Let's turn this evening to the book of
Jonah in chapter 1.
Jonah lived just a few decades after Elisha
and I've often thought if Gehazi
had not run after Naaman to make money,
is it possible that he could have got
a double portion of the anointing that was
upon Elisha, like Elisha got from Elijah, in
which case he would have been the next
prophet and perhaps he would have been the
one who prophesied instead of Jonah or Amos,
one of those people, but he missed something.
I just mentioned this to say that there
is a verse in Revelation chapter 3 which
says, take heed that no one takes your
crown.
How can someone take your crown?
That means a reward that God has placed,
kept for you as you are faithful in
the ministry God has planned for you.
You can miss it altogether if you are
unfaithful in your life and that ministry which
you were supposed to fulfill goes to somebody
else.
I say that because Jonah was the next
prophet after Elisha and here we read, it's
not a prophecy, this book really, among all
the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi, this is
one book which is not a prophecy, it's
a story and perhaps he writes it himself
in the third person and basically it's a
story of God's tremendous love for all people,
just like Amos said that God loved all
people.
Here we see in the book of Jonah,
this is the great missionary book of the
Old Testament and it speaks of the narrow,
it shows the narrow heartedness of the Jewish
people and the large heartedness of God
in his concern and his love for the
nations, even for the most wicked nation which
at that time was Assyria whose capital was
Nineveh and when God needed a messenger to
go to Nineveh, he picked on Jonah.
I think it was a tremendous honor because
he was to be a prophet, almost the
first prophet to the outside world, outside Israel
and Judah but he missed that opportunity to
be the prophet, I mean the willing prophet
that God wanted him to be by disobedience
but finally God still sent him.
But we see here God's great heart of
love, we'll come to that towards the end
of the book but primarily I want you
to notice that God is dependent on a
human messenger.
If the human messenger is not willing to
cooperate, God is limited, he has to wait,
you know just like with Moses.
Israel in Egypt was ready to be delivered
but Moses was not ready and God had
to prepare Moses to lead the people and
until he is ready, God's people cannot be
delivered and we see something similar here.
Nineveh has got to get a message but
God has to prepare his servant to take
that message and Jonah found it very difficult
to go just like when God told Peter
to go to the house of Cornelius, it
was very difficult for Peter to go.
Prejudice is such a strong thing, it's one
of the things we see in this book,
the tremendous power of prejudice.
All of us remember we've got certain prejudices
and if God is not able to break
down those prejudices, your service for the Lord
will be limited.
Prejudices means I've got certain conceptions from childhood
that this is the way it should be
and this is the way it should be
and if I stick to that, God may
still use me but it'll be limited in
the way he can use me because God's
heart is much larger than yours and mine.
So that's what we need to learn, how
difficult it was for Peter to go to
Cornelius house, how difficult it was for Jonah
to go to Nineveh.
Of course Nineveh was about 600 kilometers east,
it was a long distance but that was
not the primary factor.
He just did not want those people who
were so wicked in Nineveh to be converted
because they were so evil, everybody in the
world hated them and he knew that if
they repent, God would spare them and they
would come and destroy Israel.
So when the word of the Lord came
to Jonah, there are really two sections in
this book, first two chapters are first commission
and the second two are the next commission
and the Lord tells Jonah to arise and
go to Nineveh because their wickedness has come
up before me and I want you to
cry against that city and he got up
and instead of going east he went west.
It says he fled to Tarshish from the
presence of the Lord, he went to Joppa,
found a ship, verse 3, and paid the
fare and went down to Tarshish.
I see something here which I've noticed for
many many years, because he had money to
buy a ticket, he missed the will of
God.
Just think how blessed it would have been
if he didn't have money.
Sometimes when God wants us to go somewhere
and we want to go somewhere else, if
we don't have the money to go to
that other place, we are blessed.
The very fact that you have money does
not mean that you're moving in the will
of God.
That's one thing we learn here.
A lot of Christian workers think, oh I've
got the money, God's provided the money, that
means I can go.
Well if that is the argument, then Jonah
was in the will of God when he
was going to Tarshish.
So learn something from that, that just because
you have the money to buy a ticket
or to buy something or go somewhere, does
not necessarily mean that it is God's will
for you to buy it or to go
there.
God may want you to go in some
other direction completely.
Money is a great deceiver.
So that's one lesson that we learn here.
And we read that when he went away
from the will of God, the Lord hurled
a great wind on the sea and a
great storm.
The ship was about to break up and
the sailors were afraid and they each cried
to their God and the thing didn't subside.
And they found Jonah sleeping and they went
and woke him up, woke him up and
said, you call upon your God.
And when they cast lots, God pointed out,
God sovereignly controlled that lot so that the
lot fell on Jonah and Jonah admitted his
sin.
He said he was running away from the
Lord and they tried their best to row
to the shore.
They couldn't succeed.
The sea was very stormy and then Jonah
said, please pick me up and throw me
outside into the sea and it'll stop because
I know this storm has come upon you,
verse 12, because of me.
And then they were scared.
They thought God would punish them for throwing
this man in the middle of the sea.
They seemed, these heathens seemed to have more
fear of God than God's prophet.
And they picked up Jonah and threw him
out and the sea stopped raging and the
men feared the Lord.
And the Lord had appointed a great fish
to swallow Jonah and Jonah was in the
stomach of the fish for three days and
three nights.
Now, I believe that God's word is inspired
just like it is written.
And so I read it exactly like it's
written.
I don't question it.
I believe that there was a fish large
enough to swallow Jonah and that he was
in the stomach of that fish for three
days and three nights.
Jesus himself said, endorsed it once when he
said, I think it's Matthew chapter 12, he
said that as Jonah was in the belly
of the great fish, so shall the son
of man be in the heart of the
earth.
That is where paradise was located at that
time.
And Jesus was there in the heart of
the earth for three days and three nights.
His body was in the grave, but he
was in the heart of the earth.
And what it says here is then Jonah
prayed.
I believe that's inspired.
I believe that's the truth.
So I believe for three days and three
nights, he didn't pray because it says for
three days and three nights, he was in
the stomach of the fish.
And it's after that, or then that Jonah
decided to pray.
So what was he doing for three days
and three nights?
He was trying to crawl out of the
stomach of the whale or the great fish,
whatever it was trying to get out, trying
to get out, trying to get out.
He didn't succeed.
Always slipped back in.
Finally, he decided to pray.
And that's how you and I are usually
when we get into some difficulty, which is
like a belly of a whale or a
fish.
The first thing we usually do is try
to get out of it.
And when all our efforts don't succeed, then
we pray.
And so Jonah then prayed and still nothing
happened.
He prayed and he says, Lord, I called
out of my distress.
You cast me into the depth of the
sea.
I've been expelled from your sight and so
on.
Waters encompassed me.
And that long prayer and nothing happened until
he came to one sentence at the end.
And then again, you read the word then.
In the end, he stopped praying and he
started praising the Lord.
And he said, Lord, I'm going to sacrifice
to you, verse nine, with the voice of
thanksgiving.
Salvation is from the Lord.
Deliverance comes only from you and you can
deliver me whenever you like.
I'm going to praise you with all of
my heart.
As soon as he started praising God, then,
verse 10, the Lord commanded the fish to
vomit Jonah out into the land.
Now, there's a principle here.
We saw that verse when we were studying
the Psalms.
It says in Psalm 50 and verse 23
that whoever offers praise, a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
the same word used here, a voice of
thanksgiving and sacrifice.
Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving thereby makes
the way for me to deliver him.
In other words, if you start praising me
instead of just complaining, you will open a
way for me to deliver you.
We see in 2 Chronicles 20, Jehoshaphat did
that.
Surrounded by great armies, he began to praise
the Lord and that praising the Lord opened
a way for God to deliver him from
those enemies.
Jonah prayed and nothing happened and then he
came to the place where he started praising
God.
And as soon as he did that, God
said, okay, praise.
He told the fish, now you can vomit
him out.
Praise is the expression of faith.
Prayer is not an expression of faith.
You may pray without faith, but when you
praise God, when the situation has not been
solved yet, when the problem is still like
that, the situation hasn't changed, the problem is
not solved, then you are expressing your faith.
I believe God's deliverance comes from God.
Salvation is of the Lord.
And immediately the answer comes.
And Jonah was vomited out in the dry
land and then the word of the Lord
came to Jonah a second time.
We praise the Lord that if we have
failed the Lord once, God gives us another
chance.
That's another message that comes from the book
of Jonah.
Have you failed the Lord?
God waits to give you another chance.
Have you failed him a second time?
He gives you another chance.
There is an expression that he's the God
of the second chance.
Well, I thank God he's not the God
of the second chance because most of us
have blown our second chance long, long ago.
He's the God of another chance.
No matter how many times you fail, not
just the second one.
Praise the Lord for that.
That he's long suffering and he gives you
another chance to go and fulfill that ministry
which he had planned for you from the
beginning.
And this time he's learned his lesson, he's
been chastened and he goes and he walks.
Nineveh, it says in verse 3, was a
great city.
It took him three days to walk through
that city, proclaiming in every street that in
40 days Nineveh will be overthrown.
And the people of Nineveh, it was one
of the greatest spontaneous revivals that took place
in the Old Testament.
And it was in a heathen land.
Just this one sentence brought the power of
God upon these people and they began to
repent.
See, when God has dealt with his servant
and done a work in a man, one
sentence from that man's mouth has got such
power.
And that's something we can learn.
If God has not succeeded in dealing with
you, your stubbornness and your disobedience and your
rebellion and your pride, if he's not succeeded
in dealing with you, even long sermons won't
accomplish anything.
But if God has succeeded in breaking you,
one sentence can be so powerful.
And the king, from the king down to
the last person, there was such weeping.
They put sackcloth, they repented, and they called
upon God to forgive them.
And they were really afraid that Nineveh would
be judged.
Verse 10, when God saw their deeds, he
turned and did not punish them.
See, one of the things that encourages me
here is that even when a wicked city
like Nineveh repented, God was merciful when they
humbled themselves.
There's never a case in scripture where a
person repents and turns to God where God
didn't forgive.
If Judas Iscariot, instead of going to the
priests, had gone to the Lord, he'd have
been forgiven.
But he made that big mistake.
Instead of going to the Lord and asking
his forgiveness, he went to the priests and
told them that he had sinned.
You don't get forgiveness by confessing your sin
to a priest.
Judas Iscariot tried it, and it didn't succeed.
And it won't succeed today.
And we see here that this wicked city,
God had mercy on them, and one would
have thought that Jonah should have been excited.
But he wasn't.
Imagine an evangelist who's seen one of the
greatest revivals in history almost, up to that
time, and he's not excited.
He was concerned because, first of all, his
prophecy was not fulfilled.
Nineveh was not destroyed.
He was really hoping that Nineveh would be
destroyed.
And it wasn't.
And Jonah was angry.
And then we read that story of how
the Lord allowed a plant to grow up
over Jonah to teach him a lesson.
And Jonah was very happy for the plant.
When the plant withered up the next day
because God made a worm eat it up,
Jonah was very disturbed because the sun was
beating on him.
And he said, it's better for me to
die than live.
And then God could speak to Jonah and
said, you're worried about that plant.
You're worried about a little heat on your
head.
Think of these multitudes of people in Nineveh
who are on their way to hell.
There are more than 120,000 persons, verse
11, there who don't know the difference between
their right hand and the left hand.
That means 120,000 babies and even animals.
God's concerned about the animals too.
And what we see here is God's tremendous
compassion for lost souls that comes through in
this one verse more than perhaps in any
book of the Old Testament.
God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son that no one should
perish.
Jonah somehow didn't get into fellowship with God
in this area.
And there are a lot of people who
can go out and preach like Jonah who
don't have fellowship with the heart of compassion
of God.
And then they don't fulfill their ministry the
way God wants them to.
Jonah preached, there was a revival.
And you can go and preach and people
can get saved.
And at the end of it all, like
Jonah, you may have no fellowship with God
in the compassion he feels in his heart
for lost people.
The basis of all evangelistic ministry is a
fellowship with the heart of God where God
has such tremendous compassion on people who don't
have life.
The Bible says God wants all men to
be saved and to come to the knowledge
of the truth.
The Bible says God wants all men to
repent.
He longs for that.
And the more I come into fellowship with
God's heart, the more I get that burden.
If you're an evangelist, if God called you
to be an evangelist, he'll give you a
burden, the burden that's in his heart of
compassion for lost souls.
If God calls, called you to be a
teacher, he'll give you a compassion for believers
who are blinded, deceived, and who are not
coming through to a life of victory.
But fellowship with the heart of God and
sharing his compassion is essential.
If we are to fulfill our ministry effectively,
that's what we learned here.
Now we turn to the book of Micah.
Micah was lived at the same time as
Isaiah.
We saw that when we were studying Isaiah.
And Micah prophesied to both Israel and Judah.
And Micah is primarily speaking to the religious
leaders in Israel and Judah who have misused
their privileges in serving God and exploited the
poor people in their congregations.
Just like Christian leaders who exploit poor people
and lead them astray.
It's amazing to see how many Old Testament
prophets had a concern for these poor people
in Israel and Judah who are being led
astray by covetous, selfish, proud leaders.
So let's look at in the first three
chapters, we read of God's judgment on Samaria,
which is the capital of Israel and Judah.
And then in chapters four and five, we
read of the coming of the Lord Jesus
in the millennium and establishing his kingdom.
And then in chapter six and seven, we
read about God's controversy with his people.
So first of all, he says in Micah
and chapter one and verse two, he calls
the people to listen to him because the
Lord is coming as a witness against you
from his holy temple.
He leaves his throne in heaven and comes
to earth.
And I want to move on to chapter
two and see some of the reasons and
the type of sins that Micah is exposing
among the leaders.
See, wherever God's word speaks to leaders, it's
good for all of us who preach God's
word to examine ourselves and judge ourselves.
And there's a lot of prophecies given to
preachers and leaders in the Old Testament.
And it says here how terrible Micah chapter
two, verse one, it'll be for you who
lie awake at night thinking up evil plans.
You rise at dawn and hurry to carry
out those wicked schemes that you have the
power to accomplish.
Verse two, when you want a certain piece
of land, you find a way to seize
it.
When you want somebody's house, you find a
way to get it by fraud or violence.
No one's family or inheritance is safe with
people like you around.
This is leaders who are exploiting poor people.
And we could apply it today to people
who tell poor people to pay their tithes
and take money from them and to live
at a higher standard themselves.
I believe it's perfectly right for a person
to receive gifts from others.
If he's serving the Lord, the Lord has
ordained that those who preach the gospel should
live of the gospel.
But it's totally wrong to receive money from
people who earn less than you.
How can I take money from people who
earn less than me to live at a
higher standard than them?
That is totally unchristian.
This is what the leaders were doing.
They were exploiting poor people.
And this is what a lot of Christian
preachers and pastors are doing today.
They take money from people who live in
small houses and live in grand houses themselves.
They take the tithes from people who earn
so little and live at a standard five
times their standard themselves.
Totally unrighteous.
And that's why the anointing of God goes
away.
And those of you who serve God, let
me give you my advice.
This is a principle I have followed for
ever since I came out to serve the
Lord full-time 34 years ago.
Never to take money from people who earn
less than you for your personal needs.
They have a right to give.
If they give it to you, put it
in the offering box.
Let it go to the church.
Don't touch one rupee of that for your
own needs.
God will bless you.
He'll provide your need.
If the person who gives you a gift
is better off than you are, richer than
you are, that's okay.
But otherwise, it's defrauding people.
And I find that many people are not
serious about a very small thing like this.
I cannot imagine that Jesus would have done
that.
Jesus received money from rich women, we read
in Luke chapter 8.
And he also received from poor people.
But then how did he spend it?
He didn't take that money and live in
a much grander style than those people.
He slept in the Mount of Olives.
Now there was a lot of money in
Judas Iscariot's bag.
He could have said, well, let's rent a
lodge and stay there a little more comfortably.
But he was so careful in the use
of that money that he slept in the
open.
Now there's something that we can learn from
that.
You learn from Jesus.
If you are faithful in the use of
God's money given by poor people, I tell
you, you will retain the anointing of God
till the end of your life.
You can hear it if you want.
He who has ears to hear, let him
hear.
If you don't do that, the same fate
will befall you that has befallen so many
preachers in our land.
It's a very simple thing.
And the Lord says in verse 3, I
will reward your evil with evil.
You won't be able to escape.
In chapter 2, verse 6 to 10, the
false prophets say, the people say, don't say
such things, don't prophesy like that.
And Micah says, should you talk that way
of family of Israel?
Will the Lord have patience with such behavior?
If you do what is right, you'll find
my words to be good.
Yet this very hour, the Lord says, my
people rise up against me.
You steal the shirts from the backs of
those who trusted you and you make them
ragged.
You have evicted women from their homes, stripped
their children of their God-given rights.
Be gone.
I'm going to judge you.
This land is not going to be your
home anymore.
You are going to Babylon.
On the other hand, verse 11, if a
false prophet full of lies comes to you
and says, I'll preach to you about joys
of wine and drink, that's the kind of
prophet you like.
Throughout history, it's been true that the people
of God have always preferred false prophets who
tickle their ears, say things to soothe them,
make them happy.
And most of God's people have never cared
to listen to true prophets who tell them
the truth.
So if you want to be a servant
of God who's going to speak God's word
to people, remember one thing, you are not
going to be popular.
You're not going to make a lot of
money.
You're probably going to be despised and rejected
just like all these Old Testament prophets were.
Now, yet, in spite of all this, the
condition of most people in Israel, the Lord
still says in verse 12, I will gather
a few of you who are left and
I will bring you together.
All the prophets have this prophecy that there
will always be a remnant.
In spite of all the backsliding of God's
people, there'll be a remnant.
And this is true even today.
When Christendom backslides, you can be sure there'll
be a remnant.
And if you're God-fearing, you look for
that remnant.
If you are transferred to a new town,
you look for the remnant.
If you go to another place, you look
for the remnant.
You look for those few whom God is
pulling out, who are sincere and seeking God.
And I'll tell you, they won't all be
in one denomination.
You may go to one town and you
may find it in one type of church
and you go to another town and the
branch church of this does not have the
remnant.
They're all proud people there.
You got to see there, where are the
godly people here?
And it may not be in my denomination.
You got to be open to God to
say, where is God gathering that few?
In chapter three, again to the leaders, listen
to you leaders of Israel.
You're supposed to know right from wrong, but
you're the very ones who hate good and
love evil.
You skin my people alive and tear the
flesh off their bones.
What does he mean when he says words
like this, that you eat my people's flesh
and cut away their skin and break their
bones.
Verse three, you chop them up like meat
for the cooking pot.
And then you beg the Lord for help
in times of trouble.
What is he meaning?
His meaning is this.
He explains it in verse five.
This is what the Lord is saying to
you false prophets.
You are leading my people astray.
And listen to this.
If somebody gives you food, you bless him.
If he gives you a good meal, you
promise peace upon that house.
But if somebody refuses to pay you, you
declare war on him.
See, this is not something that's happening in
the 20th century.
It happened even in those days, 2600 years
ago, that preachers loved those who gave them
large gifts.
And they prophesied nice things to them.
But if somebody was poor and could not
even invite them for a good meal to
their house, they were very stern with such
people.
These are not servants of God, not in
sixth century BC and not in the 20th
century AD.
These are the false prophets of all time.
And the Lord says to them, now the
night will close around you, cutting off all
your so-called visions.
These people speak out visions.
Darkness will cover you, making it impossible for
you to predict the future.
The sun will set for you false prophets
and your day will come to an end.
And you false seers will cover your faces
in shame.
But Micah says, as for me, I am
filled with power and the spirit of the
Lord.
Now that looks like boasting.
It's not boasting.
It cannot be boasting because it's inspired scripture.
Micah says, you fellows are like this, but
I'm like this.
Now, when you listen to that, it looks
like boasting.
But do you know the Apostle Paul also
said the same thing?
He said in 2 Corinthians 11, he says,
I work with my own hands to cut
the ground from under the feet.
That's how the Living Bible paraphrases it.
From these people who say they are serving
the Lord like I do.
They are serving for money.
I'm not, he says.
It doesn't mean that Paul didn't receive any
gifts.
He himself says that he received gifts from
a number of churches.
But he did not serve God for money.
And Micah has a lot to speak about
this subject of workers, the Lord's servants who
are working for money and people like Micah
who are serving the Lord sincerely.
He says, I'm filled with power and the
Holy Spirit.
I'm filled with justice and might, fearlessly pointing
out Israel's sin and rebellion.
Listen to me, you leaders of Israel.
You're building Jerusalem on a foundation of murder
and corruption.
Verse 11, you govern for bribes.
And again, he gets back to the same
subject.
Sometimes you wonder, why do these prophets keep
on talking on the same thing about money
and money and money and money all the
time?
A lot of the prophets spoke about it
because that was the one thing that was
corrupting the leaders in those days.
And it's the thing that's corrupting leaders today.
So he comes back to his subject of
money again.
You priests teach God's laws only for a
price.
And you prophets won't prophesy until you're paid.
And yet all of you claim that you're
depending on the Lord.
You say the Lord is here among us.
Now the question is, when we serve the
Lord, should we be paid?
Jesus said, the laborer is worthy of his
hire.
And the Bible says, the ox that treads
out the corn, its mouth should not be
shut.
And the Lord has ordained that those who
preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
So scripture is very clear in the Old
Testament and New Testament that God's servants, those
who serve the Lord full time, can be
supported by the gifts of God's people.
And as I said, if someone who is
not poorer than you gives you a gift,
you can receive it and use it for
your personal needs.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with it.
It's perfectly right.
Not only perfectly right, God has ordained it.
But there's a difference between that and a
man saying that I'll serve God if you
pay me.
See, what is the difference between a salary
and a gift?
When you work in the office, in some
secular office or company, you'll work there only
if you get a salary.
What if one day they don't pay you?
You'll stop working.
In the Lord's work, it's not like that.
A gift means you don't demand it.
If you get it, praise the Lord.
If you don't get it, praise the Lord.
Now, if you receive money every month, you
can take it as a gift or you
can take it as a salary.
That's up to you.
The right way to do it is to
take it as a gift and you'll never
have a problem.
Maybe you work somewhere for the Lord and
you're getting a fixed amount every month.
Okay, that's fine.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But don't ever think of it as a
salary that you get because I'm doing some
work and I'm being paid.
I cannot claim it.
Lord, if one day I don't get it,
it makes absolutely no difference.
You call me to serve you and I'll
still serve you.
I'm thankful for those who give it, but
I'm not dependent on it.
That is the right way to serve the
Lord, where I trust the Lord to provide
my needs.
He may provide it on a regular basis
through someone or through an organization, or He
may provide it on an irregular basis through
different people.
Different people choose different ways.
But whichever way it is, I must not
prophesy because I'm paid.
I must not do any service for the
Lord for money.
It's quite independent from that.
I do this and I have no interest
in money.
I do it for the Lord.
My brothers and sisters, if you follow this
principle, God will provide your need one way
or the other and you will be protected
from the snares that these people got into.
I believe it's very, very important to understand
this.
In chapter four, he speaks about the coming
of the Lord and the temple of the
Lord being built in Jerusalem.
And it'll be the most important place on
earth, it says.
And people will say, let us go up
to this mountain of the Lord and He
will teach us His ways.
In that day, I will gather those who
are lame, who've been exiles and filled with
griefs, and I'll bring them to Jerusalem.
Now, here, for the first time, you find
Micah prophesying that before all that happens in
the future, there's going to be a period
of punishment for you people in Jerusalem because
you have disobeyed the Lord, because your leaders
are like this.
And he says in the middle of verse
10, you will soon be sent into exile
to Babylon.
Now, about a hundred years later, only they
went to Babylon in the time of Jeremiah.
One hundred years before they went into exile,
when Babylon was a small, unknown country, the
great power of those days was Assyria.
Babylon was a small, unknown little country.
And Micah prophesies by the Spirit of the
Lord, Babylon is going to be a great
power and it's going to come and capture
you.
And that prophecy was fulfilled a hundred years
later.
In chapter 5, verse 1, the Lord speaks,
I believe He's speaking here about the last
king of Judah, probably Zedekiah, who was going
to be taken captive into Babylon.
And Micah says, mobilize, marshal your troops.
The enemy that is Babylon is laying siege
to Jerusalem with a rod.
They will strike the king of Israel in
his face.
That was Zedekiah.
But the next king, after Zedekiah goes to
Babylon, there will never be any more king.
The next king, Micah says, will be, verse
2, one who is born in Bethlehem, Ephrata,
which is just a small village in Judah.
You see that connection there.
And we know that after that last king
of Israel, of Judah, was taken captive to
Babylon for 600 years, there were no kings,
or more than 500 years.
And the next king was the one who
was born in Bethlehem.
And this is the verse that the priests
quoted to Herod, when the wise men came
asking Herod, where is he that is born
king of the Jews?
And they said, yeah, Micah has prophesied.
So they understood that this verse applied to
the Messiah.
A ruler will come from you, Bethlehem, one
whose origins are from the distant past.
That means he will not be just an
ordinary baby, it will be one who has
lived from eternity, who is going to come
and be born in Bethlehem, speaking about God
coming in human flesh.
And then in verses 7 and 8, it
again speaks about the remnant.
You see, the prophets always keep coming back
to the remnant.
And there will be few left in Israel,
and they will go out to the nations,
and they will be like the dew and
the rain falling on the grass.
And I believe that's how the remnant should
be even today.
You know how refreshing it is for the
dew and the rain to fall upon the
grass.
And the remnant that God is gathering today
of people who are sincerely seeking to follow
the Lord should be a refreshing influence on
Christians around them.
And that's a good question for us to
ask ourselves.
In chapter 6 and 7, we read about
God's controversy with his people.
It's like a court scene where God is
saying to Israel, stand up.
And the Lord says, state your case against
me.
And let the mountains and hills be witness
to your complaints.
And now the Lord says, I will state
my case against you.
And the Lord says, my people, what have
I done for you to turn away from
me?
I brought you out of Egypt.
I redeemed you from your slavery.
I sent Moses, Aaron, Miriam.
Don't you remember when Balaam tried to curse
you through King Balak's suggestion?
I blessed you instead.
Don't you remember that long journey from Acacia
to Gilgal?
When I, the Lord, did everything I could
to teach you about my faithfulness.
What have you got against me?
That's the Lord says, tell me, why are
you turning away from me?
Why do you backslide?
Have I treated you badly?
The Lord's putting them in court and saying,
tell me.
And the response of Micah says to the
people here, how shall we come to the
Lord when we think of all that God
has done for us?
This is a good question for you and
me to ask ourselves.
Shall we bring a lot of offerings?
Shall we bring our tithes?
Shall we bring our money?
Shall we offer him thousands of rams for
seven, 10,000 rivers of oil?
You think that will please the Lord?
Shall we give our firstborn children as sacrifices?
No.
And listen to this wonderful verse.
This is one of the beautiful verses in
the book of Micah, which all of you
should remember by heart.
Micah chapter 6 and verse 8.
What does the Lord want from you?
O people, the Lord has already told you
what is good.
And this is what he requires from you.
Three things.
He wants you to do what is right,
to be righteous and upright, which means no
partiality, to do what is right in every
situation and never to do what is wrong.
Are you one of the remnant?
Are you seeking to follow the Lord?
Here's the number one thing God requires from
you to do what is right.
Secondly, he wants you to love mercy.
That means not just to be merciful, but
to love it.
To be merciful means to forgive other people,
to do good deeds to those who need
help.
That is mercy.
To love it.
Be quick to forgive people who have harmed
you.
He says that's what the Lord wants from
you.
Are you really grateful to me for all
that I've done for you?
I don't want your money.
I don't want your offerings.
Give me your life where you do what
is right and treat other people in a
merciful way.
Don't be hard on them when they make
a mistake.
Remember, you also make mistakes.
Forgive them.
Have they slipped up and done something wrong?
Forgive them.
Love mercy.
And thirdly, walk in humility before your God.
That's all God requires from you, he says.
And if the leaders had done that, Israel
would never have gone captive to Babylon.
And further, we read in verses 9 to
15 about businessmen who were cheating.
He says in verse 11, how can I
tolerate it?
You know, he says in verse 10, you're
dishonestly measuring out grain and short measures.
Your merchants use dishonest scales and weights.
The rich among you, verse 12, have become
wealthy through extortion and violence.
See, if you are rich, I want to
tell you that God is very interested to
know how you made your money.
Nobody else may know it, but God is
very interested to know how you made your
money.
Did you cheat anyone?
Is there any tax that you cheated the
government off?
Have you done something unrighteous?
That's what he's trying to say here.
He says, you've become wealthy in a wrong
way.
And he says, your citizens are so used
to telling lies that their tongues can no
longer tell the truth.
Therefore, I'm going to ruin you for all
your sins.
And what will happen is you will never
have enough.
You'll always be hungry.
And when you try to save your money,
verse 14, it'll finally come to nothing in
the end.
You will save a little, but I'll give
it to those who conquer you.
You will plant crops, but you will not
harvest them.
So God keeps a close watch on our
sins.
Chapter 7, verse 2, Micah says, he's describing
the condition of Israel, why Israel is now
going to go to Babylon.
He says, the godly people have all disappeared.
And there's not one fair-minded person.
They're all murderers who set traps for their
own brothers.
And they go about doing their evil with
both hands.
And the officials and judges, verse 3, demand
bribes.
And the people with money and influence pay
them off.
And together they twist justice.
But your judgment day is coming.
We live in a situation today where there's
a lot of injustice like this, bribery, corruption,
poor people are being exploited.
God is watching all this.
And He waited a long time with Israel.
And I tell you, all these people around
us who are heathen, who are doing it,
they will not escape.
One day God will make them account for
every single bribe they took to pervert justice,
every wrong thing that any person has ever
done against particularly poor people.
One day God will hold them all to
account.
And here's a verse that Jesus quoted.
The son, verse 6, despises his father.
And the daughter defies her mother.
The daughter-in-law defies her mother-in
-law.
And your enemies will be right in your
own household.
Jesus said that if you follow me, you
will find your enemies right in the midst
of your household.
He quoted this verse.
And he said, I've come to set a
son against his father and a daughter against
his mother.
When you read this Old Testament verse, it
doesn't look as if it's referring to that.
But Jesus picked out these verses which teach
us one thing, that when these prophets spoke
the word of God, there was more than
one meaning hidden in those verses.
Many prophecies had a double fulfillment.
And here is one of those examples of
double fulfillment where Jesus picks out this verse
from the Old Testament and says, this refers
to what's going to happen when I come
into your life.
Your enemies will be in your own house.
And Micah says wonderful words here, which I
believe those of us who serve the Lord,
each of you can claim these verses for
yourself.
Think of it.
Verse 7.
As for me, I look to the Lord
for my help.
I will wait confidently for God to save
me.
And my God will certainly hear me.
And don't gloat over me, my enemies.
Though I fall, I will rise again.
That's a word we can speak to the
devil.
Don't gloat over me, Satan, particularly when you
fall.
Supposing you fall sometime, as all of us
will.
When you fall, come to this verse and
say to the devil, don't gloat over me,
Satan.
Okay, I fell, but I will rise again.
The Lord is going to lift me up.
And even if I'm sitting in darkness right
now, the Lord will be my light.
It's true.
The Lord is punishing me now.
I will be patient as the Lord punishes
me because I've sinned against him.
But after that, he will take up my
case and punish my enemies.
Satan, you're not going to triumph over me.
Don't let Satan ever sit on your head
and discourage you saying you have fallen.
This is a wonderful verse for believers who
fall.
And maybe you're chastened by the Lord, punished
by the Lord when you did something wrong.
Don't get discouraged even then.
Speak to the devil and say, don't gloat
over me, Satan.
It's true.
I punished.
I'm punished.
I've sinned, but the Lord is punishing me
now.
But after he's finished with me, he's going
to punish you for all the evil that
you've done to me.
And the Lord will bring me out of
my darkness, verse nine, last part, into light.
And I will see his righteousness.
And then my enemies will see that the
Lord is on my side.
And they will be ashamed who taunted me
at that time saying, where is the Lord,
that God of yours?
With my own eyes, I will see my
enemies trampled in the streets.
And then we come to the end of
this section, verses 14 to 16.
Micah says, Oh Lord, please come and rule
over your people.
Lead your flock into green pastures and let
all the nations, verse 16, stand amazed when
they see what the Lord will do for
us.
Here is a tremendous promise.
I will do mighty miracles for you, says
the Lord, verse 15, like those I did
when I rescued you from slavery in Egypt.
In conclusion, verse 18.
This is another lovely verse for those who
feel they have failed the Lord and the
prophets always finally conclude their prophecy after all
these terrible pronunciations of judgment.
They conclude their prophecy with a word of
encouragement and hope, which is an example for
all of us who preach the word of
God.
How does he conclude?
Where is another God like you, verse 18,
who pardons all the sins of his people?
You cannot stay angry with your people forever
because you delight in showing mercy.
Once again, you will have compassion on us.
You'll trample our sins under your feet and
you'll throw our sins into the depths of
the ocean and you'll show us your faithfulness,
unfailing love as you promised our ancestors.
How should we conclude when we have to
give a strong message of judgment or rebuke
and exhortation, always with a word of encouragement
that God is on your side.
Remember this.
God is always on your side against the
devil.
He will never be on the devil's side
against you, no matter how much you have
sinned.
He waits for you to repent, but he'll
always stand by you.
The moment he sees you turn towards him,
he's on your side against the devil.
And as a preacher, if you preach the
word of God, you're like a surgeon in
an operating theater who's trying to remove a
cancer from someone.
You cut him open, expose the cancer, then
what do you do?
Remove the cancer and stitch it up, give
him a sleeping pill, a painkiller, and send
him back happy.
But a lot of preachers, what they do
is they cut the person open, expose the
cancer, and send him out like that.
Don't ever do that.
Stitch him up, give him a painkiller, let
there be a smile on his face when
he goes out.
Let your preaching always be like these Old
Testament prophets with a word of hope.
God is on your side against the devil.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, help us to be true servants
of yours, to have a right attitude to
poor people, to a right attitude to money,
and all these different things that you teach
us from your word.
Help us to walk in your light, we
pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.