Sermon Cloud

Time of Repentance – Micah 5:10-15

10 And in that day, declares the Lord, I will cut off your horses from among you and will destroy your chariots; 11 and I will cut off the cities of your land and throw down all your strongholds; 12 and I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes; 13 and I will cut off your carved images and your pillars from among you, and you shall bow down no more to the work of your hands; 14 and I will root out your Asherah images from among you and destroy your cities.  15 And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance on the nations that did not obey.

·        We find ourselves in the book of Micah here, and God is exercising and demonstrating His Lordship over His people.  For example,

·        10-14 – God declares that He will cleans His people

o       10 - 11 – Vain military confidences

o       12 – Witchcraft

o       13 – 14 – Immoral worship and idolatry

·        God however is not limited to demonstrating His hatred of sin to His people only.  In verse 15 – God cutting off the non-believing nations

·        What we see here is that in our relationship with God, He does not want us to put trust in anything above Him.  Our security comes from God and not our Government or even how much we make.  Our worship is to from a pure heart that is broken by sin and repaired by grace and we are called to obey.

·        I knew a couple who told me this story about the morning of the wife’s birthday.  This couple generally made a big deal out of birthdays.  Amy and I are like that, birthdays in some ways are bigger than Christmas for the two of us.  Well, this couple got up in the morning, and the husband didn’t mention anything about the wife’s birthday.  At first, she thought maybe he was going to surprise her and was just playing it cool, but after a few hours, she started to worry.  Well, the time came for them to head to the wife’s family’s house to celebrate her birthday, so she said, “I guess we need to head to my parent’s house.”  The husband was getting ready to ask, “What for?” when the reality that he had forgotten her birthday hit him full on.  Now instead of manning up and just saying, “I forgot sweetie; I’m sorry,” he said, “Oh, hey the money was tight this week so I couldn’t afford to get you a card.  I’m sorry, but hey, happy birthday.”

·        Now, we’ve all forgotten something that was important at some point in time whether it was a meeting or evening commitment.  Sometimes those slips ups come from just being busy and sometimes they come up because honestly we are just not very considerate.  But when we forget something really important, it hurts the people that are involved because when we forget something for someone, it is like forgetting them personally.   

·        That is the point that God is going to make in the book of Micah this week:  forgetting what God has done is the same as forgetting God.  So we should approach the scriptures this week asking, “What have we forgotten that God has done for us, and what change would remembering them have in our lives?

Micah 6

6:1 Hear what the Lord says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.  2 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel.

·        Chapter 6 of Micah begins much like a court case does.  God is filing a lawsuit where He prosecutes and judges His people for their sin. 

·        Now, I don’t’ know about you, but I used to be completely addicted to the show Law and Order which is a tough addiction because there are like 10 different Law and Order shows.  Despite that, in each episode, the formula was the same.  You would either get a glimpse of a crime or the show would begin with the police walking up on the crime scene.  The police would begin their investigation and gradually come up with a suspect.  They would take the evidence to the DA and ask if they could get a arrest warrant.  Then the show goes one or two ways:  they either go to court or the police find a way to squeeze a confession out of the criminal.

·        Well verse one is sort of Law and Order:  Micah Crime Unit.  In verse 1 we come upon a judgment scene.  God is the plaintiff who has a complaint.  Micah is the envoy or court appointed attorney and the mountains are the witnesses.  Now, why are the mountains the witnesses?  Well witnesses that can attest to the case of the plaintiff, and creation can attest to God’s care and glory and majesty.

·        The second half of the verse through verse two we see that God’s people are the accused or the defendants.

3 “O my people, what have I done to you?  How have I wearied you? Answer me!

·        God’s question to His people is, “Have I wronged you in any way?  Do I weary you with my rules or circumstances of life that I ordain for you?  Give me an answer.”

·        Now we’ve heard God accuse His people of some pretty heinous sins in the book of Micah.  They are guilty of idolatry, temple prostitution, robbery, greed, leading their households poorly, the list goes on and on.  Surprisingly, God does not mention any of those sins here.

·        The underlying crime of God’s people is that instead of giving thanks for all He has done, they have a heart of ingratitude or simply, they are just not thankful.

·        Think about it on a human level.  Most folks enjoy giving gifts to people they love, and seeing someone enjoy that gift is reward itself.  But no one enjoys giving a gift, and then seeing the person who received the gift not appreciate it.  We aren’t looking for pats on the back for good gifts, but we do hope that the people who receive the gift are thankful.

·        God is not looking for pats on the back either.  He is genuinely looking for a heart of thankfulness for the grace extended to His people.

·        In case God’s people don’t get the picture, in verses 4-5, God reminds them of all He has done for them

4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

·        Verse 4 speaks of the exodus from Egypt where God rescued and redeemed His people from a life of slavery.  Once they were rescued, God didn’t leave them to wander alone, but He gave Moses, Aaron, and Miriam - imperfect but Godly leaders. 

·        That’s the first thing that God wants to remind His people of:  they have been rescued from slavery into community and God has gifted that community with Godly leadership.  God has redeemed and equipped His people.

·        I love the language of redemption.  It gives the image of taking something and giving it its full value, even greater value.  For example, have you ever redeemed something like a coupon or a free meal or something else of value?  Amy and I once did that over and over again.  There used to be a restaurant in Raleigh called Chevy’s Mexican restaurant and when they had their grand opening they gave away these coupons for free appetizers.  Well there appetizers were just huge, enough for a meal.  Well, we went around town and snagged 75 or so of those coupons, so every time we went to Chevy’s, the only thing we had to pay for was our dinks.  We just redeemed the coupon for a free meal.  We took a virtually worthless piece of paper and redeemed it for $25 worth of food.

·        That is the picture we should have in our mind.  God’s people were in slavery.  Their will was not their own, nor were their every day actions or choices, and God redeemed them out of that slavery so that they were no longer slaves but children of God.  Practically worthless redeemed and given value.

·        But God the plaintiff reminds His people of another time they forgot Him:  when they entered into the land of promise, Israel.

5 O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”

·        These references may not seem too familiar to us, but to the people of Micah’s day, they would know exactly what God was talking about.

·        In Numbers 22:4-6 Balak was the king of Moab and he devised a plan with Balaam to curse and kill the people of God when they moved into the land.   But God protected them and no harm ever came to them from Balak or Balaam.

·        In Numbers 25:1 - Israel lived in the area of Shittim, and the people of God began to intermarry with the daughters of Moab intermingling not only with those women but also with their pagan religion.  God did not cast away His people despite their sin.

·        In Joshua 5:9-10  Lord reminded Joshua that the reproach of being slaves had been removed from the people and now they had the freedom to worship God and they did by celebrating the Passover

·        God’s case against His people is that…

o       They have forgotten that He redeemed them from slavery. 

o       They have forgotten that He protected them when they moved into the Promised Land. 

o       They have forgotten that He has not always punished them as their sin deserves.

o       And they have forgotten that God gave them the freedom to worship Him without the fear of others stopping them.

·        Now if you asked the people of Micah’s time if they had forgotten those events, I’m sure they would say, “No I remember that.  Of course I do.  It is part of the history of our people.  We celebrate being redeemed from slavery and being protected in the Promised Land, God forgiving us, and the freedom worship every single time we celebrate Passover”.  So we have to ask, “How is that that they have forgotten?”

·        Well, if an event doesn’t make a lasting and ongoing impact in your life then you are forgetting it, and the people of God remembering what God had done for them in the Passover meal wasn’t enough because those events weren’t having an impact on their lives. 

o       They weren’t walking in repentance and asking for forgiveness. 

o       They weren’t celebrating God’s protection; they were taking advantage of God and assuming it by living however they wanted to live.

o       They didn’t live like redeemed slaves who had been made children, but instead they lived like whiny children that wanted to be slaves all over again to their sin.

o       They wanted the life of a child of God but the lifestyle of a slave.

·        So, I think we can begin to see how we can forget what God has done for us.  If the memory of God’s work for us doesn’t change our lives on a day to day basis, then we are forgetting what God has done. 

·        There are many times and probably many of them have occurred this week where we questioned God’s wisdom in putting certain circumstances and we questioned whether God could meet our needs whether they be mental or physical or financial.

·        Perhaps for a moment you did remember when God has met your needs or maybe that didn’t cross your mind at all.  But unless the memory of those things transformed your fear into faith, then you have forgotten what God has done.  That memory must make an impact and build up your faith.

·        I guess the question for us now is, “What is it, more than anything else that God has done for us that we need to remember?”  I think we will find the answer to that question in 2 Timothy 2

2 Timothy 2:8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

·        First of all, we need to keep first and foremost in my mind the Gospel.  The gospel is that Christ has died for sin and has risen to life.  He is our promised King in the line of David who fulfills all the promises found in the OT.  That is the Gospel that we believe and that Paul proclaimed even at the risk of imprisonment.  The truth that not only has access to God been granted but forgiveness and the affection of God are ours through Jesus Christ.  We are never to forget the cost of such a great gift.

·        But this truth of Jesus is the message of the word of God, our Bible, and it cannot be bound and cannot be restrained.  Remembering Jesus’ work causes us, like Paul, to strive for the elect of God, to strive for those that God has called to Hiimself,  so that they too might hear and obtain salvation from Jesus.

·        Remembering the work of Jesus means we actively are sharing the Gospel with others.  Let me bottom line it for you:  if you aren’t telling others of what Jesus has done for you then you stand accused of forgetting what God has done for you through Him.

·        Remembering Jesus’ work on your behalf means striving for others to believe it.

·        Verse 11 gives us the hope that Christ will preserve us in the remembering. 

11 The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.

·        Here are the truths we remind ourselves of daily. 

o       In Jesus death, we die for our sins.  Our sins are paid for. 

§         As I Corinthians 15 says, our sins are buried with Him in His death and in His resurrection, we receive life.

o       Remembering that we have died with Him and live with Him means we do not live in guilt over our sins.  We repent for our sins but the punishment for them has been paid. 

§         Living in guilt means forgetting that Christ died for you.

§         Living in freedom is remembering that Christ died for you.

§         I want you to do that this week.  If you have asked God to forgive you of your sin, yet you still walk around feeling condemnation, then take a moment and remember what act of love Christ has done for you.

o       Verse 12 shows us that our perseverance ensures that we will reign with Him in Heaven.

§         Now that verse gets kind of scary for some of us because there is fear we won’t preserve.  There is a fear that me might not make it to the end by faith.

§         Well Paul address that fear.

o       Any that deny Him will be denied by Him.

§         Those deny Jesus were never His in the first place.  How do we know?  Because the next verse says…

13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.

o       If we struggle with faith and are faithless, He remains faithful to us because by faith we are so intertwined with Him that denying His children would be like denying Himself.

o       Folks, remember the so many ways that God has cared for you. 

§         Make the habit of your meals when you pray asking, “What has God done for us today?”

§         If you are struggling and you think there is no hope, remind yourself of even the smallest act of love from God to you.

§         Remind yourself of the largest gift God has given…Jesus Christ.

·        God is so gracious, that if our faith falters, He is faithful for us because He cannot deny Himself.  Let that be an encouragement to you if you relationship with God has grown dry and weary.  If you feel faithless, turn to God and say, “Be faithful for me.  Thank you for loving me to such a depth that it is impossible for you to turn away from me.