Micah 1 & 2

Micah 1 and 2.

It's on page 776.

Let me start with this quote from the New York Times.

! It's written by a man called Peter Olofsson.

!

As a god, I can be a devil.

When I got up on the wrong side of the bed,

when I got up on the wrong side of the bed on a recent Sunday,

I took it out on my little worshippers in the computer game.

I sought to create rock slides on the hillside above their little community.

When that proved ineffective, I dropped boulders and trees directly on their houses.

When the roofs crashed in and the occupants ran screaming from the wreckage,

I picked them up and threw them about like little dolls.

And then I dropped rocks on them too.

And that was just for the people who believed in me.

I picked up a hermit who didn't believe and dumped him unceremoniously into the ocean.

Is God like that?

Is God like this guy, Peter Olofsson?

Unpredictable, moody, gets up the wrong side of the bed.

Does he treat us as puppets, as playthings?

Does God play games with us?

Is God capricious?

Is God arbitrary?

What is God like?

Does God get into a mood, fly into a rage?

Does God get angry?

It's what the people were asking in Micah's day.

It's what the people were asking.

Look at verses 6 and 7 of chapter 2.

You're going to need your Bibles open.

Do not preach thus they preach.

One should not preach of such things.

Disgrace will not overdeek it.

Should this be said, O house of Jacob?

Has the Lord grown impatient?

It's a very contemporary question.

It's not the God I believe in, chapter 2, verse 6.

Is that the God of the Bible you're talking about?

What's he like?

Well, Micah wants to tell you, he's written his prophecy to tell you what God is like.

In fact, the name Micah means, doesn't it?

Who is like Jehovah?

It's a shortened version of who is like Jehovah.

What is God like?

And Micah is going to tell us what God is like.

It starts in chapter 1.

And I think the best way of describing chapter 1 is an avalanche of judgment.

Just look at the opening verses of chapter 1.

I don't know if you've ever seen an avalanche.

It must be terrifying to be caught up in one.

Imagine being engulfed and swept away in an avalanche.

It's a terrifying thought, but that's the imagery in this chapter.

If you look at the opening verses, verse 3, it all starts with God.

And Micah sees him swooping down from heaven.

And look, he says, for behold, the Lord is coming out of his place.

It's not the arrival of some denominational committee.

This is the Lord himself who's coming from his dwelling place.

He comes down and he treads not on the high places of the earth.

Verse 4, the mountains will melt under him.

The valleys will split open like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.

This is the Lord himself who's coming.

And he's coming like an avalanche, threatening to sweep away everything before him.

Everything that's in his path.

Look at verses 6 and 7.

Therefore, I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards.

And I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations.

All her carved images should be beaten to pieces.

All her wages should be burned with fire.

Her idols I will lay waste.

But from the fee of the prostitute she gathered them.

And to the fee of the prostitute they shall return.

Historically, the kingdom's been split into the ten tribes in the north, which are called Israel.

And the two tribes in the south, which are called Judah and Samaria.

Samaria is the capital of Israel.

And Jerusalem is the capital of Judah.

And God is coming to judge.

And he's going to sweep away Samaria.

So that all that is left is a heap of rubble.

I'll pour her stones down into a valley.

I'll uncover her foundations.

He's going to beat the carved images into pieces.

Her wages should be burned with fire.

Her idols will lay waste.

And here is God coming, sweeping down in judgment.

Micah actually saw this happen, 722 BC.

The Assyrians came and they destroyed Samaria.

And the ten tribes went and disappeared off the face of the earth.

And God is coming, Micah says.

And notice what he says in verse 9.

This avalanche of judgment that sweeps away the northern tribes.

It sweeps away Israel.

It's coming right to the doorsteps of the capital city, Jerusalem.

Do you see that in verse 9?

It's reached to the gate of my people to Jerusalem.

What can halt it?

What can halt the tidal wave of God's judgment?

What can save you from this avalanche of destruction that's bearing down on us?

And that's the question Micah is wanting to raise in the minds of these people.

He's saying there's an avalanche of judgment that is coming your way.

He's saying the Assyrians are coming.

And of course all of this is happening is in the political realm.

That is how God uses the nations and rulers as his instruments.

And how this works out in reality is that the Assyrians are coming.

They're the dominant world power of the day.

And they'll sweep away Samaria.

But it's God's judgment.

God's judgment through the Assyrians.

And they're coming to Judea, to Jerusalem.

They're heading your way.

And Micah is saying they're going to end up on your doorstep.

And what is going to stop them from destroying you?

The background to all this is in 2 Kings 15 to 20.

You've got it there in verse 1.

There's a summary in verse 1.

The word of the Lord came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

And Micah prophesied during the reign of those three kings throughout 40 years.

But 100 years after Micah's day, after Micah was long dead and buried,

Jeremiah refers to him.

And Jeremiah himself is in trouble, in exile, in Babylon.

And the authorities want to execute Jeremiah.

They don't like what he's saying.

They don't like his message.

And so Jeremiah is on the point of being executed.

And Jeremiah and his supporters, they cite Micah in their defense.

Let me point that out to you.

In Jeremiah 26, verse 16.

Jeremiah 26:16

Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets,

This man does not deserve the sentence of death.

For he's spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.

They're standing up for Jeremiah.

They're defending Jeremiah against the death sentence that's hanging over his head.

And certain elders of the land arose and spoke to the assembled people, saying, Micah of Moresheth.

Remember him?

He prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah.

It's 100 years previously.

If you read the chapters in 2 Kings, there's no mention of Micah.

Isaiah features, but not Micah.

But here, 100 years later, there's mention of this man.

Micah.

And he prophesied to all the people of Judah,

Thus says the Lord of hosts, Zion shall be plowed like a field.

Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

Did Hezekiah, king of Judah, and all Judah put him to death?

Did he not fear the Lord and entreat the favor of the Lord?

And did not the Lord relent of the disaster that he pronounced against them?

But we are about to bring this great disaster on ourselves.

Do you see what they're saying?

In Jeremiah, exactly the same as Micah said, there's an avalanche of judgment coming upon us.

And who can halt the avalanche?

How can we escape the judgment of God that is coming down upon us?

The culmination of 40 years of Micah's ministry,

under Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, led really to a renewal,

to a revival in the days of Hezekiah.

It was the highlight of Micah's work, 40 years preaching.

And he didn't see very much by way of return,

and the people didn't take him very seriously.

But right at the end of his ministry, under the reign of King Hezekiah,

the people repented.

And they heard the word of God, and they came back.

And there was renewal.

They turned back to God, and the avalanche of God's judgment was halted.

Right at the very gates of Jerusalem, God's word came.

You see, Micah isn't mentioned in two kings, which is interesting.

And it's interesting because the word of the Lord is not really about Micah.

Dale Ralph Davis has got a really great commentary on Micah.

Listen to what he says about how little detail Micah provides upon himself.

He says this,

The message, not the messenger.

It's a really refreshing emphasis, isn't it?

Especially for a day like ours,

when Christians tend to fixate on kind of evangelical gurus.

What, after all, is Apollos?

What is Paul?

What is Micah?

They're only servants, aren't they, through whom you came to believe.

And so do you get the picture?

Can I give you the tone of this?

It's really heavy stuff, isn't it?

It's heavy stuff right from the off in Micah.

God is angry.

And there's an avalanche of judgment on its way,

and it's rolling right down to where you are, says Micah.

And what are you going to do about it?

What should you do when an avalanche is about to hit you?

What should you do when God himself comes to you?

It's not just politics, is it?

It's not just the Assyrians.

It's not the latest world power kind of getting up to his antics.

God is in this, and God is coming through the Assyrians.

And God is coming himself down, and he's coming for you.

And he's at your doorstep.

And what kind of response should there be towards that?

So I think there are three responses that I want you to see tonight.

The first response is this.

Very simply, the prophet weeps.

That's one response.

The chapters are a lament.

The people are in denial.

In chapter 2, the people are believing the lies of the false prophets

who are telling them what they want to hear.

And then God himself acts at the end of chapter 2.

God acts to save them.

So let's look at these three responses.

What do you do when the avalanche is coming your way?

When God's judgment is coming down upon a people?

When God is angry, what do you do?

Well, you see what Micah does, verse 8?

He weeps and he wails.

And he says, because of this, and this is bizarre, isn't it?

He says, because of this, I will go about stripped and naked.

And I will make lamentations.

I will howl like the jackals, and I'll moan like an ostrich.

Just imagine I started doing that.

You probably think I already am.

Imagine your preacher turning up next Sunday night naked and barefoot.

Don't imagine that.

But imagine I started howling like a jackal and moaning like an ostrich.

I don't even know what an ostrich sounds like.

Stuart Briscoe

tells the story of a young colleague of his.

He's a young minister working in the third world,

and he was particularly concerned that the people of his homeland were not listening to the word of the Lord.

They were listening to what they wanted to hear.

And as long as he preached all that was good and bright,

and that they would be prosperous and peaceful,

it was fine.

But the young preacher was convinced that there were bad things going on in the church and the country,

and something needed to be done about it.

People needed to be brought to repentance,

and take God seriously.

He felt like he'd been hammering his head against a brick wall.

So one day,

he came into church late for the Sunday morning service to get the people's attention.

He came through the back door,

not the front door,

as he usually did.

And instead of what he normally wore,

which was his pulpit gown,

which was the custom of the church in which they dressed,

he wore sackcloth

and covered himself with ashes.

Instead of carrying a Bible,

he carried a bell.

And he came in ringing his bell,

dressed in sackcloth and ashes.

As a result,

they fired him as their pastor,

and they put him in a home for the mentally unstable.

One day,

Briscoe says,

I talked to him and asked,

did you have a nervous breakdown?

No,

he said.

They decided that is what I'd had,

but in actual fact,

I was trying to get their attention.

I got it,

and they gave me their full attention.

They locked me up.

They didn't want to know

what they didn't want to know.

And they wanted preachers

who would tell them what they wanted to hear.

What's new?

They didn't want to know.

They didn't want to know

about this God who was angry with sinners.

And so Micah gets their attention.

He goes around barefoot and naked.

He howls like a jackal.

He moans like an ostrich.

And he begins his lament.

Do you notice in verse 10,

notice how he begins.

It's quite striking.

He says,

tell it not in gath.

Of course,

you remember what that is,

don't you?

From that very,

very memorable series on 2 Samuel.

David's lament for Saul and Jonathan.

Tell it not in gath.

Whisper it not in Ashkel Elm.

Saul and Jonathan have fallen.

And David is bringing down a media blackout.

Because he doesn't want the Philistines gloating.

But it isn't just the shame of what's happened.

It's his sorrow.

His deep sorrow.

Jonathan is his best friend.

His soulmate.

Tell it not in gath.

And Micah is using that line.

Tell it not in gath.

There's deep anguish here.

He's saying to us,

this is how God's people ought to respond in a day like ours.

In a city where people are just blasé about spiritual things,

and have got no interest in it at all,

the church should be full of anguish for these people.

Full of deep sorrow.

And you could miss it in this chapter.

And you could miss it in this chapter.

Because what follows in this chapter, the rest of the chapter, are a series of puns.

And you don't usually take it seriously when people pun, do you?

And when there's a serious event in our country, we don't normally get Tim Vine as the social commentator.

But that's to really miss the point.

Because the Jews would not have taken it in that way.

These names that are here unpronounceable, they are actually omens of what is about to happen.

They're not puns in a kind of laughing manner.

Micah is not joking about.

Micah is not an entertaining evangelist.

He's not trying to get laughs from the crowd.

These are not puns.

As Leslie Allen says, they are omens.

And we are to read Micah 1 and 2 ominously.

Omens of the judgment of God that is coming upon the cities of Judah.

And these villages in the land of Judah.

And Micah is lamenting, weeping, full of anguish for these people in these cities.

I think it doesn't come out as clear as it can.

Eugene Peterson, in his paraphrase, the message,

He captures it brilliantly.

And he gives us the sense of what is going on.

Let me read to you what he says.

He says, don't gossip about this in tail town.

Don't waste your tears in Dustville, roll in the dust.

In alarm town, the alarm is sounded.

The citizens of Exitburg will never get out alive.

Lament, last stand city.

There's nothing in you left standing.

The villages of Bittertown wait in vain for sweet peace.

Harsh judgment has come from God and entered Peace City.

And all you who live in Chariotville get in your chariots for flight.

You led the daughter of Zion into trusting not God but chariots.

Similar sins in Israel also got their start in you.

Go ahead and give your goodbye gifts to Goodbyeville.

Mirage town beckoned but disappointed Israel's kings.

Inheritance city has lost its inheritance.

Glory town has seen its last of glory.

Shave your heads in mourning over the loss of your precious town.

Go bald as a goose egg.

They've gone into exile and they're not coming back.

Do you see what's happening here?

These are the towns, the cities of Judah.

We're going to hear about these towns in chapter 5 of Judah.

There's one that you'll recognize.

The least of all the cities in Judah.

But these are the cities of Judah that are in the path of the Assyrian avalanche that's coming.

And do you see what is happening all around you?

It's coming to right where you are, Micah says.

And it's Micah's lament and there's tears in his eyes and his heart is breaking.

And that's the proper response.

It's like when Jesus looked over Jerusalem and he said,

Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets.

How often would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks but you would not?

Literally it says Jesus sobbed.

He sobbed over Jerusalem.

William Hendrickson in his commentary tells of the barnyard chicken that's burned into the ground.

There's a fire in the farmyard.

And when the fire brigade turn up, there's a mother hen.

Who is kind of sort of charred remains there on the concrete.

And when the fireman pokes the chicken with a stick, out from underneath the charred remains of the mother hen come the little chicks.

That's the picture.

Oh Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem.

Oh Ealing, oh Ealing.

Oh London, oh Philadelphia.

Oh Sydney, oh Berlin.

Don't you realize that God's judgment is coming upon you?

How often would I have gathered you?

I sent prophets, I sent preachers, I sent evangelists.

How often would I have gathered you but you would not?

Do you see that is the answer to the avalanche of judgment, isn't it?

It is the only thing that can stop the anger of God against sinners like you and I.

Listen to this hymn.

You sinners, seek his face whose wrath you cannot bear.

Run to the shelter of his cross and find salvation.

That's what people need to know.

But there on the cross, Jesus took the anger of a holy God.

That was coming our way but he took it.

He stood in the way of the avalanche and it fell on him.

The fiery indignation of a holy God, he took it.

He became a propitiation.

That's what the word means, the propitiation for our sin.

God's wrath fell on him so that it did not have to fall on us.

Oh, he says, how often I would have gathered you.

He went to the cross, didn't he, to gather sinners to himself.

He went to the cross to take the wrath of God.

Ye sinners, seek his face whose wrath you cannot bear.

Fly ye to the shelter of his cross and find salvation there.

Romans tells us that the wrath of God is being revealed.

It is here.

You know it.

You experience it.

And yet it is coming.

It is on its way against all ungodliness and against all wickedness.

And yet the Christian church in the UK don't really intercede.

And there's very little pleading in the preaching.

I say that with my own preaching.

There's very little anguish in our hearts.

Do you remember Philippians chapter 3 just a few weeks ago, isn't it?

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

Where Paul spoke of the enemies of the cross of Christ.

Even with tears.

Even with tears, he said.

That many live as enemies of the cross.

And their destiny is destruction.

And Paul says, it breaks me up to think about that.

And so there are many, many people out there in our circles, in our families, on our streets.

That live as enemies of the cross.

Christ died for sinners.

He took the wrath of a holy God in our place.

And there are many, many people who you know and whom you love who live as enemies of that.

And Paul says to the apostle, I tell you with tears about this.

Isn't that the only response?

Pleading with God to have mercy on this city.

It's not the only response.

Anguish, tears in our hearts, if not in our faces.

What have you got to do?

Micah went naked.

And he started howling like an ostrich.

It's wise, isn't it?

We do need to talk as a church about need to be being woken up.

The church in London is half asleep.

We're more asleep than awake.

We believe in hell and we believe the wrath of God is coming.

But it's as if we're dreaming about it.

And so Paul says, how are you time to wake out of your sleep?

Paul says our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

The day of grace will be over soon.

And so the first and most important thing we can do for the people of Ealing, people who are under the wrath of God, is to pray for them.

It's a work that we're called to pray.

Prayer is not an optional extra.

In the same way that I am called to preach the gospel, you are called and I am called to pray for the lost.

I'm not trying to put a guilt trip on you.

I want us to care about the lost.

And that we will pray for people to be saved.

And rescued as brands from the burning.

That's the first response.

Lament and anguish.

But there's another response that we're really familiar with.

It's chapter 6, verse 7 and 2.

Verse 6 and 7 of chapter 2.

Matthew Henry says true Israelites tremble when God is angry.

True Israelites tremble when God is angry.

But these people, they're in denial, aren't they?

And they've listened to the false prophets who are telling them what they want to hear.

And look at the things they're saying.

Verse 6 and 7 of chapter 2.

They say, look what they say.

Don't preach like that.

Stop preaching like that.

Maybe that's what you were thinking a minute ago.

Stop it.

You're just Welsh.

And getting all kind of revival-esque and into the wrath of God.

I don't believe in a God like that.

I don't believe God gets angry with people.

Do you believe in a God like that?

I'm not going to come and listen to you again.

It'll never happen.

Do you see what it says?

And do not preach.

One should not preach of such things.

Disgrace will not overtake us.

It's not going to happen to us.

It's always going to happen to somebody else.

Some people smoke, isn't it?

Why do people smoke?

You see this packet of cigarette fag packets.

It's got these horrific photographs, haven't they, of what your insides look like.

Why do people smoke?

Because they think, it'll never happen to me.

I won't be like that.

It's not going to happen.

But it did happen.

Is this the way preachers should talk?

Should this be said, O house of Jacob?

Has the Lord grown impatient?

Is God angry?

Is that the God of the Bible?

Often if you hear people, I talk like that.

Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly.

Isn't God on the side of good people?

I'm not a bad person.

I'm certainly no worse than others.

Doesn't God help those who help themselves, preacher?

Why are you talking about the wrath of God?

About God being angry?

What kind of preaching is that?

What's God's answer to that?

Well, look at the opening verses of chapter 2, verses 1 and 2.

Again, let me use Ralph Davis.

Ralph Davis talks about that little word, covert.

And this is what he says.

He says this.

The Lord opens up the septic tank of your own reeking nature and lets you smell it.

I wouldn't dare say that, but Ralph Davis does.

The word covert opens up the septic tank of your own reeking nature and lets you smell it.

Covet.

Paul says the same thing, doesn't he, in Romans 7.

He said, I didn't know what sin was until I read that commandment, you shall not covet.

And the thing about covetousness is it's in the heart.

And these people were lying in bed at night plotting.

And the next day they were ripping each other off and doing all sorts of things.

But the root of the problem was their hearts, the covetousness there.

And Paul said, I didn't know what sin was until I read that commandment, you shall not covet.

Until then, I thought I was doing pretty well in keeping the law.

I never murdered anyone.

I didn't mean sleeping around.

But covetousness, well, actually, it blows your cover, doesn't it?

Remember what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

He says, among you, sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Let there be no filthiness, no foolish talk, no crude joking, which are out of place.

But instead, there should be thanksgiving.

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetousness,

has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words.

For because of these things, because of greed in the heart, which is a form of idolatry.

Because of these things, coveting, greed in the heart, God's wrath comes.

That's Micah's message.

We see it in the UK, covetousness.

I think if we had to identify the gods of the UK, the economy would actually be right up there.

We look to the economy to solve all our problems.

I'm told, I'm not sure it's completely true, but I'm told that no UK government has lost an election when the economy was in good shape.

Because the people can see that the government is appeasing their God.

So let's heed this warning.

Let no one deceive you with empty words.

Don't listen to the prophets.

Let no one deceive you with empty words.

Because of such things, God's wrath is coming.

Because of covetousness and greed.

And that's Micah's message.

These people, the problem is not out there.

It's in here.

The problem is not with the Assyrians.

The problem is with sin.

If you deal with your sin, God will take care of the Assyrians.

And if you don't deal with it, the Assyrians will come and sweep you away.

That's Micah's message.

It's really serious, isn't it?

I haven't got time to bring all of this out.

But compare verse 1 with verse 3.

Verse 1, woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds.

Verse 3, look what God says.

I am planning to, I am devising to.

I am devising disaster on you.

What are you dreaming about?

What are you planning about?

And what are you going to do to other people?

God says, I am actually going to do to you.

I will turn the tables on you.

The punishment will fit the crime.

And the Assyrians will come and you will find that you are evicted from your property.

And the things you have done to other people will be done to you.

It's a very unpopular idea, isn't it?

It's incredibly unpopular.

This idea that God will punish sin.

And that that punishment will fit the crime.

Most people would go as far to say that what you deserve,

what kind of what goes around comes around.

But that's impersonal.

This is personal.

And God's anger is not cause and effect like stubbing your toe against a post and hurting yourself.

It's personal.

And that's what the false prophets can't stand.

It's still the same.

Richard Niebuhr summed up liberal theology that was coming in his day and is rampant today in the kind of mainline church.

He said,

A God without wrath brings men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through Christ without a cross.

And that's not Christianity.

That's what false teachers teach.

A God without wrath brings men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through Christ without a cross.

And that's exactly what people want to hear.

And that brings me finally to God's response.

We've seen the prophet's response.

He weeps.

There's a lament.

We've seen the people's response.

They're in denial.

They're listening to false prophets.

But then, can you see verse 11 of chapter 2?

That if a man should go about an utter wind and lies and saying,

I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,

well, he'd be preacher of the year, wouldn't he, for these people?

Of wine and beer.

It's just the prophet you're looking for.

So what's the proper response?

What is God's response?

Look at the last two verses.

They're fantastic verses.

I will.

I will.

I will.

Whatever people do, I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob.

I will gather the remnant of Israel.

I will set them together like sheep in a fold,

like a flock in its pasture,

a noisy multitude of men.

He who opens up the breach goes up before them.

Who do you think that is?

They break through and pass the gate going out by it.

Their king passes on before them, the Lord at their head.

Well, if that's not Jesus, I don't know who is.

Jesus has got many names in the Bible,

but surely one of them is the breaker, isn't it?

That's Micah's nickname, really, for the Messiah.

He's the breaker, the smasher.

If you're walking through a dangerous city at night,

who would you like to be with you?

Barbie or the breaker?

A few years ago, R.C. Sproul tells this great story

of a distinguished professor of New Testament studies.

He's invited to address a graduation.

It's an academic convocation.

It's in a large university.

You know these American universities

where they all process in gowns and robes.

This New Testament professor was there

to give this scholarly speech.

It was a hush of expectation.

He was an expert in the field of Christology,

and it was expected that the lecturer would present an address

revealing his most recent research in the field.

And instead, he stood at the podium,

and he began to recite a litany of titles

of Jesus drawn from the Bible.

And it went on for several minutes.

And as the full impact of the title in themselves

was given no commentary,

as it was felt by the audience,

he just stood there with pauses in between.

Christ, Lord, Rabbi, Son of Man, Son of God,

Son of David, Lion of Judah, Lamb without blemish,

Rose of Sharon, the bright and morning star,

Alpha and Omega, the Word of God,

the Advocate, the Prince of Peace,

the only begotten of the Father,

and on and on and on.

And the litany went on as he just recited

all the titles that the biblical writers

had conferred upon Jesus.

And this is just one of them,

the breaker.

The breaker.

Isn't that what you need

when the wrath of God is coming down upon you

with covetousness in your heart?

Don't you need someone to smash through it?

Look at what he says in verse 10.

He says, arise and go,

for this is no place to rest.

Get up and go.

This isn't your rest.

But our problem is,

I can't get up and go.

I can't leave my sin.

I've not got the power to do it.

And we need a breaker.

And Jesus, in his death and resurrection,

smashes Satan and breaks through death

and gathers the scattered people.

And he leads them to a safe place.

And that's what you need, isn't it?

The great sage Augustine said,

there is no place to run from God.

A God who is angry,

but to God reconciled.

There's no place to run from God angry,

but to God reconciled.

Would you run from him?

Augustine said, run to him.

That's the gospel, isn't it?

Would you run from him?

This angry God who is angry with sin

every day, the Bible says.

It's not true what people say, isn't it?

God hates the sin, but loves the sinner.

It's not.

God is angry with sinners every day,

the Bible says.

Anger is a component of love, isn't it?

If I'm angry with my kids when they misbehave,

it's because I love them.

And God is angry with sinners every day.

Oh, sinner man, where are you going to run to?

From a God who is angry with you every day.

Would you run from him?

Run to him.

As he comes to you in Christ,

reconciling the world to himself in Christ,

what is God like?

Mike is telling you something really wonderful.

He's telling you God is like Jesus.

You wonder what God is like?

He is like Jesus.

And that is where your rest is

when there's an avalanche coming.

Verse 10,

here is not your rest.

Here is not your rest,

but Jesus comes and he says,

come to me and I will give you rest.

Whoever believes on the sun,

John 10 has life.

Whoever rejects the sun will not see life.

And the wrath of God remains on him.

Storing up wrath against the day of wrath

until one day the dam will burst.

And it will come right to your front door.

And so get up and go to him.

Let's pray.