Wait for God

Well, good morning, friends. Let's turn to God's Word. So, would you turn with me to Micah chapter 6?

Micah 6 · chapter mention

We are picking up our series in Micah this morning in verse 9.

In verse 9 of Micah chapter 6, and we're going to look through Micah 7, verse 7.

Micah 6 · chapter mention Micah 7:7

As we come to the Bible this morning, it's good to remember that the chapter and verse numbers

in our kind of English translations were not part of the original text. Those were added later.

So, sometimes the flow of thought in a biblical passage doesn't always line up exactly with our

chapter and verse numbers. And that's the case with our passage today. So, we're going to pick up with

the second half of chapter 6 and then go into the first half of chapter 7. That's page 731 in the

Pew Bible if you want to follow along there. Kevin will have it on the screens as we read through it

the first time, but it'd be good to have it open and just refer to it as we look at the text throughout

our time together. So, Micah 6, 9 through 7, 7. Let me pray as we come to God's Word.

Our Father in heaven, we draw near to you this morning with confidence because, as we have sung,

we have a great high priest, our Lord Jesus Christ, who stands, Father, at your right hand,

interceding for us, making a way for us sinners to draw near to your throne. And Father, as we draw

near in the name of Jesus through his work, we find that your throne is a throne of grace,

a throne of forgiveness, a throne of mercy. So, we come to your throne of grace and we ask for your help

now as we come to your Word. Would your Holy Spirit, who inspired this Word, be working in our hearts

to bring conviction about these things, a deeper sense of these things in our hearts and our lives,

so that we can love you and love one another more fully as you have created us to do. We pray this in

Jesus' name. Amen. All right, Micah 6, 9. The voice of the Lord cries to the city, and it is sound wisdom

to fear your name. Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it. Can I forget any longer the treasures

of wickedness in the house of the wicked and the scant measure that is accursed? Shall I acquit the man

with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights? Your rich men are full of violence.

Your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

Therefore, I strike you with a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins.

You shall eat but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger within you. You shall put away but not

preserve, and what you preserve I will give to the sword. You shall sow but not reap. You shall tread

olives but not anoint yourselves with oil. You shall tread grapes but not drink wine. For you have kept

the statutes of Omri and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you have walked in their councils.

That I may make you a desolation and your inhabitants a hissing, so you shall bear the scorn of my people.

Woe is me! For I have become, as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been

gleaned, there is no cluster to eat, no first ripe fig that my soul desires. The godly has perished from the

earth, and there is no one upright among mankind. They all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the

other with a net. Their hands are on what is evil to do it well. The prince and the judge ask for a bribe,

and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul. Thus they weave it together. The best of them

is like a briar, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, of your punishment

has come. Now their confusion is at hand. Put no trust in a neighbor. Have no confidence in a friend.

Guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms. For the son treats the father with

contempt. The daughter rises up against her mother. The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

A man's enemies are the men of his own house. But as for me, I will look to the Lord. I will wait

for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Well, it's often been said that God's word

is often like a mirror. God's word shows us not just what God is like, but like a mirror it holds

up before us what we are really like. Shows us our true state. Now we live in a time when authenticity,

you might say, we live in a time when authenticity, when knowing and kind of living out of what we

perceive to be our true self, we live in a time when that's seen as one of, if not the highest virtue

we could attain, right? And scripture comes to us and says that it can not just help us in that

pursuit, but it can actually bring us to the place of deepest authenticity. It can actually show us who

we really are. Because here in scripture, here is our creator holding up before us this mirror,

showing us who we really are, showing us who we are really meant to be.

And the first part of the answer that the Bible gives about who we really are, as it holds this

mirror up to us, is that we are created in God's own image. That God has created us in his own image.

That we as human beings are not simply the product of time and matter and chance, but that we're

purposefully made and we're actually wonderfully made to reflect God's very self.

So the Bible comes to us and says that there's almost no greater dignity that we could imagine.

And we have it, that we're made in God's image.

But the Bible doesn't stop there. The Bible also explains what went wrong.

Because after all, things aren't the way they're supposed to be. We're not the way we're supposed to be.

You know, we were created in God's image to love him and to love one another, and yet we don't love God

with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And we don't love our neighbor as ourself.

And this problem is what the Bible calls sin.

So if we're really going to understand ourselves according to the mirror of God's word,

we have to hold these two things together.

That we're created in God's image with incomparable beauty and worth,

and we're also fallen and sinful. It's as if we're kind of bent in on ourselves.

And we don't love the things that we're supposed to love, at least not rightly.

And we don't desire the things that we're supposed to desire, at least not in the right order,

in the right proportion.

And of course, it's that second part of what the Bible shows us,

the part about sin,

that we don't really like all that much

as humans.

And you know, for the past few hundred years, culturally and intellectually,

that's the part that we've been trying to kind of write out of our human story.

We've been trying to understand ourselves without that critical piece.

But you know, trying to understand ourselves,

trying to understand humanity without a robust understanding of sin,

it just doesn't work.

You know, imagine going to see a counselor

because you're trying to work through some anger issues.

You know, you always find yourself short-tempered or irritable.

You're even losing your cool at times, you know, at work or with your kids.

You just don't know where it's coming from.

So you're like, man, I gotta go see a therapist.

So you go to the counselor,

and the counselor starts to ask you some questions.

And you know, it comes to light that you've kind of suffered

all these terrible losses in your life.

And you've just kind of ignored them.

You haven't really squared up with them and acknowledged those losses

and really grieved them.

And then your counselor one day looks at you and says,

you know, I think I might know a part of where your anger's coming from.

I think you need to grieve these very real losses in your life.

But then what if in response, you just shut the whole conversation down?

You're just like, no, no, no, that's not true.

None of those things are real.

None of those things matter.

And you just sort of charge on, right?

Well, obviously, you're never going to understand yourself or your anger

unless you come to terms with those things, right?

But that's a bit like what we've been trying to do as humans

when we try to understand our humanity

without any reference to our fallen human nature.

You know, we want to understand what makes us tick

and why we do the things we do.

But we keep turning a blind eye to this very real,

very glaring part of our own history

of what makes us who we are,

whether we like it or not.

And so much of what God commissioned the Old Testament prophets to do

was to confront people with this reality of their sin.

The gift of the prophets is that they won't let us keep living in self-delusion.

They won't let us continue to hide behind our veils of inauthenticity.

They call us out into the open.

And that's what our passage here in Micah, chapter 6 and chapter 7, is doing.

Micah 6 · chapter mention

Micah's holding this mirror up to God's people.

And through Micah, God's showing his people their sin.

And of course, we can look into this mirror and we can turn away.

We can turn away like the person who refuses to listen to their counselor,

refuses to deal with all the hard and painful stuff in their life.

We can just run away.

But how foolish would that be?

Micah says right at the start of our passage,

the voice of the Lord cries to the city.

And then he says,

it's sound wisdom to fear your name.

It's sound wisdom to be in awe of God

and to listen to what he says.

So we can choose.

We can choose the path of foolishness

or we can choose the path of wisdom.

Why don't we look at what Micah has to say?

Why don't we look at what Micah has to say to us about our sin?

What would be wise for us to listen to and to understand?

Well, our text actually has three parts.

And in the first part,

Micah shows us the gravity of our sin.

The gravity of our sin.

This is verses 9 through 16 of chapter 16.

This is the second half of chapter 16.

Micah drills down into the gravity of our sin.

And again, as we said,

in this section, Micah holds up a mirror to his contemporaries.

And what shows up in that mirror as he holds it up?

Well, in verses 10 through 12,

kind of the first part of this section,

we see that the problem that shows up

is what we might call economic injustice.

Commercial dishonesty.

Specifically, in the marketplace,

the merchants and business owners,

they're using false scales and false weights

to cheat and to deceive

and to get rich at other people's expense.

Imagine coming to the marketplace

after a long week of work

or maybe even a long season of work,

of the harvest season.

You've come with what you've grown

and harvested on your farm

that you and your family have spent

weeks and months gathering

and packing up and bringing into the city.

And you put your produce on the scale

and it reads 500 pounds.

So the merchant pays you 500 pounds worth,

you know, whatever that would be.

But what if the scale was rigged?

You know, what if the scale was rigged

to actually read 20% less than the actual weight?

You know, the scale said 500 pounds,

but it was supposed to read what?

600 pounds.

But you only got paid for 500.

And what if that just kept happening again and again?

And all the merchant class are working together.

So you can't go to another stall

and sell there instead

because they're working the same system.

And then you go and you complain to the authorities,

but you realize they're getting a part of the profits.

So they just ignore your complaints

and say, forget about it.

That's just business as usual.

Just take what you can get and be happy.

But what does God say?

Does he say forget about it?

It's just business as usual?

No.

God says, can I forget?

Can I forget these treasures of wickedness?

Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales?

And the answer is no.

It's impossible for God to forget or to acquit

because of who God is,

because of his holiness

and God's utter truthfulness and integrity.

He cannot forget

and he will not acquit.

The way that they're cheating each other

and stealing and lying from one another,

all of this is a deep offense

to the God who created them

and who created humans in his image, remember.

These humans that are being cheated

and scammed and oppressed,

they bear God's image.

It's an offense to God to treat them that way.

And God says he will not allow it to continue forever.

Now, if you and I were to walk the streets of Jerusalem with Micah,

would we see what God sees?

Would we notice what God notices?

Or would we be just like the upper class?

Would we just shrug our shoulders and say,

that's how business is done.

What can you do?

You see, the funny thing,

the tragic thing for us as humans

is that we have a tendency

to not take sin very seriously.

There are all sorts,

in whatever culture we find ourselves in,

there's all sorts of just respectable sins,

you know,

things that just culturally are like,

that's fine.

That's just the way it's done.

Things that we just don't think are all that bad.

But Micah here wants us to see the gravity of sin.

It's not just skimming a little off the top.

It's not just how business is done.

It's lies and violence

against a person made in God's image.

Now,

maybe you aren't engaged

in corrupt financial practices.

But are you and I

willing to take a look

at how we go about our work

and how we approach our finances

and ask,

God, is there anything here I'm missing?

You know, I read a statistic this week

that something like

10% of the world's population

owns 90% of the world's wealth.

Is there something we're missing?

Am I excusing or minimizing something

that's actually dishonoring to you, God?

Sin is serious.

And we have to treat it that way.

And in verses 13 through 16,

God shows the people

that judgment's coming.

And the key word in verse 13 and verse 16

that kind of bookends

this second half of our section here,

verses 13 and 16,

is the word desolation.

You know, the people keep amassing wealth

through their unjust practices,

but God says the day is coming

when you'll be desolate,

when you'll be empty.

You shall eat and not be satisfied,

and there shall be hunger within you.

You shall put away, right?

You'll save things,

but it won't preserve.

And what you try to preserve,

I'm going to give to the sword.

And what you shall sow,

but not reap.

You'll tread olives,

but not anoint yourselves with oil.

You'll tread grapes,

but not drink wine.

It's just images of futility,

of the created order

not working the way it's supposed to work.

Things breaking down.

And for the Old Testament people of God,

what this meant was exile.

All the wealth,

all the fields,

all the pleasure that they had amassed,

God said it will collapse in a day

when Babylon comes

and topples Jerusalem.

That's what verse 16

is getting at at the end.

You might have wondered

who Omri and Ahab are.

Well, Omri and Ahab

were wicked rulers

from a generation earlier

in Israel's northern kingdom.

The people in the north

a generation ago

followed in those king's footsteps,

and God judged them,

and they were sent into exile.

And here Micah is saying

to the people

a generation later

in the southern kingdom,

you're just like them.

You might think you're better,

but you're not.

Your sins are just as serious,

just as grave,

and exile will come for you too.

How about us, friends?

Do we think sin

is that serious?

Serious enough

that God would be right

to strip everything away from us

because of it?

Do we think sin is that grave,

that serious,

that God is right to judge it?

You know, this is perhaps

the greatest sign

that we don't really think

sin is all that serious,

all that grave,

is that we don't actually think

God is within his rights

to judge it.

We think God should just overlook it

and just forget about it.

But if sin really is

an offense against God,

the infinitely holy

and infinitely loving God,

the infinitely worthy God,

and if sin is against

God's image bearers,

then we have to agree

that the penalty for sin

must be massive.

the just penalty

for sinning

against an infinitely

worthy God

is an infinitely

weighty penalty.

So where do we go?

Where do we go to find help?

How do we get out

from under that weight?

Right?

Well, that brings us

to the second part

of our passage.

Chapter 7,

verses 1 through 6.

After showing us

the gravity of sin,

Micah goes on

in this next section

to show us

the extent of sin,

the extent of it.

In verse 1 of chapter 7,

Micah begins

with sort of a short allegory,

with a short kind

of illustration.

He sort of pictures himself

like a harvester

going out into the fields

looking for leftover fruit

along the edges

of the field.

You see,

in ancient Israel,

the harvesters

were commanded

to sort of leave fruit

along the edges

of the field,

to leave some of the crops

and produce

along the edges

of the fields

so that anyone afterwards

could go and kind of harvest

and gather something

for themselves.

But when Micah

goes out into the field,

he finds nothing.

It's all gone.

There's not a single fig

to be found.

And then in verses 2 through 4,

he gives the interpretation

of this short allegory.

And what is the interpretation?

What's the word picture

all about?

Verse 2,

The godly have perished

from the earth,

and there is no one upright

among mankind.

In other words,

Micah is looking for someone,

for anyone,

who might be able to help.

Someone who's truly upright.

Someone who's genuinely righteous.

And he finds no one.

In other words,

what Micah sees

is that sin

isn't just a serious problem.

It's everybody's problem.

Sin reaches into

every human structure,

every human relationship,

every human heart.

Micah goes on to paint

a pretty bleak picture

of what the powerful people

are doing in his day,

the princes and judges,

the ones who are supposed

to be protecting the people

and upholding justice.

Turns out they're doing

just the opposite.

They're not protectors.

Micah says they're hunters.

They're weaving nets

nets of lies

and serving their own interests

at the expense of others.

Micah says the best of them

is like a briar.

They're like a tangle of thorns.

You know,

the princes and the judges,

they were people

you were supposed to be able

to run to

and get help.

But Micah says,

go ahead and run to them.

You'd just be running

into a bunch of thorns.

But this corruption

among the powerful

has gone down

into every level of society,

Micah says.

Look at verses 5 and 6.

What a sad

and heart-wrenching picture.

No one can be trusted.

Not a neighbor,

not a friend,

not even your own spouse

or children.

It's just a picture

of anarchy,

of total breakdown.

So what's Micah's point?

Is he just like

having a particularly bad day?

Did he like

wake up on the wrong side of bed

and he's just like,

I'm done with humanity.

They're all a bunch of,

you know,

no goods.

Was he just exaggerating

for effect,

you know?

Well, I think Micah's point

is that ultimately

the stain of sin

affects everyone.

We can't just point

to those people

or to those people

or to those people

or to that group of people

or to that particular group

of people

as the really bad ones,

right?

No, the extent of sin

is universal.

We're all infected.

Now, thanks to God's

common grace,

we are all not as bad

as we could be.

But every part of us

is bent by sin.

The corruption of sin

goes the whole way down.

And that means

we ultimately can't look

at the end of the day

to our princes and judges

to rescue us.

And that means

we ultimately can't look

to our friends

and our neighbors

to rescue us.

And that means

we ultimately can't look

to our spouses

or our families

to rescue us.

And that means

we ultimately can't look

to our own selves

to rescue us.

The more we try

to get those relationships

to be our Savior,

the more disappointed

and broken we will be.

So where does that leave us?

Is that the end?

Is that all the Bible

has to say about who we are?

Is that all the mirror

shows us?

That we're created

in God's image

and that we're fallen

into sin?

That we're beautiful

but broken?

Is that the final word?

Well, actually,

there's a third part

to the story.

We humans are created

in God's image

and we humans

have fallen into sin,

to desperate,

serious,

universal,

grave sin.

But third,

God has acted

to redeem us

and to repair

what's been broken.

But this doesn't come

from us,

this healing,

this repair,

this forgiveness.

it comes from God.

In verse 7

of Micah chapter 7,

Micah 7 · chapter mention

the last sort of verse

that we're looking at

this morning,

after recounting

the kind of grim reality

of sin for 14 verses,

after abandoning

any hope

of finding rescue

in sinful humanity,

Micah says in verse 7,

but as for me,

I'll look to the Lord.

I'll wait

for the God

of my salvation

and my God

will hear me.

And so,

after showing us

the gravity of sin

and the extent

of sin,

Micah here is pointing us

to the answer

for sin.

To the answer.

And the answer

for sin

doesn't come

from any human source.

How could it, right?

If you and I

both can't swim

and we fall

into the deep end

of the pool,

the last thing

that we should do

is cling to each other

for rescue.

Right?

That's not going to work.

We need a rescue

that comes from

outside of us.

So where do we look?

You know,

and this is the other tragedy

of human existence.

Not only do we just minimize

and downplay

and pretend

and just sort of

act like sin

isn't really there,

the other tragedy

is that

we look everywhere

for rescue

except for the one place

where it can be found.

We'll look anywhere

and everywhere

for an answer

except for the one place

where God says,

here's the answer.

Here it is

because I love you.

And where is it found?

It's found in God himself.

Micah knew enough

about God's character

and God's nature

to know

that his only hope

in the midst

of his just sin-sick world,

his only hope

was to look to God

and to wait

for the God

of his salvation.

He knew enough

about God

to know

that if he waited

on that God,

God would answer.

After all,

wasn't this the God

who heard the cry

of the people

in Egypt

when they were in slavery

and who came

and eventually set them free?

Wasn't this the God

who led them

through 40 years

in the wilderness

and then finally brought them

into the promised land?

Wasn't this the God

who answered their prayers

again and again

when they were oppressed

and subjected to pagan rulers

and foreign gods?

Wasn't this the God

who did all this

even though the people

were sinful

and rebellious

and didn't deserve

any of God's favor?

Hadn't he shown himself

to be gracious

time and time again?

And so Micah looks

to this God

and says,

I'll wait for you.

I'll entrust myself

into your hands, God.

And then he ends

with this just amazing prayer

of simplicity

and faith

and confidence.

He says,

my God will hear me.

But friends,

how much more

can we say the same thing?

How much more ought we

to have the same

kind of turn

and response

as Micah

knowing what we know

from the New Testament?

Micah could look back

to the Exodus,

back to the wilderness,

back to the period

of the judges

and the kings.

But we can look back

to the very heart

of the gospel itself.

And what is the heart

of the gospel?

What is the very good news

at the center

of the Bible?

Well, we've been

walking through

that story

really all morning

if you think about it.

that there's one God

who's holy

and good

and this one God

made all things

and made you and me

in his image

to love him

and to serve him

and to know

infinite delight

in his presence

with one another.

But rather than

turning to God

in obedience

and in love,

we've turned away

from God

in sin

to be our own rulers

and to live without God

in the world

that God has made.

And because God

is holy and good,

that turning away

in rebellion

deserves punishment.

Because God

is so holy and good,

he won't leave

our rebellion

unjudged.

But in love,

God makes a way

to both exercise

his just judgment

and to forgive

his fallen image bearers.

How does God do it?

God becomes

a human being.

And in Jesus Christ,

God lives

a sinless human life.

And then on the cross,

he dies

in the place

of sinners

taking the wrath

that their sins deserve.

And then three days later,

Jesus Christ

was raised from the dead

to demonstrate

that his sacrifice

for sins

was complete

and perfect

and that it paid

for all of the sins

for everyone

who would turn

and trust in him.

Jesus Christ

is raised from the grave

to give forgiveness

of sins

and new spiritual life

to all who believe

in him.

And Jesus

then ascends

to the Father's right hand

and he now

intercedes

for all

who come to him

and he promises

to return one day

to make all things new

and to release creation

from its bondage

to decay

and to establish

the renewed heavens

and earth

free from sin

and death

once and for all.

Friends,

if we really want

to know ourselves,

if you really want

to know yourself,

don't look to yourself.

look to the Lord

Jesus Christ

because in him

we see what's

really true about us

that we're forgiven

sinners

made in God's image

but loved

and the recipients

of God's undeserved grace.

That's who you really are.

And if you look

at Jesus Christ,

you see that he will

one day release us

from all brokenness

and sin.

And if you know yourself

in light of Jesus

as a forgiven sinner

loved by God,

then you know

what you can do?

You can take stock

of even your worst

flaws and failures.

You can really look

at those in the mirror

and not be crushed

by it

because you know

that you're forgiven

and loved.

And so you can look

at those sins

in the mirror

and you can say,

those don't really

define me.

And you can turn

away from them.

And you cannot be

defined by those habits

and patterns

and desires.

And you can do

the hard thing

of asking for help

to break out

of destructive cycles

of sin

and selfishness.

and you can be

open

and you can be

transparent.

And you can let

your life

be found

in the love of God

for you

in Christ.

And you can walk

in holiness

and obedience

before him.

Let's pray together.

Oh, Father in heaven,

that is what we long

for,

to be free

from sin

and to walk

in the freedom

of holiness,

righteousness.

But, Lord,

we know that

in order to get there,

we sometimes have

to take a hard look

in the mirror.

Father,

perhaps your spirit's

been doing that

this morning

in our midst.

Perhaps in our hearts

you've been putting

your finger on sins

that need to be confessed

and turned away from.

Perhaps this morning

your spirit's been

working in the hearts

of those

who don't know you

and who've been

trying to

live under

their own righteousness

and their own steam

and their own identity

O Lord,

would your spirit

come

and shine his light

into those places

of our hearts

and then,

spirit,

would you turn

our eyes to Christ

and help us

to see the forgiveness

of our sins.

O Lord,

grant saving faith

to those

who are far from you

this morning.

And Lord,

by your Holy Spirit

in us,

would we

put sin to death

and walk

in the newness

of life

that you have

given us.

Pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.