persecution and that means you can’t move on to solutions. It is absolutely necessary to believe in God’s sovereignty to understand that God is the source of persecution and that then helps us understand the cause of persecution.

Point number four in your outline: the cause of persecution is described as sin. Verse 9 rather—”I’ll bear the indignation of the Lord. Why? What’s the cause? Because I have sinned against him.” The source is the blood, the cause is our sin against him. And as I said, this verse 9 forms a real turning point to the book of Micah. And if we understand it and go through this same thing ourselves, it forms a turning point in our lives as well.

When we recognize that confession of sin as the necessary turning point from persecution—he’s down in the depths. He’s down in the darkness. He’s in despair. He’s under the curse. And the turning point out of that is this understanding that God is the source of the persecution. The persecution comes upon him to perfect him under righteousness and holiness and to complete his conformity to God’s law.

Now, this does not—should go without saying—doesn’t obviate the responsibility of the wicked. The wicked still are responsible. We’ll talk about that in a couple of minutes. But it does put the wicked’s actions of persecuting the righteous in proper perspective. It means we don’t rail against the wicked and it means we don’t say, “How come you’re not letting—how come we keep letting this happen?” We take it from God’s hand and say, “It’s because of our sins.”

Now, sin as the Westminster Catechism teaches us is any want of conformity unto or transgression of any law of God. Now if we think of sin only as a self-conscious rebellion against God’s person and a stiff-neckedness about a particular thing, that’s not broad enough for how the word is used in scripture. We’ve talked about this Hebrew word before early on in this study going through Micah, but this Hebrew word means to fall, to miss the mark. And remember the illustration that helps you to remember that is the word Benjamin.

My son named Benjamin, which means “son of the right hand,” but actually the tribe of Benjamin were left-handed archers. Kind of a little thing that God did there. I don’t know. But the left-handed archers of Benjamin were said not to miss the mark with their arrows. See? And so the picture that God gives us there of sin is you got this holy, righteous conformity to God’s holy will and everything that we do and say.

And sin is missing the mark. Usually falling short, of course, would be another good illustration. And we see that in the New Testament as well that there’s a self-righteous—there’s a rather a self-conscious rebellion against God. That’s not the word used here. This is missing the mark.

Now, what this means is that persecution and—we don’t—I can’t go into this in depth. Persecution essentially there’s two different specific kinds of sin you can be persecuted for. One is a self-conscious rebellion and the other could just be a want of conformity to God’s holy will and standards. What I’m saying is if you go out there and you know commit murder or rob people or do mean and wicked nasty things and you suffer persecution from the civil magistrate. That’s one thing and that’s a specific sin. But what I’m saying is in the midst of the persecution that’s talked about here in general judgment, God brings these persecutions upon us so that we might be more conformed under the image of Jesus Christ.

The purpose is to bring us into further conformity and to root out sinful areas of rebellion against our life. And so the purpose of persecution, the cause of persecution in our sin and the purpose—that is to mature the Christian and—which by the definition that is to move into a more a better conformity to the holy will of God revealed in his law.

Okay. Now this is essential because again this point must be understood. It’s a progression here. You’ve got to understand that God’s the source of persecution. You got to understand that in terms of your life—now apart from what he’s doing with the wicked people—but in terms of your life the reason God brings afflictions upon us is to conform us into the image of Jesus Christ and to bring us into repentance for any sins that we have and to continue to mature us in righteousness.

You got to understand that because that leads to the next action that we take relative to persecution: the cure for persecution. The covenant community that Micah expresses here in chapter 9 understood the cure. He says, “I’ll bear the indignation of the Lord, the source of the persecution, because I have sinned against him, the reason for the persecution, until he plead my cause.” And that’s the cure for our persecution when God pleads our cause.

Now, the pleading of the cause that God does for us is another covenant term, a law court term. We saw it in Micah 6:1. “Hear you now, the Lord say at arise, contend thou before the mountains.” It’s a term used in terms of a court of law when God pleads the case of a particular person. There’s a covenantal nature to this which should be quite obvious, but Psalm 74:20 tells us that specifically. It says, “Have respect unto the covenant for the dark places.”

And then he says in verse 22, “Arise, oh God, plead thine own cause.” So what he says in verse 20 is calling to God now, “Have respect unto your covenant.” And that’s fleshed out in terms of “plead thy cause” in the context of people that are afflicted by the wicked. And so when we read here about God pleading our cause, we recognize first of all that’s a covenantal action and it’s a covenantal action that first of all in its utmost sense is pleading God’s own cause.

He brings the people into conformity covenant conformity to him and his cause is pleaded then as it were as he turns against the wicked people that would oppress them. He demonstrates his righteousness in that sense. So God pleads his own cause and he does that by pleading the cause of his people, his covenant people. The psalmist states this implicitly in what we’ve just read in explicitly in other places such as Isaiah 51:22. Thus says the Lord thy Lord and thy God that pleads the cause of his people.

So God’s a God who pleads his own cause and covenantal faithfulness to the people that he brought into them. And he does that by pleading their cause. He pleads the cause of his people. Now what this means is that what is necessary for God to plead our cause if we’ve broken covenant with him as sin does is covenant restoration. And so the cure for our being in a time of affliction and persecution is getting God to plead our cause.

And God will plead our cause as we are restored into covenant with him. You understand that pleading the cause is in terms of the covenant. Covenant restoration is the beginning step for the cure for persecution. Only God’s covenant people are the recipients of his pleadings as we are—okay. He pleads for his people.

Now, covenant restoration is accomplished by repentance on the part of the sitting covenant people. Repentance—when Micah says here, “I’ll bear the indignation of the Lord,” repentance bears the indignation of the Lord. Repentance says whatever God brings into my life to punish me and to afflict me, to make me more righteous to him, I’ll bear that. I’ll submit to that. And repentance says that we’ll turn then and we if we are truly repentant will acknowledge our sinfulness before God and will accept his righteous judgments against us.

Matthew Henry said that those that are truly repentant or penitent for sin will be a will be by a great deal of reason will be patient under affliction. So Matthew Henry said if you’re truly penitent you’ll be patient under affliction. He again said that when we complain to God because of the badness of the time we ought to complain to ourselves for the badness of our own hearts. And again, it may not be a one-to-one correspondence, but the point is God wants us to examine our own lives and to bring ourselves into further conformity to him.

John Calvin says that this passage shows that when anyone is seriously touched by the consciousness of God’s judgments, he is at the same time prepared to exercise patience. For it cannot be that a sinner conscious of evil and knowing that he suffers justly will humbly thankfully submit to the will of God. Hence, when men perversely clamor against God or murmur, it is certain that they have not as yet been made sensible of their sins.

Okay? So, Calvin saying, if you’re truly sensible of your sins and you’ve come to repentance, which is the necessary step for covenant restoration and the transition that Micah is painting for us here from judgment to victory, if you’re truly penitent, you will submit yourselves patiently to the afflictions of God and you won’t strive against it. He said again that whosoever then is really conscious of his sins renders himself at the same time obedient to God and submits himself altogether to God’s will in terms of these afflictions.

He mentions that Cain complained about his punishment that it was too much for him to bear. And if we do that we’re like Cain. Cain was not repentant. He understood and felt the stripes that God had given to him but he complained and said it’s too much. I can’t take it. And God says the repentant will say, “God, I know these are just from you, and you’ll see me through it, and I’ll submit myself both in terms of obedience and in humility to you.”

Again, Judas felt the remorse for what he did, but he despaired and he didn’t trust in God to patiently bear up under the afflictions that God had brought upon him because he wasn’t really repentant. The ox that is tamed takes the yoke without resistance. So the so true biblical repentance takes any punishment that God is willing to give to the one who bears that repentance. And that’s what the scriptures mean by bearing our cross. We take upon ourselves willingly repentantly God’s afflictions against us.

Psalm 107:10, 11, and 13 kind of point out this progression. He says, “Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron because they rebelled against the words of God and condemned the counsel of the most high. Therefore, he brought down their home with labor. They fell down and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble.” And that’s the picture that Micah is painting here as well. A people that sit in darkness because of their sins and rebellion against God. God then brings them forward and they cry to him in repentance and submit themselves humbly to him.

Covenant restoration means repentance. Repentance must be evidenced by obedience. Remember we talked about the requirements of God. Psalm 18:25 says, “With the merciful, thou will show thyself merciful. With the upright man, thou show thyself upright. With the pure, thou show thyself pure. For thou wilt save the afflicted people, but will bring down high looks.” If we’re not merciful, extending God’s grace, God will not show us mercy. He will not plead our cause.

If we’re not just before God, if we’re not upright in that sense, he will not plead our cause until we become repentant of our sin of failure to be upright and merciful in all that we do. And if we are humble, if we’re not humble before God, if we have high looks, if we don’t walk humbly with our God, he will not plead our cause. We must come to repentance. And then God will turn and restore us to covenant faithfulness and plead our cause.

Repentance is evidenced also not just by obedience, but by a humble submission to God and to his law. As we’ve said before, Isaiah 29:18 says, “In that day, the deaf shall hear the words the book and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.” And again, it’s the picture that Micah is painting. They’re in darkness and obscurity, but God brings them to repentance. God shows them that their sin is what is the focus point for them as they’re moving away from cursing into blessing.

They repent of that sin and the deaf then hear the words of the book. They hear God’s covenant word to them. Verse 19, “The meek shall also increase their joy. They shall rejoice in the holy one of Israel.” Verse 20, “For the terrible one is brought to naught and the scoffer is consumed.” And those are the two—remember intensity of persecution—the terrible one who betrays the family, the scoffer who taunts against the righteous people.

And later in that psalm, verse 24, “They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.” And that’s the turning point that Micah is talking about here. They that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine. And so this transitional step here is covenant restoration through repentance, obedience, and a humble submission to the will of our father in heaven.

Psalm 119, verses 153 to 176, we won’t go through all the verses, but the last verses in Psalm 119, we have repeated references that are identical to what we’re talking about here in the book of Micah. Verse 153 says, “Consider my affliction, deliver me, for I do not forget thy law.” If we want God to plead our case, we have to be like David and say, “We don’t forget his law.” In verse 154, “Plead my cause and deliver me, quicken me according to thy word.”

Next verse, “Salvation is far from the wicked, for they seek not thy statutes. If we don’t come to repentance and seek God’s statutes, earnestly desiring them above all else and love God’s law and meditate upon that law, God will not plead our cause. That’s what David, the psalmist, is saying here in Psalm 119.

Verse 158, “I beheld the transgressors and was grieved because they kept not thy word.” And that shows that repentance and this turning point is evidenced by a strong sense of the righteousness of God and wanting to preserve his righteousness in the land and being upset with persecution not primarily because it damages us but because people taunt the absence of Yahweh himself.

And so we should have that same sort of sense of sensitivity to God and to his word. Verse 159, “Consider how I love thy precepts.” It goes on and on and on. All those verses talk about the importance of God’s law and a love for his law are preceding God’s pleading our cause in times of affliction. The last verse in that psalm, 176, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek thy servant for I do not forget thy commandments.”

We got God to seek us, to deliver us out of our troubles, to plead our cause. We must not forget his commandments. Now, the psalmist does not in Psalm 119 say, “Oh, how I love these emotional feelings you’ve given to me.” He doesn’t say, “Oh, how I love thy gift that was given to me.” He doesn’t say that the basis for his repentance before God is feelings and his basis for understanding the will of God is not the emotional senses that God has given to us.

He also does not thank God and meditate upon the greatness of circumstances here. Now, we know that circumstances do come forth in the hand of God and emotions are a God-given thing as well. I don’t mean to put them down, but what I’m suggesting here is that the church in America and unfortunately probably many of us here from time to time—when we talk about repentance and being sorry for what’s happened in the past and we talk about trying to receive direction from God now, we talk about trying to go by our feelings or by the circumstances.

Those things are not to be the basis for our understanding of what we’re to do now. If they are, God will not plead our cause. We haven’t learned the lesson if we don’t go back to the place in which we sinned and repent of that sin. And instead of just glossing it over by saying, “Well, I guess it feels okay and the circumstances will work out.” David says it’s the law of God. The church today denies God’s law.

And so it leaves people in a position of covenant breaking and outside of covenant deliverance and covenant restoration. And that means that the institutional church in America today by and large will not be delivered yet because it fails to apprehend the basis, the source of the persecution—God—the reason for the persecution—our sin—that God is active in the affairs of men and then the cure for our persecution which is repentance and covenant restoration based an understanding and a comprehension of God’s law.

Now, once God has—once we’ve come to this transitional point of repenting of our sin and that being obedient, going into obedience to God’s law, repenting of violations of that law, and going for God’s law for direction, and humbly submitting ourselves to whatever afflictions God brings upon us. The pleading of the cause here then also refers then that if God’s going to please our cause, plead our cause, he’s going to take action against the other partner of this covenant problem here.

What I’m saying is you got the afflicted, you got the people being persecuted, you got the persecutor. And God, when he begins to plead our cause, when we’ve gotten in right relationship to him through repentance and covenant restoration, he then pleads our cause against the wicked, because now we have right standing with God in the covenant, not in our own works but in the works of the covenant mediator, but evidenced by these works of covenant faithfulness on our part.

And now we have right standing in that court of law. And then God goes to work then upon the persecutors of us. Matthew Henry said that by seeing his righteousness here he—the prophet says—I shall see the equity of his proceedings concerning me and the performance of his promises to me. Equity bringing me to covenant restoration. The performance of his promises being deliverance then from our enemies. And that leads us into the discussion of the results of persecution.

The results of persecution for the repentant is a turning from cursing to blessing. Falling but then arising, being in darkness—darkness is death, imprisonment, jail, curse—and then God being a light to us. So it’s a reversal from covenant curses to covenant blessings.

He brings me forth to the light, I shall behold his righteousness. We’ve been apart from the presence of God and that means in darkness and death and despair and now we’re brought back into the presence of God in covenant restoration. So there’s great blessing for the repentant as the direct result of God’s persecutions now that bring us to repentance before him and a further righteousness.

Kline wrote on this passage that confidence in the help of the Lord flows from the consciousness that the wretchedness and sufferings are a merited punishment for sins. This consciousness and feeling generate patience and hope. Direct correlation. Don’t try to avoid persecutions and afflictions if God brings them into our lives. Don’t try to paper them over because God has as the end of all that great blessing for us of peace and hope for the unrepentant.

However, there is a movement into further cursings from God. Verse 10 says that she—my enemy—shall see it, shame shall cover her which said unto me, “Where is the Lord thy God?” So she’s covered with shame. Mine eyes shall behold her. Now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets. So for the unrepentant, the end results of persecution which they have been used by God to bring upon God’s people, the end result for them is greater judgment and they get trodden underfoot into the mire of the streets.

Now, it’s interesting that Micah 5:8 has talked about this before. Micah 5:8 talks about how the remnant of Jacob is among the Gentiles and that the remnant of Jacob goes through. He both treads down and tears in pieces. Remember, we talked about that before that this destruction of the persecutors once the ones being persecuted have come to covenant restoration. This judgment of the persecutors is carried out normatively through God’s secondary means of the covenant people. It’s the remnant of Jacob go down and treads down these people.

Psalm 91 says that because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, even the most high my habitation, there shall no evil befall you. And then in verse 13, “Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the young lion and the dragon. Thou shalt trample them underfoot.” 2 Samuel 22, David says that thou God hast also given me the necks of mine enemies. And then in verse 43, “Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the street and did spread them abroad.”

And so when we read here that the enemy will see and be ashamed and that should be trod down as mire in the streets, that should remind us that those enemies are children of Satan. Satan was to suffer a deadly head wound. Jesus stomps on his head as it were and Jesus’s seed then end up stomping as it were on the head of Satan’s seed. And so the picture, the consistent old picture throughout the Old Testament was the enemy being vanquished with the victor with the righteous having their foot upon the neck or upon the head of the unrighteous.

Then again in the New Testament, remember we’ve talked about that before. Romans 16:20 says that God will crush Satan under our feet. Now that doesn’t mean literally. It doesn’t mean the church exercises the sword. What it does mean though is people are brought to either repentance in Jesus Christ or God’s judgment comes upon those people. We are the watchmen. Okay.

So, if that’s all true, if we’ve seen this progression of the reasons for persecution and what it’s supposed to do with us, what are the lessons of persecution?

The lessons of persecution. First, we should respond correctly to the persecution that God, the persecution of God and affliction that God has brought upon us by forsaking sin. You see, I told you that this morning it’d be a very simple sort of a message, not hard to understand intellectually, but unfortunately, sometimes very difficult to respond to morally. We must repent of our sin. We must move into further righteousness.

That means first of all, we’ve got to get our understanding of sin squared away. And we don’t want to just see sin as a violation of the big things. We want to see sin as any want of conformity unto God. You know, if you read again about the history of various reformations, revivals in the past, and we’ll hear about some in Seattle at the conference in April, you’ll see that these men desired and moved toward holiness of life.

And what I’m suggesting to you is that in this country, we’re born and bred to wink at sin and to just sort of, you know, it’s no big deal. We kind of move on. And the big sins, we worry about the little stuff. It’s no big deal. We frequently do not have a sense of the holiness of God that is required for us to move into further holiness in terms of our lives. Remember, sin is any want of conformity to God.

Now, sin is not determined by how we feel about something. Sin is not determined by, as I said, what circumstances happen. If we take injudicious steps, we have no right to go to God and say, “Get me out of this mess.” Until we come to repentance for failure in terms of a self-conscious holiness and a self-conscious life lived in obedience to his law. We have no right to go to God unless we come to that place.

We must repent of any want of conformity to God’s holy will. This does not mean saying, “I’ll try to do better next time.” It means instead throwing ourselves before God’s throne and pouring out our repentant hearts before him. That’s biblical repentance. It’s not just sort of saying, “Well, guess I kind of screwed up and I’ll try to do better.” It’s going to God and having our hearts broken because we have violated his holy will and we denied his image in us.

We denied the work of Jesus Christ. And that should drive us back to God in true repentance. And a sorrowfulness for our sin is a mark of true biblical repentance.