What Godlessness Produces - Corey Hill

Before we begin tonight, I just want to say what a blessing it is for me to be able to stand here behind this pulpit and proclaim the truth of God's word to you all this evening, and I appreciate you coming and spending your time to sit underneath that preaching.

Tonight, we're going to be in the book of Micah, chapter seven, verses one through seven. Again, that's the book of Micah, chapter seven, verses one through seven.

Now, before we get started, and as you're turning there, by way of introduction,

I want to have you all try to remember a few things from just a few short years ago.

A few years ago, the United States pulled out of the country of Afghanistan. There was absolute chaos that ensued.

I'm sure some of you saw some of those viral videos of what the happenings were over there.

Hundreds of people, hundreds of people, 600 even, in just one transport flight out of that country where they were seeking safe haven.

There were a myriad of suicide bombings that killed hundreds and maybe even thousands of people.

The moral character of embassies and humanitarian aides were obliterated as the proverbial rug was pulled out from underneath them.

Afghanistan citizens, so desperate to flee from the Taliban, were hanging on to jets as they sped down the runway.

Falling to their death as the plane took off. When you saw these things happening, you might have asked yourself in those moments, why?

Why is this happening? Why has this chaos ensued?

And the short answer that you may have got to was the U .S. ripping its presence from the longest war it's ever fought in.

But the real culprit, the real thing behind all of this chaos and this calamity was the absolute absence of the presence of God, of those involved.

This panic and confusion that ensued in Afghanistan in 2022 is a very good picture of calamity.

It's a very good picture of panic. It's a very good picture of chaos. It's an eye tower, pericope that we're going to be in.

In Micah chapter seven verses one through seven is very similar. Micah's detailing to the nation of Israel, the southern kingdom in Judah and especially the city of Jerusalem.

This panic and this chaos that is rampant through the first six verses of tonight's passage.

So before we dive in, I want to provide some of you some context as we are jumping at the very last chapter of a book and one that we have yet to be inside of a sermon for this body.

I want us to help us have some context so we can think about things rightly. We can frame things in the way that which they need to be framed.

So one of the first very important things, one of the vital things for us to understand in terms of context of the scriptures we study, we need to understand who's writing this book.

Well, the prophet, what you might be have heard him called a lesser prophet. Micah is who writes this book.

Although the details about Micah differ than many of the other prophets being that we get no lineage of Micah.

It was a lot of the other prophetic books of scripture you see so -and -so from so -and -so.

You get their father or their lineage in some sort of way or fashion, but we don't see that with Micah.

We simply get in the inscription of this book, the word of the Lord that came to Micah at Moresheth.

Now, Moresheth is a small town about 22 miles southwest of the city of Jerusalem. It was part of the lowlands of Israel, a very agrarian society, a lot of agriculture, a lot of farming.

Another odd thing about Micah is his prophetic calling isn't recorded specifically, and he isn't specifically called a prophet, but we get in chapter three,

Micah's power is explicitly then attributed to the spirit of the

Lord. He's also referred to in the book of Isaiah as Isaiah chronicling that King Hezekiah, who was a king of Judah at the time of Micah's prophecy to the nation of Israel, and specifically the

Southern kingdom, is that Isaiah recalls that Hezekiah reformed even some through the prophecy of Micah.

Now we must consider, when was this written? Micah's prophetic word was delivered during the reigns of three different Judean kings,

Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, to the best of our ability. That time frame spells out about 750 to about 687

BC, roughly. His words are recorded in the book of Jeremiah chapter 26, as I've mentioned before, is directly influencing

King Hezekiah, so that's how we know that he prophesied during that king's reign, and the kings before him.

The place of this writing was across different parts of the Southern kingdom of Israel, Judah.

Now the audience, the audience of the prophet Micah's writing is this nation of Israel, the

Southern kingdom of Judah, specifically, and very intently, the city of Jerusalem.

All of these people, all of God's covenant people that Micah could oracle to. Next, another distinctive that we need to define as far as context goes, is the occasion.

The occasion for this prophetic book was calling out many sins of God's people.

A call of repentance specifically for the idolatry, and we see that detailed in chapter one, verse seven, and then later in chapter five, verses 12 through 14.

The theft of property in chapter two, failed civil leadership in chapter three and chapter seven, failed religious leadership that we get in chapter three as well, and then failed prophetic leadership that's again detailed in chapter three, all of those happenings between verse one and verse 11.

Their false belief in sacrifices. Their personal sacrifices that satisfied or they thought satisfied divine justice, we find that in chapter six, verses six and seven, and violence and corruption at large.

We see that in chapter six, verses 10 through 12, and in some of our selected texts tonight.

Now we come to another distinctive that we must understand so that we can fully wrap our minds around this, is must have the point or the purpose of the writing of this book.

Israel, as a nation at large, Judah as a Southern kingdom in Micah's day were so corrupted by their navel gazing that they refused to embrace

God's purpose. Thus they would suffer judgment, but there would be yet a remnant who would experience

God's forgiveness and be a part of God's eternal plan in the person and work of Christ Jesus.

Some of the doctrinal themes of the book of Micah are judgment and forgiveness.

Yahweh, the eternal judge, enacts judgment on the nation of Israel, Judah, Jerusalem for their sins, iniquities and transgressions.

And he also, being the great shepherd, gathers his scattered sheep in faithfulness and forgives them.

Another distinctive or statistic that we must understand and think about before jumping into our text is a structure or the special characteristics of this text.

Micah's literary style, the way he writes this book, his prophecy features a composition of oracles.

They're delivered in a variety of ways from different viewpoints and from different mechanisms, like oracles of judgment that can be satirical in nature or oracles of salvation being both about a coming golden age of communion with God and then they're directly with inside of what's happening in the nation at the time.

Most of Micah, if not all of Micah, is composed of poetic language. How Micah views

Christ is very significant as well. Micah prophesied that the ruler would be born in Bethlehem.

We see that in chapter five, verses two through five. These multiple oracles of forgiveness can be put forth only on the back of Christ and him crucified.

So Micah oracled, he put forth, he proclaimed that Christ would be coming from Bethlehem and all of his oracles of forgiveness then ensue on that promise.

The theological implications that we find in this text, our last statistic tonight is

God's character is in stark contrast of the people's sin. Sin must be dealt with and demands judgment.

God's judgment for the nations that Micah was prophesying to were being oppressed, which was a form of judgment.

We today as Christians can be oppressed and it can be God's judgment just alike. Yahweh is the focus of our worship.

The nations neglected this truth and to know this truth, they must learn and be at peace with the

God of Zion. We find that in chapters four, one through five and then again in verse 11. And God's steadfast grace overcomes iniquity due.

We find that in chapter seven towards the end of it. Tonight, I have two points to this sermon.

The sermon title for tonight's sermon is what godlessness produces.

So my first point is what godlessness produces in the world. And my second being what godlessness produces in the

Christian. What godlessness produces in the world and what a view of that godlessness produces in the

Christian. Before we read tonight's text, I would ask you to bow your heads with me and pray for just a moment.

Heavenly Father, help us. Help us understand this text tonight.

Help us apply this text tonight to our life, Lord. Father, I pray that you cause me to decrease and communicate clearly and open up your scriptures and lay them plainly in bear before those gathered here tonight.

Father, I pray saints be edified. I pray that if there's anyone here tonight that have yet come to know

Christ, that their eyes would be opened wide. They would see the evilness of the utter terribleness of their sin.

And would sprint straight towards the cross to take it there. Father, I thank you for your word.

I thank you for books like Micah that point us to these truths in scripture. Thank you most for your son.

It's in his name we pray. Amen. Stand with me, if you will, for tonight's reading of God's holy word.

We'll be reading Micah chapter seven, verses one through seven in its entirety. Woe is me, for I, like the fruit pickers, like the grape gatherers, there is not a cluster of grapes to eat or a first right fig which my soul desires.

The holy one has perished from the land and there's no upright person among men. All of them lie in wait for bloodshed.

Each of them hunts the other with a net. Concerning evil, both hands do it well.

The prince asks also the judge for a pavement. And a great man speaks the craving of his soul, so they weave it together.

The best of them is like a briar, the most upright, like a thorn hedge. The day when you post your watchman, your punishment will come.

At that time, their panic will happen. Do not believe in a neighbor. Do not have confidence in a close companion.

From her who lies in your bosom, guard the openings of your mouth. For a son treats father as a wicked fool.

Daughter rises up against her mother. Daughter -in -law against her mother -in -law. A man's enemies are the men of his own household.

And finally, verse seven. But as for me, I will watch expectantly for Yahweh, and I will wait for the

God of my salvation. My God will hear me. This is God's word. Amen, please be seated.

So tonight in our first point, what this godlessness produces in the world, we see this interjection at the first part of our pericope, this first part of our passage we're looking at tonight.

We see, woe is me. See this interjection. Micah is lamenting the loss of godliness.

It says much about the intensity of Micah's emotional suffering that the expression he uses here in verse one is found on the lips of Job.

The Hebrew expression is identical in Job, although it's translated a little bit different. It says, woe to me in Job chapter 10.

While in Job it is a cry of agony, in Micah it's a cry of desolation for the spiritual state of Jerusalem.

I want you to see the simile he uses continuing in verse one. Like the fruit pickers, like the grape gatherers, there is not a cluster of grapes to eat or a first rat fig which my soul desires.

He akins himself to a fruit picker, a grape gatherer, expecting to find leftovers, if you will, available to him.

Something that is good that is left behind that is not futile. Something that is not full of sorrow.

This imagery here the prophet uses is meant to pull us into the Old Testament law where fields were not picked clean.

Some of you might remember us discussing this law specifically when we walked through the book of Ruth. It is still in play here with this nation of Israel and with the prophet

Micah and rightfully so. So he is heralding from an agriculturally influenced part of Israel.

The lowlands that Micah came from where some of the region's farming was hinged upon. This simile or comparison here of these barren vines and branches is meant to point us to the spiritual reality of Israel, especially and specifically

Jerusalem. Micah is saying that there are none that have good fruit, none that are ripe.

There are none that are left over. All of those that were godly are no longer.

He extends his laments. He declares that there's no fruit, no good supple substance filled with the righteousness of those that worship and fear the

Lord. Philippians 1, 11 says, having being filled with the fruit of righteousness those come through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

Church, I want you to really point at this and to really look at this. It's important that we get this framed right as we continue through these next five verses.

Micah here is referring to the nation of Israel, but we can very well equate these words to Christ's bride.

And even extend it to you local assembly of saints here. So I want to pose this question to you.

Is there any fruit left? Is it picked clean?

Is none of it ripe? Do saints that walk in this

Christian life see you and cry out to God, where's your remnant?

Where's the good fruit? I see the branch, I know the vine's there, but where's the fruit left over?

I pray not, beloved. I pray that this is not said of you and I, you preachers of the word here this evening, you proclaimers of the gospel.

I want to specifically talk to you for a moment. Think on how

Micah shows us the difficulty of preaching and teaching the word may be. How men of God must preserve and prepare through affliction as the parable that Jesus shares in Matthew chapter 13, that some seeds will sprout and grow and others will not.

Matthew chapter 13, one through nine, if you're not familiar with that parable, on that day, Jesus went out to the house and was sitting by the sea.

A large crowd gathered around him. So he got into a boat and he sat down and the whole crowd was standing on the beach in front of him.

He spoke many things to them in parables. He said, behold, the sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road and birds came and they ate them up quickly.

Others fell on rocky places, not very much soil. And they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of soil.

But when the sun had risen, they were withered and scorched because they had no root, they were gone.

And others fell among the thorns and the thorns came and they choked them out. And then others fell on good soil where we're yielding a crop some hundredfold, some 60, some 30.

He says, he who has ears, let him hear. You men of your homes, you preachers, you proclaimers of the gospel.

Let us see this example in scripture here.

Let us understand and compare that with this parable of Christ that we find in Matthew chapter 13 and understand that we must preserve, that we must prepare through this affliction of how we are to preach and teach and proclaim the word.

This was late in the ministry of Micah. This was, some

Old Testament scholars think that this was a summarization, if you will, an oracle, if you will, towards the very end of his ministry.

And that this is recorded that he's at the very end and he's looking around and there's nothing there. There's nothing left.

He spent this time, he spent this energy, he spent all of these resources, he's done all of his work and there's nothing on the vine to look at.

There's no fruit that he can see. Micah doesn't stop here.

You can see in your own Bibles that are in your laps or in your hands right now that the scriptures don't stop at verse seven, they keep on going.

And we know that God's word has kept on going the 3 ,700 years later from this point as well.

I guess the point that I'm trying to make to you and it's an aside point here, it's not the main point of this, but I think it's worth saying that if there's no fruit, we don't shut our mouths and go down the road.

We continue to be faithful. We continue to preach. We continue to proclaim God's word where we are.

We see now in verse two through four, the Holy One has perished from the land and there's no upright person among men.

All of them lie in wait for bloodshed. Each one of them hunts the other with a net. Concerning evil, both hands do it well.

The prince asks also the judge for a payment and the great man speaks the craving of his soul.

So they weave it together. The best of them is like a briar, the most upright like a thorn hedge.

The day when you post your watchmen, your punishment will come. At that time, their panic will happen.

See how this lament lands Micah at verse two. He concludes that all, not a single one is left that loves the

Lord. There are no Holy Ones left. They have perished using his words. They have perished from the land.

The second part of this verse, there's no upright person among men brought to my mind Psalm chapter 14.

Psalm 14, three says, they have all turned aside. Altogether, they have become worthless.

There is no one who does good, not even one. Man in his fallen state fulfills

Micah's prophecy to the T. You hear this evening that are unregenerate.

This is you, this is you. You are not an upright person.

This very day, this is you. No man is upright here. Do you kick against the ghost?

Do you not care for God and his commands? Let today be the day that you repent.

Christ comes some 750 years after Micah, but he still came.

And he came to redeem those so that there would be Holy Ones in the land. He came to redeem those to make them upright.

He shed his blood there so there would be no more bloodshed. Unregenerate, sinner.

Trust and believe this day so that you may be saved from this calamity that we are reading about this evening.

And Saint, in case you thought you were getting off easy tonight, you're worse.

You know of the loving and kindness extended to you, yet you still, as Micah says, lie in wait for your bloodshed.

You hunt your brother with a net. Oh, how broken and fallen yet our flesh still is, even in our knowledge of Christ Jesus.

We see the very first part of verse three. You can look at it in your own Bible. It says, concerning evil, both hands do it well.

Concerning evil, both hands do it well. I think it's important to point out here that the real aim of the

Hebrew word well here is much more than just better than good. It's much more than just better than good.

Matthew Henry, in his commentary, tells us that it's meant more towards a mastery of it, making an art of it, if you will.

And I think here, to help us understand the magnitude in which Micah is pointing us at, the same word is used when speaking of the promise of God to prosper

Abraham and all of his seed. It's used in the same, this same word is used there to show him that he will have more prosperity, more children, more seed than all the sand on all of the beaches.

More prosperity, more seed than all of the stars and all of the skies. The same word here is used to show us that this mastery of it, this art of it, well, is exceedingly abundant.

This evil is rampant. You sitting here tonight with knowledge of the ways in which you sin, this evil, you do it well.

Man is an expert sinner. There is not one time that sinning has been done poorly.

Let me repeat that for you. There has not been one time ever that sinning has been done poorly.

And that is not to say that it's your aim to do it poorly, but sin is so divergent from the nature of God that in its smallest ways, in its smallest measures, in its smallest stages, is catastrophic.

It has never been done poorly, no, not even once. I want you to see that the next part we get into in verse three here, the prince asks also the judge for a payment, and a great man speaks the craving of his soul, so they weave it together.

See the honorable ones that Micah mentions here. We're talking about princes of the nation of Israel who had a covenant with God.

We're talking about the judges of God's covenant people, the most honorable among this nation, the most honorable of those that were considered

God's people were openly asking for a bribe. The most honorable among them are deceitful.

They've thrown their righteousness by the wayside for personal, for civil, for cultural gain.

Saint, have you thrown the righteousness imputed to you by the wayside? Have you thrown it by the wayside for yourself so that maybe you could climb the corporate ladder a little bit quicker?

Have you thrown your righteousness by the wayside so that maybe you wouldn't cause such a stir at work when you called that sin out?

Have you turned a blind guy to the sin that you can see happening right in front of you so that it's not really about business and I don't wanna step into that.

Christian, much like the nation of Israel, you were God's people. You were to be honorable ones.

You're not to have the same disposition that we're reading about here in verse three, asking for an open bribe, asking for a payment, trying to be paid off to the highest bidder to make whatever decision lands in your lap.

That's not how we act. It's not how what God's put before us. It's not the commands of scripture that we see.

The great man speaks the craving of his soul so they weave it together. In other translations you might read, the great man utters the evil desires of his soul.

Micah in this scathing prophecy even divulges that all of those in power in working towards the evil, desires of their soul.

Christian, you know that these desires align with the world. It aligns with the prince of the power of the air.

You know that the sinful desires of the soul are not of God. You know these to be true, Christian.

So I simply want to ask you tonight, what is your soul desire? What are the most inner working thoughts, the most inner working urges, the most inner working utterances inside of you?

What do you desire? Is it godliness? Is it righteousness?

Is it uprightness? Or is it easiness? Or is it getting by?

Or is it not making a stir? Or is it even worse than that? Those are just apathetic things that you might desire.

Does it desire evil? Does it desire sin? This evening audit your soul and if those are the desires you have inside of you, if you desire sinful, evil things more than you desire anything else, you need to consider if you truly are of the fold.

Our utterances, our desires, the murmurs of inside of us, inside of our soul, inside of our hearts, these things, if they're rotten, we're just cleaning the outside of the cup, guys.

That's all we're doing. If that's truly what's inside of you, if that is where your heart and your soul lies, repent and believe and be born again.

That's what you need to do. For those of you that have audited yourself and you think,

I don't desire those sinful things, but I wanna ask you further questions to help you understand maybe where you're at in your spiritual maturity.

What is it that you work towards? These cravings, these utterances, these murmurs, these desires, you acting upon them, what does it weave together?

If it is not working closer to or working for the kingdom of God, it is sinful.

If it is not working closer to or working for the kingdom of God, it is sinful.

That might be a hard thing to chew. It was a hard thing for me to chew coming to this passage this week.

The things in my life that aren't inherently evil, but they cause me to be apathetic towards my brother because I'm worrying about this or I really desire to do this thing and it doesn't glorify

God or this, that or the other. We can play this daisy chain game all night long, but we're not going to.

I simply want to ask you those questions. The desires that are inside of your heart don't bring you closer to the kingdom or work towards the kingdom.

They're not good. We see

Micah in verse four with this somewhat of a sarcastic tone. He proclaims the best of these are like briars and thorn hedges.

Now, children, I know that this probably seems a little bit up here, but I want you to find my eyes.

How many of you have ever seen any briars or thorns? Raise your hand. Anybody ever seen any briars or thorns, kids? Okay. You've seen some briars or thorns.

You've been playing outside and maybe come into contact with some briars or thorns. Maybe you've accidentally fell into some and were scraped by a thorn of a thorn tree or briars kind of tear up your clothes and you kind of get caught and kind of tricky and pokey.

They're not any fun, are they? They hurt. They have no other purpose but to be prickly and pokey and to hurt us, do they?

No. Well, Micah in this prophecy to Israel, Jerusalem, and Judah is saying that the best people, the best people left were like briars.

The best people left were like a whole hedge. In case you don't know, kids, that's a lot of thorns.

But children, what do you think that means about them? It means that all they did and all they were capable to do was to hurt their neighbors and to hurt their friends.

That's all that they were capable to do. That's all that they could possibly do. That's the only thing that they were able to do because they were briars and they were a hedge of thorns.

Adults, surely you felt these pricks. Surely you felt these barbs from your fellow man before.

You felt the terror of the briars as they've sunk inside you. You felt the punctures of the thorns from your fellow man.

No, not one is good, right? The second piece of verse four has some interpretation differences differentiations, excuse me, between Old Testament scholars.

Some ascribe Micah's words, the day when you post your watchman to mean that it's akin to Ezekiel chapter 33 and that the prophet

Micah would be posted as this watchman. He would be this watchman so that he may pass on the judgments of God has appointed to the nation.

That appointing per this text would directly mean that judgment would be loosed upon the nation. Thus God would be communicating through the prophet of Micah that a pending doom was at hand.

Now this can be the case with prophecy. There is a declaration of the prophecy before the pending in doom. In this instant here, the nation of Israel fell about 100 years, 97ish years later by the sword of Babylon.

So this could very well be this context, this type of interpretation that we see. And the other interpretation is less formal, less of a broad scope.

It's more of just the testing of sort of prophets as watchmen over God's people. But nonetheless, whichever way that that is intended here for our text, the message is very clear.

Your punishment will come. Look at it in your own Bible. The best of them is like a bride of the most upright of them like a thorn hedge.

The day when you post your watchman, your punishment will come. It's a very clear message. Your punishment is coming.

Your punishment is on its way. Your punishment is coming to you. Sin must be punished.

Men are punished by God for their sins, often visibly, always secretly, either in this life or after death.

Augustine said those words. How are we told they're going to be punished?

We see that they're going to be punished, but how? How are they going to be punished? How are we told what their punishment is going to be?

What should we expect here? What is the prophet trying to communicate to us? At that time, their panic will happen.

At that time, their panic will happen. For God will cause panic for them.

In other translation, this is penned as confusion. Israel's punishment would come as confusion or panic.

God gave them over to their lusts and desires. God gave them this panic. He put this panic and this confusion on their heads.

That's why we see what we've seen so far in the first four verses. This panic and confusion has produced all of these results in the nation of Israel.

This panic and confusion has caused everyone to abandon God as they know it, has caused everyone to abandon the commandments that they know, the law that they follow.

All of it is gone because they're so confused, they're so panicked that they don't know which way's up. Richard Phillips in his commentary of this part of Micah says this, in other words, the confused and increasingly miserable state of Jewish society was

God's judgment upon his people. This judgment would consist not only of invasion from without, but also decay from within.

Their society was unraveling right before them. And Micah reports that God's judgment is at work in this decline.

We've seen Micah detail this confusion from the outset of this chapter. Everyone has lost their way.

They're thinking towards godliness. No one remains that loves the Lord. They lie in wait looking for blood.

They hunt each other with nets. Judges and juries bought to the highest bidder, sewing and weaving evil together for those with the most power.

The best of them ripping apart their neighbor, thorns tearing apart the flesh. All of this is because their confusion and their panic that God has given them as judgment.

This is the constant state of the unregenerate. If you're here this evening and you're yet to be reconciled to Christ, this is how you feel 1 ,000 ,000 % of the time.

This is how you feel 1 ,000 ,000 % of the time. You're constantly confused. You're constantly in a state of panic.

This is the experience state of even the backslidden Christian. This is the experience state of those of you that might be here tonight that might be backslidden.

You might be apathetic in this walk, in this relationship, this communion you have with God.

You may be backslidden. You may be feeling this confusion. You may feel this shroud. You may feel this panic.

This is the experience of the backslidden as well. There is no up, no down. There's no right, no wrong, no good, no evil.

There's no man or no woman. There's no truth. There's no lies. I believe it's in the book of Matthew that Jesus calls the

Pharisees a brood of snakes. And I'm not trying to connect those two passages here, but I also want you to think about some things as far as a mental image for yourself.

I don't know how many of you have seen a brood of snakes in your life, but it's this gigantic tangled ball that you don't know where it starts or ends.

It's just these snakes crawling all over each other. Hundreds and thousands of these things.

That's what this looks like. It's this tangled mess. There's no up.

There's no down. There's no truth. There's no right. There's no wrong. There's no lies. There's no man.

There's no women. And there's just whatever we want to navel gaze at next.

That is the judgment that God gave them over to immediately. Now we come to verses five and six.

Do not believe in a neighbor. Do not have confidence in a close companion. From her who lies in your bosom, guard the openings of your mouth.

In verse six, her son treats father as a wicked fool. Daughter rises up against mother.

Daughter -in -law against her mother -in -law. A man's enemies are the men of his own household.

A man's enemies are the men of his own household. Micah continues in this utter confusion and panic.

This confusion divides households, divides cities, divides nations.

If one is not found in God, you cannot believe in them. You cannot have confidence in them. You cannot have confidence in their actions.

You can't have confidence in their words. You can't have confidence in their character. You can't have confidence in their fruitfulness.

You can't have confidence in their righteousness or their uprightness. You can't have confidence in their motives or their desires.

You can't have confidence in these things if they do not believe and belong to God. This confusion

Micah has brought forth from the whole head of the nation down to a single man's home.

Mothers and daughters, daughters -in -laws and mothers -in -laws, sons and fathers, husbands and wives, parents and children, households that are enemies.

Think about how backward and panicked one must be to turn on their own home.

Yet all of this judgment is judgment that God gives to them. He hands them over to the desires that they utter.

He hands them over to the evening in which their masters in and of. Leslie C.

Allen, an Old Testament scholar from Britain, pens this. Life is now seen as a battle in which one can succeed only by plotting against his neighbor.

Micah describes the state of human society in vivid terms. Man in sin is like an animal crouching to spring for the kill or like an assailant poised to attack.

Instead of seeking the good of his neighbor, everyone is seeking to take advantage of others, even to the point of death.

Allen writes that members of the covenant community of Israel treat one another like warring enemies and wild animals.

Gone is the fellowship that was based on traditional ties and upheld conservative values.

Society has disintegrated into a struggling mass of hostile individuals.

Does this remind you of anything? Does this sound familiar, church? Does it remind you of the current state of affairs in nations abroad that claim in God we trust?

Make this clear, Saint, I am not here tonight to write or to posture a full expose on this country's shortcomings or any other country for that matter.

I'm here to help you see that this behavior, this disposition, this unruliness, this lack of fruit is nothing new.

3 ,700 years ago, Michael was lamenting about the same thing that you and I look outside these doors and lament about right now.

3 ,700 years ago, the exact same things were happening that we look out and say, how have we gotten this bad? All of what we've read here in these first six verses tonight can describe a fair bit of the outside world.

You and I can sit back and point to different verses among this first six of chapter seven and describe some sin to some political party, another to a group of Scientologists, another to the pro -aborts, another to the leftovers to the local generates and a lot to the president, but that's not the point here.

The point being made here isn't about what's going on out there.

Micah makes the point in verse seven. Look in your Bibles with me, but ask for me. I will watch expectantly for Yahweh.

I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. This brings us to our second point tonight.

What godlessness produces in the Christian. This prophet looks inward upon seeing all of this desolation, all of this sinfulness of his surroundings.

What will he do? He will watch expectantly for Yahweh. He's looking for Yahweh, knowing that Yahweh will come and will judge, knowing that Yahweh will gather his remnant, knowing that Yahweh will redeem this sinful nation.

Why? How does he know it? Why does he know it? Well, where is there to look?

Where else is there for him to look to? There's no one to have confidence in. There's no one to trust.

There's nobody that's not your enemy. There's no one that's upright. There's no one that's righteous. There's no neighbor that is good.

Who is protecting everyone around them? No one. But that's not the main reason.

The main reason is because of his promises. Now, next week we're gonna get into more about the confidence that Micah has in God and how he knows that God will hear him.

But getting into that more, the second part of this verse, and really expounding on this verse even more next week, and I don't wanna leave you on a cliffhanger here, but I want you to see that all of this recognition of no upright person being out there, no fruit on the vine, everyone trying to kill each other, this crazy mass of lunatics out there that they don't know up from down,

Micah looks inward and upward. This waiting that Micah has, this watching expectantly for Yahweh that Micah has is not done sitting on your hands either.

The prophet Micah doesn't stop here. As you can see in your scriptures, he didn't stop waiting on the God of the Bible either.

This Christian life isn't one sitting around waiting for God to do something and then us following suit. We can scan the scriptures, we can find his commands replete with telling us to act.

Micah didn't come to this last oracle preached and say, God, they hate you.

None of your people remain. So I'm gonna hang it up and wait on you to come back.

I'm gonna hang it up and wait on you to wipe them out and I'll hit the next lot. No, he did his duty.

He continued to preach. He continued proclaiming the oracles of God. He continued in his faithfulness.

So what can we learn from this? In light of this, what must our duty be?

As we end our time of gathering together this evening, beloved, I want to leave you with these five uses.

Use one, we must tend the vineyards. We must tend the vineyards.

Christ is the branch. Christians are his fruit. Vines need pruning and plucking.

Grapes and figs need the living water to grow and produce more grapes and figs.

This must be our aim, especially as pastors and preachers and men in the home.

Men, you are the priest of your household. Tend to the vines that the Lord has given you.

Tend to the vines that the Lord has given you. Use two, we mustn't not hunt our brothers and sisters.

We mustn't not hunt our brothers and sisters. Well, pastor, what does this look like?

This looks like seeking to do good to them. It's not casting nets upon them.

It's not trying to catch them doing whatever it is, feel that we think that they may be doing.

It's positive assumption. It's assuming positive intent. It's API. I say it around my house all the time.

You ask my wife, she's gonna be like, ooh, he says API all the time. It's about assuming positive intent.

You're not prescribing methods. You're not prescribing sin. You're not prescribing motives. You seek to do good to your brothers and sisters.

It's showing grace. It's letting love cover a multitude of sins. It's preaching the gospel to them.

It's admonishing the unruly. It's 1st Thessalonians 5 .14. It's admonishing the unruly. It's encouraging the faint hearted.

It's helping the weak. It's being patient with all. We must act in that way and not hunt our brothers and sisters.

Thirdly, we must repent and repent quickly. Thirdly, we must repent and repent quickly.

Evil desires swell up in us because the old man likes to hang on in every crevice of our soul that can be.

The desires of our flesh must be cut off at the root and the head. We must quell our flesh and consistently and constantly repent.

Saint those stray thoughts, those desires that you have that you don't want to be loving to your brother, those desires that you have, those urges that are sinful in your heart.

Although they are the minority, they still must be repented of. They must be quelled. They must be squashed. They must be smashed.

They must be cut off at the root and the head. We must repent and repent quickly.

Fourth, Israel had lost their way. Israel had lost their way.

They didn't know their covenant God anymore. So fourthly, we must always go to the word of truth.

We must always go to the word of truth. The confusion and panic that was rampant in Israel was in large part due to the word of God not being read or valued.

These people had an intentional specific covenant with Yahweh that their forefathers had known and had cherished, but they left it by the wayside, cast it away as worthless things of their life.

I don't need that anymore. I know what to do. I know better.

I want to do this, and I'm going to satisfy myself and my own gut and my own belly. Saints, you and I must hold this scripture, this revealed will of God near and dear, for it is the instruction to our lives and our panic button in times of need.

Fifth, we must always look to God first. We must always look to God first.

We see these six verses here in Micah chapter seven, and it's this polemic here.

This is detailing of the nation of Israel and how wicked they are and how they're so confused and they're so panicked.

They don't know which way's up. In all of these ways, they looked to their left, or they looked to their right, or they looked inward, or they looked outward, but they never looked.

They didn't go to the law. They didn't go to God.

They didn't go to know him, to know what he desired for them. They didn't go to seek what he wanted them to do.

They didn't go to him to know, God, what do I do? God, how do

I rid myself of this sin that you've given me power over? God, how do

I live in a way that honors and glorifies you more? They didn't ask any of these questions.

They didn't care. They didn't go to God first. God must be the first and foremost place we have confidence.

It must be how we acclimate our lives to living in light of the

Christian life. And finally tonight, for those of you that read these scriptures, and you read through the first six verses here, and like I've said before in the sermon, it sounds like your heart.

It sounds like your soul. It sounds like your inward desires. It sounds like I'm just like these people.

I'm so confused and I'm so panicked and I don't know what to do. I don't know which ways up. I don't know what step to take.

I have no confidence in anything. I'm just, I'm thorns. I hurt everyone around me.

I lash out at them. I think only the poems around me are doing evil.

What does Micah tell us to do? He watches for God.

You can't watch for God unless you look for God. You can't watch for God unless you look for God.

So unregenerate tonight, you must look upward. You must look to God and desire

Christ. You must desire love. You must desire

His ways to be saved, to be reconciled and brought out of this confusion and panic that rules your life.

Heavenly Father, you are holy, holy, holy.

Father, I thank you for what you've given us here tonight. I pray that saints were edified tonight by this text.

That they would see these things evident in scripture and be able to apply these things to their lives.

That if someone here tonight is yet to be reconciled to you, Father, that this open their eyes to their sin, that they're realizing for the first time that they are covered in confusion and panic.

And Father, for the saints in this body tonight, the saints that are here tonight, that they would be edified this

Lord, knowing that their desires are for you, but they must squash those that aren't.

They must love the brothers beside them. They must chase after righteousness and uprightness,

Father. Father, I thank you for this word. Thank you most for your son.